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X-COM: UFO Defense

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X-COM: UFO Defense
File:X-COM - UFO Defense Coverart.png
Developer(s)Mythos Games
Publisher(s)Microprose
Designer(s)Julian Gollop
Platform(s)Amiga,Amiga CD32, DOS, PlayStation, Windows
ReleaseDecember 31, 1993 (MS-DOS), October 25, 1995 (PlayStation)
Genre(s)Turn-based tactics
Mode(s)Single player

UFO: Enemy Unknown (later released under the title X-COM: UFO Defense in the United States and X-COM: Enemy Unknown for the European market) is a video game created by Julian Gollop[1] and published by MicroProse Software in 1993.[2] It is the first entry in the X-COM series.

Single-player gameplay

A view of Battlescape mode

Gameplay starts on January 1, 1999, with the player choosing a location for their first base on the Geoscape screen. The Geoscape screen is a representation of Earth, which displays X-COM bases and craft, UFOs, alien bases, and sites of alien activity (Alien Terror Sites). The player can choose from here to deploy X-COM craft to either patrol designated locations, intercept UFOs, or land at a UFO crash site, landed UFO, alien terror site, alien base, or (when research allows) the alien's main base.

Clicking on a base on the Geoscape screen takes the player to the base screen. From here, the player can purchase weapons and other equipment, recruit soldiers, scientists, or engineers, build expansions to the base, build new bases (up to eight in total may be complete), and organise research and production.

Funding for the above is provided by the ten founding nations of X-COM. At the end of each month, a funding report is provided, where nations can choose to increase or decrease their level of funding based on their perceived progress of the X-COM project. Alternatively a nation can sign a pact with the aliens which results in withdrawal of all funding by that nation to the X-COM project.

When a craft is sent to land at a UFO crash site, landed UFO, or alien terror site, the game shifts to a tactical phase known as the Battlescape. Here the player commands their soldiers against the alien forces in an isometric turn-based battle sequence. One of three outcomes is possible in this phase: either the X-COM forces are eliminated, the alien forces are eliminated, or the player chooses to withdraw. These battles lead to recovery of alien artifacts which can then be researched and possibly reproduced at the X-COM bases, and can also lead to the recovery of live aliens which may then be assigned as a research project to produce information, possibly leading to new technology.

The game may end in several ways. If the player's performance (as judged by the founding nations) is poor for two consecutive months, the player runs a deficit for two consecutive months, or all the player's bases are captured the game ends in defeat. If the player mounts an assault on the alien's primary base and loses, the game ends in defeat. If, however, the player is victorious in the final assault, the game ends in victory.

Plot

The story of X-COM begins in 1998. The initial plot centers around increased reports of UFO sightings. Tales of abduction and terrorism by the unknown aliens become widespread. The nations of the world come to perceive this as a threat and attempt to form their own forces to deal with this, such as Japan's Kiryu-Kai; these forces fail miserably, the Kiryu-Kai not intercepting a single UFO in its five months of operation. On December 11, 1998, representatives from some of the most powerful nations in the world meet in Geneva, Switzerland, to discuss the issue. From this meeting was born the Extraterrestrial Combat Unit—X-COM, which the player assumes control over at the start of the game.

Over the course of the game, X-Com arrives at a major breakthrough came—an interrogation reveals the alien's forces are based in Cydonia, on Mars. A heavily-armed strike force is sent to Mars in X-COM's Avenger spacecraft (modeled on captured alien technology) and manages to destroy the hive "Brain" that masterminded the entire operation. Shortly before the Cydonia base is destroyed, however, a mysterious transmission is beamed back to Earth from the wreckage of the base, setting the stage for the sequel.

Technical details

The DOS version of UFO Defense makes use of VGA graphics, synthesized music and digital sound effects. It supports Sound Blaster, AdLib, and Roland LAPC-I/CM-32L audio devices. The 1.4 patch replaces several sound effects and adds support for additional sound cards, including Gravis Ultrasound, Media Vision Pro Audio Spectrum, and General MIDI devices. An 80486 with 4MB of RAM and a sound card were recommended for play.

