UFO2: Extraterrestrials

Rating: ★★★☆☆ (Pretty good traditional X-Com like - but it's definitely not for everyone) ============ Review: I almost skipped UFO2: Extraterrestrials (or ET 2) because of the reviews, but I'm glad that I didn't. Is it a masterpiece? No, it's not. But it's still a good game - though it's aimed at a specific group of players. If you're a younger gamer that started with Firaxis' XCOM in your childhood, it's probably too clunky for you and you won't like it. BUT if you're an old beard veteran that started with the original X-Com games (Enemy Unknown, Terror from the Deep, Apocalypse), you know how to handle the clunkiness and you'll probably like it. Or if you have played the first UFO ET game and liked it, you'll probably like it since it's essentially "More of the same". Graphically the game is dated - but at least it looks better than the first UFO ET. I find it's in the "good enough" territory and the dated looks didn't bother me. Sounds are very similar and music is partially recycled from the first game - but that's fine for nostalgia purposes. ============ Gameplay-wise it's pretty much the same as the first game, though there are some differences. Like ET 1, you cannot select where your first base will be in. It's always in South America. And like in ET 1, you do basically everything in your main base - the other bases are basically just "Radar + Hangar" style, so you cannot make dedicated research or production bases, or even a second strike base. None of the other bases will have troops stationed in them. Base defenses will fire on the geoscape just like your interceptors, there is no "Hit, miss, Hit" screen like in the original. I think this is pretty great, as your bases can now support your interceptors if the UFO's come in range. The game feels quite slow paced, at least at first. The first six months all I saw was "Medium Scouts" (if you know what I mean) and "Sectoids" which you just kill with the starting gear all that time. (I played on Normal) The game also gives you solid starting gear, which is sort of a double-edged decision. Even your rookies come equipped with Power Armor, which basically prevents the enemy from one-shotting them. This essentially removes the "Fear Factor" which was present in the original X-Com games. You don't have to play so careful in this since you know your soldiers don't get killed instantly when they walk out of the "Skyranger". Of course later in the game you can get one-shot. The game does speed up later and you get swarmed with UFOs, maybe the slow start was a conscious decision, or the RNG just went that way for me. ============ But like others have mentioned, there are quite a few bugs in the game. Here's a few that I encountered. Taking back a base causes it to finish construction of whatever they were building at the time. Like I was building a Photon Defense building in a base, it had 30 days to completion. Aliens took over the base, I took it back and it instantly finished the Photon Defense. If you cancel a production, you still lose money. Like if you're making a fighter and decide you don't want it after all, it takes money from you anyway. If you Pause the production first, then cancel - then it works right. Enemy detection bugs sometimes, the enemy will be in a different tile than the graphics show, or the enemy will be completely invisible. Some people got a mouse bug, but I guess I got lucky as I didn't encounter that. ============ So the game is good, but mostly rides on nostalgia and has some bugs. But the biggest problems with this game (for me) is the lack of equipment and slow XP progression for soldiers. The game has a good amount of UFO's and aliens to fight, but you basically only get 3 different "guns", a few rockets and a bunch of grenades. It doesn't even have pistols for rocket troopers and such - like once those 4-5 rockets are gone, the rocketeer becomes useless. Essentially you'll be using the starter rifle for the whole game, you get better bullets for it but still, this is just not enough. Yeah, one might argue that the first UFO ET had too many weapons, but this is just not enough. Large portion of the enemies are flying, but the game lacks firearms - and you can't throw a grenade or fire a mortar into the air. You basically end up just spamming mortar shells in every battle (except in bases as you can't fire mortars inside). The game has a heavy rock-scissors-paper system with damage types, but it doesn't even provide ammunition that deal different damage types, so firearms are effective only against certain enemies. Others you practically have to grenade to death, which is poor design in my opinion. XP (promotion) progression is very slow. Or rather it hits a wall at some point, I can't remember if it was this bad in UFO ET 1. Basically you'll be stuck with an army of Sergeants for most of the game. I farmed one soldier to max rank (Colonel) and this took 350 kills. (And no, it's not worth it in this game) I think this is plain bad design, the XP requirements past sergeant become ridiculous. The game could use some quality of life improvements, such as right clicking a weapon or building it would show it in ufopaedia. ============ Overall, I think UFO2: Extraterrestrials is a good game, but it's definitely not for everyone. It requires some nostalgia for the traditional X-Com games, as well as tolerance to bugs and clunky controls. The game was originally supposed to be released back in 2012, but the devs ran out of funds. Well, better late then never - I had enough fun with it to finish the game. It could have been an excellent game if it had a larger tech tree, smoother promotion system and less bugs - but it's pretty good even like this. Now I wish I could play the first UFO ET with graphical improvements.. maybe some day. ============ Summary: The Good 👍 + Old school X-Com feeling + Nostalgic music + Actually useful base defenses The Bad 👎 - Quite buggy - Too small tech tree, lacks equipment.. - ..which leads to a heavy rock-scissors-paper system - Too slow XP progression

