OpenXcom really breathes new life into X-Com with all the mods made for it over time introducing so many things like new weapons, new armors, new maps, new UFOs, and new enemies (one of them being the insectoid alien on the box cover that never actually showed up in the original game); plus you can also play UFO Defense and Terror From The Deep on it, and of course there are mods that utilize stuff from both games. It's a must-have for any X-Com fan.
I can easily recommend going straight for OpenXcom, you don't have to deal with setting up DosBOX or the original game's bugs and limitations. You can start without using any mods, and the experience will be just like the original but smoother.
@@POLE7645 You want the original. Openxcom don't have the original code, so the alien AI movement and behaviour aren't as realistic as the original. After you've played it for over 10 years like me, then you want openxcom, especially for the quality of life improvements. And there isn't actually any "dosbox" setting as above says. I assume you already have and use dosbox if you watch videos here.
Interesting factoid: This X-COM had a bug where all the difficulties were actually Beginner so when Terror of the Deep was in development, they asked the fans what they wanted, and they wanted the game to be harder, so Beginner in THAT game was harder than the hardest difficulty in the original. (Or at least, what was assumed.)
So I gave it another shot after posting this and it finally clicked. I can see why this is some people's favorite game of all time and it was really satisfying to beat a game that kicked my ass as a kid.
The game doesn't tell you a lot of things, for example, you can center to enemy units if you click on the flashing red icon. Incredibly helpful when your soldiers spot someone on a roof, trough a window or anywhere else you can't see. At 11:40 you were just walking around trying to spot the alien. Once you know how everything works the game is incredible.
DVAFP Don't bother giving me tips, they won't help me any. Seriously, if aliens invaded and I had sole command of some global initiative to repel said invasion, the world would be screwed. XD
Apparently this is why they never caught the bug that resets the difficulty to easy mode when you load a save because if you're kicking ass on easy mode the game gets tough quickly anyway.
O boy... in mission, just click flashing '1' to center screen on visible enemy. :) This game never worked correctly in DOSBox due to different timings in mission and geospace. (time runs way to fast) All of this was fixed and quite improved with OpenXcom - windows port that requires DOS files and fixes all known issues with DOS version of game. I still sometimes play this game on Amiga. Great memories...
***** Well, I guess that's fair enough. Though the modern one is much easier to manage/control and I think solves a lot of the issues you mentioned here.
The new one although has updated graphics fails in comparison in many ways. One example is with this one bullets demolish barriers before hitting the person barricaded behind it, the new one just warps the bullet through the barrier. This new game mechanic makes it feel less like strategy and just more luck, which is incredibly worse gameplay.
Back in the 90s I used to play it to death. It's not so hard if you figure out how to play it. Btw. I used to call my bases according to the region i.e. "EUCOM", "USCOM" and so on.
i have to say, the game is definitely in my top 5 game of all time (maybe 3), but have 2 major problems: - get repetitive on the late game (even with the research development) - mind control research breaks the game so, yes, the game is very, very good, but is not without flaws
Additionally I would recommend the X-COM wiki for all beginners and also advanced players who want to dig deeper into the gamplay: www.ufopaedia.org/index.php/Main_Page
I've forced all of my friends to try this game, and about half of them loved the game and the other half were bad at it, so I completely understand not enjoying it properly But I still gotta say. Best game ever made.
I used to be the half that sucked at it but I gave it another go last week and now I totally get it. It's gone from a game I disliked and ignored to one of my new top DOS games.
Another thing about accuracies, how you say it depends on distance, size of enemy etc. etc. That's because this game is in 3d. Oh yes, it's REAL 3d at a time when 3d is virtually unheard of. This game actually runs in a 3d world and calculates accuracies in real 3d, which is why it feels so real, when it hits, when it doesn't, when it veers off and hits certain things. Game is presented in 2d sprites though. This is the exact opposite of Doom, which looked 3d, but is actually run in a flat 2d world, but presented as if it's 3d.
Did anyone else play the free version PC gamer gave away? I remember something about that release having a major bug. I think it was regarding the difficulty, no matter what you selected it always picked Insane difficulty. I was always over ran and faced impossible odds. It made for some amazing last stands but I never made it very far in this version. My earlier boxed copy was the original Msdos release which I managed to get to killing the Sectoid leader. But it always seemed I was plagued with too many terror missions.
