| • Science | • People | • Locations | • Timeline |
All titles were developed for the PC, with a few less-successful ports to the Sony Playstation and Amiga. Though the first three titles were originally developed to run under DOS, they've been ported to run under Microsoft Windows using DirectX. X-COM: UFO Defense was the best selling computer game of 1995 and is considered a true classic, and despite its age, still has a good-sized following.
The premise for the first game is fairly simple and straight-forward, and is repeated in the subsequent ones with some variation: armies of hostile aliens have begun invading the EarthEarth also known as the Earth or Terra is the planet on which we live, the third planet outward from the Sun. It is the largest of the solar system's terrestrial planets, and the only planetary body that modern science confirms as harbouring life. The pla, killing and enslaving the human race. The player is put in command of "X-COM," the Extraterrestrial Combat Unit. By defending countries from enemy invasion, the force gains monetary support. Through research of recovered alien artifactAn artifact (also artefact is any object or process resulting from human activity. The specific meanings of the word are several: an artifact in archaeology an artifact of observation an artifact of fantasy a compression artifact resulting from lossy datas, X-COM is able to develop better and more powerful weaponA weapon is a tool used to kill, maim, destroy or perhaps simply disable, a person or animal and as a result, also to threaten and defend. Since the dawn of humanity the use of weapons has been codified resulting in both martial arts and strategic doctrins, armor and vehicleVehicles are non-living means for transportation. They are most often man-made ( automobiles, motorcycles, trains, ships, aircraft), but also non-man-made means for transportations can be called vehicles, including icebergs and floating tree trunks. Vehics to combat the alien menace.
The game takes place within two main views: the Geoscape and the Battlescape, a dichotomy that's the hallmark of the entire series. The Geoscape is where the player waits for enemy alien activity and makes strategic decisions. While in the Geoscape, the player can view the X-COM bases (located in various locations on Earth), make changes to them, equip X-COM craft, order supplies and personnel, direct research efforts, schedule manufacturing of advanced equipment and sell alien artifacts to raise capital. The Geoscape is continuousA continuous game or real-time game is a game without pauses, turns, rounds, or other stopping points. The term is most often used to describe video games, which as of the late 1990s were almost all real-time, the shift being driven by the rapid increase and not turn-based.
Gameplay switches to the isometricThe term isometric comes from the Greek for having equal measurement and is a descriptive word associated with several topics: Isometric projection, a method for the visual representation of three-dimensional objects in two dimensions, is a form of orthog combat view of the Battlescape whenever X-COM personnel come in contact with alien units. This can result from investigating downed enemy crafts, combatting alien terrorist activities or attacking alien bases discovered during play. Aliens may also be encountered if they manage to attack and infiltrate one of the X-COM bases.
In the Battlescape view, X-COM combatants are put versus the alien enemies. In addition to personnel, the player may have vehicles such as heavy weapons platform s outfitted with powerful lasers or rocket launchers. This mode is turn-based and each combatant has a number of "time units" which can be expended each turn. When all alien forces have been neutralized, the mission is scored based on number of X-COM units killed, civilians saved, aliens killed or captured and the number of alien artifacts obtained.
Though the premise was simple, it was executed exceptionally well and the game became popular among strategy and war game fans, for reasons such as the excellent squad-based tactical interface, the combination of tactical and strategic elements and the ability to discover and create new weapons and other items. By researching the alien items recovered following combat missions, much better equipment can be built to combat the alien threat.
A final reason for the game's success is the creepy atmosphere the game evoked. Soldiers are fragile with or without armor, and the use of line of sight allows alien snipers and ambushes. Aliens strike both in day and at night, forcing nighttime battles with scurrying figures unknown in the darkness. UFO mythology was used well in small touches like adding mutilated cattle on the operating tables of downed UFOs and the naming of a new, mystical element "Elerium." The enemy comes in numerous shapes and forms, and players run into new, deadly aliens repeatedly without knowledge of their capabilities.