UFO: Extraterrestrials - Review @ GamePro

Dhruin

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The first UFO: ET review is up just in advance of the May 1st release with GamePro posting a short critique. The score is a promising 4.25/5 and here's the opening:
There have been few games as well loved as the original X-COM: UFO Defense, and none so remarkable in their longevity. Released in 1993 to near-universal acclaim, X-COM was able to flawlessly blend strategic and tactical layers into a solid all-around strategy game that still retains a loyal following today. Developed out of the Czech Republic by Chaos Concept, UFO: Extraterrestrials comes as closer to becoming the successor of X-COM than any other game yet, which is a great accomplishment indeed. However, it comes just painfully short thanks to several unfortunate design choices.
More information.
 
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Out of all the reviews I've ever read this is the only one I agree with 100%. I figured "However, it comes just painfully short thanks to several unfortunate design choices," would be graphics, TB combat, and no throwing animation. But no, its every point I don't like about the game. No selling off extra or uneeded equipment, trickle in troops, and no soldeir's dying.

Is this site a good game site or is it jus the reviewer who has good tatse? Looking at the comments under the review it doesn't seem like a site with people that share my opinion on games, or life.

edit: Of course this is my opinion without actually playing the game. I could have different opinions that the reviewer after I play, but my points were on what I know about the game. Anyway, definitely a must buy. Any other x-com fans excited?
 
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Out of all the reviews I've ever read this is the only one I agree with 100%. I figured "However, it comes just painfully short thanks to several unfortunate design choices," would be graphics, TB combat, and no throwing animation. But no, its every point I don't like about the game. No selling off extra or uneeded equipment, trickle in troops, and no soldeir's dying.

Is this site a good game site or is it jus the reviewer who has good tatse? Looking at the comments under the review it doesn't seem like a site with people that share my opinion on games, or life.

edit: Of course this is my opinion without actually playing the game. I could have different opinions that the reviewer after I play, but my points were on what I know about the game. Anyway, definitely a must buy. Any other x-com fans excited?

Oh I am excited indeed. About the reviewer: he's a poster in octopusoverlords.com and I enjoy reading some of his stuff like the recent AAR of Ageod's American Civil War game. He has this to say on UFO:Ext:
http://www.octopusoverlords.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=49892
 
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Interesting link, that site hasn't been updated in a while and I can't seem to figure out what its about. There is a board game review, dvd lists, etc. Does it just have an active forum or is this a certain type of community? The forum seems like its mostly gaming, but the site seems like it covers everything, but not since last year.
 
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Interesting link, that site hasn't been updated in a while and I can't seem to figure out what its about. There is a board game review, dvd lists, etc. Does it just have an active forum or is this a certain type of community? The forum seems like its mostly gaming, but the site seems like it covers everything, but not since last year.

It's the front page that's never updated, the forums on the other hand are very active. I only read the gaming stuff although there's this heavenly thread (NSFW) in the nongaming part.
 
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Nice thread (the nsfw one). I've been reading through some of the forums, the after action reviews are nice. That guy CSL has pretty good taste in games.
 
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The OO forums are quite nice, although I feel their gaming fora are declining a little. I wanted a bit more depth out of this review but it's reassuring to see it isn't a complete screw up. Looking forward to it.
 
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I also noticed the OO gaming fora are losing ground. Hope they can get them back on track. It´s a really nice place.
 
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Correction

Hey folks, just thought I'd correct some of the information from the review, since there has been a lot of fuss about the "death issue".
Anyway, read this --> http://www.strategycore.co.uk/forums/index.php?showtopic=6322&pid=76199&st=0&#entry76199

You'll find links inside the thread, but to summarize, if all your soldiers are killed on a tactical mission, they cannot be recovered, thus they die. Else they will be brought to a hospital, and there's an explanation for why they don't die. Secondly, equipment CAN be sold, it's just that equipment you manufacture can't be sold for a profit.

Cheers,

Gimli, Strategycore staff
 
Thanks for the heads-up gimli.
 
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The release date of May 1st is a big satan lie straight from the mouth of the devil to screw me. Thanks again Satan, you jerk. WHy do they do this? Why?
 
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The release date of May 1st is a big satan lie straight from the mouth of the devil to screw me. Thanks again Satan, you jerk. WHy do they do this? Why?

Yeah ... now I see stuff marking it as 'May 8th'
 
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Mtarix will release at midnight the mrning of the 4th (or midnight the night of the 3rd). You get get a DD and a box version mailed when you buy from matrix, and the matrix owner has been gabbing it up in the forums, which makes me want to buy from them. The dd will be cheaper at some other places if you are looking for cheap.

Box version from eb on the 9th. Gogamer download the 7th. Thats about what I know now.
 
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Mtarix will release at midnight the mrning of the 4th (or midnight the night of the 3rd). You get get a DD and a box version mailed when you buy from matrix, and the matrix owner has been gabbing it up in the forums, which makes me want to buy from them. The dd will be cheaper at some other places if you are looking for cheap.

Box version from eb on the 9th. Gogamer download the 7th. Thats about what I know now.

I didn't know there'd be a boxed version available in stores. Good to know because that's what I want. Matrix games are always very expensive, although the DD option costs a bit less; but I prefer a box, disk and manual than a DD and PDF file.
 
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In case anyone cared, this is the hands on experience one of (or the only) owner of matrix games had to say on his experience playing the game in response to the critques (such as immortal soldiers):

Allright, I just loaded it up again to make sure I had my facts right. First of all, I don't have any information regarding why certain decisions were made, I can only comment on them from a gameplay standpoint as an end-user. Secondly, I have also not yet played through the whole game. With that said...