Very good strategic game about alien invasion. It has all the parts to attract players for long hours - nice graphics, many weapons/equipment/research topics, and of course, various enemies to fight with. Highly recommended for anyone who misses old good X-COM games.

I played the hell out of UFO: Extraterrestrials Gold. This? This has far fewer options for actual tactical play. Not only are you restricted into manufacturing the human weapons only (Hell, you can't even make grenades for the most part) but there are no heavy weapons or pistols to speak of, an option that was, YES, in the FIRST UFO: ET. There are a lot of design choices that make zero sense, including some of the jankiness that was a holdover from the first game. It's clunky, there's not so much a difficulty 'curve' than a difficulty 'wall' sometimes (If you build too quickly, aliens will take over your bases and turn them into THEIR bases), and the base menu has no other size option besides BOX. I waited almost a DECADE for this game. That wait was sure as hell not worth it. Dammit, Chaos Concept. You dropped the ball HARD on this one. You did NOT learn the lessons brought forth from the previous game, and even bringing on former mod-makers as staff was unable to fix those. Off the top of my head: - Random crashes that don't pop up an error message - Random frame dragging (Where it drops to 0 frames for about a half-second) - The weird sizing choice in the base (Why on Earth is it 800x600?! 1920x1080 would have been fine!) - Loss of variety of weapon choices (Pistol, Rifle, Heavy. That's how it went before, and you COULD have expanded on that) - How armour works. Yeah, i can get that we have good equipment, but AP Ammo isn't supposed to be only able to do 10 damage a hit against the earliest enemies. See "but the damage was absorbed." - AI taking their turn has soft-locked the game MULTIPLE TIMES.

A very quiet launch of a game that has been in the making for many, many years, almost thought it will never come at all. It is very obvious, that the developers wanted to do much more, but lacked the necessary funding. This seems to be a passion project to create a sequel to a very underrated but in my opinion one of the best UFO inspired games out there. The game is about it's mechanics. You research stuff but are somewhat in the dark, there are no voice lines, no story explaning things or giving you a sense of directions. Just the mechanics that construct a very fun base that continues to evolve. It is better optimized and has better graphics than UFO: Extraterrestrials Gold. The lack of certain features may be attributed to the fact that you need to research literally everything. Leveling up units helps, but leveling up research is even more fun. I still have to clock in more hours, but it is an impressive project completed by a small team of people with passion, game devs and modders (Bman!). The price is half of an AAA game. Is this worth it? I think so. Certainly more so than some AAA titles. True - it lacks the polish and has rough edges, but the core game mechanics will keep you glued to the screen, untill you forget such silliness as "story" or "voiceovers". You make the story. You control the struggle. Don't need the speaches that would only get boring with time, especially on repeated playthroughs. No BS kind of approach. Just jump in and have fun. Didn't even need a tutorial, the UI is intuitive and simple. I obviously can't give a score till I finish the game, but I can really recommend this one without any doubts about it. So far no bugs, fingers crossed it stays that way :)

Disappointed. I could live with the retro look and feel, and the lack of originality. But this game is very, VERY buggy. Mouse cursor jumps around instead of moving smoothly; makes the game almost unplayable. I can't build a living wing on my second base; no idea why. The intro video doesn't even play. Gonna get a refund now. Might buy again later after some patches, and a hefty discount. Maybe 10 euros. If the reviews will be good.

