UFO: Aftermath Review

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            UFO: Aftermath

Review by SteerpikeNovember 2003

“Klaatu Verata Nickto, Gort”

My original plan was to review this game as a standalone product, making no mention of any previous titles it may resemble. Sadly, however, that is impossible. Like it or not, fans of X-Com: UFO Defense have been looking to this game to rekindle the glory of that old classic. Even more than a sequel, the conscientious reviewer must assess UFO: Aftermath in the context of what it does and does not bring to the table in the wake of X-Com.

People who read my stuff know that most reviews and columns I write are longer than the Bible; if you lack the kind of patience necessary to read it all, I happily lay it out for you here: Aftermath is no X-Com. That doesn’t make it a bad game by any means, but to equate it with that towering giant of interactive glory is a disservice to its memory. X-Com may well be the greatest game ever created, and no one will apply that kind of praise to UFO: Aftermath.

There’s no doubt that the Czechoslovakian designers of Aftermath knew full well that they were creating a game nearly identical to X-Com. In fact, I think they counted on it—fans have been clamoring for a worthwhile sequel (all subsequent X-Com products have been painfully awful) or a flat-out remake. The folks at Altar would have been wiser to do exactly that: remake X-Com, balls to bones, with a modern engine and graphics.  Instead, they created a game that bears an enormous resemblance to the general theme and style of X-Com, but removes or changes some major aspects. I assume they did this to duck accusations of copycatting. It’s ironic that most gamers wanted a copycat in this case and are likely to be at least slightly disappointed with what they get instead.

Bill Harris of Gone Gold stated the facts as well as I could; rather than say the same thing using different words, I’ll just quote him here: “It seems that what I like about this game is everything that was copied exactly from X-Com: UFO Defense, and everything I don’t like is anything that’s been changed.”

Mars Attacks!

One sunny day in May, a huge alien spaceship appears without warning in geosynchronous orbit over the Earth. All attempts to contact it are rebuffed. Shortly thereafter, the immense craft releases millions of tiny spores into the atmosphere, blocking out the sun and eradicating nearly all life on the planet. Those who survive this assault are those already locked in the safety of underground bunkers, breathing recycled air. Shortly after all macro-scale life on the surface croaks, the spores fall to the ground and apparently become harmless. The handful of survivors venture to the surface, only to find it overrun by a hostile alien empire of unknown size and intent.

While the humans are just getting back on their feet, a new menace emerges from the supposedly harmless spores on the ground. The Biomass is a titanic living entity slowly engulfing the planet, destroying everything (including bases and buildings) as it inexorably grows.  The Biomass is insanely dangerous, and “Biomass management” is a fun new aspect of Aftermath, constantly reminding you that the planet is no longer yours and that you are far from safe here.

In UFO: Aftermath, you divide your time between two main environments. The “geoscape” screen shows a 3D map of the Earth, the position of your military installations, possible assault points, and any activity in the skies. The other half of the game takes place in a small-squad tactical environment, when you drop members of your elite Phoenix Force to combat the alien menace and improve humanity’s chances. While in the Geoscape environment, you oversee research of alien technologies and manufacture of better weapons and equipment for your soldiers. Later, you can deploy fighters to shoot down alien craft and attack alien-occupied installations.  If this game sounds a lot like X-Com, you’re right on the money.

However, in Aftermath most folk on the planet are already dead. As such, you don’t answer to an authority overseeing your activities, you have no money-management responsibilities, and you cannot manufacture technologies to sell. Additionally, you do not “hire” soldiers, scientists, or engineers: the former just show up at your base now and then (but never often enough to cover your death toll), while the latter two do their work in bases specifically assigned to perform research and manufacturing. Since the story of Aftermath unfolds through your research, the designers should have created a more graceful implementation of this game aspect. Also, the aliens control the lion’s share of the planet, so rather than having free rein to build bases anywhere as in X-Com, it’s your job to slowly push the enemy back, collecting bases as you do.

Aftermath is not precisely a turn-based game, nor is it precisely real-time. Instead, it employs a clever new system called timeshifting. With this interface, the game is paused until you “start” time—and during the pauses, you can issue orders and perform general housekeeping tasks in the geoscape and management screens. When you’re ready, you start time, and the action begins. You can run things at various speeds and, naturally, stop time again whenever you like. For comparison, imagine a much more full-featured version of the combat system in Baldur’s Gate.

This system is especially ideal in the tactical sections, because it allows you to see the action/reaction relationship of things going on simultaneously, without turning control into the clickfest of real-time. Also, it grants you the power to issue extremely complicated commands to your soldiers, which they will carry out in order until you either cancel the orders or they finish.  Various events will cause time to stop for you—sighting an alien, losing a soldier, et cetera—so you can regroup and plan your next move. The timeshifting control scheme is pretty much the only thing about Aftermath that is better than X-Com.

