XCOM: Enemy Unknown PC gameplay demo and Multiplayer footage

Game finished. That was quite a marathon. Loved it! There are quite a few bugs to patch out though. And where are the Snakemen? Dissapointing that they left them out. Oh well, the game was still good. Few complaints, couple major ones but game was worth every penny to me.
 
I think the snakemen became the thin sectoid, the autopsy did mention they have reptilian eyes
 
Yea... pretty sure thin men are snakemen.... kind of disappointing.

This game needs a big mod scene. Hopefully make it closer to the older games.

And I just beat the game. The final mission is the Ship. And it's EASY......... almost as easy as the beginning missions. (Played on Normal difficulty.)
 
Yea... pretty sure thin men are snakemen.... kind of disappointing.

This game needs a big mod scene. Hopefully make it closer to the older games.

And I just beat the game. The final mission is the Ship. And it's EASY......... almost as easy as the beginning missions. (Played on Normal difficulty.)

I played on classic and the ship was... neigh impossible... I took six colonel's in and came out with three...

What's everyone using to kill ethereals other than grenades? It seems like they reflect everything except bullets(including the alloy cannon? which I thought would work), and that's... less than ideal...
 
I played on classic and the ship was... neigh impossible... I took six colonel's in and came out with three...

What's everyone using to kill ethereals other than grenades? It seems like they reflect everything except bullets(including the alloy cannon? which I thought would work), and that's... less than ideal...

I just went in and loaded a saved game and upped the difficulty before I went on the last mission. The aliens were more accurate and their over watches went off a lot more but otherwise were not more difficult. Unless there are some settings that only get set when you start a new game the aliens were not much harder.

I'm sure it would have been harder if I had not known the map. The aliens always seem to spawn in certain locations in all the UFO missions and stay there until you move close enough or open a door.

I could take out an ethereal in two shots with a plasma sniper rifle.
 
I just went in and loaded a saved game and upped the difficulty before I went on the last mission. The aliens were more accurate and their over watches went off a lot more but otherwise were not more difficult. Unless there are some settings that only get set when you start a new game the aliens were not much harder.

I'm sure it would have been harder if I had not known the map. The aliens always seem to spawn in certain locations in all the UFO missions and stay there until you move close enough or open a door.

I could take out an ethereal in two shots with a plasma sniper rifle.

Ethereals reflect all energy based weapon attacks(at least they did for me)... That includes the plasma sniper. I couldn't hit them with ANYTHING except RIFT, grenades, rockets, and standard issue pistol/rifle bullets.

Also, if you watch the prerelease information, the developers state that changing the difficulty in the middle of a mission is not actually the same as starting a game on that difficulty. So yeah... Starting a game on classic vs normal then upgrading to classic later does not give the same experience/difficulty.

I'm guessing the fact that you could shoot them with a plasma sniper is one of the big differences...

I admit getting TO the last boss room wasn't super hard at all... It's just the whole killing three ethereals and two muton elites at once was difficult... To pull it off I had to mind control a muton elite from the room before so I could use him to pull aggro and get another alien grenade in as far as damage goes.
 
Ethereals reflect all energy based weapon attacks(at least they did for me)... That includes the plasma sniper. I couldn't hit them with ANYTHING except RIFT, grenades, rockets, and standard issue pistol/rifle bullets.

Also, if you watch the prerelease information, the developers state that changing the difficulty in the middle of a mission is not actually the same as starting a game on that difficulty. So yeah... Starting a game on classic vs normal then upgrading to classic later does not give the same experience/difficulty.

I'm guessing the fact that you could shoot them with a plasma sniper is one of the big differences...

I admit getting TO the last boss room wasn't super hard at all... It's just the whole killing three ethereals and two muton elites at once was difficult... To pull it off I had to mind control a muton elite from the room before so I could use him to pull aggro and get another alien grenade in as far as damage goes.

Hadn't seen that about the difficulty. I set the difficulty before the final mission started, but started the game originally on normal. Kinda strange to let you change it on the fly without the full effects. What was the health of the ethereal for you? Think mine was 20. Also believe my hit %s went down after the change.

I did have them reflect some things but I don't recall it ever happening more than once a turn. So I just focused my fire on the one guy and game over.
 
Hadn't seen that about the difficulty. I set the difficulty before the final mission started, but started the game originally on normal. Kinda strange to let you change it on the fly without the full effects. What was the health of the ethereal for you? Think mine was 20. Also believe my hit %s went down after the change.

I did have them reflect some things but I don't recall it ever happening more than once a turn. So I just focused my fire on the one guy and game over.

