Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)I have a hard time seeing how someone can like X-Com and not like this.
The play-style is similar to X-Com: Apocolypse in that it is semi-realtime. I find this acceptable because it greatly speeds up gameplay and really puts more tactical decisions in your hands rather than relying on automatic reactions during the enemy's turn, as happened in UFO Defense.
I also like that the missions frequently have more defined goals than just "kill everything". I distinctly remember some X-Com missions taking me over an hour just trying to find the one last alien hiding in a closet somewhere. Aftermath missions tend to be more specific (you don't have to kill everything) and even the "kill everything" missions only have you kill about 90% of the enemies before giving you the option to declare it a success (presumedly your backup troops will do the mop-up after your elite team does the majority of the work).
I also personally appreciate the pacing of technological advancement. The one thing I never liked in X-Com games was a shortage of real-world weaponry and what you did get was replaced by alien technology almost immediately. In Aftermath you have a great variety of normal human weapons and the desire and ability to replace them with alien weapons occurs much slower.
Furthermore, if there is a type of mission you just don't like doing, you can "delegate" it to the regular army. It will be resolved automatically without the use of your team. Obviously you want to use your team where success is vital, but if your team gets shot up or you just don't like to do scouting missions then you can delegate and still have a chance of success.
Another change is that you can't enter buildings on a map. When I heard about this I thought it would suck, since entering structures was a predominant feature of X-Com games, but it's really not that bad: where X-Com would have an "urban" map that consisted of a small map and one big building, Aftermath has "urban" maps that consist of city streets and many buildings. Having to enter them would be a time consuming and unnecessary distraction. In the instances where you do need to enter a structure (such as a crashed UFO), it's done as a two-part mission: part one to secure the exterior, part 2 takes you inside.
The only thing I can think of that I really miss is in these crashed UFO missions: In X-Com, the crashed UFO had battle damage, including some of the alien crew already being wounded or dead. In Aftermath the ships all seem perfectly intact on the inside with no wounded or dead crew. (I guess the aliens invented better surge protectors and shock absorbers.)
One bit of cheese is that you can abort a mission at any time and any upright team members are automatically extracted. This is useful but cheesy: In UFO Defense you had to make it back to your ship to extract your team, in Aftermath you can hit "abort" whenever you want and extract your team in unrealistic circumstances, like just before a big missile is about to kill everyone.
But still, overall it's a great game. Where Apocolypse was really taking X-Com into a ridiculous direction with crayola aliens and a bizarre futuristic setting, Aftermath goes back to the roots: guys with machineguns fighting horrible aliens. (Well, eventually you get machineguns, initially you're fighting with pistols, shotguns and grenades! (Hint: Grenades are your friend.))
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UFO: AftermathA Dungeon and Dragons Real-Time Strategy Experience!Product InformationIt's May 25 2004 and Earth is doomed unless up to seven soldiers take actionto rid it of scary aliens and mutants through global-resource strategymanagement and on-the-ground in-the-action small-squad tactical combat.Develop your soldiers through the game's role-playing element and execute yourdirectives simultaneously in real-time combat with the option of pausing thegame to get your team of soldiers to roam earth's alien- and mutant-infestedcountries. The sole focus being: to blast the aliens and mutants into anotheruniverse.UFO: Aftermath' is a combination of a small squad tactical combat and aglobal strategy game putting you against an alien threat. Use all of yourskills and abilities to defend the planet Earth from its destruction. Fightagainst many kinds of mutants and aliens research new technologies developincredible weapons and devices which will help you in your war against uninvitedspace visitors.Product HighlightsCombining a global strategy with small squad tactical combat the challengeoffered is to fight against an alien invasion. Featuring run time generatedtactical missions with innovative simultaneous combat action; the genre is alsoenhanced with strong RPG elements offering a quite unique mix of strategicideas.RPG - Your soldiers will improve as they gain more experience. Theirskills are derived from these statistics and each point that you put into anyone of these attributes will have a noticeable effect on that soldiers skills.These attributes are: Strength Agility Dexterity Willpower Intelligence andPerceptionStrategy - You must manage your bases interceptions and squads.Territory is equal to power in the game - the more you control the better yourinterceptor coverage. Also the faster you research the better things could be.Tactics - Fighting on the ground against aliens and mutants for thecontrol of territories. Once you
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