Not sure why they tried to put the X-COM name on this, but I am sure it was an attempt to get more sales. If you leave that idea alone, the game 100% is a great game on its own. The only thing it shares with the original X-COM is aliens attacking Earth. Nothing else. It has a totally different alien species attacking Earth actually. The game should have just been called The Bureau. Marketing failure as people went in expecting one thing and got something totally different. In this game, you upgrade your agents with alien powers and you turn into a killing machine by the end... Even though by the end, the enemies are tough. It is a great concept on its own.
I was expecting large open worlds similar to Fallout 3 or Skyrim or something. What we got is about 5 tiny maps to explore. I may have the number wrong, but the game is so forgettable that I don't remember and I even completed the game. That last line above actually just describes it perfectly. It is just not fun. It is just something to do. Can someone explain why this thing is still so expensive? Anyway, I have it on Steam and I certainly wouldn't even pay $5 for it here to play it again. It was a total let down from what I was expecting. Friend of mine warned be before I purchased it, but I ignored the warning. He was spot on with the fun factor being about nill.
This has gone a more cartoony way, especially the 10 year old little girls leading an army of men into battle. For real guys? Give me a solid Joan of Arc chick that is believable. Then you got the worthless raiding. Can't get anything from a town but grain so have the AI risk their army doing it, not you. Hard to fund an army when you can't even get anything better than grain from raiding a town. Stick with Warband. It is more period authentic and it is a lot more fun. Then you have the mods. Bannerlord is not that game I was hoping for. Disappointed. Won't be buying it again.
I tried to like this game, got about half way through, but it is just horrible and quit as the whole time I was wishing this was the original Thief The Dark Project. When compared to the games that proceeded it, it is like they took everything bad about a console and added it to this game. Its biggest let down: It is just not fun. I kept trying to go a little farther to see what comes next thinking maybe it had something redeeming, but it really doesn't. It is mostly boring. Even Thief Deadly Shadows, the worst of the bunch before this, still had some fun to it. Thief 3 also had one of the most scary levels in any game to date, but not this one. There is nothing there. Hollow is the proper word. Voice acting too - Not the same Garrett. +1 star for good graphics.
This is not hard core Mechwarrior sim where you need to push every button. This is a jump in, shoot the bad guys, accomplish the objectives and then get paid. You are running a business basically. I have finished the main story and I have all the tonnage you can get. I have Hero Atlas mechs if I want if I need to crush something, but my main go to is a 30 ton Spider that has been heavily modified with class VI (Orange) equipment from dual machines guns to dual pulse medium lasers, Art IV SRM, and dual anti missile defense. The modifications has taken this thing to 149 kmh, and I use the speed to humble Mechs twice to 3 times its size. This is where the fun is. I usually have a couple 100 tons or more of allies coming in to defend my back, but the speed and the the need to be quick on your targets while running a circle around them is the best. Of course, replacing some of this class VI equipment will be tough if I lose and arm or something, but I have a few spares. Currently playing the Kestral Lancers and my Spider is my main go to. Give me an Atlas enemy and I will take him down with this thing.
Just some experiences with my play throughs: The goal is to get decked out with combat armor and a combat shotgun, night vision, laptops for hacking, the works and then you are equipped to complete the game. Spoiler alert: I will admit I cheated once to understand the mechanics. The game deletes your shockwave flash save file if you die, but if you make a backup, you can technically reload a save. Now I play it raw. Death can still come for me at any time, especially if you get ganged up on by dogmen (werewolves I think), but I can usually survive enough to make it to the city and start getting real equipment. Also a spoiler - Myopia can be surgically fixed. I won't say how, but it is a good negative to take if you need another point to spend elsewhere when making your character. You can get a basic fix for the short term by carrying around a scope of some other optics. I usually start by getting the essentials to survive by looting nearby cities and towns, especially the ability to hold drinking water. Then visit the game show to get some additional essentials for later on to the village in the forest to learn who you are and I also use them to sell goods I crafted for money. Once you have money, head to the city to buy things you cannot buy anywhere else and then you are on your way!
At least this version is flawed. The DOS version allows for you to tweak Dosbox to make it run properly, but I personally ran into it asking for Disk 2 when using EGA instead of CGA, so you can't play it. Move on to Amiga. The Amiga version is also flawed for several reasons and was never properly completed when it was released. A. The sword-fighting is broken and you have no idea on your health as they didn't have time to add health boxes. B. It moves too quickly compared to the original Amiga 500 making jousting practically impossible. The lance is supposed to move up an down at a slow pace, but in this one, it is far faster than it should be. I would have preferred access to an ADF for the Amiga version so I could run it through a runner like FS-UAE. There are more, but the point is, this is not the definitive version of this game. Minus a couple stars. Atari ST probably is probably the version to have. With all that said, it works great on Linux via the default Lutris runner.
I didn't care much for Starflight 2 as they tried to go all Wing Commander instead of RPG. SF1 however is the best of the series. I would love to see a modern version of this as I think this game gave us our real first sandbox in PC Gaming. You can go anywhere and do anything as long as you had the fuel to do it. The plot twist at the end was also unexpected. Minor hint: As long as you stay away from Uhlek space, you will have a great time. Uhlek space can be a quick death even if you are decked out in class 5 equipment. Dealing with one or maybe 2? You can probably take them on, but they always like to show up in groups.
Why is this my fav? Because you aren't using magic and being a one man army like other Jedi games. All you got is your wits and equipment. My ideal Star Wars game would be Boba Fett in first person in an open world setting, with contracts the galaxy over and having proceduraly generated planets so you never see the same place twice, along with 800+ planets - To live Star Wars like it should be lived. Too bad the people at Star Wars assume we all want to be a Jedi Master and haven't figured this out yet. Until we get that, this is as close as you will get. You are just a well equipped Merc here with your biggest piece of equipment being a personal shield... But that won't save you if you don't have your wits if you play on hard like I do. Add in a real 3D engine, not the originals 2.5D, and full on MIDI instruments from a MIDI engine with a great Soundfont and this is a great game! Always was a great game as I played the heck out of it back in the day but now it is like it should be. Linux users: - The Force Engine: https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/theforceengine (for automated building). Other distros may need to do manually. - QSynth MIDI engine: https://qsynth.sourceforge.io/ To make it perform flawlessly, I had to set the MIDI driver to alsa_seq, Client name ID to pid, audio driver on the Audio tab to alsa, sample rate of 44.1khz, and the audio was a bit scratchy at 64 buffer size so I increased it to 128 and it is rock solid. Note you will need to select the MIDI engine in The Force Engine to use it. - SoundFont: https://www.mediafire.com/?zo8l3dgf2989266 - This has some great instruments. If you want a comparison, the 2nd half of this vid should convince you: https://youtu.be/-UwhEyxFrns
