Analysis On Ufo: Enemy Unknown

[nafastus]

Im doing a work on my favorite game of all time -> UFo: Enemy Unknown.

The work im doing is an analysis on why the game became such a classic, so if you have have the time I would like you to write what made you like the game so much.

Thank you in advance.

 

nafastus

[gufu]

Massive rookie slaugher... will that suffice?

[Sorrow]

Suspension, good damage system, music, menu sounds, aliens,

[[NKF]]

Why do I like the game? I really couldn't say.

 

X-Com Enemy Unknown is probably one of the sloppiest and buggiest game to date. And when you think about it, it's outright mediocre for a computer game.

 

But there's just something about the right mixture of so many elements in the game that just keeps bringing me back to it. It makes it much stronger than the whole. It holds it together so well that even though I might not play it much these days, I keep joining discussions about it. I wish I could put a word to it, but there's just this special "something" to it that does it for me.

 

The whole concept is cheesy and campy what with its entire premise being the cliched humans against invading aliens. Bog simple story, throw in some interesting background information to give it character, and voila. Simple but just right for the game. Love it!

 

I think the fact that there's no real story-line or fixed NPC characters (with over-budget cinematics with well known actors/voice actors) that railroad the story all the way from the start to the end that helps it. There is a story - it's your story as you weave it through the battles that you play. The information in the research does add a bit of literary colour in there to spice up your tale. It really leaves out just enough that a lot of the game relies on your own imagination to flesh it out.

 

Sure, there's a definite start and a definite end, but everything in between is played out by you - how you want it. Your characters are just blank slates with a pot pourri of randomised stats and fun combinations of names and races. They have no character except what you give them in your mind.

 

It's a very complex game in its simplicty, but at the same time it's simple in its complexity. I'm always learning new things about even though I think I've learnt everything there needs to be known about it.

 

The game has a very steep learning curve for beginners. I think it's particularly challenging due to the way the damage system works. Even with the best protection in the game, your playing units are still vulnerable. But, once you've worked out the basics and picked up on the game mechanics, it quickly becomes very engrossing. I've had the chance to see several of my friends (who were complete nuts of other genres, like sports, fighting and real-time-peon-pumpers) get quickly interested in the game after just showing them how to deploy from the Skyranger and arm a grenade.

 

Then there's the atmosphere. Even if playing in full daylight, the slow way that the game is played and the stakes that are involved easily insights a certain frightening and nervous atmosphere. A night terror site with chryssalid is a definite thriller.

 

I think I like the freedom in how you can approach the game. You choose what you want to do. You choose which battles you fight (most of the time). You decide who goes, who doesn't and what you bring along to any mission. You decide how you want fight. Success or failure depends entirely on how you decide to go about it. It's also amazing how it is able to accomodate so many different playing styles, from the slow and cautious to the blustery and aggressive. Even on a horrible failure, you can often recoup your losses and keep going until you are shut down completely by the funding nations or if you lose your last base.

 

I've picked up many new games since the X-Com games. Obviously they are entertaining in their own right (and some have drained away far too much of my life that it isn't funny), but they just lack the right mixture of elements that made the X-Com games so compelling and replayable.

 

Eh, now I'm rambling.

 

- NKF

Edited October 15, 2007 by NKF

[[stewart]]

It's depth

Blowin up stuff in Battlescape

Logistics

Base Designing

[Danial]

For me it was mostly the sound and visuals. I loved the overall aesthetic and the aliens especially.

 

Although, suspense does play a big part. I can remember many a night, playing a night Terror Site mission, lights off, on the edge of my seat, and freaking out when a Chryssalid shows up only a square from my best soldier!!

[SaintD]

Just one more turn...

[Ruivo]

To me is quite simple.. None of the features of the game were new at the time. Individually, they have all been explored before. But it was the first game to mix up turn-based strategy, real-time strategy, a open-ended (to a certain extent) gameplay and a horror/suspense theme, in a time where the global public was embracing science fiction and conspiracy theories with Star-Trek and The X-Files.

 

In two words: Perfect Timing.

 

 

(Also in my opinion, it became a classic because over 10 years later, its fans are still diehard, specially with the Nostalgia factor )

[NinthRank]

Gameplay: X-COM gameplay is not bloated with special effects, and it has very intelligent (and difficult) tactical and strategical elements to it.

 

Atmosphere: In addition to the general scariness about the game (like [the original] Doom) X-COM takes itself very seriously (completely unlike Doom). It attempts to be (semi-)realistic and helps the player to become immersed in it.

[Hidden Sniper]

Difficult you can be playing the game for years and have a hard time on begginer

[Morken]

The multi-levelness of the game is great.

There is something Enemy unknown had that has never been replicated in any other game.

Overall, I place it as one of the best games of all time.

Really.