Grok This

Aftermath takes a long time to install and already has a patch out; in fact, a patch was available the day the game shipped.  This does not promote confidence in its overall stability, and rightly so: it crashes constantly. It also sometimes insists on running in a window rather than full-screen, and I have a devil of a time changing it back. The sound often returns static or skippy beats.  Another patch is desperately needed to combat the game’s general lack of polish, but I will say that despite these issues, it is a pretty fun game with many—but nowhere near all—of the addictive qualities of X-Com.

Graphics are good and in 3D; they’re not the best I’ve ever seen, not even for a strategy game, but they do the job. Tactical screens are nicely rendered and show exceptional attention to detail—unique billboards, logical urban layout, and so forth. Animations, too, especially of your soldiers executing their orders, are very smooth and attractive. The menus—critical in a strategy game—are well-designed and smooth to operate, though occasionally your troops will swap the items in their hands for items in their kits without consulting you first. It’s hard to shoot an alien with a first aid kit, and I’ve found a soldier holding one instead of his rifle more times than I care to count.

The malleable concept of time in Aftermath is something the player must learn to use to his or her advantage. For example, it takes less time to pull a grenade off your belt than it does to fish through your backpack for one. As you equip your soldiers with any of the several dozen Earthly and alien weapons available, the “kits” you give each of your people must be thought through with attention to their individual carrying capacity, role in the squad, and the speed at which you want them to accomplish tasks.

Nanu, Nanu

Soldiers have stats, as in X-Com, and these stats increase as the soldier gains experience and levels. Additionally, you can train your soldiers in any of seven career paths, thereby further improving their stats. As you play, you’ll get to know your troop by name and assign specific roles to them. You can even rename them if you like (mine are named after the Detroit Red Wings).

You may only take seven soldiers with you into any tactical mission, and you don’t have to do every mission available: the Phoenix Force is your elite squad; you can (and should) delegate many tasks to the rank and file. The seven-soldier limit is a critical deficiency in the game, especially considering that the aliens usually outnumber your people by two to one or more, and that the tactical events are very, very difficult. Aftermath would have been better if you could take a larger troop into the field or, as in X-Com, if the number of soldiers available was dependent on the sort of craft you used to transport them to a mission.

Tactical missions in general are divided more or less equally between urban and rural settings, and they normally only take twenty minutes or so to complete. A clumsy facet of Aftermath is the inability to enter buildings in urban settings; it would have been nice to be able to put a sniper in a third-story window to cover my squad.  Aftermath does sport several mission parameters, whereas in X-Com it was always just “kill everything that ain’t human.” You’ll rescue downed pilots, perform smash-and-grab ops, reconnaissance, base assaults, and more. It helps keep the tactical missions from becoming too ho-hum.

Oddly enough, most of the aliens seem to have gotten their arms from Heckler & Koch. For the first half of the game at least, you’ll find yourself fighting aliens and engineered super soldiers armed with common Earth weapons. This, combined with the fact that most weapons are on the same level (at least ten assault rifles are available, but all do essentially the same damage and have the same range and magazine capacity), make the game seem clumsy and poorly tested.

Later in the game you’ll be able to take or manufacture alien weapons, though you can only manufacture one item at a time. The designers would have done better to include a manufacturing queue system, or at least the ability to build several of one thing—as it is, you tell your engineers to build one laser gun. When it’s done, you tell them to build another. Even X-Com, released in 1994, grants you the opportunity to dictate how many parts you want produced.

I’m Sorry I Called You “Stupid Alien”

Overall, UFO: Aftermath has removed or changed most of the great stuff about X-Com and added very little new material to offset its shortcomings. That said, it arrived the same day as Max Payne 2, and, for the first few days at least, I found myself playing more Aftermath than Max Payne. I also glanced up in the middle of a session to realize that it was four in the morning—I’d been playing for seven hours and not even realized it. That’s the sign of a good strategy game.

So much of what was good about X-Com has been eliminated or altered in this title that the two represent a peculiar oxymoron of design: they are both remarkably similar and shockingly different.  Aftermath has no money management, no base construction, no purchasing, and weaker R&D controls. There is no reason to make decisions based on the political climate, because there is no political climate in Aftermath, whereas in X-Com it was a factor in every move you made. Meanwhile, the tactical missions are better and more varied, the timeshifting a huge improvement over a purely turn-based paradigm, and the gameplay in general has a lot going for it.

