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[Japo]

So these games are on sale at GOG and I was wondering, how good or bad are they? How many of you have played them?

Besides the gameplay, in what way are they related to the original XCOM? What about the story?

I still haven't found the time for Apocalypse... :-E

[Eagle of Fire]

The only game of the bunch I'd recommend is Afterlight. The one which war is waged on Mars.

And even then it is only an average game. Nothing interesting to be seen there.

[RRS]

I didn't check anything past Apocalypse, discovered there are other UFO games quite late. Recommendations/warnings are welcome.

[The Fifth Horseman]

Originally Posted by Japo

how good or bad are they? How many of you have played them?

Played the second... "Aftershock" I think. Didn't find it particularly impressive, and somewhat frustrating (in the user experience manner, not in the game difficulty manner)

in what way are they related to the original XCOM? What about the story?

Unrelated to X-Com.

I still haven't found the time for Apocalypse... :-E

Do. I consider it much better than Aftershock.

Never had time to quite finish it myself, though

[Japo]

Yes I really plan to play Apocalypse some day. I started it and I though the real time mode and the cover system might address some of the issues in the original XCOM.

I knew they can't be as good as Microprose's games... I was tempted to get them now, as I'm always buying games because they're cheap and then not playing in years. But since I still have the whole of Apocalypse I'll pass.

Originally Posted by The Fifth Horseman

Unrelated to X-Com.

But are they licensed to the original franchise, or do they just not use the name XCOM and run with it?

[The Fifth Horseman]

They just don't use the name. It helps them a bit that in some countries the first two X-Com games were marketed as UFO.

[Eagle of Fire]

Fifth is completely right. This is nothing more than yet another over hyped game trying to use an old game franchise name to boost sales.

One thing might lead you to confusion about Xcom and the UFO After* series though: UFO Aftermath was sold and bloated as the Xcom spiritual successor when it got out. Which is both a utterly false and ridiculous claim.

[jamotide]

I played Aftermath and Aftershock and wouldnt say they were overhyped. And "nothing more" may be correct for Aftermath,which I found pretty generic. But I was very surprised by Aftershocks complexity on the strategic level. Even the realtime combat offers alot of depth in what you can do with your soldiers, lots of options and tactics you can use, that are not immediately apparent. I hated it the first half hour, but kept on playing because the base and research part was impressive. Then I learned the combat and began to like it, even though I am a militant turn based defender. I played through it two times, second with the ACM 2.0 mod, which makes the game much harder, it is a bit of a pushover on vanilla.
Leveling up the soldiers is immensely well done, it is more complex than most RPGs nowadays. Very motivating even for repettive missions, which you can mostly just chose to do.
The whole presentation of the story and many other things seem to have been the model for the new Xcom game.
So I would recommend Aftershock, it is better in many aspects than the original xcom, which I played through 3 times before this. Since it costs 1-2 $ nowadays, its worth a try, just dont give up in the first half hour, when the ugly graphics (not technically bad, just ugly) and the realtime combat seem like a giant deterrent.

[Eagle of Fire]

Real time combat is not a problem (especially since they are not really real-time since you can pause whenever you like)... What always been a HUGE problem for Xcom remake wanabees is the fact that none of those remakes seem to understand the simple fact that you're never going to get a real Xcom experience if you keep forcing a small amount of possible recruits.

It's all fun and all to have soldiers which can level and get new skills like a RPG... But that's not Xcom.