[Pelzimus]

Wouldn't it be marvellous to have graphically updated version of this game with physics etc. stuff :-) "Silent Storm meets X-Com".

[Admiral Harkov]

Strategy and tactics. You really need to think your moves.

 

It's not running around killing all that moves.

 

Very immersive.

[pablumatic]

The foreboding and desperate air the game takes in the early stages of play due to the learning curve hooked me back in 1994. Plus its fun. And it was more fun back in '94 when I had no real clue how to properly play and had my squads routinely wiped out in early month/pre-psi training terror missions. Especially nighttime Snakemen terror missions when you've got rookies who have barely any time units, skill, or ammo and Chryssalids are walking out of the shadows turning them all into zombies that have to be killed twice.

 

Certainly the most nerve wracking (in a good way) 16-bit game I've played.

Edited July 12, 2009 by pablumatic

[espritcrafter]

2 years later and still replies, .

 

There's the mysterious air that the game leaves. There's always so much to research, and the developers put a lot of detail into the research topic results. You're left always wondering what else is there to discover? What else do you not know? Which one should I research? Which one will give me the best advantage as a result? So many options and choices to make. This game gives you the freedom to do what you want.

 

Are you running a military base? No. A secret facility funded by multiple nations world wide? No. The last line of defense Earth has against an alien onslaught? No. In the end, and right from the start, YOU are running YOUR OWN base. You decide who stays, you decide who goes, you decide what's built, etc. It is the openness of how you can approach this game that makes it so magical. Other games, you have to do X mission or accomplish X within a certain amount of time, or some scripted event will force you to do something that progresses the storyline a great deal, but in X-Com, you decide everything.

 

How will you fight in the field? Rush all your men out the ship at once and hope the enemy doesn't throw a grenade? Slowly advance with a scout and then have snipers pick off targets from a distance? Lob grenades at any enemies you find? Blow up all of the potential enemy hiding spots with grenades and High Explosives? Enter from the front of the ship, blow a door on the side and storm in, or go through a hole on the roof and commando your way in? Maybe you like to mind control all the aliens and let them kill themselves? Who knows, you aren't forced to fight any particular way, you can fight anyway you want and still have a good chance of winning.

 

Everything from the layout of your base, the men that are hired, the tactics deployed on the field is an expression of who you are. When you play X-Com, X-Com becomes the expression of yourself. You designed the base, you hired the men, and you decide how they behave on the field. Even the soldiers' names are customizable.

 

Another reason is the soldiers. You learn to love them, you learn to curse them, you learn to hate it when they die, you learn to accept losing them in combat. Many people here have a favorite starting rookie in the game. Heck, after awhile, you recognize all of the names each time you start a new game. After not playing the game for like 2 years, I still remember some of the names by heart. It's passionate when it comes to your soldiers. With the exception of the first batch of soldiers, none of them are pre-made that you have to have in the game for plot purposes or whatever. You choose every single one that joins under your command. It's personal. Heck, I used to name most of them after people I knew, and that really made it personal when one of your men dies.

 

Soldiers have no pre-defined roles they come with. The game doesn't even suggest certain roles, but you designate them yourself. They are the clay that you use to build your army. You even decide what role they are: heavy weapons specialist, explosives expert, sniper, scout, front-line grunt, combat medics, hand to hand expert, whatever you decide, that's what the soldier gets assigned.

 

The openness of X-Com let's each individual express themselves. It's an expression of who you are. You're not forced to do anything a certain way, and everything is done how you choose to do so. I think that's the heart of why X-Com is such a classic. It is so free-form that, ultimately, it becomes an expression of you. The game becomes you.

[Loshult]

I started to play the demo of TFTD and got stuck directly. The demo is a medium sub at night if I recall correctly. I guess what hooked me was that exactly, and I mean exactly, as I spotted the first alien the music goes "DaDAAA" and scares the heck out of me. The rest of the demo was really nervwrecking to play...

[yoni0505]

i think that the main reason is that its "real" strategy game, that its more brains then luck, your decisions is the most important thing, unlike some other strategy games, mainly RTS, that its about how fast do you build your army...

also it got fascinating research system, i remember that my main reason to research wasn't to get the tech, it was to read what they got to say about it!

also the graphics are great, that isometric view was a feast to the eyes!

there is may more reason but those are my main ones

[trodas]

The envolving of soldiers, researching and using new technology to pwn the aliens... all that glued together and one can overlook the low resolution and work around the bugs and quirks and limits

 

Watching aliens get panicking in front of my battle-hardened guys with heavy plasmas and blasters - priceless

Now just to research the psi training room and enhance my guys that way Also research and produce some body armor and hover tanks and... and... That is the thing. Envolving of the game.

 

Plus, now thanks to hard work of other guys, one can play the game rather well under Windows too Amazing.

 

Now... how do looks like THIS UFO anyway?

 

http://i29.tinypic.com/av084y.jpg