XCOM - Revision history

Pachinko Man: wrgblgrbglrbgl

2025-07-26T18:40:33Z

wrgblgrbglrbgl

imported>Administrator: 481 revisions imported

2023-06-23T17:23:25Z

481 revisions imported

← Older revision	Revision as of 17:23, 23 June 2023
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2023-06-19T15:32:32Z

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1d4chan>Redvsdead: /* Xenonauts */

2023-06-14T20:21:52Z

Xenonauts

← Older revision		Revision as of 20:21, 14 June 2023
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	The ending is very creative, particularly concerning the plot of how an inferior species can imagine how to defeat a powerful empire. Stunningly well-made, desperate final mission which may result in a glorious ending, or a bittersweet ending where you still win but the assault team is martyred.		The ending is very creative, particularly concerning the plot of how an inferior species can imagine how to defeat a powerful empire. Stunningly well-made, desperate final mission which may result in a glorious ending, or a bittersweet ending where you still win but the assault team is martyred.

	It seems the Alien Empire never had any rivals in history for millions of years, and basically a decentralized ~~feodal~~ shithole with a sickeningly decadent ruling class, the Praetorians leading mindless, slave soldiers with subliminal radio chips in their brains. To them, we are just another province to be absorbed: DNA to be assessed in a cat-and-mouse siege so the Praetorian can eat us, process us as another lobotomized slave troop class or added to their aristocracy's DNA, or all three. The immortal, amoral sons of bitches called Praetorians took every little advantage from races they conquered. The "Sectoids" called Caesans were meek and mild, peaceful researchers whom Praetorians conquered, killed and remade into docile, vat-grown slaves, stealing their telepathy. From reptilian Sebians, they stole their regeneration and even refined their genomes into medical immortality, and it all snowballed from there. So the Xenonaut Institute goes for the Achilles Heel. Which brings us to...		It seems the Alien Empire never had any rivals in history for millions of years, and basically a decentralized feudal shithole with a sickeningly decadent ruling class, the Praetorians leading mindless, slave soldiers with subliminal radio chips in their brains. To them, we are just another province to be absorbed: DNA to be assessed in a cat-and-mouse siege so the Praetorian can eat us, process us as another lobotomized slave troop class or added to their aristocracy's DNA, or all three. The immortal, amoral sons of bitches called Praetorians took every little advantage from races they conquered. The "Sectoids" called Caesans were meek and mild, peaceful researchers whom Praetorians conquered, killed and remade into docile, vat-grown slaves, stealing their telepathy. From reptilian Sebians, they stole their regeneration and even refined their genomes into medical immortality, and it all snowballed from there. So the Xenonaut Institute goes for the Achilles Heel. Which brings us to...

	...hyperspace travel. The insufferable head scientist we got develops a mathematical equation, and constructs a gigantic jammer which blocks all attempts to enter space-time in a radius of 10000 lightyears, securing millenia of breathing room even if we are just one solar system. Flipping the switch freaks out the Praetorians who land to destroy Earth, and this is where the team starts an assassination run to the High Praetor, the leader of Sol System invasion. Rampaging across the luxurious cruise ship, you can zerg rush and kill him as he snorts space coke in his high garden, and die as hundreds of Reapers swarm upstairs from the ship's hold as martyrs. If you are feeling particularly crazy, divert your attention to blow up the to security locks in different corridors so you can escape after the High Praetor is dead, preferably not Reapers buttraping your team.		...hyperspace travel. The insufferable head scientist we got develops a mathematical equation, and constructs a gigantic jammer which blocks all attempts to enter space-time in a radius of 10000 lightyears, securing millenia of breathing room even if we are just one solar system. Flipping the switch freaks out the Praetorians who land to destroy Earth, and this is where the team starts an assassination run to the High Praetor, the leader of Sol System invasion. Rampaging across the luxurious cruise ship, you can zerg rush and kill him as he snorts space coke in his high garden, and die as hundreds of Reapers swarm upstairs from the ship's hold as martyrs. If you are feeling particularly crazy, divert your attention to blow up the to security locks in different corridors so you can escape after the High Praetor is dead, preferably not Reapers buttraping your team.

