Jake Solomon XCOM Remake is Ridiculous Insulting to The Original XCOM
0The tactical screen doesn't give me much trouble anymore, RNG or not. But I can't figure out how to contain the panic on the world map. Countries just lose their fucking mind non-stop even if you are flawlessly pushing through. The original is so much preferable than the dumb way they have it set up here. Instead of cutting funding, countries just fucking bail. There's no, "You got a C-rating, so we're gonna cut back on the funding." Not it's, "You did everything remotely possible, but four countries are going to leave anyway." Makes perfect sense. Instead of the gradual decline you would see in the original, the game just ends. Two fucking months in and it's over, even with a flawless first month and an average second one. Two months, and the world gives up on the organization. Seriously?!
yeah I couldn't agree more but the flaws still there when Jake Solomon designed the whole thing based on satellite coverage which in my opinion are stupid. first time playing XCOM: EW remake I got my ass-kick out in June, aliens won I'm like WTF?! so most veteran players saying " dude you need to rush satellite strategy dude its the only way, losing more than 3 countries will be your defeat! " imo that wasn't fun, the original XCOM 1994 are much better than this, I mean like I get it the remake wasn't that generous with funding either but, everything is fucking expensive in XCOM even manufacturing stuff. oh well if Jake Solomon could balance this whole fiasco crap with satellite rush I'm certain I could have more fun even though the Julian Gollop XCOM are way better ahead of its time.
Here's better design:
1) All-in shooting has increased accuracy.
2) Crits only come to those out of cover or flanked.
3) Damage taken is based on type of cover you're in. Cover degrades from full to half more frequently. Full Spectrum Warrior, anyone?
4) Snap-shot: low-accuracy shot wherein you can take a few steps (or just one) afterward.
5) If you are within within 2 squares of someone you can't miss because that is just ridiculous.
6) You can focus fire terrain.
7) Panic now just picks a random square and fires instead of focusing on individuals like the idiotic system it currently is.
8) You can path the way you want to, instead of letting the computer auto-trace it for you.
9) Give the aliens more agency over the map. The way they move in clusters now promotes meta-gaming like trying to reveal one at a time.
10) Let aliens panic too. People often forget that the aliens in the original were also capable of panicking when everyone around them died.
You can't have too many equipment slots because time units are no longer in the game. There can now never be such thing as a movement speed/distance penalty for wearing heavy armor or carrying lots of guns, and you can never make the choice between firing a rifle three times in one turn or a rocket once in one turn. The game is balanced around the new "two moves, one shot" setup, but it also saps a lot of tactical depth from the game.
Let's also note that the lack of proper inventory management for soldiers means that ammo management other than reloading is now non-existent; you can't choose between lots of guns but little ammo, or few guns and lots of grenades, etc. Why? They already have mechanics in there to balance explosives and to capture aliens alive, which are more than enough incentive to make you not want to just blow everything to bits...
This is what happens when you start simplifying gameplay systems. It's not that one decision on its own, in isolation, is bad, it's what other sacrifices and changes you have to make to get it to work well that are important. And XCOM feels so dumbed down precisely because a few key decisions meant they could no longer do things the way they used to. Truth is: This game is still inferior to a game made in fucking 1993. Twenty years of difference, and all that new technology meant crap in the end. Moore's Law just means your computer runs faster, not that someone will use that potential to its logical conclusion. Random maps? No, how dare you ask for a feature that existed since 1990 it can't be done!