It lacks polish, it’s unbalanced, unstable, and contains many peculiar or even nonsensical design decisions. Documentation and in-play text make it clear that English is the second language of the designers.  But it’s good fun and nowhere near so flawed as to make me shy away from a recommendation. I will say this: those who love X-Com will like this game. Those who love strategy will like this game. But no one will ever love this game. UFO: Aftermath will be forgotten in a matter of months, while the game that inspired it continues to burn as brightly as ever in the memories of PC gamers. The End

The Verdict

The Lowdown

Developer: Altar Interactive Publisher: Cenega Release Date: October 2003

Available for: Windows

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System Requirements

Windows 98/2000/XP Pentium III 500 128 MB RAM 8X CD-ROM drive 32 MB nVidia GeForce2 MX or faster video card DirectX certified sound card 750 MB free hard drive space Keyboard, mouse

Where to Find It

GoGamer 34.90

Prices/links current as of 11/02/03Links provided for informational purposes only.  FFC makes no warranty with regard to any transaction entered into by any party(ies).

      Copyright © Electric Eye Productions.  All rights reserved.  No reproduction in whole or in part without express written permission.

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14 Responses to Fear Factor

  • Fear Factor | Tap-Repeatedly.com | Reality Topics Blog

    […] nobody@flickr.com (graftedno1) wrote a very interesting post today.   Here’s a quick excerpt:My greatest fear is to be trapped alone in a confined space with a blind human, in total darkness. They have a heightened sense of smell and hearing, and. […]

  • Matt "Steerpike" Sakey

    Lewis, you made me think of the scariest moments I’ve experienced in gaming, and we’re very similar people.

    Bioshock had two moments – the dentist and the flooded room filled with mannequins.

    Thief had Return to the Cathedral, which was terrifying to me. Thief 3 had Shalebridge Cradle, which is so scary it ought to be fined.

    System Shock 2 kept me on the edge of my seat, but it was more lonely panic than true fear.

    Korsakovia was so scary that I uninstalled it.

    And STALKER. Oh, god, the haunted labs in STALKER. The latter two games don’t have scares like that. Few games do.

    It’s especially rare for a game to have more than mere “moments” – for a game to be scary from beginning to end, that’s a triumph.

    Wonderful article. As if Gregg’s review wasn’t enough to convince me that Penumbra is not something I have the courage to play!

  • DPenn

    I’m with you Lewis … I’m a bit of a puss. I just have a hard time wrapping my head around the idea of dread as entertainment.

    Still, I’m drawn to dark stories when they have something interesting to say, whether it’s a game like Thief or a film like, say, Gaspar Noe’s Irreversible. So I’ll push through, sometimes peering through my fingers.

    The trouble with games, though, is that if you look through your fingers, you’re probably just going to have to play through the scenario again. :~)

  • Mike "Scout" Gust

    I wanted to play this game. I downloaded the demo but the controls were just too wonky for me to get my head around. I liked the atmospheric vibe a lot. I think I’m a bit desensitized from an overdose of horror movies in my youth so I don’t so much get the dread thing from these games as a nice creepy vibration. If only the controls were better…

  • Lewis B

    @ Mike, what’s wrong with the controls bud? As someone who despises poor control schemes, Penumbra’s is just like any other FPS, except to examine things you right click on them.  To use things you left click.  I’m not sure that can be considered difficult 🙂

  • Gregg B

    @Steerpike: Yeah my greatest shit-scared moments were with those games too. A few spoilers below people, so beware.

    Bioshock – Haha, I remember the dentist. I didn’t really find the game that scary overall but the bit where you go into the wine cellar and notice a mannequin facing the wall and after upgrading your weapon it’s stood directly behind you motionless and quiet just for a moment before attacking you. I shat a brick. I also missed that bit originally until Lew told me about it.

    System Shock 2 – same as you really, more unremitting tension all the way through rather than specific terrifying moments. Oh actually, theres a bit where you call a lift and it breaks then you realise a service droid is coming to fix it… I do remember having sleep issues after my first encounter with the cyborg ninjas though.

    Thief: The Dark Project – The Sword and Return to the Cathedral and Down in the Bonehoard and well, loads of them. The Sword made me break out into goosebumps though because there was a bit where you could hear this creepy giggling which seemed like it was following me about then it suddenly changed to this horrible throaty noise. What made matters worse was that the EAX (bless you Creative) made my foot steps sound like somebody else was there with me. That level was incredible, a bit too incredible as it seems I missed great chunks of it because I was so eager to leave.

    Thief II: The Metal Age – Trail of Blood where you end up in that opening with those damn tree beasts. God the first time I saw one of those hurtling towards me I actually died shortly afterward. Do you remember that Mechanist child walking around on one of the levels? That was a little creepy.

    Then there’s Penumbra: Overture – quite a few bits but I’m not mentioning them here.

    Oh and S.T.A.L.K.E.R. – The brain scorcher lab just because it was so damn quiet. My imagination seriously got the better of me there. Those stuffed animals and heads I’d seen in various buildings led me to believe that those creatures were lurking somewhere in the Zone, specifically that lab.