2600:4040:55B4:5000:E456:98E9:B9E1:9073: /* Long War Rebalance */

2023-06-14T19:04:05Z

Long War Rebalance

← Older revision		Revision as of 19:04, 14 June 2023
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	As said previously, this is pretty much ''the'' XCOM mod. It's such a big mod that a lot of other XCOM mods are metamods designed to modify ''this'' mod!		As said previously, this is pretty much ''the'' XCOM mod. It's such a big mod that a lot of other XCOM mods are metamods designed to modify ''this'' mod!
	==== Long War Rebalance ====		==== Long War Rebalance ====
	The largest Long War sub-mod, Long War Rebalance completely overhauls everything drastically for the 3rd time, from base management to even air combat. In terms of difficulty, LWR tries to maintain the sweet spot between bullshit (early-game Long War) to cake walk (late-game Long war) while reducing the tedium in base-game and LW. One of the most boring parts of LW (and vanilla impossible) was overwatch creeping, which was the solution to prevent an possibly game-ending pod activation. XCOM 2 alleviates this with		The largest Long War sub-mod, Long War Rebalance completely overhauls everything drastically for the 3rd time, from base management to even air combat. In terms of difficulty, LWR tries to maintain the sweet spot between bullshit (early-game Long War) to cake walk (late-game Long war) while reducing the tedium in base-game and LW. One of the most boring parts of LW (and vanilla impossible) was overwatch creeping, which was the solution to prevent a possibly game-ending pod activation. While XCOM 2 alleviates this with concealment, LWR removes the ability to overwatch hidden enemies (only OWing visible enemies), and activated pods activate nearby pods (An Outsider pod may alert every pod on the map!). Before you shit your pants, UCross (the main dev) made pod activation much less punishing by giving Your Dudes a free movement point if they have no action points, similar to how aliens can scramble if activated. This produces a much more fast-paced game, allowing you to dash to your content.

			Despite how horrible it sounds to face two or three pods, they're never as large as LW, and classes have been reworked to shoot multiple times (Infantry can hit 4 times with correct build). Even then, most pods can't be instantly wiped like X2, thanks to innate DR in cover for both XCOM and xenos (~30% DR in half, ~60% DR in full), so the enemy will usually have a chance to hit, and they can hit hard. Every alien (and EXALT) unit is now a serious threats in the battlefield, with even the weakest units having serious potential. For example, Sectoids now have Psi Panic and a buffed Mindfray in the beginning, making them fantastic in annihilating rookie brains, and Drones have the ability to Holo Target and heal a Cyberdisc back to half health with Master Mechanic. In LWR, there are less aliens, but they can be serious threats in themselves.

	=== XCOM: The Board Game ===		=== XCOM: The Board Game ===

2600:4040:55B4:5000:A11B:F60F:7B28:D383: Long War Rebalance

2023-06-14T14:40:56Z

Long War Rebalance

← Older revision		Revision as of 14:40, 14 June 2023
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	As said previously, this is pretty much ''the'' XCOM mod. It's such a big mod that a lot of other XCOM mods are metamods designed to modify ''this'' mod!		As said previously, this is pretty much ''the'' XCOM mod. It's such a big mod that a lot of other XCOM mods are metamods designed to modify ''this'' mod!
			==== Long War Rebalance ====
			The largest Long War sub-mod, Long War Rebalance completely overhauls everything drastically for the 3rd time, from base management to even air combat. In terms of difficulty, LWR tries to maintain the sweet spot between bullshit (early-game Long War) to cake walk (late-game Long war) while reducing the tedium in base-game and LW. One of the most boring parts of LW (and vanilla impossible) was overwatch creeping, which was the solution to prevent an possibly game-ending pod activation. XCOM 2 alleviates this with

