agsmith's Blog (2 followers)

Ah, X-COM. There's a reason many of my family members say they've "lost a spouse to X-COM," or refer to themselves as "X-COM widows." This is the very first PC game my father ever bought for me, way back in 1994. I had an old IBM PS/2. I was pumped about a real strategy game... and then my uncle took over the computer and played the game for nearly 16 hours a day. He has continued to do so for over 20 years. Thank goodness he moved out before I turned 18, because I rarely got to play until then. I sat for hours on end as a kid, just watching him blast away at aliens, build bases, swear because he'd lost his colonel and do it all over again with the next month. My father insisted that my computer stay with us, even though I had a much newer computer running XP, simply so I could play the game that I'd wanted to play for years. Okay, enough about my childhood. The turn-based strategy game never had a better realization in the 90s; this was the god among games. I spent years trying to find a way to play this until I learned about Steam; I actually signed up for my Steam account for the sole purpose of buying this game. The price point of $4.99 is actually worth it, and I got lucky by picking up the entire series for a couple of bucks less. Planning bases, managing research or manufacturing and hunting aliens defines the X-COM experience, and it's done in such a way that I forget that this game has been around since I started kindergarten. This game is a classic for a reason.

I typically don't merge review categories, but I'm looking at graphics and controls together. Controls are primarily point-and-click. On an old MS-DOS game, this is a godsend. I'm not a big keyboard and mouse gamer, and getting a controller to run with anything back then was a nightmare. The interface doesn't lend itself well to using a controller anyway, because much of the game is a series of nested menus where the player--excuse me, Commander--adjusts things like ship loadouts, facilities management, soldier equipment, research teams, and more. There's the research database (UFOPaedia), graphs featuring UFO activity versus X-COM funding and support... it's all old-school, on point thematically, and best managed with the interface MicroProse utilized--a mouse. The worst part is digging through nested menus as you acclimate to the game, but having more tabs on the side of the Geoscape would make the UI far too cluttered. The Geoscape itself is as clean as a boxy game from 1994 can swing, and it works out incredibly well once you get the hang of things. (8/10 controls, 9/10 graphics)

Sounds are abysmal 30 years on, but they were incredible when a SoundBlaster came into play in 1994. Hearing a Chryssalid die still haunts my dreams in my mid-30s, the groan of a soldier or civilian dying sounds much more life-like than a game this old has business sounding, explosions can be terrifying if you can't see what's going on, and the music makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up. It's perfectly capable of keeping your heart racing, and the tension is absolutely palpable. The soundscape is easily the best part of an incredible game. (10/10)

Story is pretty basic--aliens are invading Earth, and a powerful military force has to fight them off. That basic story is pulled apart into multiple management systems--aerial combat, ground combat, base management, research, engineering, base defense (both on your part and the aliens), and ultimately, interplanetary travel. Every aspect of this basic story is fully realized as its own unique part of the game. I've referenced graphs, overheads and a research database, but a simple description doesn't really do justice for how complex and interconnected these systems really are. Each one builds to a crescendo until ultimately, the last one--interplanetary travel--allows you to take the fight to Cydonia and eliminate the alien threat once and for all. (9/10)

Overall, this game is a classic, as I've said. An active and lively community still exists around the game today, mods have been developed, and the cry out for a remake was so strong that it actually happened--and the remake is amazing too! When it comes to peak strategy gaming, it doesn't get any better than the X-COM series. (9/10)