XCOM: Enemy Unknown - Strategy Game - Developed by Firaxis

I loved the demo! The music was awesome and I also thought "boy, this sounds an awful lot like Deus Ex." I'm happy to hear it's the same guy. The gameplay feels really tight and I look forward to the whole Mission Control aspect of the game.

The only thing I wish was that we had the ability to continue with another solder's move as another is moving. I know it will take away from the cinematic shots but I found myself on multiple occasions subconsciously trying to move as the other as going into place.

TempestBlayze wrote:

I loved the demo! The music was awesome and I also thought "boy, this sounds an awful lot like Deus Ex." I'm happy to hear it's the same guy. The gameplay feels really tight and I look forward to the whole Mission Control aspect of the game.

The only thing I wish was that we had the ability to continue with another solder's move as another is moving. I know it will take away from the cinematic shots but I found myself on multiple occasions subconsciously trying to move as the other as going into place.

You can, but only if you just told the unit to move. After you tell someone to move, hit tab to cycle to the next unit. You can then give that character a command while the previous guy finishes his action.

Is their a way of changing the height view using the mouse scroll rather than the f/c keys which just screams console port. Also same goes for rotating the map - would prefer mouse to rotate map.

I loved the demo, just some minor niggles.

Tried it last night, so awesome. But now it just makes the next few weeks even harder. If nothing else it's at least good to know I can run the game at my desktop res with everything cranked to high. Though, I later went into the video options to check something and the Ambient Occlusion had turned itself off (or maybe it just dropped to Low, can't remember). I set it back to High and will try it again tonight to see if it changes on it's own again.

SpyNavy wrote:

The only thing I noticed was a slight stutter during the end of mission cut scene when your plane flies off.

This was the only hitch I had. There's a lot of disk activity when it's playing the cutscene, so I'm guessing they're loading the next area while it plays and makes it stutter. It's just a short little movie, but I'd rather have it be smooth and wait a couple extra seconds for the next part to load. Or maybe I just need to defrag my drive.

talsworthy wrote:

Is their a way of changing the height view using the mouse scroll rather than the f/c keys which just screams console port.

Mouse wheel changes the height. They don't enable most of the controls until the middle of the second mission when they let you loose.

So, the only game play thing that had me scratching my head was door breaching. You have the choice of simply opening the door or kicking it in. When you first run up to a space at either side of the door you can press V to just open it and peek inside. But if you wait until the next turn, pressing V doesn't do anything. It seems that if you've been standing next to a door for a turn your only option is to kick it in. Is this how it's supposed to work?

Great to read all the positive impressions. I'm going to try and avoid the demo since I've already pre-purchased the game. It's all about going in fresh! I still can't believe we are about to get a AAA turn based strategy XCOM game from Firaxis. I keep waiting to read an article that's like "Just kidding, it's a multiplayer FPS!"

EDIT: Double post

Tkyl wrote:
TempestBlayze wrote:

I loved the demo! The music was awesome and I also thought "boy, this sounds an awful lot like Deus Ex." I'm happy to hear it's the same guy. The gameplay feels really tight and I look forward to the whole Mission Control aspect of the game.

The only thing I wish was that we had the ability to continue with another solder's move as another is moving. I know it will take away from the cinematic shots but I found myself on multiple occasions subconsciously trying to move as the other as going into place.

You can, but only if you just told the unit to move. After you tell someone to move, hit tab to cycle to the next unit. You can then give that character a command while the previous guy finishes his action.

Ah, well thanks for clearing that up. I guess im just a nub.

Ok I am still pumped for this but......

Demo was locked down too much, especially in the base

I dont like the way they scaled the weapons and armor, they look cartoonie. Also the camera control was clearly not a PC minded creation, that sucked.

However I still think I am going to love this one, yet I fear how much of this game was really written for the console vs a true PC game.

The females having smaller guns was really weird. Really, really, really weird.

Played the PC demo yesterday and like it a lot, but... did anyone find the mouse/keyboard controls to be bad? This is a definite xbox-controller game for me.

Chump wrote:

Played the PC demo yesterday and like it a lot, but... did anyone find the mouse/keyboard controls to be bad? This is a definite xbox-controller game for me.

I didn't find them bad at all but I did find them less responsive than I would have liked. I wasn't happy with how using Q&E didn't rotate smoothly but instead snapped into set positions. Sometimes V wouldn't open a door and I had to click on it. Overall I felt that using the mouse was great but the keyboard controls left much to be desired. This also isn't the final build but we'll see how representative it is.

Chump wrote:

Played the PC demo yesterday and like it a lot, but... did anyone find the mouse/keyboard controls to be bad? This is a definite xbox-controller game for me.

I didn't think the mouse/keyboard controls were bad, but I definitely liked the controller better. Not sure if I liked it $40 better, but I can see myself plugging in my fiancé's wired Xbox controller when she isn't using it.

Vector wrote:

The females having smaller guns was really weird. Really, really, really weird.

Generally speaking, males have more upper body strength.

Ohhhh. Your talking about guns, not 'guns'.

Any word on a console demo?

Vega wrote:

So, the only game play thing that had me scratching my head was door breaching. You have the choice of simply opening the door or kicking it in. When you first run up to a space at either side of the door you can press V to just open it and peek inside. But if you wait until the next turn, pressing V doesn't do anything. It seems that if you've been standing next to a door for a turn your only option is to kick it in. Is this how it's supposed to work?

I encountered the same issue. My guess is that this will be fixed in the full release. There were several actions in the demo that got wonky if you went a little off-script.

Vector wrote:

I wasn't happy with how using Q&E didn't rotate smoothly but instead snapped into set positions.

Agreed, that was irritating. I'm not sure why they don't give you analog control of the camera.