Its Unplayable unless you have an older mouse. The mouse lag/rubber banding is awful and nothing in settings or any fixes posted will help. Devs need to address this ASAP, especially for a $34.99 price tag Do not buy, wait till you see some updates in discussion boards.

Well I liked many things about this game: a) it is loyal to the original UFO as in it allows micro-managing action points and individual actions b) it is loyal to the original UFO as it allows for reaction shots c) it is loyal to the original UFO as it allows the construction and development of multiple bases What I disliked was definitely not important enough to shun the game: a) There is no clear technology unlock requirements. I was left wondering and googling many times what would unlock a certain technology. b) There is no simple (intuitive) way to determine which is the best armour for a mission (which can be a problem when you have specific defense focus on each armour and specific enemies cause specific types of damage c) I was unable to build the Airship Carrier but was never told why, just that I couldn't build anymore Carriers. All in all, a great rekindling of the original UFO franchise for all of you who value playing depth over flashy graphics, this is definitely a must have.

Buggy game play where input commands do not always register. Random crashing. Horrible clumsy user interface where it is hard to tell if an action occurred. Bad line of sight where it is hard to tell if an enemy is on an upper elevation like the second floor of a building. Graphics which look like they are from 1998. Totally lackluster sound effects where weapons fire is an actual pew! pew! pew! sound lacking any sense of impact. At this price point nearing $40.00 when including tax this is a no purchase and a half.

I would like to recommend it but I cannot. It is frustrating. Sometimes very. And it is buggy. Let me explain details: Frustrating: 1. Damage roulette. From 0 to N. 5N if critical. Mostly 0 on a hard level for some aliens. 2. No settings to change video settings, game speed etc. Practically. no settings. 3. You are stack with basic weapon for very long time. 500 missions, still the same weapon with upgraded ammunition. Very frustrating: 1. Solder development. Tundra armor. 60 strength requirement. My solders has 50-55 (for mortar). My solders need another 500 expo for a levelling, each. About 50 missions. 2. Solder development, again. Why cannot I hire a captain? 3. Explosions are one level. If grenade, mortar explodes, an alien one level above is not affected. 4. I have 9 base, 1 per "continent". No way for me to get an air carrier ship. Just NO. Start a new game. 5. Game is VERY VERY long. No game speed settings. 6. No manual or something. "Armor will ask your solders 90 strengths. Get ready". Bugs: 1. Crushes to windows. 2. Aliens stuck between levels. 3. Requires steam online only. No way run it offline.

ABSOLUTELLY DO NOT BUY THIS GAME. But wait, I am not being that harsh. Hear me out. If you think you want this, you want "ufo: extraterrestrials gold" instead. If you already have "ufo:e g"... you dont need this. It is as if the devs of the previous title made a great game, then went for some cash-grab to fuel yet another game (would that be ufo: extraterrestriasl 'platinum' edition?). This one just copy the basics of "U:E Gold", then proceeds to SCREWUP EVERYTHING. The end result is a bad, bad game, with little to nothing able of redeeming it. I am saying this from a 30+ years experience with everything from X-Com ufo defense to X-com enemy within and beyond. Still, I bought it, played for 10 minutes to confirm that it was awful, but did not ask for a refund. Why? These are great devs. I mean, I dont understand how they could have botched this one so badly (read some other reviews), but it feels good to support them. So yeah, keep my money, if it will make ufo: extraterrestrials platinum edition come to life in a good way. U:E was a great game, gold was even better, platinum must be a blast. Makes one wonder, why this dog shaittte?