	=== XCOM: The Board Game ===		=== XCOM: The Board Game ===

2600:4040:55B4:5000:A11B:F60F:7B28:D383: XCOM 1994 bug making TFTB balls hard

2023-06-14T12:47:04Z

XCOM 1994 bug making TFTB balls hard

← Older revision		Revision as of 12:47, 14 June 2023
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	A general synopsis is that in [[grimdark\|the not-so-distant future, there is war - and aliens]]. Aliens are arriving, and they are most assuredly hostile. It falls upon the Extraterrestrial Combat Unit, or the eponymous X-COM, a multi-national task-force, to deal with the invasion by blasting the fuck out of the Aliens, stealing their shit, researching their technology, and using it to fucking kill them off, all the while fighting off terror attacks and trying to figure out where in Uranus these fucking things are coming from (as it turns out, from Mars, and if you win, the final mission involves you going to Mars and dropping an [[Exterminatus]] on their asses). You didn't exactly have a time limit, but the more time passed, the harder aliens arrived, starting with one-man(alien?) scouts to do Roswell-grade pranks to Harvester grade ships to abduct and mutilate cattle, to fuckhuge battleships that eventually started attacking your base.		A general synopsis is that in [[grimdark\|the not-so-distant future, there is war - and aliens]]. Aliens are arriving, and they are most assuredly hostile. It falls upon the Extraterrestrial Combat Unit, or the eponymous X-COM, a multi-national task-force, to deal with the invasion by blasting the fuck out of the Aliens, stealing their shit, researching their technology, and using it to fucking kill them off, all the while fighting off terror attacks and trying to figure out where in Uranus these fucking things are coming from (as it turns out, from Mars, and if you win, the final mission involves you going to Mars and dropping an [[Exterminatus]] on their asses). You didn't exactly have a time limit, but the more time passed, the harder aliens arrived, starting with one-man(alien?) scouts to do Roswell-grade pranks to Harvester grade ships to abduct and mutilate cattle, to fuckhuge battleships that eventually started attacking your base.

	It kicked ass. It was good enough to spawn a sequel, ''Terror From The Deep'', which was basically the same game, but underwater (therefore areas to cover are multiplied by three. You do the math) and infinitely harder with a direct nod to Call of Cthulhu. Story-wise, the destruction of the Martian base activated a fail-safe in the aliens' system that woke up T'leth (not R'lyeh, but you get the point), their 'secondary' (and mobile) base buried deep under the seas of Earth, ran by a "Sleeping, Gigantic Alien In Coma That Can Manipulate Dreams" with an octopoid face, real subtle there. X-Com now again must protect the people while finding out about where exactly T'leth is and go in to blast it to smithereens with extreme prejudice. It was hard. Really hard. Not only do aliens have a major advantage technology-wise at the start and they tear through your recruits with impunity, but later in the game when you catch up they start using a nasty trick to take control of your troopers, leading to sometimes hilarious and [[rage\|extreme rage-inducing]] turn one [[TPK]]s as your heavy weapon trooper gets controlled and fires his heavy weapon inside the transport while the team is busy disembarking. Oh, and did we mention that the only way to research the best armour in the game was to capture a live specimen of a rarely-appearing alien? And that to capture a live specimen you had to send a poor redshirt in armed with an oversized cattle prod to stun it in close quarters? And that said alien was [[rip and tear\|able to tear a human apart effortlessly]] in close quarters? And (as if all that wasn't bad enough already), that the poor redshirt then had to pick up and to carry the damn unconscious thing back to the human ship praying [[rape\|that the specimen didn't wake up with a grudge before he got there and the mission ended]]? Yeah, it was kinda like that. And the final level had THREE unsaveable separate levels full of extreme ambush points that had to be completed with no failure, a textbook example of "oldschool gaming".		It kicked ass. It was good enough to spawn a sequel, ''Terror From The Deep'', which was basically the same game, but underwater (therefore areas to cover are multiplied by three. You do the math) and infinitely harder ([[FAIL\|due to a bug in the original XCOM resetting difficulty back to Beginner after the first mission]]) with a direct nod to Call of Cthulhu. Story-wise, the destruction of the Martian base activated a fail-safe in the aliens' system that woke up T'leth (not R'lyeh, but you get the point), their 'secondary' (and mobile) base buried deep under the seas of Earth, ran by a "Sleeping, Gigantic Alien In Coma That Can Manipulate Dreams" with an octopoid face, real subtle there. X-Com now again must protect the people while finding out about where exactly T'leth is and go in to blast it to smithereens with extreme prejudice. It was hard. Really hard. Not only do aliens have a major advantage technology-wise at the start and they tear through your recruits with impunity, but later in the game when you catch up they start using a nasty trick to take control of your troopers, leading to sometimes hilarious and [[rage\|extreme rage-inducing]] turn one [[TPK]]s as your heavy weapon trooper gets controlled and fires his heavy weapon inside the transport while the team is busy disembarking. Oh, and did we mention that the only way to research the best armour in the game was to capture a live specimen of a rarely-appearing alien? And that to capture a live specimen you had to send a poor redshirt in armed with an oversized cattle prod to stun it in close quarters? And that said alien was [[rip and tear\|able to tear a human apart effortlessly]] in close quarters? And (as if all that wasn't bad enough already), that the poor redshirt then had to pick up and to carry the damn unconscious thing back to the human ship praying [[rape\|that the specimen didn't wake up with a grudge before he got there and the mission ended]]? Yeah, it was kinda like that. And the final level had THREE unsaveable separate levels full of extreme ambush points that had to be completed with no failure, a textbook example of "oldschool gaming".

