In Memory of the Dujardin Brothers

On June 13, 1999, Squaddie Henri Dujardin, age 32, and Squaddie Bernard Dujardin, age 38, were killed in action during the defense of Berlin, Germany. Many civilians became chryssalids within hours, and upon the arrival of X-squad 3, the city was overrun. The Dujardin Brothers were the first out of their Skyranger and began their mission with fervor. Captian Leonid Torban, their comanding officer, was very fond of the two, "Bernard could hit a muton from 15 tiles away and never miss! Henri, well, I guess he was good with grenades? He was the only one to not kill his own squadmates with explosives".

Soon, however, the two were separated from the rest of their squad due to a cyberdisk pinning them in a small building. Nearby chryssalids soon took advantage of the situation. The brothers made a final, valiant last stand inside the house. Henri set up multiple explosive traps at the entrances to the building and Bernard provided covering fire from the second floor. It seemed the Dujardins would make it, until one fatal mistake.

The cyberdisk was destroyed by fellow squadmates, but it exploded, causing a breach in the walls of their stronghold. A loan chryssalid was able to move into the building undetected, and while Henri had his back turned, the chryssalid impregnated Henri. He became a shambling form of his former self, his mind devoured by the chyrssalid's poison. Bernard, sensing this was his final turn, chose to sacrific himself for his team. He placed a number of high explosives inside the room he was baricaded in.

The only remainder of that building was a single 1x1 wall. Bernard had managed to eliminate 5 chryssalids as well as his former turned brother. Unfortunately, there was no body to recover. Berlin was saved, but at a high cost. Hundreds of civilians lost, 5 agents lay dead, and one turned in to an alien. The victory was sour.

Bernard was promoted to the rank of captian and Henri to sergent upon their team's return to their HQ somewhere in the apparently unimportant part of Europe.

In the end, that 1x1 wall was made into a memorial, the Dujardin Memorial. It lists all of the fallen agents of the campagin, with Henri's and Bernard's names at the top.

A new warcry has been established by the agents of Xcom: Remember Berlin!

10/10 would relive again

Threw Detonation Pack at Chrysalid.
Chrysalid throws it back.
Squad decimated.

10/10 would throw again.

I do own the new xcom enemy unkown and within, and i must say even though they are both really challenging and enjoyable, they don't compare to the original.

X-COM: UFO Defense has an tense feeling, like everything could go wrong at any moment, something thats present in the new one but not as strong. I swear while doing missions, my hands shake, especially if i've grown attached to a character, who could die at any moment.

The game gets difficult fast, any free time you have should be spent preparing for battle.

Pros
-tense music makes the missions scary
-whenever you lose a soldier that you took the time to name, it hits you right in the feels
-aliens arn't pushovers, they will mess you up
-addicting, I always have to get my fix, that only the original can provide

Cons
-I wish i could choose my starting base layout, i always have to move stuff around
-black characters apear white on the battlefield, get hard to keep track of good people
-can't undo actions on the battlefield, somehow this makes he game more tense
-knee high walls make the worst cover, and you always have to walk around them leaving you open to alien fire

Observations and tips
-civilians are stupid as hell, and they always run into the aliens
-alien in corn field = death
-never stand next to a window, you will die
-never pull the pin on a gernade unless you have enough action points to throw it
-first soldier that steps off of the skyranger always dies, choose wisely
-don't get rid of any weak soldiers, use them as meat sheilds for your better soldiers
-DO NOT GROUP YOUR SOLDIERS TOGETHER, aliens have super gernades that will kill all of them
-always have a few worthless soldier on your team to look for aliens, or take gun fire

I would recommend this game to any person who loves turn based, squad management games.

Full disclosure 1: yes, I played the game back when it first came out. So one CAN accuse me of a nostalgia bomb. But I am not reviewing X-com UFO defense from my memory of playing it 15 or so years ago, I am reviewing based on recent play throughs. And it still has all the charm that it had from the start.

Full Disclosure 2: I played the Vanilla steam version for a while, then noticed comments on something calld OpenXCom. (easily found on the net). It's a free, extensive overhaul with many mod choices built in. Very easy to set up; you do need to have a vaniilla version (steam version works for me...no disc required, and it is pretty cheap). Some of the many choices are PSI on/off; improved H. Lasers, choices for setting up your first base rather than accepting the default, and so on. Highly recommended.