It plays like X-Com, it feels like X-Com and it's as addictive as X-Com. The issues mentioned here really do NOT yank me out of the game or change the feel of the game from the original in any significant way. For example, let's take trooper mortality.

The UFO Pedia explains that the medical bays on this world at this time are advanced enough that if enough of the brain is left intact, they can regrow a team member. However, this is a time-consuming process and is not always successful. The worst case scenario results in a patient with significantly impaired capacities. After playing for a while again this evening, I can confirm this. Soldiers still go down quickly when hit by Alien weaponry and I've had them show up after the mission requiring 40+ days to heal. I don't find it unrealistic that every time one of my soldiers is taken down, it's not an instant or unrecoverable kill given this technology. Your vehicles don't recover, but given how they explode when destroyed, it's not a stretch to imagine there's not much to recover in there. You buy another vehicle and move on.

I was doing well with missions on downed scouts, but my first mission to a downed fighter was quite an education. Between an alien melee-monster and some other nasties, I lost my entire team. As noted here, once that happens, they are gone. There's no one to bring the wounded or even just the remains back, so it's permanent. I should also mention that the way wounds are handled in combat is, IIRC, more detailed than the original X-Com as far as their effects and their ongoing need for stabilization.

This game is not easy (and I'm playing on the Easy level). New soldiers arrive as the nations of the world send them to you and this contributes frankly to the sense of trepidation whenever one of your existing soldiers is wounded (or in the case of losing an entire team, killed). Each recovering soldier is unavailable for duty and may be permanently impaired. Each dead soldier is gone and your remaining team is significantly smaller until the next recruit(s) arrive. I have felt pretty constantly a feeling of needing to conserve my men and avoid throwing them away. As they gain experience and improve, as with the original X-Com, your attachment to them grows.

I don't find the change in the design actually changes the gameplay experience. They tweaked it in one direction, but then tweaked a few other things to bring us back to much the same place we started in terms of the feel of mortality, danger and limited resources.

Moving on... I researched a new weapon technology and built some in my workshop and was able to sell them to gain more funds for my budget. I'm not sure where the idea that you can't sell what you build came from, but it seems to be false.

I would not be as concerned about this as you guys are, every time you hear about something that's a bit different. As far as I can tell, the developers had a very good understanding of what made X-Com outstanding. My $.02 from playing this, after playing the heck out of the original X-Com back in the day, is that it's the real deal.

link:
http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=1448533
 
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Solid and final release info including box version in case anyone cares:

Hi Everyone

Here is the final release information on UFO: ET with some important changes. The game will only be available from Matrix Games / Tri Synergy in North America (United States, Canada, Mexico and any U.S. Territories (Puerto Rico, Guam etc.). We are sorry for this late change but we only just recently been made aware of this new restriction from the European publisher. We are sorry for any problems this might have caused our overseas customers.

Matrix will be releasing the game for digital download Friday May 4th at 00:01 A.M. or easier said one minute passed midnight tonight. The Matrix / Tri Synergy release will be using our own serial number system and NOT the Starforce system. Remember this is a large download (1.8 gigs) so anyone downloading it may want to use a download optimizer / download manager. Matrix recommends the free version of StarDownloader. If you are not sure what StarDownloader does it explains it very well on the main page of the web site.

Our Game On Demand version will also be available for at the same time as the digital download version is available. Our Game On Demand version is our boxed product that is shipped from our warehouse and come in a DVD Case with full color sleeve, three CD's with full color labels and a printed manual. The Game On Demand should start shipping around May 18th. Remember if you order a Game On Demand you can download our digital version immediately at the time of your order and start playing right away as your box version wings its way towards you.

The North American retail release will be available around the week of May 21 at EB Games and GameStop stores. Check with Tri Synergy for information on other retailers.
 
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Thanks Roqua. I don't mind waiting till may 21 for the boxed version. I suppose you're getting it when the DD is out, right ? If you can post some impressions of the gameplay it will be much appreciated.
 
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I'll definitely share my impressions.
 
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With UFO:AI, and now UFO:ET, my dreams for classic, traditional X-Com influenced games will be realized.The tactical squad-based sci-fi strategy genre with RPG elements is alive ! Yippee !
 
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Initial impressions. I am having a ball. I was hoping on combat being an improvement over x-com, but no. Its about equal, which isn't bad, but also isn't anything to write your grandmother about. I am playing on normal, and there doesn't seem to be an ironman. You can save at any time, which I can't stand, as it makes almost any battle doable.

It's an updated x-com, but not updated all the way. The graphics are good, sound is good, interface and UI are good. I would have liked to see what I think some of the improvements Alter's UFO series have implemented, such as much more sustomizable soldeirs that play very differently. So far my character building has been standard across the line (you'll see when you play what I'm doing is probably what you'll be doing, I don't want to spoil anything so I won't say but this is pretty much a given). I also would have liked to see the cut scenes upon researching something or events, which I haven't. I'm on my 7th battle, and 8th intercept. And almost done with month 2. You don't get bombarded with fight after fight like in ALter's games.

The only bug I encoutered so far was my timer stopping and not being able to start, I had to go to baseview then back to worldscape to get it going again, so no big deal. I've played over 4 hours and I don't see me getting bored anytime soon. If you like x-com and would like x-com with more and updated everything but combat, this is a must buy for you. If you have bad taste and play action games I still say this is a must buy to expand your horizons. If you never played the x-com's (ufo defense and terror from the deep, not counting appocolypse) I would also say this is a must buy. Chances are if you don't like TB combat this game won't change your mind, but it's still a must buy. Basically, I'm going to tell you it's a must buy even if I think you won't like it because I want this game to sell well enough to become a series. So go buy it.
 
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