Mine were 25 health. 5 rows of 5.
Also, it wasn't just once a turn for the reflections in my game. Basically the only time I ever had something not reflect was when I managed to actually flank one of them with my assault trooper, then put that trooper on overwatch... Then he fired at the Ethereal when it tried to move, THAT shot got reflected... THEN the Ethereal came within four tiles of that guy and he got the 'within four tile reaction shot' from his ability... And THAT shot connected.

I think that was the only shot I ever managed to land on ANY Ethereal!! AND it didn't kill the damn bastard. Point blank shot with the Alloy Cannon.
 
In bad case scenario game even CHEATS using this feature. In Alien Base I took down few hours ago I was moving the last man of my turn and he saw 3 Chryssalids, resulting in them scurrying CLOSER to me, infact they pretty much surrounded the guy on the spot, and then it was immidietly their turn. Guess how well that went... :mad:

That is annoying, but it isn't cheating.
The way most people handle this is to try to expose new areas only with their first 2 or 3 moves in case this exact thing happens. Doubly so in particularly hard missions.
 
Eh... I think it's cheating. It's one thing if they use their turn to scurry away, but they scurry away during your turn, then have their own turn. It's the equivalent of them coming up on me, and I run into cover, then have another turn.

I just hit another bug. A floater on top of a gas station appears, moves, and the game pauses on him like he'll do something else.

Anyone encounter this?
 
I just hit another bug. A floater on top of a gas station appears, moves, and the game pauses on him like he'll do something else.

Anyone encounter this?

Had it happen last night on a Berserker I kited into an ambush. Game just sat there for a long time.
 
Had it happen last night on a Berserker I kited into an ambush. Game just sat there for a long time.

Had it happen to me and I just ended up closing and reopening the game. It didn't crash, the audio and video kept on going, but it never completed the alien activity sequence and returned control to me. ctrl+shift+esc'd a few times yesterday :(
 
Eh... I think it's cheating. It's one thing if they use their turn to scurry away, but they scurry away during your turn, then have their own turn. It's the equivalent of them coming up on me, and I run into cover, then have another turn.
No, it's not. It's the equivalent of you being bad at the game and moving a guy into a position that you can't protect him properly on that turn. Understanding how to protect your soldiers and avoid this type of problem is a basic mechanic and play skill for X-COM. It is part of the game that you have to be smart about moving your soldiers. That is really, honestly and truly, just being bad at the game, and it's why there are different skill levels built in.

I didn't make this mistake a single time through the entire game. I didn't even lose a single soldier until the last fight on classic mode. Before I move ANYONE, I know exactly what I'm going to do with each unit, and in what specific order I'm going to do it in. I suggest you try an easier difficulty setting if you cannot take care of your units properly.

I just hit another bug. A floater on top of a gas station appears, moves, and the game pauses on him like he'll do something else.

Anyone encounter this?
I get random pauses from time to time... It always seems to have a long pause if my sniper takes a reactionary shot.
 
No, it's not. It's the equivalent of you being bad at the game and moving a guy into a position that you can't protect him properly on that turn.

I get random pauses from time to time... It always seems to have a long pause if my sniper takes a reactionary shot.

How is that the same as me moving a guy into a position that's bad? Maybe if I moved him into a bad position, then moved into cover, because that's exactly what the game is doing. oh, and all that while it's the enemy's turn.

And not that kind of pause, I get those all the time. I checked the official forums, lots of people are getting the bug that stops the game indefinitely. I quit and reloaded about 5 times before I moved into a spot that allowed me to move, because I couldn't see the floater move. And that finally resolved it.
 
How is that the same as me moving a guy into a position that's bad? Maybe if I moved him into a bad position, then moved into cover, because that's exactly what the game is doing. oh, and all that while it's the enemy's turn.
If you got surrounded by Chrysalids, you moved him on YOUR turn with the last movement you had available to you. You should have not moved and put your guy on overwatch.

Also, you can move into a position then fall back, as long as you don't dash.
Dashing is for Assaults using Run and Gun. Or for snipers wearing ghost armor. If you're dashing other characters into darkness, you're playing poorly.

That is EXACTLY what you described. With your last move, you dashed forward and got owned by Chrysalids. You overextended your reach and got punished accordingly.

You can do exactly this to the enemy if you do things right. You're on overwatch and they move... you shoot them... then you get to move in and shoot them again.

