This game did a One More Turn on me until 0300 last night. I got three hours of sleep before programming work. Stay away ppl
the problem is this feeling lasts only until you discover the many many flaws of the game
dont get me wrong, im still playing it but its not so fun anymore, its just depressing cause it "could have been" but its not
it inherits the usual firaxis problems, its clear the total lack of serious betatesting, i think no one at fireaxis ever really PLAYED it
what is UNEXCUSABLE is the destruction of strategic/managerial elements
NOTHING matters, lets go in detail
-research is TOTALLY useless, this is the biggest and inconceivable mistake, you never care of reseraching, you always have EVERYTHING given, ive never ever built a single lab, never ever taken a single scientist, NEVER i repeat, yet at 1/3 of the game i have EVERYTHING researched with my scientists sleeping
i mean its a joke right? reasearching is one the coolest features in strategic games and here is totally absent and irrelevant???
-money its TOTALLY unbalanced, you are always broke for few months, then suddenly you have 15 satellites and gg, you get 1500 each month and have NOTHNG to buy, trade or anything, there is no real market, old xcom was balanced by continous trades in and out, here they dumb down the market et voila' another resource becomes crap, they just never played a full game to see how it goes...
-government is so stupid, you had dozens of stats to check b4, now you have a bar and 2 possible status "im with you" " im not", also funds are so sad, you build satellite and you have it, you dont and 0 money... the quintessence of dumbing down things
basically its not a strategy game anymore becusae there is no strategy involved
a good player takes 10 15 minutes to figure out there is only one way of playing, all out money/satellites at start, 1 or 2 workshop to rush the early buildings and end
this is ALL the strategy you need and NOTHNG can change this, there is no option to play differently
its just a tactical fighting game, but at least same as in civ5 this aspect was much improved with new skills and a fight more interesting
but even here...
maps are so incredibly linear, you know where enemies are as soon as your ship lands... wheres the fun of exploring? where s the suspance of meeting aliens?
a cool graphics and animation and music dont give a game replaybility, but i m not sure they really wanted it