XCOM: UFO DEFENSE

A Review of the Original XCOM : UFO DEFENSE for the PC.

By IceScream

Introduction

It a bit strange how I got caught up in the XCOM craze... One day during a Steam Summer Sale I was buying game like mad using all the money that I had on the wallet. Suddenly I was down to about 5-6 dollars left. I had to make use for those last few bucks, so I did the worst way to look for a game. Ask some friends for ideas. I asked around to see what I could get, but all they gave me was games that I already bought or I did not like. Until one of them said "XCOM" that's all he said not explaining anything about it. At the time I did not know what XCOM was but strangely enough I went went ahead and bought the game without thinking about how good or bad it would be. I made a really, REALLY good choice.

Story

There is really no story in the XCOM: UFO DEFENSE. It is the traditional cliche of Aliens VS Marines. Aliens are invading Earth! YOU (The Player) will take role of a commander to stop the Aliens from killing off the Human race and (wait for it...) SAVE THE WORLD! But I have seen people who make up little stories about their team of marines as they go along with the story if you like to do that kind of stuff.





Made in 1994 by Microprose and Mythos Games For the Amiga, DOS, Windows, and even a Playstation (1995) port of the game. (For now I will be talking about the DOS version of the game.) Julian Gollop and his brother, Nick Gollop was planing to make the game as a sequel to the game "Laser Squad by Target Games" but instead go with a brand new game.

Gameplay

Gameplay is centered around a Strategy/TBS (Turn Base Strategy) game where it take within 2 different views, Geoscape and the Battlescape. You first start off at the Geoscape where you must pick where would you like to place your 1st base at and name it. For me I pick somewhere in West USA and called it 'Not Area 51'. (Note: Where you place your base at can determine how far can you see the UFO's on the radar. Example: Place a Base in Antarctica, You cannot see any UFO's like in Europe or Asia unless they come on your radar screen in a certain distant.(You can also upgrade your radar to see farther too))

Picture of the Geoscape (Earth) Once you placed your base you can now really start the game! At the moment you have a menu displayed on the right side of your screen saying Intercept,Bases,Graphs,UFOpidia,Options,Funding. Intercept is where you would like to send off Ships to advance on a UFO and attack it, Patrol a area, Land the ship at a crashed UFO. Bases are where you can upgrade,buy and sale items,do research on items that have been recovered from a UFO and make new items and equipment out of.(Note: A UFO that has LANDED not crashed has more items to bring back than a crashed one.) Graphs are where you can see your progress and stuff. (Really did not use this one much.) UFOpedia has all the info that you have gathered in recovering items from UFOS to Alien corpses being tested. It does have some really cool stuff to say about what does that and see how Aliens work in different ways in Combat. Options I think you know about. Funding is where all the money that you earn to upgrade bases and buy items is all taxpayer money getting sent to the XCOM base by each major country.
Depending on how much money is sent is from stopping Invasions from happening in certain country or taking down UFOS. More Money MORE KILLING. Speaking of combat lets talk about it.

Combat

Picture of the Battlescape where this is a terror mission in which where you fight Aliens in a urban environment while there is humans in the city.
After awhile on the Geoscope you receive a pop up saying there is a UFO nearby (Flying UFO) If the UFO is flying you can send a fighter ship to take down the UFO and to make it a Crashed UFO then you may send a crew ship to it. If it a Terror or Landed you can gohead a send a crew ship but be very prepared for the fight that your going to be in. Once you have your equipment and men on the ship send it out to start fighting! There you are now faced with a new screen, The Battlescape. Each crew-member is place on the ship with whatever weapons you placed on them. Now your wondering "WHY IS THERE SO MANY BUTTONS" Don't worry I will try to go through them all. I'll start out in the top left corner, That button and the one below it change the solder that you are in control with. The 2 ladders are the Floor LV changers. The Grid like button is to make the map show. Below it is the standing and crouching button for the solders. The Man standing is just to make him stand at the spot he is placed and skip him. Below it is the map viewer. The Man standing next to the man is where one you run out of energy you can auto-switch to another. ? is the options (Protip: Save before going into battle. If your soldiers die just reload the save to go back to the start!) The Ship mean if you want to leave without killing all the aliens and the one above it will let the aliens have a turn after your done moving. You can use your weapon by clicking on what you want to use and selecting on what you want to do or aim or fire at the Aliens. The bars explain how much Life(Red) TotalEnergy(Yellow) Energy that turn has (Green) Purple one I never did know what that means... Once you have killed all the aliens you can go back to base to have a party!

Overview

As this game is really hard to start off with not knowing what you are doing the game will grow on you like you it did to me. When It come to recommending this game to people if you really like Strategy or TBS game you will enjoy this game. If you are the opposite of that It would be best if you will not touch it but who knows if you would like it or not... If you are interested in the game I hope that you get a chance to play and have some fun kicking Alien Scum!


Thanks for reading everybody. Leave a comment or suggestion below to see what I can review next. This is also my 1st review I hope you enjoyed it!