I start right away what frustrates me: The Ground Combat Your soldiers are squishy and can't hit anything while the aliens snipe you from outside your viewing distance. You want to storm a UFO? Oh great, move your soldiers through a 2 tile wide kill corridor against aliens that can shoot through walls appearently - and don't think you can camp outside, as the enemy won't leave the ship. But here is the absolute kicker: Psy attacks work across the whole map, so prepare to have half your squad in panic mode before meeting the first enemy on the map - Bonus points for having a mind controlled soldiers 3 turns in. Without the edit of a gamefile that basically disables this failure of a gamemechanic it's literally unplayable. I want to like this game, I tried a lot of things to make it fun.... but nope, no fun to be found, you're better off getting ANY X-Com title instead
The game does a good job with the squad feature - a mechanic that many developers fail to get right (Battlefield 4 as example). It's nearly impossible to win the mission alone, and good placing of teammates, timing of their abilities and giving them targets can make the difference between victory or defeat. The weapons selection is OK, nothing too surprising tho. The 60's setting is quite a nice view, and old school science fiction works well. What I miss is the XCOM feeling, for me the story could have been changed with any other universe behind it and it wouldn't make a huge difference. The story itself is the average stuff - Fighting as underdog in missions to slowly regain ground, meeting characters etc. Speaking of characters: The main protagonist is an unlikeable jerk, the rest of the characterdrawing is kinda shallow. No protagonist in the game I miss after finishing it. Beside that the game consists of Corridors of Duty - a straight line from one action bubble to another with no alternative ways, the rooms or areas the fire fights take place are usually filled with lots of cover and at least there are different ways to move to the exit. Stealth mechanics are missing, it has to always end in a battle (at least it's explained in the story why stealth kills won't work). The AI does quite a good job, except for hitting targets. I played with two snipers in the team after the 3rd mission because they actually hit their designated targets compared to the other 3 classes. All in all: Nice game with potential, nothing really bad nor outstanding good. The XCOM label could be replaced with anything else as only some aliens and terms remind of it. For a few hours fun it's good, but replaying it wouldn't make a great difference in the experience. It's more a spin-off than a real prequel to the TBS games
I downloaded it 5 years ago - Midway released it as Freeware in 2008 - and was suprised that I had always enough bullets aviable after playing every Resident Evil game. The monsters are diversed, and their design and behaviour display their previous execution precisely. The story leads to interest characters and places, and here and there are choices to make that lead to 3 different endings. The level design doesn't leave many choices, but for a story driven 3rd-person-shooter it's not necessary to be open world in my opinion. To be forced to engage the enemies could also be seen as "standing up against your demons" metaphor. Large places like dinning halls and the prison yard go hand in hand with claustrophobical hallways or sewers. All in all a good game, and despite the graphics (we talk about 2004 here) it's an overall good game
This game is cool, like a mix of Dungeon Master and James Bond. It has humor and doesn´t take itself so serious. If you know some old spy movies, it´s even funnier. The best part (for me) is to build traps, creative people sure have fun doing it. And the option to build hotels is a good way to get some income. The cartoon graphic fits and the different screens for actions are easy to understand. The only negative things are that the islands never changes and the "population limit". If I wouldn´t bought Evil Genius after it was released, I would do it now