The OCS/ECS, AGA Amiga, and PlayStation versions feature higher quality music, and the latter is compatible with the PlayStation mouse. It requires a whole memory card for the Battlescape save games. The same applies to the sequel.

The Amiga CD32 and Amiga 1200 versions used Commodore's Advanced Graphics Architecture chip.

Unofficial game editing software is available allowing players to change the qualities of weapons and equipment, and to change the standard maps and layouts of UFOs that were provided with the game.

Development

"I think the release of The X-Files the year before the launch of X-COM: Enemy Unknown helped a little. Although we hadn’t seen The X-Files at the time, we were drawing on the same UFO folklore for the game, and this hit a nerve in the US."

Julian Gollup[3]

X-Com was originally conceived by Julian Gollop[1] as a sequel to his 1988 game Laser Squad.[3][4] The initial demo presented a relatively modest, two-player tactical game. Gollop and his team approached several global publishers with an early demo of the game (then-known as Laser Strike 2), eventually brokering a deal with Microprose Software, producer of Sid Meier's Civilization series. Although supportive of the project, the publisher expressed concerns that the demo lacked a grand scale in keeping with its earlier Civilization titles. Under Micropose's direction, Gollop changed the setting to modern day Earth and expanded the strategy elements, among them the ability to capture and reproduce alien machinery.[3]

Gollop has cited the television series UFO,[3] as well as the writings of Timothy Good, as influences for X-Com's storyline, particularly the psionic powers of the various extraterrestrials. Good's 1991 book Alien Liason provided inspiration for several of Gollop's revisions, including the notion that world governments might seize alien technology or secretly conspire with the invaders (a negative result which can, indeed, occur in-game).[3]

Despite numerous changes from the demo, X-Com remains true to the turn-based strategy layout of Laser Squad and the Rebelstar series,[3] also developed by Gollup. The Artificial Intelligence of those games formed the basis for X-Com's enemy tactics, with Gollup programming his own unique algorithms for pathfinding and behavior; in particular, X-Com's aliens were purposely given an element of unpredictability in their actions, giving the illusion of a lifelike, resourceful enemy.[3]

The finished product was and marketed in Europe and Australasia as UFO: Enemy Unknown, and in North America as X-COM: UFO Defense.[3][5] The game was released to great acclaim, selling more than 600,000 units on the PC platform alone (with later ports to the Amiga, CDTV, CD32 and PlayStation). Half of X-Com's net sales were in the United States, a rarity for a European title at the time. Gollup has attributed the game's stateside success to its title, as the television series The X-Files had premiered a year earlier.[3]

Critical response

Though the premise of the game was simple, critics agreed its execution was exceptional and the game subsequently became widely popular among strategy and wargame fans, for reasons such as the excellent squad-based tactical interface, the combination of tactical and strategic elements and the ability to use and create new types of weapons and equipment as the game progresses.

Another reason for the game's success is the strong sense of atmosphere it evokes.[6] Soldiers are vulnerable to alien attacks even with armor, and the use of features such as night-time combat, line of sight and opportunity fire allows for alien sniper attacks and ambushes. The enemy comes in numerous shapes and forms, and players run into new, deadly aliens repeatedly without any knowledge of their characteristics and capabilities beforehand.

X-COM: UFO Defense was voted as the #1 PC game of all time by IGN [7] and the #2 video game since 1992 by Pelit[8] in 2007.

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Julian Gollop at MobyGames
  2. ^ Summary of X-COM from Rotten Tomatoes.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i The Making Of: X-COM: Enemy Unknown. Edge Online. Retrieved on 2008-5-15.
  4. ^ Bios of Julian and Nick Gollop on the Laser Squad Nemesis website
  5. ^ X-COM: UFO Defense at MobyGames
  6. ^ UFO: Enemy Unknown review (94%), Pelit 4/1994, page 22
  7. ^ Top 25 PC Games of All Time from IGN, page 3
  8. ^ Pelit 8/2007, page 64
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