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[Panthro]

Hey folks,

So today I decided to play the new XCOM game, after hearing how good it was. As a big fan of the original game, I was sceptical that it would live up to its predecessor, but based on the reviews and stuff from Rock Paper Shotgun I gave it a go.

Bearing in mind I've only played it a few hours (once on classic/ironman mode and once on normal), I have to say I've got very mixed feelings.

It looks pretty good, and I'm enjoying it, but there are various things which bug me about it. Some are minor annoyances, and others are more frustrating. This post is really about me venting about it, so don't expect too many positives! I'll try not to be too harsh though, because most people will probably love it.

So here we go:

The interface is a little awkward, you can see that it's designed with XBox controllers in mind. That said, it doesn't take too long to learn the keyboard shortcuts, and you can get used to it's little peculiarities.

It doesn't feel anywhere near as open as the original. The biggest problem with this is the arbitrary choices you have to make when selecting missions. Every so often, you'll have a "terror", "abduction" or other mission, and it will give you options of places where they are occurring. You choose the one which you go to, and the others you have to leave. There's no multiple skyrangers, no way of trying to please everyone. Each choice gives you different mission rewards, such as scientists, engineers, money and so on.

The squad size is severely limited. You begin only being able to take 4 soldiers on a mission, and the maximum is 6. Much like classic X-Com, it's easy for your soldiers to die (1-2 hits will do it), so as you can imagine losing 4 soldiers is relatively easy. The limits to the squad size are probably because of the small maps (although they're probably not that much different from the original, I would have preferred more soldiers and larger maps!).

For some reason, it seems Sectoids get a free move when you spot them. It makes it impossible to take advantage of them being out of cover. I found this an odd gameplay decision.

Your troops are very specialised (and you don't pick their specialisations!). The loadout is restricted too, and you have to choose between carrying a medikit or a grenade (for example). Considering that these are one-use, it makes it a little frustrating (although too many grenades would make it a bit easy I suppose).

Anyway, I've ranted enough, but I expect I'll have other things to bring up later. I get the feeling I'll enjoy Xenonauts much more when it's finally finished.

Hopefully someone will come along and be more positive about it though, I don't want to give too much of a bad impression.