Name: Anonymous 2012-10-02 13:55
Just finished the demo, and while it's clear that they are trying to improve the RTS instead of creating another FPS, they're limiting the player a lot. The first "mission" was just me struggling in a handholding grip that turned it all into one big unskippable cutscene with pauses, but I understand that they want a tutorial, and also that they don't think much of the IQ and age of the average player today.
...but once I cleared that mission, I saw that the handholding continued, disabling anything but a mission of ground battle and customizing the appearance of the characters. Handholding is especially bad for an RTS, because an RTS is all about freedom of choice. A demo of an RTS should show that the game has lots of options. You know what aspect of the game presented the most options? I could choose from 24 types of facial hair. I had the option to go with a blonde african. I did NOT, however, have the option to switch between a rocket launcher and a handgun, or any other loadout, because the other weapons were locked to a specific class. Once you took the rocket upgrade, you were ALWAYS "the rocket guy", and they wouldn't trust you with the pistol you wielded seconds ago.
There is no scanning for UFOs in this game. They removed that, because I guess a globe was too much to handle for the Deus Ex 3 engine they're clearly using. Instead we get small decisions: Choosing what country to set our base in, determines what starting bonus we get, and from there, we get to a mission select screen between "pre-scanned" scenarios. The difference between the scenarios was not different environments, but that you could choose between written english and chinese on the signs.
These missions were scripted: Once the player enters an area, he triggers a cutscene and you get to fight two aliens. Then that repeats two times over. Once again, this doesn't make an RTS game look good, because it's telling the player that nothing will be going on outside the immediate battle.
There was also a serious lack of movement control. Your soldiers can for some reason only move two times, a set number of squares, and that's it. This presented the strange tactic of trying to fire exactly half-way to move the maximum distance. I couldn't see any control over where my soldiers were facing either, and it seems that if I discover an alien as I move, I cannot stop and duck for cover.
The sniper was especially frustrating, because he cannot move and shoot at the same turn.
Overall, they didn't do enough to fix this game. It may look better than the original X-Com, but even on its maximum settings, the graphics look eight years old. I'll take my chances with Xenonauts instead.