X-COM: UFO Defense

by Micro Prose

Product Features

• Turn-based alien invasion strategy game
• Command high-tech military units
• Build defense plans and put them into action
• Six different alien races to fight
• For one player

Product Details

• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S. and to APO/FPO addresses. For APO/FPO shipments, please check with the manufacturer regarding warranty and support issues.
• ASIN: B00002SVBA
• Item Weight: 14.1 ounces
• Media: Video Game
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #13,895 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

X-COM: UFO Defense is a classic mix of strategic and tactical gaming. Players unite Earth's resources against waves of alien invaders.

The GeoScape aspect of the game offers long-range thinking as players hunt for UFOs and plan their building strategies. Bases, fighters, transports, and soldiers are all available for deployment. Research new tech, watch the budget, and make sure everyone on your side is happy.

After each stage is planned, the BattleScape mode kicks in and presents ground-level tactical warfare with realistic turn-based combat.

X-COM: UFO Defense features compelling gameplay, an engaging storyline, and more aliens than players will know what to do with.

Product Description

This is the game x-com ufo defense . We stand by our products and offer a 60 day guarantee. If a game does not work within 60 days from the time you receive it we will gladly exchange it for you

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best video games ever!, February 15, 2003

By 

A Customer - See all my reviews

This review is from: X-COM: UFO Defense (Video Game)

I can and can't recommend this game. It takes hours of dedication, but once you really get into it you will surely dedicate thousands of hours of your life to it.

You fight about 6 different hostile alien races: the famous Zeta Reticuli race is here (called "Sectoids" in the game); there are reptilian aliens ("Snakemen"); creepy death look-alikes with awesome mental powers ("Ethereals"); and tough jock-types ("Mutons").

You have armored vehicles at your disposal (but--so do the aliens), and even though you start with puny Earth-weapons; as you shoot down, recover, and research alien technology your engineers will be able to build base facilities, aircraft, tanks, weapons, body armor, grenades, EXTREMELY high-explosive missile launchers--and even equipment for MIND CONTROL--based on alien technology.

At the end of each month, you're given a progress report. Nations decide if they should increase your funding, decrease it, leave it the same, or pull out of the alliance all together and try to strike a deal with the alien races.

The ground battles themselves are played in a chess-like state. However, you can only see the areas of the map your troops have explored. Everything else is shrouded black. During the computer's turn, the screen only shows the blinking words "Hidden Movement," unless a soldier spots an alien or is fired upon. The "board" is divided into (I think) 124x124 squares; each one square taking 4 "Time Units" to cross.

Each group of 25(?) squares is given it's own unique attributes such as barnhouses, hills, cropfields, etc., so you'll NEVER--I, in 6 years of playing, have not--come across the exact same map twice. The aliens are also positioned randomly through the map, so check your flanks!

The average soldier starts with 50 TU's. However, shooting takes between 15 & 45 TU's (depending on weapons used & type of shot--aimed, auto, snap etc.). Basically, everything--reloading, throwing stuff, turning your soldier's head--takes TU's. But, as your soldiers see more combat, they can get as many as 81 TU's, which is quite helpful. They also gain health units, stamina, strength, bravery, etc--BUT keeping a soldier from the first mission to the final assault on the main ET base where the alien's collective mind, "the Brain," is kept (in the Cydonia region of Mars) is pretty much impossible. You're fighting a well-trained opponent!

What's more, you battle not only alien occupants of ships you have shot down, but aliens that land in major cities to terrorise the population, alien bases scattered around Earth, and even aliens that locate & attack YOUR base. It's not all fought on farm land in Idaho!

The musical score is a well-crafter combination of military marches and techno-beats; the creepy musical score playing while you fight ground missions is by far the most fitting for such a scenario.

There are a few videos in this game. The two outstanding ones are when you win the game and when you lose. When you win, no indication is given of Earth's future state. Do we acheive peace on Earth? Do we forget all that we've been through & return to our old ways? Unknown. You are shown the Mars base exploding, and your brave soldiers flying back to Earth cheering. Then you are returned to the main menu. Did the designers intend to create such a profound "happy" ending?

The video when you lose is more straight-forward, but still goose-bumpy: Three alien battle-ships hover over the UN building. Inside, the floor is bare of representatives except for a few humans sitting at a table across from two "Ethereals" and a "Sectoid" commander. There is no talking, but the message is chillingly beautiful in it's clarity: most of the world has given in, and it looks like the last fighting nation is following. As the humans & aliens communicate telepathically, several aliens burst through the door, place a plasma rifle to the head of the human leader, and pull the trigger. The "Sectoid" across from him is next seen splattered in the man's blood. Proof that the aliens do not make deals--deals in the sense that we know them--and a taste of what the aliens have always had in store for us: extermination.

This game is no longer in print, apparently because most people saw it as "too intelligent." If you happen to find a copy online...CONSIDER buying it. _I make no promises that you'll like it_. It's called a boring & tedious game by the few critics it has. I consider it an highly challenging work of art; one that shaped my teen years. You won't look at the world the same way after playing this enough hours. I would be another person were it not for the day my best friend John was playing X-Com on Playstation, I looked over, and said "Hey, that game looks kinda cool. What is it?"

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The reason I love turn based games..., April 15, 2003

By 

"tspcr" (Miami, FL USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: X-COM: UFO Defense (Video Game)

RTS games did not exist when X-COM was released (or least I have never heard of one from that era) and good stratagey games were even harder to find (I could be corrected by a MOOR fan). When it was released, X-COM became the reason I invested so much in video gamming. The computer AI was nothing special, but the other little touches like surprise fire from windows and "Fog of War" (to name only a few) overcame the AI's weakness and forced you think about who to put with who and where on every mission. Fire teams, fire teams, fire teams. If you want to live through a mission, deploy in fire teams of no less than two with mixed weapons and always have someone under good cover, ready replace fallen members. If you just can't get out of the 80's and 90's when it comes to video games, and you long for those old, great strategey games, then this one for you.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Greatest Game Of All Time, Period., May 12, 2004

By 

Isackson "Reader/Gamer" (WA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: X-COM: UFO Defense (Video Game)

A few years ago PCGAMER made a list of the greatest PC games of all time and suprise, suprise guess what game topped the list? X-Com UFO Defense, and it well deserved it.

The game, even when played today still shows it's greatness. I've logged probably more then 1000 hours of gametime playing X-Com and it's many sequels over the years since it first released and the gameplay still amazes me.

If you love strategy games and for some reason haven't tried X-Com - find a copy of it. (The PC version is WAY easier to get a hold of then the PS1 version and is a better port of the game anyway) If you loved games like Final Fantasy Tactics, C&C, Warcraft or less recognizable classics such as Dune 2 and the more recent Disgaea Hour of Darkness then you owe it to yourself to see what you've been missing.

As with the details the other reviews do a great job so i'll just leave you with this - I've played just nearly every tactical combat/rpg ever made and X-Com is by far the best.