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Written by Philippa Cowderoy on 2025-01-05 at 23:20

Game idea: x.com vs X-COM

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Written by wen on 2025-01-05 at 23:32

@flippac an old school edgy Newgrounds game about parachuting in and shooting Elon?

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Written by Philippa Cowderoy on 2025-01-05 at 23:40

@wen traditionally X-COM deploy directly to the ground, but XCOM2's ambush mechanics might play well with that?

(yes, I'm old enough to've played the pre-reboot series to death, I'll get round to playing the major XCOM2 DLC one of these days though)

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Written by wen on 2025-01-06 at 00:22

@flippac Civ5's XCOM Squad is my only point of reference for what an XCOM is.

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Written by Philippa Cowderoy on 2025-01-06 at 00:51

@wen Fair enough!

Both major iterations have spent time as the definitive turn-based tactical combat game on PC with a strategic metagame around them, in both cases the first game has you as a clandestine organisation with international funding trying to fight off an alien invasion (a premise I'm pretty sure was nicked from an older TV show). The original X-COM series is more simulationist where modern/rebooted XCOM borrows more ideas from board game design, and their sequels go in very different directions. Both very pointedly name all your troops when you hire them and have some form of experience mechanic for them. X-COM lets you bring the best part of a platoon to a mission (26 men or you can trade 4 men apiece for up to 4 small tanks in your transport), XCOM really has you controlling a fireteam (up to 6 men).

Messing up and getting your troops shot dead during your own turn is par for the course, especially in the original series where even with the best armour in the game an [un]lucky shot can realistically one-shot any of your men.

There's an entire "X-COM clone" subgenre, some of which are more literal clones than others. The UFO: After* trilogy is a fairly notable example that came out between the two and while the first game's kinda shite I'm very much glad they got to run with the potential they had. The Jagged Alliance series (running mercenary teams around various clusterfucks) deserves a "we were doing this in our own right" label: turn-based tactical combat is ofc older and it's not a "Tekken owes Street Fighter 2" situation.

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