Well.......

It was a good game, but it was also a linear game. Once you've played it, you're stuck with UFO Defence again.

Perfect would have been keeping the strategic aspect of the original intact. There was a definite buildup of alien activity if you didn't keep stuff under control in UFO Defense that would eventually overwhelm you. Enemy Unknown had that really dumb "choose 1 of 3" abduction mission mechanic that would just arbitrarily make you lose given enough time.

Also a bummer squad sizes was limited to 6. You have a streamlined, faster interface. Why not keep the huge squads from the original?

RESEARCH ADVANCED TECHNIQUES TO REMEMBER TO PACK AN EXTRA SOLDIER ONTO THE TRANSPORT!

and yeah I tried a 2nd playthrough with Enemy Unknown but got bored halfway through. The game is a cakewalk once you take down the enemy base.


Seriously, fuck the "victory lap" last mission.

Yeah, the Terror Mission system was terrible. In original XCom and Xenonauts, losing the strategic game was all a matter of You; if you were falling behind and getting trounced, it was because of the choices you were making, the strategies you were employing. It was tough, but fair. In Xcom:EU, however, losing the macro-game was completely arbitrary and artificial. You really felt like the whole thing was not a battle of wits and skill (as it used to be), but rather just a brainless crunch to meet deadlines (which is no fun at all!)

It seems like a very minor design choice at first, but it had profound consequences for EU, ultimately ruining the game's tone and replay value.

I really love how they streamlined the old action point system into the new "2 move zone" system though. That old system needed overhauling bad.

In other news, if you're ever tempted to buy Massive Chalice after hearing that it's "XCom meets Crusader Kings 2", don't. It sucks :(

I had not heard of that. Crusader Kings II is probably my overall favorite game in recent years, so CK2 + XCom sounds like a winner, but I will bear Massive Chalice's suckiness in mind.

The Wikipedia article is pretty bare beyond generic cliches like "it had a Kickstarter!" and "you can get gay married!", which is a bad sign.

There's a bunch of bad things to say about Massive Chalice: it's ugly (in terms of graphic quality, art design, color scheme, AND animation) and everything involves 2 more clicks than they should.

But really the deal breaker is the combat stinks. It's lifted straight from XCom except the special abilities are mostly useless (not that you'll get access to many since your dudes die of old age before they level up too far) so it's just basic move+attack. There's no cover system, ranged attacks have the same hit chance regardless of distance, and half the enemies explode on death. This makes melee classes totally useless, and 2 out of 3 of the classes are melee. The ranged class has the same stats as the melee, can fire across the entire screen with the same hit chance and damage, and can stealth from level 1. So you're just playing eugenics trying to breed out the useless melee classes.

You CAN gay marry, but same sex couples produce no children on their own (another problematic heteronormative assumption from the patriarchy) and without a constant birth stream of new heroes you're screwed. It ends up being a bigger condemnation of gay marriage than anything the Family Research Council could make.

Yes, please help #LoveWin

I don't mind voting up pony stuff, but that was 2 minutes of command line skin selection. I REALLY hate voting with ChocoJ but this was just eye watering boring.

That's bullshit and you know it.


System Shock 2 had robots.