UFO : Afterlight

[Cikomyr]

Hi everybody!

I just dusted up an oooold game I used to play (with quite a lot of fun) in the past. I never finished it because I eventually grew so frustrated with it, so I started a game in "easy" mode this time. I just wanna play this through...

Now, I KNOW it doesn't stand up to the original X-Coms, and I am not sure if the "Aftermath" or "Aftershock" are actually any good or not. I just know I love the Mars exploration, real-time tactical combat, and machine-gunning hordes of enemies with cross-fires, while my Heavy Attack Drones charged in! :smallbiggrin:

Any stories? Ideas? Tactics? Mods?

[Trekkin]

My best and only strategy was not to worry about terraforming until all the non-terraforming plot played itself out. That, and to have somebody cranking out Advanced Batteries as soon as they became available, for when Annihilators become available.

As for tactics...give everyone a very large gun, point them at the ugliest thing on the map, and repeat until the mission auto-ends. Is there another way of playing tactically?

Also, Aftermath and Aftershock are pretty good too.

[factotum]

I really didn't like Aftermath myself...it had the same minimal life expectancy for the soldiers as the original X-Com, but when you only have seven in a troop it makes things a bit ridiculous. Gave up on it when I started a mission where the aliens had a guy with the Aftermath equivalent of a blaster launcher positioned to shoot me in his first turn--even if I spread my troops out as much as I could I still lost three immediately, and completing the mission with just four guys was essentially impossible.

I have both the other games in my Gamers Gate account due to buying the 1C Complete Pack a while ago, though, so I'll probably give them a try at some point.

[Cikomyr]

At first, I though Radar were useless; only increasing the response time available to Alien invasions.

But inwas wrong. It's much better being straits in a radar installation: it's designed with a purely defensive mindset. It's so easy to position your troops crouched on high-positioned rails and catch every single enemies in a deadly crossfire.

By the way, have all your soldiers have at least minor suit training and athletics. The capacity to run and kneel is invaluable. Especially run, if you want to seize the best strategical locations of the map.

[tensai_oni]

What weapons are good in Afterlight? Shotguns - shotguns for everybody! Defensively, you huddle up somewhere and close the door, and as soon as an enemy opens it, the beastman or whatever else the unlucky bastard was gets torn with a hail of lead. Offensively, run and gun - they won't know what hit 'em.

Switch for laser cannons for robots and matriarchs, and melee weapons for martians. But really, shotguns will win most of the game for you.

Aftermath is harder than Afterlight, but it doesn't have the original X-Com's mortality rate... what it has is a few very broken weapons. And the Deathbellows, which put Chryssalids to shame in sheer "screw you player" factor. I think the oppressive atmosphere and good difficulty (not too hard, but not too easy either) make this game the best from After-X series. Aerial combat is disappointing though.

Aftershock is buggy and its story is all over the place. The only thing it really has for itself is the difficulty, but you can easily eliminate that with cheesy tactics and character builds (snipers, etc). Overall, I think this trilogy goes like this:

Best original game -> inferior, very buggy sequel -> third game, more different from two others and good (but not as good as the first)

Which perfectly mirrors the original Enemy Unknown -> TftD -> Apoc.