And not that kind of pause, I get those all the time. I checked the official forums, lots of people are getting the bug that stops the game indefinitely. I quit and reloaded about 5 times before I moved into a spot that allowed me to move, because I couldn't see the floater move. And that finally resolved it.
Ah, I did have that happen once. Had to ctrl-alt-del to get task manager and kill the game, then restart at my last save.. It occurred after I revived a soldier that has been critically injured. After reviving him I selected the unit, then tabbed to another, and I lost all my on screen buttons/controls. Couldn't select anything, couldn't hit esc to get the game menu etc.
 
The aliens always seem to spawn in certain locations in all the UFO missions and stay there until you move close enough or open a door.

Aside from the zoom setting not saving, and equipment not auto-unequipping from guys unless they're wounded (it's really annoying trying to find which guy you had that SCOPE on, unequipping it, clearing that slot, then bringing in the guy you wanted and re-equipping the scope), this is my main complaint, as it's actually game-changing.

Why do aliens not do anything until you see them?
 
If you got surrounded by Chrysalids, you moved him on YOUR turn with the last movement you had available to you. You should have not moved and put your guy on overwatch.

Also, you can move into a position then fall back, as long as you don't dash.
Dashing is for Assaults using Run and Gun. Or for snipers wearing ghost armor. If you're dashing other characters into darkness, you're playing poorly.

That is EXACTLY what you described. With your last move, you dashed forward and got owned by Chrysalids. You overextended your reach and got punished accordingly.

You can do exactly this to the enemy if you do things right. You're on overwatch and they move... you shoot them... then you get to move in and shoot them again.

I think you are reading me wrong.

I'm talking about when you move, and find them. Then they run into covers. It doesn't matter if you still have characters to move or not. But if you did, you move those characters and they move again.


So instead of, you moving your 6 characters, they move their 10. It's you move your 3, find them, they move their 3 (of the 10, and are the ones you found), you move the rest of your 3, they move their 10.

If it were a fairer game, you would be able to move your 3, find them, shoot them with any moves you have left, then it becomes their turn.
 
If it were a fairer game, you would be able to move your 3, find them, shoot them with any moves you have left, then it becomes their turn.

This would be preferable, but only if all the aliens were moving and setting up for your arrival, even without having seen them before.
 
I think you are reading me wrong.

I'm talking about when you move, and find them. Then they run into covers. It doesn't matter if you still have characters to move or not. But if you did, you move those characters and they move again.


So instead of, you moving your 6 characters, they move their 10. It's you move your 3, find them, they move their 3 (of the 10, and are the ones you found), you move the rest of your 3, they move their 10.

If it were a fairer game, you would be able to move your 3, find them, shoot them with any moves you have left, then it becomes their turn.
Prior to you revealing them, the monsters do not move from their set spawn points *unless* you take too many turns to find them... Then they will go on patrol to find you.

This information was revealed in the pre-release videos also. Certain units have different patrol times, and sometimes patrols start close to you, and if you don't make it to them fast enough, will move away from you to make the later encounters more difficult because you have to fight more guys at once. Sort of a 'take too long and we're going to make your life miserable' deal. It's a direct indicator of poor play. You're not moving fast enough or you're not killing the guys you do encounter fast enough. This was the *exact* example the developers used for changing the game difficulty after starting.

You should be moving fast enough and killing guys fast enough that every single battle you fight is on your own terms. The enemy should never spot you first, and you should never spot an enemy without at least half of your team being able to fire at anything you reveal, or that unit better be invisible in a ghost armor.
 
Has anyone tried the multiplayer? How is it?

Human vs alien, or human vs human? It would be nice to have a co-op option.
 
Has anyone tried the multiplayer? How is it?

Human vs alien, or human vs human? It would be nice to have a co-op option.

Haven't tried it, mainly because there's no co-op option.

If there had been, me and my buddy would have likely started that way.

Why the hell is co-op ALWAYS overlooked these days?
 
Haven't tried it, mainly because there's no co-op option.

If there had been, me and my buddy would have likely started that way.

Why the hell is co-op ALWAYS overlooked these days?

They have to add co-op and buff the multiplayer.
 
Well... The story isn't complete... I would expect there to be a DLC that adds a campaign to cydonia, as well as another DLC that adds the TFTD storyline.
 
Prior to you revealing them, the monsters do not move from their set spawn points *unless* you take too many turns to find them... Then they will go on patrol to find you.

This information was revealed in the pre-release videos also. Certain units have different patrol times, and sometimes patrols start close to you, and if you don't make it to them fast enough, will move away from you to make the later encounters more difficult because you have to fight more guys at once. Sort of a 'take too long and we're going to make your life miserable' deal. It's a direct indicator of poor play. You're not moving fast enough or you're not killing the guys you do encounter fast enough. This was the *exact* example the developers used for changing the game difficulty after starting.

