A pure insult to fans of the X-com series & sci fi genre. A sad attempt that can not be taken seriously.
The story is told through long boring monotonous dialogs with dry acting. Imagine listening to Dr. Laura describing aliens. The story is choppy, in- consistant and the characters are cornier then the scripts written for video game to movie films. This is the first time the names assigned to characters actually destroy the entire game experience, the seriousness and the overall fun. Your main base craft octagon thing is called a "laputa". Take for example the main enemy "The Riticulans". When they say it it sound like "Rediculans" .Why don't we just be blunt and say the idea of aliens is rediculous. The next group of aliens you encounter are "The Potheads". The weak minded helpless aliens that have found a home on earth because they are too weak to take it over. This has got to be one of the silliest and awfully childesh sci fi stories ever created. In history. Unless you are 4 the game may also feel like its toying with propaganda, rather then taking the sci-fi story seriously.
The Gameplay:
There is strategy & pause based combat
The Strategy
You will manage bases on a 3d-rotatable earth. You will engage in taking over adjacent sectors to your starting sector. Once you occupy a sector through combat you can practice "diplomacy" which means sending back and forth materials or soldiers for hire. On the base you can manufacture structures to build weapons and so on. The strategy element is good overall.
The Combat: "Enhanced SAS"
Enhanced SAS is a Turn - Based combat costume on a pause-based combat engine. The game is real time, but it pauses at almost every event. This works alright. The cool thing about it, is that aliens and humans move at the same time. However the constant pausing gets very annoying. Thankfully, the creators have included the option to turn off pausing. The problem is turning off too much pausing results in outragously unplayable combat. Making the combat gameplay smooth to the users liking will require extensive experiments with the combat pause settings. This is kind of like playing with video performance settings to get a smooth new game experience on last years machine.
Graphics:
The graphics are mediocre. There are plenty of collision and graphic abnormalities that occur in the game. Many in-game movies contain boring backdrops with a few colors. The characters mouth animation will move through entire dialog, whether they are talking or not. The movie artwork is unoriginal and abnormal. The in combat graphics are good, but nothing special. Some aliens are large hovering dots, which blend in with level and are hard to see. Other aliens look good with nice animations. Dead alien looks like alive alien in some cases. The rotating earth looks better then anything.
Sound:
The music is worse then the "I made it with a toy piano music" from 11th Hour. The sound effects were probably taken from a cd found at a "Everything is 99 cents store". Like the story, the music and sound contributes to crushing the entire game experience.
THE BIG QUESTION: X-com versus UFO Aftershock
UFO Aftershock has better graphics then Xcom. This is the only area where UFO aftershock is better then Xcom. Xcom is still amazingly frightening and realistic for the low graphic quality. The story is serious, and it really feels like an invasion. The music and sound of Xcom are much better.
IS UFO AFTERSHOCK A GOOD XCOM REPLACEMENT?
Absolutely NOT! It does not live up to the name in any way. The combat system is completely different. The strategy system is like xcom mixed with syndicate (if you remember it/played it). Sure there is a 3d rotatable globe, but you occupy adjacent terretories in the manner of syndicate. Conquer area, move to next. There are no interceptors, or flying vehicles you send out to hunt ufos. The crafts are silly octagon shaped creations. The story fails the Xcom experience in every way possibly known. The story could have possibly been targeted to 3 year olds. There is nothing intriguing about the story or game experience of UFO Aftershock. It is not Xcom, wasn't meant to be, and comparing it is a direct insult to Xcom.
IS UFO AFTERSHOCK A GOOD GAME ON ITS OWN?
It is a bad replicant, big mistake and a complete waste of money. In this case you don't get what you pay for, you play it and try to like it because you paid so much for it. This game could be referenced in a future case of angry consumers who can't return opened games. If you must experience it for yourself, wait for the bargain bin, or get it on ebay.