UFO: Extraterrestrials Gold

Background:
Purchased as part of a bundle from Bundle Stars. I played X-Com so many times when I was in University and completed it and Terror from the Deep at least once. Played this for over 20 hours.

Impressions:
So much nostalgia. UFO really captures everything about the original X-Com game perfectly and with updated graphics to match modern displays but many of the graphics look unpolished but functional. But that's not where the heart of UFO is.. it's in the strategic management of cash, research, building, manufacturing, expanding and alien hunting.

As ever the missions are the best part: shoot down a UFO over land you get to send your team on a mission to slay/stun the invaders and bring back their technology, corpses and the occasional live specimen for your own probing experimentation... then it's back to base to research and re-equip.

I had a lot of nostalgic fun with the game and while the weak graphics do jar the game mechanics are as solid and fun as ever.

The Bman mod is included and it's well worth tinkering with the well annotated mods before you start playing. There is a temptation to make the game really easy (and the mod will let you make things a lot simpler.. giving more cash and stats for missions, etc.) but if you try some moderate tweaks you'll find the game remains a lot of fun while making progress easier. I recommend playing the game untweaked till you learn the ropes and then start a new game with the tweaks that make it fun for you.

The Good:
*Recaptures the feel of the original X-Com game all too well.
*Lots to buy and equip.
*Missions are really fun and get more so as you level up.
*Renaming and equipping troops makes a squad to be proud of.
*Random base missions are fun and add extra drama.
*Lots of replay value.
*Can save at almost any time.


The Bad:
*No tutorial: using med packs was really confusing until i googled it.
*Visuals are sometimes under whelming.
*Slow loading of sector map on missions.
*Slow processing of alien moves when out of line of sight.
*Obtaining and identifying Commanders is really tough without a mod tweak.
*Some aliens are invisible to some marines (when floating over rocks).
*Feels really dated, which works for fans of the original.
*Grenades can feel overpowered.
*Saves are too useful for avoiding heavy losses that are hard to come back from.

Recommended for:
Lovers of the first 2 X-Com games. Sci-fi fans who like their aliens unfriendly and their humans just as violent. Fans of strategy games will have something to get into here too.

Conclusion.
7/10. Huge fun once you get past the visuals and start to enjoy the strategy and base management elements.

This game comes with the btmod and i like how it played. Problem is after awhile it begins to be very easy. I have found another mod using Unimod http://ufogr.com/ which is the best mod i think for this game. The one thing it changes is the air battle is now difficult - aliens are no pushover (which realistically should not be).

Overall this game for me is 10/10 for xcom fans who want to relive the classic XCOM. I have played the new XCOM but this game with Unimod in my opinion is a much better gaming strategy overall. The new XCOM is like too much eyecandy... too little strategy.

UFO: Extraterrestrials GOLD is a new GOLD edition which includes a number of changes and improvements giving a player a new look on the classic game: new maps, possibility to hire soldiers, globe UFO swarms and configurability. UFO: Extraterrestrials GOLD represents fiction in which the human race faces a threat from space, aimed to be a spiritual sequel developed by Chaos Concept. The game picks up where the original left off, incorporating a twist of the aliens defeating Earth. The game is set on a newly colonized planet named Esperanza, where the alien threat has just arrived.

I highly recommend this if you liked the original XCOM games! I see this game as a more true spiritual successor to XCOM: Ufo Defense (otherwise known as UFO: Enemy Unknown in Australia), and XCOM: Terror from the Deep. It's not just lasers and plasma, but there are multiple levels to alien tech - and the humans, once they have researched them all, come up with their own one, which is even better. Aliens get progressively more difficult, which makes a really long campaign really challenging and rewarding once you get to the end. I just found the new XCOM: Enemy Unknown was a bit short, and much more cinematic - great game on its own right, but not really a spiritual successor to the original XCOM games

Great gameplay, as long as you enjoy turnbased games.