I think in general, as a reviewer of DOS games, you shouldn't complain about things you find confusing in a game. At least not when these exact things are explained, in detail, in the game's manual. We did read those back in the day, remember? ;-)
+truelazerlight Yes, the things I called confusing in this review ARE explained in the manual, but the game still doesn't do a good job of delivering details about these things to the player, which is why I called them confusing. :P
when you say "best game in the history of pc gaming" ..... you do realize consoles are always far worse than PC, graphics-wise, gameplay-wise, dumbed down-wise, right? The only way you can get any lower than consoles is to be on handheld platforms like gameboys, or arcade machines. However, I do think baldur's gate 2 is a close tie with this one as the best game made in history. Now it could have been cyberpunk 2077, but boy did they skim $ from producing that one. There are also alot of things wrong said in the video. 0:08 Actually I imagine we would, in the year 1999. You can't use ground-to-air stuff since they aren't really invading, and are just taking a cow here, abducting a man there. Game even explains this. That "fighter jet" is already the best thing money and technology could come up with, for a worldwide guerrilla-like skirmishes at random spots worldwide. 4:00 I'm not sure about that the dating thing. No matter which date you set, it's going to be at the past at some point. Even if you don't give it a year, it's still going to be outdated. I mean ... the fighter jets would be AI controlled drones if the game was made today. Not setting a specific year just doens't help. Game also can't be too far into the future, or they can't use the crop-circle farm land areas that are key to a credible ufo theme game. 5:00 The user interface was actually extremely successful. One trivia about the UI is that blizzard took x-com's battlescape size dot by dot, and just used it in diablo1. 6:40 Why would it or should it tell you how long researches take. Noone is supposed to possibly know how long research take. 6:55 same as above, they do give you an estimate of how much is completed, i.e. how much they got it nailed down 7:00 You're supposed to read the manual, takes only 3 seconds to see what the buttons are for. 11:15 Remember the eye pieces they have in intro? That's how the entire team can see an alien just when one of them sees it.
Only thing you have to do, to beat the aliens, is to fly to the mothership and upload a malicious KOMPUTER-virus in to the mainframe of the alien computer. Yeah, sounds just as stupid as the movie was.
Hard to get into but worth it. I had a few more gripes though; economic bottlenecks, poor sense of progression beyond the early to mid game, poor ending and buildup towards it.
OpenXcom really breathes new life into X-Com with all the mods made for it over time introducing so many things like new weapons, new armors, new maps, new UFOs, and new enemies (one of them being the insectoid alien on the box cover that never actually showed up in the original game); plus you can also play UFO Defense and Terror From The Deep on it, and of course there are mods that utilize stuff from both games. It's a must-have for any X-Com fan.
Would you recommend it to someone who wants to play for the first time? Or should I stick to the original DOS version?
I can easily recommend going straight for OpenXcom, you don't have to deal with setting up DosBOX or the original game's bugs and limitations. You can start without using any mods, and the experience will be just like the original but smoother.
@@POLE7645 You want the original.
Openxcom don't have the original code, so the alien AI movement and behaviour aren't as realistic as the original.
After you've played it for over 10 years like me, then you want openxcom, especially for the quality of life improvements.
And there isn't actually any "dosbox" setting as above says. I assume you already have and use dosbox if you watch videos here.
Interesting factoid: This X-COM had a bug where all the difficulties were actually Beginner so when Terror of the Deep was in development, they asked the fans what they wanted, and they wanted the game to be harder, so Beginner in THAT game was harder than the hardest difficulty in the original. (Or at least, what was assumed.)
My favorite game of all time.
X-COM is not for me because I suck at these kind of games too but I still have to respect what a masterpiece it is.
So I gave it another shot after posting this and it finally clicked. I can see why this is some people's favorite game of all time and it was really satisfying to beat a game that kicked my ass as a kid.
The cheaty weapons the aliens use on you can be used against them later in the game.
The game doesn't tell you a lot of things, for example, you can center to enemy units if you click on the flashing red icon. Incredibly helpful when your soldiers spot someone on a roof, trough a window or anywhere else you can't see.
At 11:40 you were just walking around trying to spot the alien.
Once you know how everything works the game is incredible.
This was soooo spooky as a child playing this.
I agree, the best strategy game ever made, perhaps in par with xcom terror from the deep.
Building a new base too early will increase the difficulty of the game.
Also, destructible environments
DVAFP Don't bother giving me tips, they won't help me any. Seriously, if aliens invaded and I had sole command of some global initiative to repel said invasion, the world would be screwed. XD
Apparently this is why they never caught the bug that resets the difficulty to easy mode when you load a save because if you're kicking ass on easy mode the game gets tough quickly anyway.
O boy... in mission, just click flashing '1' to center screen on visible enemy. :) This game never worked correctly in DOSBox due to different timings in mission and geospace. (time runs way to fast) All of this was fixed and quite improved with OpenXcom - windows port that requires DOS files and fixes all known issues with DOS version of game. I still sometimes play this game on Amiga. Great memories...
I had this first on the Amiga. It seemed more atmospheric there, but it plays more smoothly on the PC as I recall, it's been many a year.
The date in any older game never seems dated to me. In the case of the original XCOM, I take it as being an alternate universe.
TarlZaralka That's pretty much the way you have to approach anything that gives a specific future date. :B
I remember loving this game back in the day but it is pretty full on. Have you played the new one?
Disthron Nope. I suck at strategy games so I avoid them like the plague. :P
***** Well, I guess that's fair enough. Though the modern one is much easier to manage/control and I think solves a lot of the issues you mentioned here.
@@Pixelmusement want an easier one? Try x-com terror from tge deep. Heh heh heh ...
@@Drachenhannes Dude that's evil.
