UFO: Aftermath review

Things get nasty in the street

There used to be a time, before 3D graphics became commonplace, when it seemed all computer strategy games were turn based. There was nothing wrong with this and in fact, some of the games that were released in that genre were superb. Heck, even the best strategy games ever are turn based (Chess and Go, for the uninitiated).

By far one of the best series of turn-based strategy games was the UFO/X-COM series. These allowed you to command groups of up to a dozen team members in a fight against an alien menace, whilst researching new technologies and taking care of some basic resource management. The games were pretty difficult to get to grips with, as every action used pre-allocated points allowances. Everything from reloading a gun to turning round took action points. Battles took place by moving your team around within said point margins, exploring areas and defending/attacking as needed. Managing these points and moving your teams effectively was the key to success.

Moving on…

Don't go down to the park tonight

Altar have decided to revive this series with UFO: Aftermath. It’s effectively a 3D remake of the old UFO games, only this time instead of an isometric view the camera is completely free-floating and can move anywhere you desire. They’ve also all but done away with the old points system; it’s now hidden entirely behind the scenes. If you’ve played Neverwinter Nights or Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic then you’ll be halfway towards understanding the battle system, as it’s half real-time and half turn based. You won’t even notice that the points system is missing for the most part.

I say “for the most part”, as despite all the razzle-dazzle, this is not a game for those new to the strategy genre. Whereas Knights of the Old Republic made the old pen and paper RPG mechanisms genuinely engaging even for non-fans, UFO unfortunately falls flat on its face in this respect. Every move requires serious planning and consideration of consequences. At any time you could have up to seven troops to manage on screen, each of them requiring individual attention to ensure they’ve got enough ammo and that they’ll be able to carry out required objectives.

Wimps need not apply

Getting claustrophobic

UFO does not lead you into things gently: a prime example is in an early mission where you’re advised to blow up an alien artefact. It’s not until you reach the mission location that you’re told you have to blow said artefact and it’s not until you battle your way through hordes of beasties that you realise the last grenade you used was essential for success in the mission. To say this is frustrating is an understatement as some of the missions can take ages to move through. There is a tutorial of sorts, but it merely familiarises the player with the controls and not with the types of tactics that will need to be employed in the game proper.

Back on earth

Risk! style domination

Behind the missions themselves is a larger scale Risk type world domination game. This takes place on a 3D rendition of the Earth and includes resource management, squad training, mission acceptance and weapon/technology research. Like the individual battles, this is half real-time and half not. You can mull over your required actions for as long as you wish and then start time moving again (at varying speeds if needed). These portions of the game play a major part and yet do not feature in the tutorials, so half of the time one can only guess as to what’s required at any stage in the planning process. This is unfortunate, as there’s nothing inherently wrong with the interface and a good, thorough, tutorial could make this game accessible for all but the most action hungry player.

Regrettably the gameplay is not the only thing lacking. The sound is frankly appalling, with dull effects and the worst voice acting I’ve heard for a long time (check out the accents and you’ll see what I mean). The only thing holding it up is some excellent Jean-Michelle Jarre style electronic background music. The graphics only deserve special mention for their blandness. Why this game recommends a 2Ghz processor with 64MB Geforce 4 is beyond me, as the textures are scarily low-res and the models also appear to be pretty low-poly. When the Total War series can display and animate thousands of units on screen at once on all but the lowliest systems, it seems strange that this game falters when trying to display twenty.

And finally….

You can't hide inside

It’s not all bad, though. All in all, if you’re a strategy fan then there’s a lot to uncover here. There’s some deep, pure strategy to deal with and if you enjoyed the likes of anything from the Laser Squad series up to the Total War series and you don’t need leading by the hand through a strategy title, then you should enjoy the majority of this game.

My main concerns are that Altar haven’t done enough to try and attract new players. It may be that I’ve been spoiled by the sterling work that Bioware did to the previously hardcore AD&D RPG genre, but I feel a bit more could have been done here to make UFO more attractive. A bit of graphical tuning and a decent tutorial of the full game system (and not just the very basic controls) would have worked wonders here. Without that all we have is a slightly above average strategy title.