	It then spawned a second, far easier, somewhat different but still appreciated sequel, ''X-Com Apocalypse''(a.k.a Libertarian Cyberpunk Paintball-deployed McXenocide Simulator). The destruction of T'leth had a heavy price: when it rose above the clouds, it was self-destructed, killed the whole boarding team and fucked up Earth's biosphere. Humanity retreated to quickly built mega-arcologies to survive, the first among them being Mega-Primus built on the ruins of Toronto, a Cyberpunk corporatocracy with retro-futuristic art guidelines, libertarian system, along with the discrimination of Alien-hybrids and androids any cyberpunk corporate shitholes straight out of Hunger Games Panem city would display. One day, tetrahedral bright gates appear 24/7 in the city's skyline, and spews UFO's; and [[Meme\|aw shit, here we go again]]. This time, X-COM, this time being a corporation, can keep existing even when the government hates you if the player gets hideously rich selling psionic crack stolen from cultists. To make the game far easier, the Aliens' Homeworld, a separate pocket universe behind a black hole can be visited and/or attacked any time with appropriate ships, each organic Alien "building" making the Xenos lose steam and eventually stop building UFO's. So unlike the other two games, after a certain breaking point the game gets ''easier'', not harder.		It then spawned a second, far easier, somewhat different but still appreciated sequel, ''X-Com Apocalypse''(a.k.a Libertarian Cyberpunk Paintball-deployed McXenocide Simulator). The destruction of T'leth had a heavy price: when it rose above the clouds, it was self-destructed, killed the whole boarding team and fucked up Earth's biosphere. Humanity retreated to quickly built mega-arcologies to survive, the first among them being Mega-Primus built on the ruins of Toronto, a Cyberpunk corporatocracy with retro-futuristic art guidelines, libertarian system, along with the discrimination of Alien-hybrids and androids any cyberpunk corporate shitholes straight out of Hunger Games Panem city would display. One day, tetrahedral bright gates appear 24/7 in the city's skyline, and spews UFO's; and [[Meme\|aw shit, here we go again]]. This time, X-COM, this time being a corporation, can keep existing even when the government hates you if the player gets hideously rich selling psionic crack stolen from cultists. To make the game far easier, the Aliens' Homeworld, a separate pocket universe behind a black hole can be visited and/or attacked any time with appropriate ships, each organic Alien "building" making the Xenos lose steam and eventually stop building UFO's. So unlike the other two games, after a certain breaking point the game gets ''easier'', not harder.

