UFO: Aftershock

At first blush, this game could go toe-to-toe with X-COM, the proverbial elephant in the room. The problem comes halfway through when the game really begins to slow down -- the track system that links your bases and resources turns into a money pit, and the missions become grindingly repetitive. You can lose regions without warning to cultists, which turns the last half of the game into a mad rush to reclaim territory after territory while you're waiting for your tech tree to bloom. That being said, it's still a beautiful game. I'll play it again, but only when I'm in a really patient mood. Personally, I liked UFO: Aftermath better than this, its sequel, because the former flowed so much better.

This is a good game with a lot of stuff to love, but it so obviously could have benefited from having more time in development. First thing you will notice is the graphics options. Not being able to select your proper resolution immediately puts up warning flags for me and if you're on the fence about trying this game that might be enough to get you to walk away. If you're a strategy/tactical fan like myself then you can click that start game button. The first thing you will see is the geoscape and they did an amazing job with this. The territories are always the same, but the resources in each area and starting area of the enemy will change every game. The buildings you construct in areas will have an effect on resources as well, and since different research/construction projects take different types of resources you are always going to be able to make a more efficient system for your current needs. You can do this through replanning your bases, building more efficient lines, trade, or conquering territory. This makes this part of the game dynamic and enjoyable for(me) hundreds of hours of gameplay. The research tree and soldier progression system is fun and has a huge amount of stuff. While this is great in an RPG in a game like this is might actually hurt it. Your soldiers start off weaker than the aliens and it's up to you not to get them all killed. About maybe 1/4th through the game they start becoming doomsday weapons and only get stronger. By the end you will be able to solo any mission, including the final one, with a single soldier charging down the front line in a blaze of invincible glory. Which doesn't help the tactical maps. They are not randomly generated and there are not a lot. Soon enough you will know exactly how every mission you do will play out and this gets tedious. Worse than that this game encourages blobing. There are new things thoughout the game, but this is where it really could have used more work. Worth checking out despite flaws.

Most of you people pure hate this release because you say it won't function on Intel Int. WELL HOW ABOUT THE FIX FOR THE FALLOUT 3 VERSION WHICH HAS THE SAME ISSUE PRETTY MUCH. The FILE for that TRICKS your card into thinking you have a NVIDIA and ALLOWS the Intel card to run it if it is strong enough. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FF5G3H9uEoM There are dozens of other videos and posts ON THIS SAME TOPIC. I am pretty sure this will work if you can get this to run on Linux, then you can program Win-doze to think different about the card as well (hopefully) just like for fallout3

(+1 star for what the game tries to do) UFO: Afterlight is not dependent upon UFO: Aftershock lore-wise. In fact, you might find it more interesting to be introduced to the player faction in Aftershock during your time in Afterlight, then decide to check out the story on the other side of the radio. Then if you are really into the series, you can go back to Aftermath, to the beginning. Anyway, I only played a few missions in Aftershock and I found one bug that I couldn't get over. I couldn't get the keyboard shortcut key for opening the equipment window to work. All three UFO games rely heavily on inventory management, especially in the early game. You don't want to waste ammo when you can stab unconscious aliens to death with your knife. Having to switch weapons every time by clicking that small GUI button annoyed me to no end, especially since I already played 50 hours of Afterlight without this irritation. That said, if you enjoyed Afterlight and want to know the story on Earth at roughly the same time, you want to give Aftershock a try. From the little I have seen, Aftershock tries hard to present a more complicated story and a more diverse caste of characters and factions than classic X-COM or XCOM 1 or UFO Aftermath, and a richer strategic layer that is more than just the backend of the tactical game. If you can get over some jank (maybe a lot of jank), then this is a good UFO game, indeed a favorite of many UFO fans.

A bit too long and difficulty curve at first is tough. As soon as you get hand on some rifles it's gettings better.