Remo wrote: ↑June 7th, 2017, 5:56 am
Woolfe wrote: ↑June 6th, 2017, 6:30 pm
They definitely have the experience.

I reckon Old Julian was a bit upset like a lot of were at the travesty of new Xcom, so he thought fuck it, I'll beat em at their own game.
Comon it is a little beneath us.. I have many pet peeves with the new Xcom, but I can't turn a blind eye to the fact that Firaxis vastly succeed in what they tried to achieve and brought fresh wind into the genre. In comparison Assassin's Creed III which Julian directed didn't do so well, and often ranked the worst of the franchise..
Anyway, I love what he and his team have been doing with Phoenix Point, they are striking all the right cords with me. And to be honest it would feel good if they can beat Firaxis in their own game
New Xcom was almost a good game.
It had all these great elements, and each section looked good, then you dug a little and started comparing to the original, and the gloss started to come off.
Bases were pointless. No base combat wtf. Base combat was one of the joys of the original. I got to the point that it was rare they would find my bases, but I used to enjoy it, so I would often let them find a secondary base just so I could do those fights.
Satellites were ridiculous, 1 for Uk or 1 for Russia!!!! Original Radar stations were ground based and made sense, a nice simple circle to cover an area. You had to think a little on placement to ensure good coverage.
Economy was pretty much non-existent in New. The originals was broken, in that you would just sell shedloads of stuff on the blackmarket, but that was only an issue because it was a bit tedious. Until you got to that point it was a key element and extremely important.
Mission choice in New Xcom was reduced to pick a path. Original Xcom you had to manage it. You could easily reach point 1, but if something happened at point 2, you had to weigh up whether to go in with your team straight after point one, low on ammo and having taken damage, or if you had a secondary team you could launch them, or choose to ignore it.
Ammunition. Because you could no longer do the above, ammunition was removed from the game altogether. no more resource management. Just shooty lots. Some of my most vivid memories of original xcom were the desperate scrapes whereby you were literally scavenging the gear of dead comrades to get ammo or usable weapons against the last few aliens.
Which is another thing. At no point did I ever feel like the aliens were a threat. With a 4 man squad you could wipe the floor with the aliens even in the early game. In the original you would take your full team of 12 or 14, I can't remember exactly, and until you researched armour, you did not get attached to them. Cause they were probably going to die. But because you had such a large team, you could take the casualties. Then later as tech and skills improve, you didn't need a large team.
Maps... Yeah how pathetic were they, they didn't even bother having different start points on them. Original had sections that were the same, but then they were randomised to give maps a similar, but always different feel.
Skills and soldier paths. They are cool, but I preferred the more organic. You have a good shot, then make him a sniper. Big strong guy, heavy. Etc Certainly there was a better way of implementing additional skills.
Extra gear. Nope... Can't do it. You cannot carry anything more than is designated. I hope you don't need a bunch of grenades, cause you can't have them. etc etc. I understand the original loadout part was a chore. But that could have been tweaked with templates etc.
Destructible terrain. Awesome, except you can only use grenades. A flimsy fence, and you with a plasma rifle. Nope sorry you can only destroy that fence if you miss a guy in front of it. I remember in the original, wasting ammo knocking down barn walls to reveal the last bloody sectoid. It worked well, and it again drew importance to ammo. Because doing that early was risky as you may not have the ammo to kill all the badguys.
Scientists and Engineers. Reduced to Rooms. I don't hire and fire anymore, I build a room. They could have added so much to the mechanic. Had you get infiltrated by alien sympathisers using the scientists and engineers, adding a new threat as they set back your efforts, or even sneak attack killing your highly trained science teams.
And that is just off the top of my head. The game had so much potential, and they squandered it. It was almost a good game.
What is worse, is that after the fact, I read that they actually built the new game almost the same as the old, then ripped it all out and put in the bullshit.
I can't comment on the Assassin's Creed games, as I have never played them. But as they are a big name owned franchise, I am sure it wasn't just him that ruined it.
It's not too late. Make it Eight!