63.193.173.5: /* XCOM 2 */

2023-06-05T01:55:11Z

XCOM 2

← Older revision		Revision as of 01:55, 5 June 2023
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	The last one Lazarus Project, is just pure fanservice. All the canon characters are playable for the first and only time on the same squad. Including Peter Osei and Ana Ramirez who died during the tutorial missions of XCOM 2. The last two levels of Lazarus Project are only two missions besides Operation Leviathan to allows players to have more than six soldiers, without mods. The second to last has the first canon appearance of Doctor Tygen. Whose callsign is Hamburglar. Referring to a recurring gag from the main campaign. The fact that he is mentioned early on in Avenger Assemble by Lily means those two campaigns take place outside of chronological order. Unlike the second campaign, there good enough to play at once without mods.		The last one Lazarus Project, is just pure fanservice. All the canon characters are playable for the first and only time on the same squad. Including Peter Osei and Ana Ramirez who died during the tutorial missions of XCOM 2. The last two levels of Lazarus Project are only two missions besides Operation Leviathan to allows players to have more than six soldiers, without mods. The second to last has the first canon appearance of Doctor Tygen. Whose callsign is Hamburglar. Referring to a recurring gag from the main campaign. The fact that he is mentioned early on in Avenger Assemble by Lily means those two campaigns take place outside of chronological order. Unlike the second campaign, there good enough to play at once without mods.

	While their supposedly canon, there are some strange oddities. As the magnetic and plasma weapons used by the Reapers, Skirmishers and Templars were invented by XCOM, so are Psi-Amps ~~So those~~ shouldn't exist yet. You can fix that on your own with some mods and text ~~edits~~ with Notepad+. The last is the Avatars that show up on the final levels of every campaign. Central says he fought them or "something like it" but the real reason is that Firaxis didn't bother to make a new model for it.		While their supposedly canon, there are some strange oddities. As the magnetic and plasma weapons used by the Reapers, Skirmishers and Templars were invented by XCOM, so are Psi-Amps. Thus they shouldn't exist yet. You can fix that on your own with some mods and text editing with Notepad+. The last is the Avatars that show up on the final levels of every campaign. Central says he fought them or "something like it" but the real reason is that Firaxis didn't bother to make a new model for it.

	IT WAS Free until Dec 3rd, 2018, for all WotC owners. Though it's still a cheap buy at $7.99 on Steam. The ability to switch between three soundtracks alone is worth it.(remixes of classic XCOM tracks, the OST from Enemy Within and the vanilla War of the Chosen soundtrack. )		IT WAS Free until Dec 3rd, 2018, for all WotC owners. Though it's still a cheap buy at $7.99 on Steam. The ability to switch between three soundtracks alone is worth it.(remixes of classic XCOM tracks, the OST from Enemy Within and the vanilla War of the Chosen soundtrack. )

2A02:8070:8E81:DD40:FD88:BA64:5464:956B: /* XCOM 2: War of the Chosen */

2023-05-08T22:52:22Z

XCOM 2: War of the Chosen

← Older revision		Revision as of 22:52, 8 May 2023
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	This brand new expansion gives us three new allies to aid us. It's actually more than large enough to be a game into itself.		This brand new expansion gives us three new allies to aid us. It's actually more than large enough to be a game into itself.

	*Reapers: Stealthy hunters who wear [[Shadowrun\|trench coats and gas masks]] and are armed with nothing but a rifle and explosives. It's enough. Reapers are ''the'' defacto masters of infiltration and assassination and right out of the gate have a dramatically buffed state of concealment called "Shadow". When in their "Shadow" mode, Reapers are virtually undetectable and can only be revealed by the enemy if they literally run into them by sheer dumb luck. Yes, you can have your Reaper sit ass out completely out in the open in the middle of the street and the aliens will be none-the-wiser. Reapers can and will begin to reveal themselves on the offensive, however, as they have an exponentially increasing chance to reveal themselves after every shot they take. Upgraded reapers can mitigate this slightly by taking a perk that prevents the odds of being revealed from increasing if they kill the target they shot at. [[Dakka\|They also have an ability that lets them shoot at an enemy until they run out of ammo.]] Long story short, these guys are only slightly less powerful than the Reapers from Mass Effect.		*Reapers: Stealthy hunters who wear [[Shadowrun\|trench coats and gas masks, despise the aliens so much they reject the use of any of their technologies,]] eat Muton flesh like they are on a southern BBQ and are armed with nothing but a rifle and explosives. It's enough. Reapers are ''the'' defacto masters of infiltration and assassination and right out of the gate have a dramatically buffed state of concealment called "Shadow". When in their "Shadow" mode, Reapers are virtually undetectable and can only be revealed by the enemy if they literally run into them by sheer dumb luck. Yes, you can have your Reaper sit ass out completely out in the open in the middle of the street and the aliens will be none-the-wiser. Reapers can and will begin to reveal themselves on the offensive, however, as they have an exponentially increasing chance to reveal themselves after every shot they take. Upgraded reapers can mitigate this slightly by taking a perk that prevents the odds of being revealed from increasing if they kill the target they shot at. [[Dakka\|They also have an ability that lets them shoot at an enemy until they run out of ammo.]] Long story short, these guys are only slightly less powerful than the Reapers from Mass Effect.

