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This is pretty long... you've been warned. :-)
I'll spoiler-tag any late-game specifics, but not worry too much about spoilers otherwise.
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Excellent, epic game.
I was surprised at how many complex intertwined systems could be juggled by something released in 1994. Probably pretty dumb of me; I guess personally I associate the early 90s with Doom and other straightforward shooters. The way X-Com rolls together research, production, scavenging, base building & management, tactical combat, aerial interceptions, soldier stats/training ... holy cow. Every system has at least a small interaction with several other systems. You don't have to work it all out exactly (at least not when playing on easymode); you pay attention, set your priorities, and watch your decisions take effect.
I couldn't help contrasting this a little with Assassin's Creed 2 since that's the game I played before this. AC2 is a game I liked, and obviously a very different type of game, but some of the systems in that game felt like they were just flailing around in a disconnected way. E.g. money was a primary reward, but it was ridiculously easy to come by, and almost none of the items were things you actually needed to buy.
In X-Com you always have a few things you desperately want to do/find/buy/build, and your choices to reach those goals drive the game along. And these are entirely goals that you come up with. For example:
If you're getting your ass kicked on the battlescape and you think your tactics are solid, you could concentrate on training up your soldiers, or recruiting more soldiers, or splurging on remote-controlled weapons platforms, or getting better armor or weapons. If you want to chase better armor...
* Maybe you need to do some advanced research, which in turn might require capturing some alien tech.
* Maybe you need to boom your economy to afford to build the armor, which could mean dedicating your engineering to building items for sale, or selling captured alien tech... but don't sell off too much alien tech that you might need for producing special items later.
* To do any of this research or manufacturing you might need to expand your base(s).
* You also might need more of some material that is only found on UFOs; you can get more of that material by letting UFOs land instead of shooting them down, but (if they land at all) that will make the ground fight harder.
This does stand in contrast to the stereotypical mainstream modern game that has been focus-grouped into a hand-holdy experience that micromanages you from waypoint to waypoint. (Something I've griped about before: http://www.shacknews.com/laryn.x?id=20622880 ) X-Com does have an game-start walkthrough in the manual, but after that it's "there you go, defend the Earth, good luck!". Nobody looking over your shoulder. You can screw yourself to a hilarious extent: accidentally dispatched your transport to a UFO crash site with only two soldiers on board, and no items or weapons except smoke grenades? Well, you probably shouldn't have done that eh?
While it seems a little contrary for the game not to even warn you about such fuckups, the absence of a safety net does drive home that you're in control, absolutely. You won't even know how to win until you discover the means yourself. If you don't take a certain sequence of actions the game will never end (or you will eventually lose).
The player progression of knowledge & mastery is a nice parallel to the in-game events. You start out creeping around with a handful of fragile rookies, where it seems like every other turn one of them is getting plasma-fried or mind-controlled or eaten or worse. When you painstakingly climb out of your disadvantages and then roll through the final mission as a furious indestructible avatar of mankind's vengeance... it's pretty cool.
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