Well, how do you like it? Maybe a mini-review, or a link to one you wrote in one of these 68 pages?
Didn't write any mini-review in here 'cause I've mostly just been posting stories from my campaigns and then r00fling when people call it banal shit boring. Guess a quick summary from my perspective would be (Only going from classic ironman as that's all I've played for difficulty):
- More boardgamey tactical than the original which may or may not be your cup of tea (I'm loving the shit out of it). Dice rolls can fuck you or bless you, but they'll typically fuck you. Unlike Fallout 3/NV VATS, a 95% chance to hit still has a chance to miss, it CAN go to 100% but it's relatively uncommon. As I've mentioned a bit, it feels somewhat like Blood Bowl in that there's a lot of chance involved, and a fair portion of your strategy involves finding ways to not leave yourself fucked if the dice turn against you since losing a leveled up soldier/player hurts bad.
- No horror and less tension than the original. Extremely rare to have shots fired out of the fog of war at you. Things can and will be tense, but lack of HIDDEN MOVEMENT and the extremely dark fog of war lessens it. Plus aliens don't get reaction shots unless that group of aliens has already seen you and has retreated and activated overwatch.
- Tactical AI for the aliens seems good. They don't panic like your soldiers, but their equivalent is falling back and playing more defensively. The alien will typically do a little hissing animation and your soldiers will say they're falling back if you trigger it. Apart from that the AI's fairly smart about using grenades in good situations, moving to heavy cover when possible, and generally being an asshole.
- Strategic layer I actually prefer to the original X-com. Less logistical micromanagement and your resources are tight so you have to make rough decisions about what to use them on. When I said you could win every tactical battle and lose the game, this is where that happens. Have to manage global panic as best you can while trying to keep your soldiers well equipped/replaced and manage satellites and interceptors and your base. It's just as important as the tactical layer.
If you're a pirate then it's definitely worth looking at. If you'd be buying it then I
would recommend it if not for the fact that this is the Codex and you could be like the weirdos in this thread saying banal shit boring. I think possibly the biggest point of contention is the tactical layer and people not liking the fact you can be shot while in "High cover" (Which would be, say, peeking around the corner of a wall) and people like me who don't give a shit since it's a game and will either take that 20% chance to hit or won't. I probably wouldn't, though I've succeeded rolls like that. Better option would either be use explosives to destroy the cover, use a heavy with holo-targeting to increase accuracy on the target (And/or suppress it), use an assault with run and gun to sprint up and shoot where the target isn't in cover, or advance on the target to a piece of low cover and then use hunker down to make yourself immune to crits and get double cover bonus and hope to have a better option next turn.
I'm wandering here, but still.