The new one although has updated graphics fails in comparison in many ways. One example is with this one bullets demolish barriers before hitting the person barricaded behind it, the new one just warps the bullet through the barrier. This new game mechanic makes it feel less like strategy and just more luck, which is incredibly worse gameplay.
Back in the 90s I used to play it to death. It's not so hard if you figure out how to play it. Btw. I used to call my bases according to the region i.e. "EUCOM", "USCOM" and so on.
i have to say, the game is definitely in my top 5 game of all time (maybe 3), but have 2 major problems:
- get repetitive on the late game (even with the research development)
- mind control research breaks the game
so, yes, the game is very, very good, but is not without flaws
+Carlos Dias (HappyHippyHippo) One of my favorites as well. I can't begin to guess how many hours I've spent playing X-COM.
Additionally I would recommend the X-COM wiki for all beginners and also advanced players who want to dig deeper into the gamplay:
www.ufopaedia.org/index.php/Main_Page
Rush research on the laser cannon. Mass produce it for sale, but not for use.
Still the best xcom
I've forced all of my friends to try this game, and about half of them loved the game and the other half were bad at it, so I completely understand not enjoying it properly
But I still gotta say. Best game ever made.
I used to be the half that sucked at it but I gave it another go last week and now I totally get it. It's gone from a game I disliked and ignored to one of my new top DOS games.
Another thing about accuracies, how you say it depends on distance, size of enemy etc. etc. That's because this game is in 3d. Oh yes, it's REAL 3d at a time when 3d is virtually unheard of.
This game actually runs in a 3d world and calculates accuracies in real 3d, which is why it feels so real, when it hits, when it doesn't, when it veers off and hits certain things. Game is presented in 2d sprites though.
This is the exact opposite of Doom, which looked 3d, but is actually run in a flat 2d world, but presented as if it's 3d.
Interesting thought. I just thought, if Dwarf Fortress had such an Interface, more people would play it.
Did anyone else play the free version PC gamer gave away? I remember something about that release having a major bug. I think it was regarding the difficulty, no matter what you selected it always picked Insane difficulty. I was always over ran and faced impossible odds. It made for some amazing last stands but I never made it very far in this version. My earlier boxed copy was the original Msdos release which I managed to get to killing the Sectoid leader. But it always seemed I was plagued with too many terror missions.
I would recommend OpenXCom. It has none of theses bugs and many other improvements and optional mods.
I can hear you getting steam messages in the background...
TastyBusiness I assume you realize that's the game's sound effects, not Steam, right? ;)
***** That's the joke.
TastyBusiness The funny thing being that sound effect is used in a LOT of different things, not just Steam and X-COM. ;)
I was really confused for a moment before I realized those were coming from the video.
I think in general, as a reviewer of DOS games, you shouldn't complain about things you find confusing in a game. At least not when these exact things are explained, in detail, in the game's manual. We did read those back in the day, remember? ;-)
+truelazerlight Yes, the things I called confusing in this review ARE explained in the manual, but the game still doesn't do a good job of delivering details about these things to the player, which is why I called them confusing. :P
when you say "best game in the history of pc gaming" ..... you do realize consoles are always far worse than PC, graphics-wise, gameplay-wise, dumbed down-wise, right?
The only way you can get any lower than consoles is to be on handheld platforms like gameboys, or arcade machines.
However, I do think baldur's gate 2 is a close tie with this one as the best game made in history. Now it could have been cyberpunk 2077, but boy did they skim $ from producing that one.
There are also alot of things wrong said in the video.
0:08 Actually I imagine we would, in the year 1999. You can't use ground-to-air stuff since they aren't really invading, and are just taking a cow here, abducting a man there. Game even explains this. That "fighter jet" is already the best thing money and technology could come up with, for a worldwide guerrilla-like skirmishes at random spots worldwide.
4:00 I'm not sure about that the dating thing. No matter which date you set, it's going to be at the past at some point. Even if you don't give it a year, it's still going to be outdated. I mean ... the fighter jets would be AI controlled drones if the game was made today. Not setting a specific year just doens't help.
Game also can't be too far into the future, or they can't use the crop-circle farm land areas that are key to a credible ufo theme game.
5:00 The user interface was actually extremely successful. One trivia about the UI is that blizzard took x-com's battlescape size dot by dot, and just used it in diablo1.
6:40 Why would it or should it tell you how long researches take. Noone is supposed to possibly know how long research take.
6:55 same as above, they do give you an estimate of how much is completed, i.e. how much they got it nailed down
7:00 You're supposed to read the manual, takes only 3 seconds to see what the buttons are for.
11:15 Remember the eye pieces they have in intro? That's how the entire team can see an alien just when one of them sees it.
Only thing you have to do, to beat the aliens, is to fly to the mothership and upload a malicious KOMPUTER-virus in to the mainframe of the alien computer.
Yeah, sounds just as stupid as the movie was.
Hard to get into but worth it. I had a few more gripes though; economic bottlenecks, poor sense of progression beyond the early to mid game, poor ending and buildup towards it.