Vector wrote:

The females having smaller guns was really weird. Really, really, really weird.

Shouts out to that Unreal Engine, dawg. Check out the giant-ass hands on your military advisor.

nel e nel wrote:
Vector wrote:

The females having smaller guns was really weird. Really, really, really weird.

Generally speaking, males have more upper body strength.

Ohhhh. Your talking about guns, not 'guns'.

Any word on a console demo?

Damnit! I wanted to make that joke!

Spoiler:

I meant the one about the console demo...

People please! You should only gush and gush and gush about how good this demo/game is/will be. Cause it's f**king good.

Vega wrote:

So, the only game play thing that had me scratching my head was door breaching. You have the choice of simply opening the door or kicking it in. When you first run up to a space at either side of the door you can press V to just open it and peek inside. But if you wait until the next turn, pressing V doesn't do anything. It seems that if you've been standing next to a door for a turn your only option is to kick it in. Is this how it's supposed to work?

If you left click on the door it also opens it.

Vector wrote:
Vega wrote:

So, the only game play thing that had me scratching my head was door breaching. You have the choice of simply opening the door or kicking it in. When you first run up to a space at either side of the door you can press V to just open it and peek inside. But if you wait until the next turn, pressing V doesn't do anything. It seems that if you've been standing next to a door for a turn your only option is to kick it in. Is this how it's supposed to work?

If you left click on the door it also opens it.

I thought that's what I did when he kicked it open, but maybe I accidentally clicked on the square on the other side of the door.

Vega wrote:
Vector wrote:
Vega wrote:

So, the only game play thing that had me scratching my head was door breaching. You have the choice of simply opening the door or kicking it in. When you first run up to a space at either side of the door you can press V to just open it and peek inside. But if you wait until the next turn, pressing V doesn't do anything. It seems that if you've been standing next to a door for a turn your only option is to kick it in. Is this how it's supposed to work?

If you left click on the door it also opens it.

I thought that's what I did when he kicked it open, but maybe I accidentally clicked on the square on the other side of the door.

If you right clicked behind the door you'll charge through it. If you left click on the square in front of the door it will open quietly. The right click and left click difference is important.

Really liked the demo. Not too fond of the GIANT TV UI and the need to click OK after every action, but no deal breaker. What bugged me most was the automatic movement of the camera to the next person in the squad and that I could only rotate the camera in 45 degree snaps. Felt like I was fighting the camera more than commanding my squad.

But I did have a good time and will def. pick it up when it's released.

Fredrik_S wrote:

Really liked the demo. Not too fond of the GIANT TV UI and the need to click OK after every action, but no deal breaker. What bugged me most was the automatic movement of the camera to the next person in the squad and that I could only rotate the camera in 45 degree snaps. Felt like I was fighting the camera more than commanding my squad.

But I did have a good time and will def. pick it up when it's released.

-When selecting an action, if you double tap the number key associated with that action it will act like hitting OK.
-Right clicking will also act as a "Cancel" (Edit for clarification: Except when in the move action. Everywhere else, it acts like cancel.)

Agreed. It was really good.

The snapping into position thing of 'Q' - 'E' will probably be modded or patched out. The scaling of weapons may be affectable(this should really be a word) by console commands.

Those configs look like they have a crazy amount of adjustable options. Heck - the rotation key behavior might even be in there too.

I hope the game does really, really well. It has a really good "feel" to it... if that makes any sense. Like something that was made not necessarily to fit my hand specifically, but made with enough quality that even though the fit isn't perfect, I'll enjoy using it for a long time. Like the gaming equivalent of a high end chef knife.

Wonder if they'll let you remap keys in retail? I couldn't find that in the settings in the demo.

Otherwise, I might end up using a controller. I really didn't like some stuff that I would like to tweak.

MannishBoy wrote:

Wonder if they'll let you remap keys in retail? I couldn't find that in the settings in the demo.

The key remapping didn't make it into the demo build, but will be in the retail release. I didn't think to look in the config files to see if I could manully remap anything. I was struggling with it was well since I'm a WAXD user and I was constantly hitting X when scrolling around and kept switching between rifle and pistol.

Vega wrote:
MannishBoy wrote:

Wonder if they'll let you remap keys in retail? I couldn't find that in the settings in the demo.

The key remapping didn't make it into the demo build, but will be in the retail release. I didn't think to look in the config files to see if I could manully remap anything. I was struggling with it was well since I'm a WAXD user and I was constantly hitting X when scrolling around and kept switching between rifle and pistol.

Yeah, I've posted around here before that I'm not a WASD user, either (WERD). Kills me when I can't fix things to fit my key bind instincts that were created in Quake days.

You will definitely be able to remap in the final release.

WHen I play, I'm going to try to keep my people in cover and concentrate fire on one alien at a time. Several low-percentage shots in a single target, rather than trying to get into position to go one-on-one for a likely shot.

1Dgaf wrote:

WHen I play, I'm going to try to keep my people in cover and concentrate fire on one alien at a time. Several low-percentage shots in a single target, rather than trying to get into position to go one-on-one for a likely shot.

That seems the way to go. I was surprised on how fast soldiers died in the second mission.

That's certainly the best approach in classic X-COM, particularly in early game where the soldiers have crap aim and weak weapons. Also consider tossing a grenade through a door and letting it detonate before entering a room, or simply making your own door by taking out a wall section. If you're determined to open a closed door, station a few soldiers with different firing angles on overwatch near the door so you can respond immediately if an alien is on the other side. Basically, just assume that the aliens know you're there and are lying in wait for you, and to hell with taking anything alive.

Haha that's awesome you can use that approach. I always did love using lasers in the first xcom and spraying ridiculous amounts of shots across the screen. Of course I actually managed to beat the game (this year!) when I switch to plasma.