Customer Reviews

X-COM: UFO Defense

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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?"

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.

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.

Buy this game! You won't regret it.

I'm not a fan of strategy games. I've never been into Populous, Civilization, Command & Conquer, or anything resembling. However, I can't stop playing this game. Every year I pick it up and start playing it again.

You are at the helm of a multinationally funded UFO defense team. Your goal is simple, protect earth from the oncoming insurgency, and ultimately seek and destroy the source of the invasion. Aside from the strategic turn-based combat sequences, you will control all aspects of the administrative efforts. Sink your fingers into the purchasing of supplies, design of bases, hiring and firing of personel, the armament of your aircraft (for shooting down UFO's) and MOST IMPORTANTLY, which alien technologies to research and incorporate into your arsenal.

Combat sequences boast a fully destructible environment, a rarity in classic gaming! Need to get down to a lower floor? Blast a hole and drop down! If there's a tree blocking your view, turn it into kindling with a well placed shot then take aim at your newly exposed enemies. You can even level a hill if you have the firepower! The designers should be proud, they thought of everything.

If you try this game you will discover a new love.

Everywhere you look people are enjoying taking out little green men with a pistol. Oh well. X-Com has been proven to provide great entertainment for this who enjoy being a MIB. Control bsaes and protect them from attack. Monitor the world and keep major cities safe from the scum of the universe. Control up to 12 soldiers in a turn-based combat mission where every move your people make my be their last. Research new and startling technologies in your biology and physics labs and put them to use in your manufacturing plants. Be careful that you don't spend too much time researching and not enough time in combat. The countries of the world are footing the bill for your little operation and should they fall under alien control kiss your much needed funding good-bye. Vast array of weapons, terrain maps, enemy aliens, vechiles and UFOs will keep you busy for a good 50 hours or more. If you liked this game then get the sequels for them made for your IBM PC.

X-Com along with the original Civilization rank in my book as the best two games ever designed for the PC. Forget the references to the movie MIB, this is a classic that came out in 1994 way before the movie (maybe helped inspire the movie? who knows).

In the near future increased predatory attacks by elusive UFOs have prompted the governments of the world to creat a new agency to intercept these UFOs, thwart their attacks, learn from captured aliens and alien technology and seek out their origin to stop the alien menace once and for all. You are the leader of X-Com. Learn to manage resources for bases, research, and rapid responce teams of agents. Then once a UFO has been shot down, send in your team and the game changes to an incredibly thoughtfully designed user interface in which you control you men in a turn based hunt for aliens at the crashsite. The music is suspensful, the scene is eery, and the turn based system let you thoughfully plan our your squad-based tactics. You will jump out of your skin the first time your men round a corner or open a door and find an alien staring them right in the face.

Don't let the (by now) dated graphics stop you from trying this game. No other game ever came close to recreating the blend of suspense, logistics, squad-level strategy, mood and feel of this game save for its sequal (X-Com: Terror from the Deep) which was essentially the exact same game with new textures. Unfortunately the owners of the X-Com lisence (Microprose) squandered their chance to create a truly awsome franchise from the success of the original. After release the sequal, which was good, but "more of the same stuff" and didn't really introduce anything new, they released X-Com: Apocalypse. An abysmal piece of cow dung which didn't deserve the X-Com name. It then released two more X-Com games, X-Com: Interceptor, a space-fighter game (a la Wing Commander) and X-Com: Enforcer, a FPS (such as Quake, Unreal, ect) set in the X-Com universe. Both these games were failures, and in turn doomed the X-Com name to the anals of history.

Reguardless of the shame the later X-Com games brought on the series, I strongly urge everyone to try the original and if you want more of the same good stuff, the the Terror from the Deep sequal.

if you can ever find a copy of this jewel you wont ever regret buying it. its definetly only for the strategist mind with a lot of patience and time on his hand. packed full of different menu screens to keep you busy too.

x com is the best strategy game ever made if you have a ps1 and the cash get this game its well worth the price

Xcom Ufo Defense is simply the best strategy game ever made. It is a classic. I just purchased this game for the third time in 10 years, and this one will never be loaned or given away. All the clone attempts over the years have failed miserably in comparison. I remember thinking how I had rented another crummy game the first few minutes I spent playing Xcom. The graphics were terrible even then. However controlling an entire global army to combat aliens in air and on ground, and researching thier technology is just a great concept, unmatched to this day.

i was first introduced to xcom 1996 it is too addictive. The graphics are not state-of-the-art... but I DARE YOU to find better gameplay and content! Just the research on "alien artifacts" alone is too much fun. Well worth the find. I will warn you this game takes a brain. Much like Sim City or Tactics. but if you're smart enough to play a game of chess. .. then you'll be fine. Just Get It!