whao I think I just may do this....
by Matthew Shapiro · in Game Design and Creative Issues · 06/09/2001 (6:35 am) · 6 replies
I was bored the other day and so I was looking at some old abandonware games I used to own (some that i do, just my brother has the disks) and I found x-com. I remembered that game so I downloaded it and started playing it. God that game is (IMHO) the best strategy game ever. sure there were some things that could be improved but all in all It was more than your basic strategy game. It was original. Nothing like it, not even today. To this day i'm playing X-com UFO. Now i'm not saying make an exact clone but some sortof update would be cool or even with a lot of missing features. I have a lot of ideas for what else could be put on but one of the main things I found fun was (If you played the game your know what i'm talking about) when I first went to mars, with all my people fully equipped and such, I used someone's "mod" where it let you be X-com operatives or the aliens. With this me and my friends would play against each other, tho it was a pain getting out of the game to switch but none the less fun.
I was just wondering what you guys would think of another game like this, (not like the other x-coms, those weren't as good as the original and 2 just sucked) anyways just an idea for a game I might make after I've got my MMORPG on it's way, as a side project....
I was just wondering what you guys would think of another game like this, (not like the other x-coms, those weren't as good as the original and 2 just sucked) anyways just an idea for a game I might make after I've got my MMORPG on it's way, as a side project....
#2
How about a multiplayer version? :)
06/09/2001 (8:24 am)
There's another game like it called Jagged Alliance. It has a sequel, too, that's even better. You should check it out if you liked X-Com.How about a multiplayer version? :)
#3
06/09/2001 (10:20 am)
Fallout Tactics is a pretty swell game.
#4
I have ideas for multiplayer but then again I do have an MORPG to work on so whatever. The only problem i have with making a single player game is that I know all the tricks and such.
I've heard about the fallout series (heard it was great) but never played it.
I don't know if i'll attemp this considering that what made x-com so good is the originality.
06/09/2001 (5:02 pm)
Yeah that's the only problem (originality) that i'm having with a new x-com clone (BTW everywhere it's x-com: UFO defense (enemy unknown) hehe all of it =) ). That is probably why x-com 2 and 3 sucked so... oh well. I have ideas for multiplayer but then again I do have an MORPG to work on so whatever. The only problem i have with making a single player game is that I know all the tricks and such.
I've heard about the fallout series (heard it was great) but never played it.
I don't know if i'll attemp this considering that what made x-com so good is the originality.
#5
Fallout Tactics, bug-ridden though it may be, is quite a bit of fun. Less role-playing (virtually no real role-playing as seen in Fallouts 1 and 2), and the enemy AI has a bit to be desired, but it's got that whole line-of-sight aspect that I loved so much in the X-Com series. And (even better) the editors are supposed to be out next week (although they were supposed to be out a few weeks ago anyway).
And I've played Jagged Alliance 2, which is an interesting game; due largely to the fact that it has a sort of economic side (which is lacking in the previous two games, where you're just fighting because someone told you to fight). You have to pay for guns (or pick them up like in Fallout Tactics or the X-Com series) and fellow squad members (unlike the others where the squad members are essentially free to recruit).
I wouldn't say that this sort of game has been played out yet. There's a lot to be said for the squad-based turn-based-strategy genre. I think the RTS needs a real leap forward, since everything out there seems to be based around Warcraft and Command & Conquer. They're all about resource management, building structures, researching new and more deadly weapons, and building those new and deadly weapons. Real-time strategy needs a kick of real originality, rather than improved functionality (Red Alert 2's a great game, but it's still a variation on the same old theme).
However, if you're going to go with the X-Com style of game, I'd seriously recommend against going with the "we're fighting aliens to save the world" idea. It was done with X-Com. It's like making an MMORPG that's just a glorified dungeon crawl (kill things; level up; learn spells; kill more things; role-playing is not encouraged, let alone enforced), like UO, AC and EQ.
The world is full of copycats. You've either got to do it so much better that people don't notice that you're doing the same old thing again (Half-Life to Doom or Quake); or you can do it in such a way that your originality is what everyone talks about (No One Lives Forever, for example). Unless you're content with the status quo and would like the PC game market to stagnate (or continue to, since it's already started).
Just my twenty-five cents. Would've been two, but I got off on a rant.
06/09/2001 (7:12 pm)
As for the other X-Com games being not so good, I'd have to disagree. X-Com 2: Terror From The Deep was actually pretty fun (it was X-Com 3 that was an example of real crap). Granted, it was essentially X-Com all over again, with a few improvements (not graphical), but that's how sequels tend to go these days. At least the gameplay was still as good as the first one.Fallout Tactics, bug-ridden though it may be, is quite a bit of fun. Less role-playing (virtually no real role-playing as seen in Fallouts 1 and 2), and the enemy AI has a bit to be desired, but it's got that whole line-of-sight aspect that I loved so much in the X-Com series. And (even better) the editors are supposed to be out next week (although they were supposed to be out a few weeks ago anyway).
And I've played Jagged Alliance 2, which is an interesting game; due largely to the fact that it has a sort of economic side (which is lacking in the previous two games, where you're just fighting because someone told you to fight). You have to pay for guns (or pick them up like in Fallout Tactics or the X-Com series) and fellow squad members (unlike the others where the squad members are essentially free to recruit).
I wouldn't say that this sort of game has been played out yet. There's a lot to be said for the squad-based turn-based-strategy genre. I think the RTS needs a real leap forward, since everything out there seems to be based around Warcraft and Command & Conquer. They're all about resource management, building structures, researching new and more deadly weapons, and building those new and deadly weapons. Real-time strategy needs a kick of real originality, rather than improved functionality (Red Alert 2's a great game, but it's still a variation on the same old theme).
However, if you're going to go with the X-Com style of game, I'd seriously recommend against going with the "we're fighting aliens to save the world" idea. It was done with X-Com. It's like making an MMORPG that's just a glorified dungeon crawl (kill things; level up; learn spells; kill more things; role-playing is not encouraged, let alone enforced), like UO, AC and EQ.
The world is full of copycats. You've either got to do it so much better that people don't notice that you're doing the same old thing again (Half-Life to Doom or Quake); or you can do it in such a way that your originality is what everyone talks about (No One Lives Forever, for example). Unless you're content with the status quo and would like the PC game market to stagnate (or continue to, since it's already started).
Just my twenty-five cents. Would've been two, but I got off on a rant.
#6
Blue Byte made a simular turn basied game a few years ago called Infestation...sort of a 3D update where the enemy was large insect like aliens...it seemed to have been inspired by Starship Troopers...even included mechs :)...that game got good rateings but didn't sell very well...partly because RTS games were so popular, that and the 3D engine wasn't exactly as pretty as it could have been...still a fun game though :)
06/10/2001 (9:10 am)
Ah...good old X-Com...sort of inspired by a Gary Anderson TV show from the late 60's early 70's called UFO...these were the same folks who made Thunderbirds (the old puppet show) as well as a string of other various sci-fi shows (Stingray, Space:1999, Captain Scarlet, etc..)...any one of those could provide insperation for a game simular to X-Com :)Blue Byte made a simular turn basied game a few years ago called Infestation...sort of a 3D update where the enemy was large insect like aliens...it seemed to have been inspired by Starship Troopers...even included mechs :)...that game got good rateings but didn't sell very well...partly because RTS games were so popular, that and the 3D engine wasn't exactly as pretty as it could have been...still a fun game though :)
William Finlayson