You should be moving fast enough and killing guys fast enough that every single battle you fight is on your own terms. The enemy should never spot you first, and you should never spot an enemy without at least half of your team being able to fire at anything you reveal, or that unit better be invisible in a ghost armor.

Regardless of how you defend it, it's cheap. and pretty much a cheat.
 
Prior to you revealing them, the monsters do not move from their set spawn points *unless* you take too many turns to find them... Then they will go on patrol to find you.

This information was revealed in the pre-release videos also. Certain units have different patrol times, and sometimes patrols start close to you, and if you don't make it to them fast enough, will move away from you to make the later encounters more difficult because you have to fight more guys at once. Sort of a 'take too long and we're going to make your life miserable' deal. It's a direct indicator of poor play. You're not moving fast enough or you're not killing the guys you do encounter fast enough. This was the *exact* example the developers used for changing the game difficulty after starting.

You should be moving fast enough and killing guys fast enough that every single battle you fight is on your own terms. The enemy should never spot you first, and you should never spot an enemy without at least half of your team being able to fire at anything you reveal, or that unit better be invisible in a ghost armor.

lol, that just happened to me...went after a downed space ship with most of my veterans either out injured or in psi training (including my snipers) so I was taking it extra slow with a mixed group of squaddies and majors...took my time setting up and taking down a hover disk and the game sent a couple of mutons and then a couple of floaters while the battle was going on. prudence and good preperation kept everyone alive though. Gotta get me some ghost armor soon though...use an assault guy to kite the bad guys and then AMBUSH!
 
No, it's not. It's the equivalent of you being bad at the game and moving a guy into a position that you can't protect him properly on that turn. Understanding how to protect your soldiers and avoid this type of problem is a basic mechanic and play skill for X-COM. It is part of the game that you have to be smart about moving your soldiers. That is really, honestly and truly, just being bad at the game, and it's why there are different skill levels built in.

You misunderstand me. That and I explained poorly because I was drunk and felt like bitching. If it seemed like I had a scout dashing aimlessly separate from group then that was wrong. Scouting and skirmishing worked in original X-Coms because of timepoint system, but here not so much.

Situation was this. If you remember the first alien base it consists of two tight corridors quite early in the level going through both sides of the map, ending in doors and before those doors there is a another wider corridor, with some computer panels/whatever, that connects these two. Only real mistake that I admit was that I had splitted my team on 3 and 3, which I found the hard way that you shouldnt do in this game. (minus leaving snipers on vantage points)

Another team was lagging behind for reason I do not remember, otherwise they would have seen the Chrysalids first. The other team was at the door, two I had putted near the door in overwatch and the last one I intended to put in cover and overwatch next to those computer panels so that nothing could surprise us from that wide corridor. That didnt go as intended cuz surprised I got anyway. :D

Chrysalids, hiding in that small FOW spot revealed by that last guy, saw me, scurried right next to the last man. Two guys on overwatch did react but two guys against three Chrysalids in full health wont do much good, especially if one of them misses. The last guy that I moved could still shoot, but taking down one Chrysalid wont do a thing, he's toast.

So, lets think how this situation would have gone if this game didnt have this autoscrurry garbage. There would have been honest to god fight, with grenade thrown to soften the Chrysalids up and hoping overwatch guys could take down one or two of them on aliens turn.
Most likely he would have died anyway, but instead of feeling like getting rectal massaged with a fist by idiotic gameplay mechanic that shouldnt even be there it would have been a honest firefight with guy lost because of my earlier mistake of splitting the team in half. Former leaves a sour taste in my mouth while latter I learn from.
 
if I had a nickel for every time I complained when I was drunk, I'd be a rich man. excuse accepted


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You misunderstand me. That and I explained poorly because I was drunk and felt like bitching. If it seemed like I had a scout dashing aimlessly separate from group then that was wrong. Scouting and skirmishing worked in original X-Coms because of timepoint system, but here not so much.

Situation was this. If you remember the first alien base it consists of two tight corridors quite early in the level going through both sides of the map, ending in doors and before those doors there is a another wider corridor, with some computer panels/whatever, that connects these two. Only real mistake that I admit was that I had splitted my team on 3 and 3, which I found the hard way that you shouldnt do in this game. (minus leaving snipers on vantage points)

Another team was lagging behind for reason I do not remember, otherwise they would have seen the Chrysalids first. The other team was at the door, two I had putted near the door in overwatch and the last one I intended to put in cover and overwatch next to those computer panels so that nothing could surprise us from that wide corridor. That didnt go as intended cuz surprised I got anyway. :D

Chrysalids, hiding in that small FOW spot revealed by that last guy, saw me, scurried right next to the last man. Two guys on overwatch did react but two guys against three Chrysalids in full health wont do much good, especially if one of them misses. The last guy that I moved could still shoot, but taking down one Chrysalid wont do a thing, he's toast.