	*Skirmishers: ADVENT defectors who are armed with a grappling hook that can pull them to a rooftop and pull themselves to the enemy or vice versa and at max level allows them to have the [[Awesome\|alien rulers ability to gain action points every. Time. The. Enemy. Moves.]] Except it only works three times a turn, and doesn't trigger on non-move actions. [[fail\|The game doesn't tell you this.]] Their Bullpups have lower range and damage over the standard rifle, but make up for it by being able to shoot multiple times a turn and being wielding by dudes using grappling hooks to zip between buildings like Spiderman. Despite the longer barrel would give it the same stats and longer range. Once again you need download a workshop mod to fix this.		*Skirmishers: ADVENT defectors who are armed with a grappling hook that can pull them to a rooftop and pull themselves to the enemy or vice versa and at max level allows them to have the [[Awesome\|alien rulers ability to gain action points every. Time. The. Enemy. Moves.]] Except it only works three times a turn, and doesn't trigger on non-move actions. [[fail\|The game doesn't tell you this.]] Their Bullpups have lower range and damage over the standard rifle, but make up for it by being able to shoot multiple times a turn and being wielding by dudes using grappling hooks to zip between buildings like Spiderman. Despite the longer barrel would give it the same stats and longer range. Once again you need download a workshop mod to fix this.

75.141.155.61: /* Terra Invicta */

2023-03-06T20:58:17Z

Terra Invicta

← Older revision		Revision as of 20:58, 6 March 2023
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	The factions, from most to least hostile to the aliens<ref>Do note that all of them besides HF and PE have a "the" in front of their name which we're leaving out</ref>:		The factions, from most to least hostile to the aliens<ref>Do note that all of them besides HF and PE have a "the" in front of their name which we're leaving out</ref>:
	*~~[[Black Templars\|~~Humanity First]]: [[Deathwatch\|Exterminate the aliens!]]		*Humanity First: [[Deathwatch\|Exterminate the aliens!]]
	*Resistance: Stop the aliens from invading! (closest to X-Com in the plotline)		*Resistance: [[Imperial Guard\|Stop the aliens from invading!]] (closest to X-Com in the plotline)
	*Initiative: [[~~Rogue Trader (Warhammer 40,000)~~\|Exploit the aliens!]]		*Initiative: [[Leagues of Votann\|Exploit the aliens!]]
	*Project Exodus: Escape the aliens!		*Project Exodus: [[Eldar\|Escape the aliens!]]
	*Academy: Befriend the aliens!		*Academy: [[Tau\|Befriend the aliens!]]
	*Protectorate: Appease the aliens!		*Protectorate: [[Heresy\|Appease the aliens!]]
	*Servants: Surrender to the aliens!		*Servants: [[Extra Heresy\|Surrender to the aliens!]]

	You have a pool of "Councilmen", from 1 to 6 recruitable special characters who act and are played exactly like your player characters from [[Crusader Kings]] with stats and gain experience to spend on increasing said stats. Instead of special equipment/artifacts you have control of indestructible (but stealable/tradeable) corporations which can be bought, obtained, researched and unlocked through conditions like [[Adeptus Mechanicus\|DARPA]] from the control of USA, or Mafia/Gangs/Special Intelligence Divisions from regional governments you control (like CIA, NSA, FBI from controlling USA or 'State Security Ministry' or Golden Triangle Mafia from China)		You have a pool of "Councilmen", from 1 to 6 recruitable special characters who act and are played exactly like your player characters from [[Crusader Kings]] with stats and gain experience to spend on increasing said stats. Instead of special equipment/artifacts you have control of indestructible (but stealable/tradeable) corporations which can be bought, obtained, researched and unlocked through conditions like [[Adeptus Mechanicus\|DARPA]] from the control of USA, or Mafia/Gangs/Special Intelligence Divisions from regional governments you control (like CIA, NSA, FBI from controlling USA or 'State Security Ministry' or Golden Triangle Mafia from China)

