Why I Love... X-com Apocalypse

Now, I'm going to share an opinion that, if this site was actually popular, would receive the full wrath of collective Internet hatred. However please bear with me. Okay... here goes. I think X-com Apocalypse is better than UFO: Enemy Unknown.

In fact I would say Apocalypse is one of my favourite games of all time and therefore in my mind the superior X-com title. That's despite the limited scope of defending a single city instead of the entire globe, despite the significant drop in difficulty and even despite the switch from turn based to real time battles. Apocalypse is the best of the series for one simple reason. Nostalgia.

I read the manual from cover to
cover and was still crap!

Nostalgia is a funny thing. When I look back at my time playing X-com I am also recalling a certain period of my life and it was a particularly good period. I associate X-com with a contented feeling and while I play the game, that feeling returns, enriching the enjoyment I would normally get out of the game. I do know that Enemy Unknown is the superior game, with tense fire fights and difficult tactical decisions, but for me, because of my rose-tinted reminiscence, Apocalypse will always be more fun.

So... many... buttons. Some... totally... pointless.

It was my brother (he is responsible for much of my early gaming education and so the one who is to blame for everything) who introduced me to the game. I was young, only around eleven I think, and I would sit for hours watching him play. It was during one of those long summers that seem to last forever and the most difficult decision I had to make was whether to play football or watch my brother play computer games. Probably to my brother's annoyance I often choose the latter. I was fascinated by watching him play. Mainly because he was just better at games than I was. I was too young to really understand how they worked or what the best strategies were. But my brother was good and I would sit in awe as he slowly beat the aliens back time after time.

Eventually though I began to improve and I started making my own progress through the game. I love the city view, I love the micromanagement of bases, and I love the real time action. I've played Enemy Unknown and I know the turn based battles are incredible, tactically deep and ridiculously hard. But there is something about the real time mode in Apocalypse that I just... get. This is sacrilege to most X-com fans and I do understand why, but think about it this way. There have been moments when a new game has changed the whole landscape of the medium and sometimes even spawned a new genre. Take the affect of 3D on the first person shooter, or the impact of Dune 2 and Command and Conquer on the real time strategy, or Dota - a mod that went on to spawn one of the most successful games ever, League of Legends. These are big paradigm shifts in the history of gaming, classic moments of innovation and success. Now X-com Apocalypse didn't quite get it right, while I love the real time mode there were things that were just a little off. The Interface was horrible and outfacing, the AI was not quite smart enough and you never felt totally in control of events. At least in the turn based mode of Enemy Unknown a soldiers death nearly always resulted from poor strategy rather than poor aim. However, just for one moment, imagine the game Apocalypse could have been if they got everything right, if all that the developers promised had made it in the game and if, crucially, the real time mode was flawless. Now that would be a game worth playing. A true classic.

Every single night...

Having said all that, it is still one of my favourites. I will never forget the terrifying sound of the devastator cannon, a potent alien weapon that can decimate your squads when it first appears. Neither will I forget the shear panic of watching a popper charge towards a tightly grouped squad as they uselessly fire round after desperate round at the walking explosive device. Or the despair at seeing a Mothership emerge from the dimension gates when all you wanted was one night of peace to repair and rearm. For me, these are iconic moments, little stories in an unscripted world. They are all part of my rose tinted love for what is, to be completely honest, a mediocre game. Nostalgia is what makes it great and because of that, it will always be better than Enemy Unknown.

Thinking about X-com Apocalypse has lead me to reminiscing about other games I played when I was younger and the warped impressions I have of their quality. So to ruin my found childhood memories I've decided to return to these games and see whether they are as good as I remember. 'Rose-tinted Replay' is the next thing I'll be writing and is based on what I discover playing the games from my past and will be coming soon... ish.