Those old-school die hards who were actually playing games on their PC or Amiga back in 1993 will probably remember a nice little tactical strategy game called UFO: Enemy Unknown or in the US X-COM: UFO Defense. This game let you battle invading aliens in a struggle to dominate both through military might and technological dominance. This struggle is started all over again in X-COM Apocalypse. It is the REAL sequel to UFO Defense as the first sequel seemed more like an expansion pack both because of a very similar look and feel and because it was so much more dificult that you would have a hard time playing it unless you had been playing the first game before. Where the first two games had you fighting aliens all over the world the third game of the series has you fighting them in a city which the aliens are invading from a different dimension. The story of the game world is somewhat goofy reminding of a 50's science fiction comic. And some of the graphics, especially the look of the vehicles in the game, supports this notion. In general the graphics are very disappointing. The aliens don't seem the least bit scary and this certainly hampers the athmosphere compared to X-COM: UFO Defense. The color palette is simply too bright to be any frightening. However the sounds are awesome. The effects do what they need to but what the graphics sort of hampers the music more than makes up for. So if any geeks out there with a bit too much time were to make a graphics mod which is a bit dark we would be back to the scary world of the first game. The gameplay is just as solid as in the first games. For the purists turn-based gameplay is available in the missions and for the new-comers the option of playing it in real time is certainly a welcome opportunity. Whichever optíon you choose you will find yourself sufficiently challenged by the game. To conclude this review X-COM: Apocalypse is in many ways a natural step forward from X-COM: UFO Defense. The addition of optional real time I think is a good idea. The only thing weighing down on this game is its graphics. Normally I don't have anything against ugly graphics. But here the graphics are counterproductive to the athmosphere of the game and this is a real shame.
X-Com UFO Defense is one of the most highly regarded strategy games of all time. Terror From the Deep, it's sequel, attainted similar scores, but being practically the same game with the slightest hint of a twist, it see... Read Full Review
The image of a sci-fi metropolitan city stuck in the middle of what seemed to be a radioactive, toxic green wasteland may seem jarring to anyone not learned in sci-fi. Add an alien invasion that seems poised to pour out ... Read Full Review