← Older revision		Revision as of 12:47, 14 June 2023
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	A general synopsis is that in [[grimdark\|the not-so-distant future, there is war - and aliens]]. Aliens are arriving, and they are most assuredly hostile. It falls upon the Extraterrestrial Combat Unit, or the eponymous X-COM, a multi-national task-force, to deal with the invasion by blasting the fuck out of the Aliens, stealing their shit, researching their technology, and using it to fucking kill them off, all the while fighting off terror attacks and trying to figure out where in Uranus these fucking things are coming from (as it turns out, from Mars, and if you win, the final mission involves you going to Mars and dropping an [[Exterminatus]] on their asses). You didn't exactly have a time limit, but the more time passed, the harder aliens arrived, starting with one-man(alien?) scouts to do Roswell-grade pranks to Harvester grade ships to abduct and mutilate cattle, to fuckhuge battleships that eventually started attacking your base.		A general synopsis is that in [[grimdark\|the not-so-distant future, there is war - and aliens]]. Aliens are arriving, and they are most assuredly hostile. It falls upon the Extraterrestrial Combat Unit, or the eponymous X-COM, a multi-national task-force, to deal with the invasion by blasting the fuck out of the Aliens, stealing their shit, researching their technology, and using it to fucking kill them off, all the while fighting off terror attacks and trying to figure out where in Uranus these fucking things are coming from (as it turns out, from Mars, and if you win, the final mission involves you going to Mars and dropping an [[Exterminatus]] on their asses). You didn't exactly have a time limit, but the more time passed, the harder aliens arrived, starting with one-man(alien?) scouts to do Roswell-grade pranks to Harvester grade ships to abduct and mutilate cattle, to fuckhuge battleships that eventually started attacking your base.

	It kicked ass. It was good enough to spawn a sequel, ''Terror From The Deep'', which was basically the same game, but underwater (therefore areas to cover are multiplied by three. You do the math) and infinitely harder with a direct nod to Call of Cthulhu. Story-wise, the destruction of the Martian base activated a fail-safe in the aliens' system that woke up T'leth (not R'lyeh, but you get the point), their 'secondary' (and mobile) base buried deep under the seas of Earth, ran by a "Sleeping, Gigantic Alien In Coma That Can Manipulate Dreams" with an octopoid face, real subtle there. X-Com now again must protect the people while finding out about where exactly T'leth is and go in to blast it to smithereens with extreme prejudice. It was hard. Really hard. Not only do aliens have a major advantage technology-wise at the start and they tear through your recruits with impunity, but later in the game when you catch up they start using a nasty trick to take control of your troopers, leading to sometimes hilarious and [[rage\|extreme rage-inducing]] turn one [[TPK]]s as your heavy weapon trooper gets controlled and fires his heavy weapon inside the transport while the team is busy disembarking. Oh, and did we mention that the only way to research the best armour in the game was to capture a live specimen of a rarely-appearing alien? And that to capture a live specimen you had to send a poor redshirt in armed with an oversized cattle prod to stun it in close quarters? And that said alien was [[rip and tear\|able to tear a human apart effortlessly]] in close quarters? And (as if all that wasn't bad enough already), that the poor redshirt then had to pick up and to carry the damn unconscious thing back to the human ship praying [[rape\|that the specimen didn't wake up with a grudge before he got there and the mission ended]]? Yeah, it was kinda like that. And the final level had THREE unsaveable separate levels full of extreme ambush points that had to be completed with no failure, a textbook example of "oldschool gaming".		It kicked ass. It was good enough to spawn a sequel, ''Terror From The Deep'', which was basically the same game, but underwater (therefore areas to cover are multiplied by three. You do the math) and infinitely harder ([[FAIL\|due to a bug in the original XCOM resetting difficulty back to Beginner after the first mission]]) with a direct nod to Call of Cthulhu. Story-wise, the destruction of the Martian base activated a fail-safe in the aliens' system that woke up T'leth (not R'lyeh, but you get the point), their 'secondary' (and mobile) base buried deep under the seas of Earth, ran by a "Sleeping, Gigantic Alien In Coma That Can Manipulate Dreams" with an octopoid face, real subtle there. X-Com now again must protect the people while finding out about where exactly T'leth is and go in to blast it to smithereens with extreme prejudice. It was hard. Really hard. Not only do aliens have a major advantage technology-wise at the start and they tear through your recruits with impunity, but later in the game when you catch up they start using a nasty trick to take control of your troopers, leading to sometimes hilarious and [[rage\|extreme rage-inducing]] turn one [[TPK]]s as your heavy weapon trooper gets controlled and fires his heavy weapon inside the transport while the team is busy disembarking. Oh, and did we mention that the only way to research the best armour in the game was to capture a live specimen of a rarely-appearing alien? And that to capture a live specimen you had to send a poor redshirt in armed with an oversized cattle prod to stun it in close quarters? And that said alien was [[rip and tear\|able to tear a human apart effortlessly]] in close quarters? And (as if all that wasn't bad enough already), that the poor redshirt then had to pick up and to carry the damn unconscious thing back to the human ship praying [[rape\|that the specimen didn't wake up with a grudge before he got there and the mission ended]]? Yeah, it was kinda like that. And the final level had THREE unsaveable separate levels full of extreme ambush points that had to be completed with no failure, a textbook example of "oldschool gaming".

