X-Com Demo on Steam.

[kristus]

So they released a demo for the new X-Com on Steam. I haven't had time to play it yet. (will do tonight)

But from what I've seen of it it's of course more simplistic than X-Com and UFO Enemy Unknown was. But anyone got any opinions. Is Xenonauts going to be beating the franchise?

[Jodwin]

I can't speak for X-Com specifically since I never really played it and haven't played the new demo either, but in regards to franchise re-boots like this, your enjoyment usually depends a lot on how you approach the games. For instance, I know that a lot of people absolutely hated Jagged Alliance: BiA since they were expecting to find JA2: More of the Same (which it never claimed to be). On the other hand, if you went into it without those expectations you'd most likely get a much more positive impression than you otherwise would have.

With that said, the people who are going into the new X-Com game expecting to find the same game they played ages ago will go on a rage-induced, puppy-murdering rampage on the game's forums while everyone else's reaction will be "oh, cool."

[Yukarin]

I haven't played any of the X-Com series since UFO:Enemy Unknown on the Amiga, so I might give this a miss

[Shaikoten]

I played through the demo and it felt extremely on-rails and scripted. I prefer a bit more randomness in my games. This may have just been the nature of the demo, but I thought it was extremely short and didn't give me enough free time to go with the flow of the game to decide whether or not I liked it.

A friend of mine who is a games journalist has a review copy of the game and tells me it's very much a must play, but based on what I've seen in the Demo, I definitely won't buy it straight off. It almost seems "too polished" to me. I prefer games in which the player is free to tell their own stories rather than be pigeonholed into what the dev wants to tell. I think this game has the possibility of that, but the demo was more like a how-to-play tutorial and then a grand total of five minutes of making your own choices.

[kristus]

Yeah. I just played it and it's extremely streamlined. Hopefully that is not going to follow the game through. Still though, for any hardcore X-Com fans there's Xenonauts. But I'm not writing off X-Com from playing the demo. I think it could be quite a good blast. Especially in a time where not many games like these are made.

[caco_killer]

The demo is garbage, its nothing like the actual game at all. Rock, Paper, Shotgun has a great article about the full game.

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/09/13/hands-on-forty-hours-with-xcom/

[Belial]

No thread for the actual game yet?

Finished it on classic. Was awesome. Took about 30 hours. As a TFTD addict I had to unlearn pretty much everything when it came to the tactical screen but for the geoscape/base part my old habits got me through just fine.

Wanted to have another go at it on impossible but combat and panic management got really annoying after the first few missions.

[DooM_RO]

The game is really really good...aside from some HORRENDOUS bugs. One of my saves is now corrupted, FML.

[Quasar]

DooM_RO said:

The game is really really good...aside from some HORRENDOUS bugs. One of my saves is now corrupted, FML.

Just like old times, then. God the original is so bad about that, it's not at all funny.

[Belial]

Didn't see any bugs aside from some weird cursor behavior once or twice when I couldn't point to the square I wanted my soldier to go to when they were flying or going to higher ground.

Apparently there are some minor inconsistencies between the descriptions of some items/skills and their actual behavior ingame.

Nothing game-breaking though.