X-COM: UFO Defense - 02

Longplay of the MicroProse published and developed PC game "UFO: Enemy Unknown", or as it is called in the US: "X-COM: UFO Defense". Original game played straight, no difficulty bug. I've beaten the game numerous times before: from the mid 90's on Windows 3.1, to Win 95, Win 98, XP, 7 and finally on 10. Real game and not the Open XCOM mod.
See the entire playthrough from beginning til end by going to my playlist at: • X-COM: UFO Defense

[@sarahnachtrose]

Cool. A friend of classic games. XCom from 1994 is a real gem. So much so that there is an active modder community for it. The biggest and most popular mod is called XCom Piratez. It expands the 12 MB game to 700 MB. Set 800 years after the main game. The humans have lost. The aliens have chewed through the earth and spat it out again. You start the game with 5 guinea pigs who have escaped from a laboratory and stumble across an old XCom base (only much later do you find out that this was no coincidence). The refugees hide there and the player gets to know this new world with them. Initial research consists of visiting neighbouring villages. Getting on well with them. Making contacts. Rummaging through junkyards and building primitive weapons (for example flintlock pistols). There are over 1,000 explorations. Factions of all kinds. In addition to humans, you can also include aliens, robots, mutants and much more in your team. Vehicles range from cars, helicopters, biplanes and fighter jets to ultra-modern spaceships. Worth a look.

[@tolo84]

Don't you agree it's one of the best experiences there are? I've been looking for some mods actually to try after this playthrough is done. The one I had in mind was initially mod.io/g/openxcom/m/40k but I'll have to look out for the one you mentioned as well. Thanks!

[@sarahnachtrose]

@@tolo84 Well, then we helped each other. I actually didn't know the 40k mod yet. Thanks for the info. After two years (real years) I'm slowly reaching the endgame with Piratez. At least I thought so. There was a new update a few weeks ago and lots of new content. When I'm done with that I'll have a look at the 40k mod. By the way, I've been playing the main game up and down on the Amiga since 1994. And later every now and then on the PC. I found the autocannon and the big cannon with explosive ammunition the most effective at the beginning. You don't have to hit the aliens directly. A shot at their feet in close proximity is enough for a kill (you don't have to have a target to shoot, then the soldier shoots at the ground where you're aiming). I completely ditched the normal rifles. In the end, there was still enough left to collect and research.

[@sarahnachtrose]

@@tolo84 By the way. Out of curiosity. how can you post something with a youtube external link? If I post something that doesn't have a youtube link my posts are always deleted. Even if it's a youtube link, there's a good chance that the post will be deleted after a minute.

[@tolo84]

@@sarahnachtrose Not entirely sure why, it might be my posts can't be automatically removed on my own videos. If you up for trying, go ahead and link the mod and I'll have a look if there's anything popping up on my end!

[@tolo84]

@@sarahnachtrose There's also something to be said for the look and sound of the auto cannon! That's arguably the best part of the whole intro :D

[@Laber77]

awesomeness !!!!! Here's an Idea.. get random names from your comments and name your future soldiers 😀 (Laberintica) here

[@KaKrassh]

the assault rifles are just as garbage as I remembered. Rocket launchers clear gardens, fields, remove building walls and clear areas. I used to have the assault rifle troops carry extra rockets. There was a bug as well: Kill an enemy, then carry as much load as you can on that unit to build up extra strength and stamina as a kill would grant extra experience. A kill per unit and then body building and max cardio while the rest of the team hunts, since there was no limit to strength.

[@sveticus]

Oh, EA. I would know those sound effects anywhere. For those that aren't familiar the various clicks and boops and beeps are exactly the same across various strategy games of the era. For example, go listen to the GUI sound effects from the game Syndicate and compare to this.

[@nassrath2197]

I always waited until daylight, nighttime missions was cool but too hard. Sweet memories playing this on 486 :)

[@francischambless5919]

It's a good idea to get in the habit of loading each guy up with two electro flares and day or night you exit the ship and toss them as far as you can. Even if you pass by one you've thrown in the battlescape, pick it up and toss it again. It'll increase your strength and accuracy much faster.

[@tolo84]

Normally that's the thing I always try to do, but for this I'm aiming for a different approach. Instead of going out of my way to keep everyone alive, this time I'm going to go *heavily* into explosives. No need for high accuracy when you blow away half the map! It'll also change things up because, as you mentioned, I usually never play night missions otherwise.

[@francischambless5919]

@@tolo84 Other thing I recommend is to research lasers and get laser rifles ASAP. I pretty much use them the whole game, as well as have my manufacturing continuously make more for money each month.

[@tolo84]

@@francischambless5919 Oh yeah that's right, lasers! Later on if you start running into space issues in the transport then not having to bring ammo frees up a bunch of slots for other equipment, and being able to fire infinitely is great for accuracy training! This time around though it feels like I'm getting a ton of stuff anyway, so depending on how much money is lost on replacing soldiers there might not be a need to keep a high production of laser rifles going for reselling purposes.

[@francischambless5919]

@@tolo84 forgot about that too, so yeah, you can improve your accuracy because firing laser guns isn't as time consuming and leaving snap fire time minimum after each of your guys moves ensures they get response time and accuracy boosts if an alien wanders into their line of fire. Often I set one or more guys up to always have most time units remaining so if I accidentally miss my shots when I'm pushing someone in the rear can do an aimed shot or at worst auto fire/toss a grenade. Just gotta play with strategies. This is still by far one of the best games ever.