UFO:Aftermath recreates the alien invasion scenario of the original, where a ragtag band of poorly armed cannon fodder are slowly developed into an elite team which can take on the aliens at their own game

Oh gather round ye children, Grandpa Capt is about to tell ye a tale from our distant past. Open your minds and your ears and touch the past with me, if but for an instant. Now I know you will see my words in black and white but try and imagine them from my point of view, in vibrant and breathing colour.

When I was still young, back in the day when politicians were honest and Mother Nature could still take a joke, computer gaming was as fresh and joyous as a maiden’s giggle. In those heady days, sometime after Apple II green screens and before the visceral 3-D of Quake clones, computer gaming broke out of Mom and Dad’s basement and hit the mainstream. Consoles were still a child’s plaything, not yet corrupting an entire generation, and the upside down smiling jack “c:” was your doorway to adventure.

Giants strode the lands of PC gaming in those days! Not the pale and bankrupt lines of code strung together by lesser beings in a vain attempt to grab a few more shekels, which plagues us today.

No Sir!! In those golden days, Ultima, Doom, Command and Conquer, and MechWarrior II all battled for our very imaginations. They were kings and we were their subjects. Alongside these greats was a dark knight….X COM: UFO Defense. A game which set the bar for tactical squad based games, one which has yet to be bettered in my humble opinion. X:COM blended a strategic layer to a rock solid tactical level in an elegance which spoke of a more civilized time. The strategic layer was sound and key to winning but the tactical game was a true diamond in an already overflowing chest of treasures. The tactical game included an almost totally “plastic environment”, meaning you could destroy anything in almost anyway conceivable. I cannot possibly describe the electric terror of trying to get a poorly armed squad of newbies off the landing ramp in one piece.

Well, those days are gone forever but I have had the opportunity to view a game which is going to try to recreate the magic and I, for one, really hope they can succeed. UFO: Aftermath is clearly more than a game which claims XCOM as its roots; it is a re-make of the original. There are of course ups and downs to remaking a classic: although you have the string foundation upon which to build, the expectations are much higher.

UFO:Aftermath was originally Dreamland Chronicles: Freedom Ridge, under the original XCOM developer, but that fell through. The idea was then bounced around many times until it finally fell into the hands of ALTAR Interactive and they look poised to bring it back to reality.

Having had the opportunity to take a look at an Alpha Code release, I have seen some of the features which are supposed to appear in the final game. As it was Alpha Code, one has to realize that you are basically only seeing the engine and the steering wheel but what I saw looks very promising.

UFO:Aftermath recreates the alien invasion scenario of the original, where a ragtag band of poorly armed cannon fodder are slowly developed into an elite team which can take on the aliens at their own game. The game has two distinct layers: strategic and tactical. The strategic layer (though clearly incomplete in the preview code) seems to have the global view of the world where you plan and deploy your teams and bases to meet the alien threat, eventually re-taking over the planet. The strategic layer is also where you research new technologies and train and equip your recruits at your bases. As in the original, this is not the heart of the game but definitely the brains. The strategic layer requires careful and directed planning to ensure your grunts on the ground are ready to meet those little green men.

At its heart, UFO:Aftermath has what could be a beautiful tactical gaming experience. Again, being incomplete, the code I saw had very limited sound and eye candy (although the 3-D grahics are a step up to be sure) but the engine was rock solid and, in some ways, better than the original XCOM game. One thing that I noticed right away was the atmosphere the developers aimed to create in the tactical game. The dark seedy streets and eerie preliminary background track go a long way toward creating the creepiness we all want to see.

UFO:Aftermath uses “simultaneous turn-based action”, which is a fancy way of saying you plot all of your troops’ actions while the game is paused and then hit the “GO” button to see the action unfold. You can then pause, re-plan and repeat. The original had action points for each soldier and had more of a chess look to it. UFO:Aftermath has serious potential for wild firefights and helter skelter action which the original was not equipped to deliver. One thing I did not see, which I hope will appear, is the idea of limited “pause time” so that you have the added level of stress to decision making.

The soldier RPG element in the game looks to be, again, stable. Training, skill sets and specialized equipment are all here. The sheer amount of equipment and weapons available are impressive and I saw a glimmer of hope as you can also actually pick up dead alien weapons and equipment. This was the best part of the original game, being able to blast pesky aliens with their own weapons.

Those aliens come in limited shapes and sizes and the AI could use some development from what I saw. I can only hope that the developers will let those little buggers loose and let them be as mean as I know they can be.

The combat engine itself looks very nice. You have many options such as moving all of your troops together or even real time plotting of waypoints. One thing which did seem to be missing in some missions was in-house fighting. Base defence and attack missions are claustrophobic affairs in all their glory but the street fights don’t allow the player to get inside the houses and do room clearing. I hope this doesn’t lead into stale and easy scraps instead of the slugfests of old.

I can see definite promise in this game. The Alpha Code is a long way from the final version but I can see and feel a hint of the old magic in this game’s bones. I can only hope that before the Good Lord calls this poor servant to glory, the grand days will visit me again. And hopefully UFO:Aftermath will be a worthy heir to carry the torch forward.

Look for UFO:Aftermath in Sep 03.