Ok, the actual review. It is one of my favorite games of all time (not judging it in its release time frame, but CURRENTLY). The graphics are last century, iti is true. But the gameplay is +++++. It is tough; there is a lot to figure out, and things never seem to happen in an orderly fashion. Sometimes you just have to give up a mission; sometimes you just have to give up a game. The aliens like to win, LoL. It's a lot of fun to grind through a mission successfully, but there are no guarantees.

One of my criteria for a top notch game is whether it provides not only fun, dangerous stuff to do throughout, but once in a while something unexpected happens that blows me away. Like when I found out if I through a grenade on a roof, that it could bounce, and if it bounced into an alley it would fall to the ground, and if there was a hidden alien there you would hear a muffled explosion and then....the alien death cry you hardly expected. First time that happened I had to save and quit for a while...I was laughing too hard.

If you like challenges, tactics, and turn-based games, this is a must try out. Good luck, andI I hope you can stop those monsters!

This game is for the few who want extreme realism and control over everything. You have to buy every single cartridge of ammo or every single rocket yourself, then equip them to your troopers. You pretty much have to do everything yourself. Never forget to research new technologies, then construct the results. There is no tutorial, once you position and name your first base, you are entirely on your own. If you have never played it before I'd reccomend either Xenonauts, which is VERY similar but slightly mordenized or the new XCOM game, which is more simple and user-friendly.

When you open a door and see 4 aliens standing in front of you, looking at you- guns in hand...
then you know it's time to run. But do you dare to turn your back on them?
Amazing game, as far as turned based strategy games go. 10/10

Rookie 1 fires an aimed shot at point blank and misses
Rookie 2 fires a snap shot point blank and misses aswell
Rookie 3 fires from across the map with an auto shot hits and kills the snakeman
THATS XCOM BABY 10/10 would auto shot

The one that started it all. Turn-based tactical goodness.

Also, the game hates you. Passionately. 10/10 would get ♥♥♥ kicked again.

One of the timeless classics and a milestone in the history of video games. The graphics may have aged but the gameplay did not - it remains as challenging frustrating but rewarding game as it was when I played it for the first time (around 1995).
Funny how this game inspired so many others none of them actually surpassing this one...

A masterpiece of its time!

Still one of the greatest games of all time. Deep turn based tactics and an enthralling overworld strategy combined that have still never been outdown. They pull as much character and feel out of the graphics and sound as humanly possible for the technology at the time; if you can forgive the graphics, the aethetic is amazing. Can also check out the "openXcom" remake for what's essentially the same game with some fixes and slightly revamped UI.

I have poured thousands of hours into this game and bought it many times. This game has taken my best team and wiped them out at the start. If you think you have played hard games or think that XCOM is hard then you need to try this. If you die it is because you were not good enough, careful enough or lucky enough.

You will die. You will get mad. But you will keep coming back. If the graphics are too old for you along with the controls then try Xenonaughts the graphics have the same style but updated and the controls are MUCH better but the game feels the same without the crazy end game stuff that is in X-COM.

This game does have learning curve, but there's no other game out there that can really pull you in and make you feel like you really are the last hope of humanity. If you fail, life as we know it is over.

Easily a classic and one of the best TBS games of all time, I still remember playing the demo on an old 3.5" diskette.
A must have for any XCOM or turn-based strategy (in general) fan.
While I enjoyed Enemy Unknown, in my mind, it is a watered down (though polished) version of this classic.

Don't let the dated graphics sway you, the gameplay and atmosphere are top notch.
They just don't make em like they used too...I must be getting old :/

Fantastic game, a real challenge for even the most hardcore strategy gamers. If you like your soldiers being killed by aliens, turned into zombies and when those zombies are killed, more aliens hatching out of them, then you'll love this game!

Hands down THE best strategy game of all time. So tense, layered, emotional and nerve-wrackingly brilliant that I dedicated half my Steam username to honouring X-com and my many, many, many brave fallen soldiers. RIP chaps and chapesses, sorry I couldn't save you all!

This is a MUST HAVE for all retro gamers, old school STRATEGY and TACTICS. Master piece

You know, just when you think you can play an old game you used to play..and figure wow, I can't do this anymore! But remember games like this was the really good in its time of birth. Great collectors piece.

All hail X-COM

psi-donia