Beat it today and was going to NOT RECOMMEND this game EVAR, but it turned out most negative reviews were just "couldn't run/got an error" messages, so:
Be warned - game mechanics will be your most vicious enemy, either as the result of poor programming, or, more often, just a strange developers choice. Unfortunately, the addictiveness of the game is much more powerful than all of the drawbacks combined, hence 84 hours of gameplay (got them on the old version, released before Bohemia, so they don't show up here). If that is the kind of oldschool you're into - bring it on.

Great game for those loving strategy, resource management, and tactics.
It is a slow, strategic unit-based game when on the battlefield, and you have infinite time to come up with your optimal strategy to destroy your enemies. You are never stressed because of lack of time to think.

When on the world map, you get to decide which trainings to assign to your soldiers, scientists, and technicians and where to allocate them to be most effective. You perform research, make weapons, etc. There is not a whole lot of buildings to be made, unlike alot of strategy games, and they only perform specific functions.

The game is slow at the start, but it picks up the pace after the Inter-galactic gate opens (don't quit playing until this point, because that is when it gets good).

The map variety is somewhat lacking on the generic maps, but there is more variety once you get into the different races and their specific maps and structures.

Same thing with units. You will only see 2 different types of enemies until the galactic gate opens, at which point 3 or 4 more types will be available.

There is also a cool RPG element to it, in that each of your soldiers/scientists/technicains levels up every once in a while, and you get to distribute Attribute points to help them perform better. Sadly, you cannot create your own character, although that would be cool to see in a DLC or future expansion.

Weapons come in good variety. There are melee weapons, old firearms from Old Earth, new firearms that can be researched, scientific lasers used by scientists, and then alien weapons of many different kinds.

Although gameplay is somewhat linear near the beginning, as you go on your research and production decisions will have more impact on how you are able to deal with certain challenges and such.

Generally a good and challenging game. Very rewarding feeling when you complete each mission. (especially if you've lost a soldier before :P)

Also, bit of advice: Your UFO can carry 7 people maximum. CRAM AS MANY PEOPLE IN THERE AS YOU CAN. If you don't, then it can be easy to be overwhelmed by enemies, and then everything gets messy.

UFO: Afterlight is like XCOM. You manage a base, researchers, engineers, and soldiers, along with the various constructions you can make in the base, and send out squads of soldiers/drones/aliens to deal with attacks, or attack different factions, waging war and taking their territory. You can acquire territory much like Galactic Civilization II, and can build structures to utilize it's resources, and provide utilities. As for the ground, it's semi turn based, or exactly like Knights of the Old Republic, Baldur's Gate II, Dragon Age 1, etc.

You don't really have 'money' in the traditional sense. The various territories have Mines, which produce resources like Metal, Fuel, Chemicals, Crystal, Noble Metals, etc.. When you build a 'gatherer' on one, you gain one of the resource. So if I have 2 Metal Mines, I can make all buildings, equipment, weapons, and armor that require 2 or less metal as much as I want without limit, so long as I still have the requirement.

All your people/aliens can be trained in their fields, some specializing in 2 fields. The fields are Soldier, Scientist, and Technician. The gain experience by doing things in that field, so fighting for Soldiers, making items for Technicians, and Researching for Scientists. You can train them to produce/research different categories faster, or make the more accurate or quicker with a weapon, train them to use armor better and use heavier weapons and armor. Of course, they can't be used while they're training, but that should be obvious. If you start training with a soldier in Alpha squad, and then send that Squad out to a mission, that Soldier will temporarily stop training and do the mission, and then continue training when they get back to base, so no need to worry about managing them THAT much.

As for the tutorial, it covers ground combat(Tactical Mode as it's called in-game) very well, but the map/base screen(Strategic Mode) is not covered very well. It goes into many Strategic Mode aspects to a degree, but some aspects it doesn't cover enough, such as managing base construction, and the people who build mines and capture territory. Those aspects have their members assigned from the start, but it doesn't tell new players that, and if you accidentally move someone who was needed there, you can mess up some features, and since it doesn't tell you about those, you'll have to click around until you figure it out.

