The 1990s introduced two classic game series at around the same time: X-COM: UFO Defense (1994) and Tomb Raider (1996). I had played and tried the very first games of both classics a long time ago, and I HATED both of them. I have never completed either of the original games. I have never bothered with any of the sequels to the original classics. Coincidentally, both series received remakes in the 2010s: X-COM: Enemy Unknown in 2012 and Tomb Raider in 2013. Given that how much I hated the originals, I did not play or even pay much attention to the remakes when they first game out. I bought both remakes a few years after their releases, when they were on sales and heavily discounted. Also coincidentally, I played both remakes at about the same time in the same year. Both the XCOM and Tomb Raider and XCOM remake series are now my top favorite games of all time. The point I am making here: if you hated the old XCOM games, do not assume this is same as the old games; give this remake a try, and you might be surprised.
The 1990s introduced two classic game series at around the same time: Tomb Raider (1996) and X-COM: UFO Defense (1994). I had played and tried the very first games of both classics a long time ago, and I HATED both of them. I have never completed either of the original games. I have never bothered with any of the sequels to the original classics. Coincidentally, both series received remakes in the 2010s: Tomb Raider in 2013 and X-COM: Enemy Unknown in 2012. Given that how much I hated the originals, I did not play or even pay much attention to the remakes when they first came out. I bought both remakes a few years after their releases, when they were on sales and heavily discounted. Also coincidentally, I bought and played both remakes in the same year. I really enjoyed both remakes. I wished I had played them much earlier. This remake is nothing like the original, which is exactly the reason why I love it. I know a lot of the fans of the "classic Tomb Raider" hated this remake, because it is so different from the old series. The remake and old series are in different genres. Fans of the old games have been demanding Tomb Raider to "return to its original root", but I hope Tomb Raider will NEVER return to its root. I hated the old Tomb Raider, and I love the new Tomb Raider. The point I am making here: if you had tried and hated the old classic Tomb Raider games like me, do not write off this remake because you assume it is same as the old classics.
I loved XCOM, XCOM 2 and Chimera Squad, (on which I have spent thousands of hours.) So I thought I would try this game that was recommended to me as being "similar to XCOM". I played through the tutorial of this game and realized... this game does NOT let players manually save games. The game automatically saves at checkpoints. Even worse: it has only ONE save game. This lack of manual saving is a huge pet peeve for me. It means that, if the game had some serious bug or if the one-and-only save game became corrupted, the player would be screwed. So I read through past comments from other people who have played the game. Many complained that they had made mistakes at various early points that made the game unwinnable later. Even worse, the game has game-breaking bugs that the developer has never bothered fixing, (you can read other negative reviews about it.) Players were forced to start over because they could not backtrack to some early points in the game, and many became upset and just abandoned the game. That shows just how the developer has no consideration nor respect for the time of customers and players. I am a busy working professional. I own thousands of games on backlog that I want to play (and likely will never have time to play.) I really do not want spend time on a game that does not allow me to backtrack, only to be forced to start the game all over from the beginning, because the develop was too inconsiderate and decided to to not allow players to manually save games. I find that kind of inconsideration to be disrespectful and offensive. I uninstalled the game immediately after I had realized it did not allow me to save manually. I will not bother playing it, its sequel (which I would have given a chance if I had played and liked this game,) any future Hard West game, or even any game from this developer. I value my time, and I have no patience for game developers who disrespect my time, so thank you very much.
