I adore Microprose's 1994 UFO: Enemy Unknown. For me, the cosmic theme of the original X-Com was like absolute magic: A fragile planet, illuminated on only one side, surrounded by menacing darkness. Attempts to defend the night side of the Earth quickly taught you that half of the world already belongs to the invader. Even with the limited sound quality, the opening theme brilliantly set the stage:
(This was the same song that played when you lost the game)
The entire music score was minimal, but extremely memorable, and it's inspired more than one of the songs I've composed.
Granted, the original X-Com had problems. A bug would always revert the game difficulty to beginner, so there was only really one difficulty setting. Late in the game, mind control and blaster bombs were far too effective, and used together allowed the player to win the final mission in only a couple of turns. And after hours of gameplay, it became hard not to realize that the motives of the aliens were unrealistic; why send such a variety of species against humanity when a single disease, or a stream of meteors launched from the Asteroid Belt, would have crippled the Earth without the need for a costly invasion.
The 2012 remake, Enemy Unknown, did a good job of at least *trying* to address this, by saying that "The aliens have something else in mind." Still, the remake lost something from the original. In the remake, squads of four men and women with strong customization and personality created a cinematic experience, while sacrificing some of the grim plausibility of the original. It has its own personality, and its own magic.
But the original game achieved a cold realism by encouraging indifference to your troops. Every mission, fourteen soldiers flew into a battle where death could strike in a heartbeat, where the best armor and most extensive experience weren't a guarantee of survival. Fear was a close companion to soldiers at the front lines, and as the commander you soon learned to accept their lives as a necessary sacrifice in an otherwise unwinnable war for survival, and sent them out of the Skyranger with grenades already primed to explode.
The 2012 remake never captured this. And by the time the franchise progressed to XCOM 2: War of the Chosen, it had essentially reached the point of becoming XCOM - Marvel Comics Edition. Some people love superheroes; I'm just not one of them. I wouldn't recommend WOTC to anyone for whom time is a constraint, or who likes gritty realism in their science fiction.
I adore Microprose's 1994 UFO: Enemy Unknown. For me, the cosmic theme of the original X-Com was like absolute magic: A fragile planet, illuminated on only one side, surrounded by menacing darkness. Attempts to defend the night side of the Earth quickly taught you that half of the world already belongs to the invader. Even with the limited sound quality, the opening theme brilliantly set the stage:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8iXqZD71jyI&t=13s
(This was the same song that played when you lost the game)
The entire music score was minimal, but extremely memorable, and it's inspired more than one of the songs I've composed.
Granted, the original X-Com had problems. A bug would always revert the game difficulty to beginner, so there was only really one difficulty setting. Late in the game, mind control and blaster bombs were far too effective, and used together allowed the player to win the final mission in only a couple of turns. And after hours of gameplay, it became hard not to realize that the motives of the aliens were unrealistic; why send such a variety of species against humanity when a single disease, or a stream of meteors launched from the Asteroid Belt, would have crippled the Earth without the need for a costly invasion.
The 2012 remake, Enemy Unknown, did a good job of at least *trying* to address this, by saying that "The aliens have something else in mind." Still, the remake lost something from the original. In the remake, squads of four men and women with strong customization and personality created a cinematic experience, while sacrificing some of the grim plausibility of the original. It has its own personality, and its own magic.
But the original game achieved a cold realism by encouraging indifference to your troops. Every mission, fourteen soldiers flew into a battle where death could strike in a heartbeat, where the best armor and most extensive experience weren't a guarantee of survival. Fear was a close companion to soldiers at the front lines, and as the commander you soon learned to accept their lives as a necessary sacrifice in an otherwise unwinnable war for survival, and sent them out of the Skyranger with grenades already primed to explode.
The 2012 remake never captured this. And by the time the franchise progressed to XCOM 2: War of the Chosen, it had essentially reached the point of becoming XCOM - Marvel Comics Edition. Some people love superheroes; I'm just not one of them. I wouldn't recommend WOTC to anyone for whom time is a constraint, or who likes gritty realism in their science fiction.