	It then spawned a second, far easier, somewhat different but still appreciated sequel, ''X-Com Apocalypse''(a.k.a Libertarian Cyberpunk Paintball-deployed McXenocide Simulator). The destruction of T'leth had a heavy price: when it rose above the clouds, it was self-destructed, killed the whole boarding team and fucked up Earth's biosphere. Humanity retreated to quickly built mega-arcologies to survive, the first among them being Mega-Primus built on the ruins of Toronto, a Cyberpunk corporatocracy with retro-futuristic art guidelines, libertarian system, along with the discrimination of Alien-hybrids and androids any cyberpunk corporate shitholes straight out of Hunger Games Panem city would display. One day, tetrahedral bright gates appear 24/7 in the city's skyline, and spews UFO's; and [[Meme\|aw shit, here we go again]]. This time, X-COM, this time being a corporation, can keep existing even when the government hates you if the player gets hideously rich selling psionic crack stolen from cultists. To make the game far easier, the Aliens' Homeworld, a separate pocket universe behind a black hole can be visited and/or attacked any time with appropriate ships, each organic Alien "building" making the Xenos lose steam and eventually stop building UFO's. So unlike the other two games, after a certain breaking point the game gets ''easier'', not harder.		It then spawned a second, far easier, somewhat different but still appreciated sequel, ''X-Com Apocalypse''(a.k.a Libertarian Cyberpunk Paintball-deployed McXenocide Simulator). The destruction of T'leth had a heavy price: when it rose above the clouds, it was self-destructed, killed the whole boarding team and fucked up Earth's biosphere. Humanity retreated to quickly built mega-arcologies to survive, the first among them being Mega-Primus built on the ruins of Toronto, a Cyberpunk corporatocracy with retro-futuristic art guidelines, libertarian system, along with the discrimination of Alien-hybrids and androids any cyberpunk corporate shitholes straight out of Hunger Games Panem city would display. One day, tetrahedral bright gates appear 24/7 in the city's skyline, and spews UFO's; and [[Meme\|aw shit, here we go again]]. This time, X-COM, this time being a corporation, can keep existing even when the government hates you if the player gets hideously rich selling psionic crack stolen from cultists. To make the game far easier, the Aliens' Homeworld, a separate pocket universe behind a black hole can be visited and/or attacked any time with appropriate ships, each organic Alien "building" making the Xenos lose steam and eventually stop building UFO's. So unlike the other two games, after a certain breaking point the game gets ''easier'', not harder.