For reference, the people who build mines, excavation sites, radars, etc. on the territories work in the Technical Bay, and the people who build Geosode(capture territory) work in the Scientific Bay. So make sure there's at least 1 Technician in the Technical Bay and at least 1 Scientist in the Scietific Bay. Also, when you start building things in your base, make sure there's at least 1 Technician in the Civil Engineering building. You can do all this in the "People" Tab of the Strategic Mode view.

You can conduct Diplomacy with the various factions in the game, like waging war or signing peace treaties, and trading and requesting resources, though it's nowhere near as in-depth as the Civilization games.

Overall, it's a great "XCOM-like", and if you like Xcom, you'll love UFO: Afterlight.

i played this EONs ago and I'm so happy i picked it up again. I missed playing a game that opens with a sucker punch, hits below the belt then proceeds to kick you while your down.

its old, but massively fun. I am enjoying this much more than the newest xcom and all of its updates etc. but thats my opinion.

hope to see something like this or Emperor of the Fading Suns in the future... but doubt any company will take a chance like that even though there are rabid fans waiting for it.

so if your thinking about it, check this game out on youtube. that will let you know if you would like it. enjoy.

Fun game with alot of micro manage options, like the old Xcom, this is not a replica of Xcom, its even worse for mankind!
This is the 3 game in the series..
Mars, aliens, beastmens and more.... Sand, Terraforming... its alright in my book, just installed the new version of this game.!

Don't listen to Veggie, there is a tutorial. It teaches you the basics of moving in the tactical map... Which is... You know, pretty standard RTS fair, you know, Right-Click to move/attack.... Wait, that's it.

As for the base part... Once again, dead simple to understand, perhaps if you've never ever played RTS's before you'd get confused, but it's not that hard at all. You put Researchers (Green Stat) into Labs and such, Technicans into Workshops and such, while using your Soldiers and Soldier + Tech/Research to fight.

If you've ever played UFO/XCOM/XCOM:EU you're going to understand the entire thing from the get go. You set research, you set production, you then let time run. You then defend your territories (many of which hold resources, which, once again, is so simple, each node = 1 resource, so if you have 2 Metal Mines, you can build anything that requires 2 Metal Mines as many times as you want) and attack others. At which point you go into the combat mode. While it isn't turn based, you can pause the game to issue orders, similar to other games like Dragon Age: Origin. You then gather loot, which opens up more research options.

Your NPC's all level up, Techs and Researches included. This is done by Soldiers via fighting battles, while for Tech + Researchers it is done by researching and producing/building. Every time a Soldier levels up, he gets a point to put into attributes, like Strength and Willpower (there are several) these stats in turn affect skills, like Aiming, Snap Shots, Manipulation, Charisma. Each attribute, when clicked, tells you want it improves and each skill tells you want it does. You also get Training Points to spend on various abilities, such as being able to Equip Heavy gear. As for non-combat NPC's, you can train them with Training Points too, these points go into things which help them speed up or improve various other things. Such as Research Speed or Production Speed.

Hybrid's are interesting, such as Soldier + Researcher, as while they are not as dedicated as others, you often need Researchers/Techs to go with you on combat missions in order to get various things. Which of course give benifits. Not to mention, you're not only getting human NPC's, but Alien's too, which have their own Training Point abilities.

The Conquest Map is pretty simple. You click areas to capture, then build stuff, which is all done automatically once ordered. If you get attacked, you're warned and a Red mark appears so you can click it and enter a fight to free it. If you expand far enough, you'll bounce into other races borders, at which point, you'll be able to invade their area and get their resources and such.


Overall, it's a DIRT CHEAP game which has lots going for it. Combat is decent, lots to research and upgrade, specific NPC's talk and argue with each other over stuff to do. It's enjoyable for the price and I recommend it to anybody who likes XCOM:EU/XCOM/UFO series, or perhaps Xenonauts. For £5.50, it isn't bad at all.

I also believe there were two prequels to this, UFO: Aftermath and UFO: Aftershock, both set in the same universe at different points in time.

Aftermath is fighting the Aliens
Aftershock is the rebellion
Afterlight is truce and leaving for Mars

I think. Can't remeber this late.