    @Mike: My control setup was perfect after some tweaking (as well as the simple weapon swing fix). If you ever fancy giving it another go, give me a shout and I’ll let you know my setup.

  • Lewis B

    I’m not sure why guys, but one of my starting paragraphs had gone missing, even though I copied it straight from the original source, and It was fine earlier. 

    Incase you missed it due to some technical issue you might want to re-read just after “Well no she wouldn’t in truth, but in Penumbra: Overture you don’t want to move anyway.” at the very start for those who’ve already read the article. Apologies 🙂

  • Mike "Scout" Gust

    Lewis, it was the weapon swing. It had this terrible, unresponsive feel to it, like trying to hit through molasses. I couldn’t stand using it. I tried the .ini fix as mentioned in the review but it didn’t seem to help. Of course this was the demo…but that shouldn’t have made any difference. I might try the second game instead as I guess they did away with the weapons thing.

    I’m see your first paragraph just fine. It’s the dialogue, right?

  • jdeuel

    I like the argument that weapons can remove fear, but even loaded to the teeth with ammo in AVP’99 the Marine missions were frightful because the enemy was anywhere at any time.

    As for Penumbra Overture, if the controls are anything like the original Penumbra they need to hack in some Wii-Remote 3d controls. I did not like using my mouse for 3d movements.

  • Gregg B

    @Mike: I’ve read that many people avoided conflict altogether in Overture which incidentally is something forced upon you in Black Plague. As somebody who has been renovating a house over the last 6 months with no DIY experience I can safely say that swinging a hammer is significantly easier in real life than it is in Overture without the fix. The fix balanced that for me.

    I’d highly recommend completing the first Penumbra because it’s one big build up to Black Plague which spoils the ending to Overture in the intro. And it’s a great ending too. Just so you know!

  • Lewis B

    @ Steerpike, those moments you mention are all my worst too!!  Do you remember the Robot labs in SS2? Absolutely terrifying, waiting for robots to burst out on you! 🙁 oh and have you ever player Condemned?

    @ Mike, The use of weapons in Penumbra is different to say HL2, where the player is physically holding the weapon, as in Penumbra it floats slightly infront of you.  However, if you change the control method to normal weapon swing, it’s no different!  Speak to Greggi and he’ll tell you what to do 🙂

    @ jdeuel, AVP the original and its sequal were scary however what type of fear do you think it is? I don’t think it’s anything more than sheer tension.  Having a Smart Gun makes you feel incredibly powerful.  I can honestly say in Penumbra the fear is sheer unrivalled terror, where you actually have to force yourself to play on.  It genuinly is that scary! 🙂

  • Jason Dobry

    It’s so true, an arsenal of weapons and ammo rapidly deflates any sense of horror or uneasiness in any game for reasons you already mentioned. Sakey, I thought Bioshock was more “lonely panic,” while I was pretty much always terrified in System Shock 2. I really, really, REALLY did not want to enter The Many’s nursery, and my weapons were so unreliable and ammo so scarce that I never felt safe.

    Silent Hill was terrifying for the same reasons. Ammo was rare and I frequently had to rely on my pipe for self-defense.  Even when I had ammo, the game mechanics prevented my character from being anything other than marginal with any firearm.

    Fear had one moment for me: I was climbing up a ladder, and as I reached the upper platform, my guy briefly looked down as he climbed off. As my perspective looked up again, that Ring-esque little girl was RIGHT THERE, reaching for me. I screamed and she was gone.

    What else…the original Aliens vs. Predator sent me into a locker room and I could only hear the facehuggers scurrying about somewhere within. I had to go in there. I advanced about three steps before the damn thing screamed and filled up my screen with its repulsive underside as it implanted me with its spawn. My roommate made fun of me for weeks for screaming like a girl child.

    Korsakovia–meh.  I was too annoyed and frustrated by the box rearrangement/jumping puzzles to be scared. I uninstalled it after an hour of play, I think. Maybe the scary parts were later, but I doubt it.

    As for Penumbra, I did play through about half of it before other games distracted me. I remember unease and creepiness, but no sweaty fear. I think I’m to blame here, or, more precisely, my daughter, who was still an infant at the time and generally allowed me only to play during the day for 45 minutes at a time. I was denied total immersion and the fear effect suffered. Maybe I should give it another go after I finish Call of Pripyat since she sleeps through the night now. With any luck, Penumbra will keep me from doing the same.

  • Gregg B

    I played the demo of F.E.A.R. but that ladder scare is the only bit I remember. Christ, that made me jump. I’m not too good with cat scares.

    Also I felt exactly the same about Korsakovia. It was creepy at first but then it began to irritate me far too much and it just soured the experience. I stopped playing as a result. Not to mention, when I realised I could bash those smoke-things with my crowbar they didn’t bother me nearly as much.

  • Online Up

    Great article. I look forward to reading more in the future.

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