So, lets think how this situation would have gone if this game didnt have this autoscrurry garbage. There would have been honest to god fight, with grenade thrown to soften the Chrysalids up and hoping overwatch guys could take down one or two of them on aliens turn.
Most likely he would have died anyway, but instead of feeling like getting rectal massaged with a fist by idiotic gameplay mechanic that shouldnt even be there it would have been a honest firefight with guy lost because of my earlier mistake of splitting the team in half. Former leaves a sour taste in my mouth while latter I learn from.
My problem with this is that it makes the enemy feel stationary. Unless you see them, they're not doing anything intelligent--which they should be. It feels like i can waste all the time in the world in overwatch, reloading my guns, etc, instead of having to hurry before they get the vantage point and own me. I miss the AI from the original.

But w/e, game's still loads of fun and when i start playing, it better be early because i swear 4 hours go by in the blink of an eye.
 
just finished it on normal difficulty, final mission was kind of easy and predictable and big bad ethereal don't like headshots from my sniper
 
My problem with this is that it makes the enemy feel stationary. Unless you see them, they're not doing anything intelligent--which they should be. It feels like i can waste all the time in the world in overwatch, reloading my guns, etc, instead of having to hurry before they get the vantage point and own me. I miss the AI from the original.

But w/e, game's still loads of fun and when i start playing, it better be early because i swear 4 hours go by in the blink of an eye.


Oh god yes! That too! :mad: Terror missions are different though since they do go around actively hunting civilians. With little bit too much zeal I might add, because even though I am seeing them and SHOOTING them, they still go after whatever civilian is near. Something is badly wrong with their priorities I say... :D

*edit* Although apparently there is a timer, and after that goes out they do go out actively hunting you. I personally have not encountered it, probaply because I have finished the game in normal mode for now. Classic is next.
 
When the map spawns you don't know where they are... So it doesn't matter if they're moving or not(as long as there are no civilians).

I have also found situations where I had reloaded a save and knew where some units WERE... But when I moved guys there the aliens were not in the same positions, and in fact had been SPAWNED, pretty much right on top of two of my guys.

This is somewhat similar to the situation you described, and I didn't have enough time on one of the guys to move him. What I did was move the one guy away that i could, and then dropped a pair of grenades on my own man and the two heavy floaters... then ran my medic in and revived him.
 
I've been enjoying the game but I'd love to see some classic boards with corn/wheat fields and barns. I'm also missing some of the classic sound effects from the original. Some of them are standard canned sound effects you can hear in all kinds of things but I first remember them from the original X-Com.
 
I've been enjoying the game but I'd love to see some classic boards with corn/wheat fields and barns. I'm also missing some of the classic sound effects from the original. Some of them are standard canned sound effects you can hear in all kinds of things but I first remember them from the original X-Com.

I am missing the corn fields as well. Do not recall any snow/ice maps either. Hopefully there will be some map packs upcoming..
 
Have they posted an sales figures yet? I really want this to be a smashing success for them so that they make more dlc and sequels down the road.
 
When the map spawns you don't know where they are... So it doesn't matter if they're moving or not(as long as there are no civilians)

But i'm saying it should matter. It's silly to me that they're just waiting around for you to kill them.

These fuckers are pretty smart. I mean, they have all this technology and some sort of plan behind it... there're not just here for a roadside pick-nick. If you take too long they should have a chance to leave the area (because they abducted or w/e the shit they needed and they're done with their mission), or they should have a chance to stumble upon your troops while exploring the area, or maybe they should be able to detect your presence and set up on you. Currently, they're more like an opossum caught in your headlights.

It's a turn-based game, yet it's very asymmetrical in design... just an odd combination.
 
Played some multiplayer... killed the opposition with 100% efficiency using the following <10k build:
1 deadeye sniper with skeleton armor, plasma sniper rifle, plasma pistol and mind shield
1 cyberdisc
1 drone
1 sectoid

sniper to take out big guys and soften things up
cyberdisc to soften stuff up (grenade!)
drone for additional scouting and taking care of your cyberdisc
sectoid for cleaning up the stragglers that try to run after getting blasted, and for overwatch and suppression. ;)

Be aggressive positioning the sniper on your first turn so you have good clear lines of fire for squad sight!
 
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