X-Com for Monkeys
The game plays like a straight B movie, at best.
It pains me that this game used the Unreal 3 engine instead of Mafia's II Ilusion engine, even though 2K Games owns the former. The differences are apparent and Mafia II came out 3 years ago. The game's facial animations are pretty lifeless, the lip sync is nonexistent, the anti-aliasing is somewhat noticeable, there are some texture pop-ins in the background in open levels, the fire/explosion effects are bad as well. It is ridiculous to still be playing with such graphics in Q3 2013, but at least the game allows you to get a 100 FOV which makes you see a enough of your surroundings,.
The overall visuals resemble some sort of a grainy pallet, as if you are watching the game through the lens of the late 70's camera.
Walking around the Xcom base is one of the best highlights of the game, at least it seems so at first. Once you soak in the fact that most AI models are pretty much lifeless the feeling wears off pretty fast.
Unlike in the Enemy Unknown you will have opportunities to sneak up on enemies and be able to set up mini-ambushes, although your element of surprise won't last longer than 2 seconds, the enemy will always know where you are, and why shouldn't they? There is always only one approach to beating the level. The levels are linear although they do provide for some flexibility with cover. And this is the first game that I have seen (since Splinter Cell Conviction) that allows you to switch cover diagonally.
The game loads the level as you progress - each time you open a door a new portion of the level loads while your character cautiously looks around, it's pretty clever.
The game is moderately easy even on the hardest difficulty wherein your agents DO get permadeath, however you can always reload the checkpoint and start over. That kind of defeats the purpose of the Ironman feature that Enemy Uknown had. But then again, Enemy Uknown did not feature the main protagonist. Or maybe it makes little sense to compare the two games since they have been in a parallel
development for quite some time. If anything, this game's combat is closer to Mass Effect than anything. You can heal your squad in an instant, you can pull enemies out of their cover, zap the enemy's shield, set up turrets, use drones, except somehow you manage to do so in mid-twentieth century America.
The squad AI is so-so. Sometimes they are able to kill the enemy by themselves and sometimes they rush out into the battlefield and get knocked down and later bleed out if you don't rush into the hail of bullets yourself in order to try to save them - which kind of defeats the purpose of a smart squad especially when you are on the defensive - major minus. However, it does feel good when you send an enemy to outflank a turret while you get the turret's attention. Moments like that work in the Bureau's favor.
Your squad mates are sure to run out of cover into the open when they are being flushed out with the grenades. And keeping them in line by rallying them to yourself does not work in the midst of the battle. However, all of this DOES push you forward to be decisive in your actions. Should you take a little too long to outsmart and outgun the enemy you are likely to lose a squad-made.
As for the enemy AI, well, 90% of the time they expose their heads from out of cover - so sniper rifle is essential, even with its 15 bullet ammo capacity. So even on the hardest mode all you need is one head shot to kill a medium strength alien.
There are a few things that bothered me. Some of the human tech you have from the beginning is way too advanced. Stealth? Automatic Squad Heal? Smart turrets? What's cool about the X-Com games is that you always faced overwhelming odds with realistic human tech at first - it's the way of the underdog. It's the challenge that counts. And that's what I expected to get from this game.
The game did not do a good job of building up the tension. The prologue mission has you killing aliens left and right. Your character is a natural right away. Okay, he fought the Japanese and then some Vietnamese, but still...
Sure there is a story: it tries to capture the step by step alien invasion across the US and has you traveling to various hot-spots and points of interest. Recruiting new soldiers doesn't cost a thing. So you may never run out of soldiers. What's nice is the constant dialogue between you and your squadmates - helps with immersion and everything.
The game is, by all means, playable, but should you play it now or wait for a steam sale in 3 months? The only thing I can say is with the amount of Steam pre-order goodies that this game came with it's almost worth it, but the pre-order time is over now, folks.
C for effort.