In the year 1998, the amount of reports of UFO sightings has been drastically increased. Stories about abductions and alien attacks became more and more widespread. Finally, after various nations of the world have failed to intercept the UFOs, their representatives met in a conference of global importance in Geneva, Switzerland. It was eventually decided to organize a secret paramilitary group, dubbed Extraterrestrial Combat Unit (X-COM). Starting with one base, two fighters, one transport, and a few soldiers, X-COM must locate the aliens, learn about their origins and technology, find out where their base is, and destroy it.
X-COM: UFO Defense is a strategy game featuring separate but interlinked elements. On the strategic side, called GeoScape, you get a rotating view of the globe, where you see all visible UFOs (those that are within your detection range) as well as major cities and your base(s). You order movements from here, such as sending out fighters to intercept UFOs, transports with soldiers to assault/recover UFOs, and perhaps assaults on alien bases (if you find any). You also control your research, as you must invent better weapons (the Terran weapons are just no match against the alien weapons) quickly, not to mention all the other cool tech you can recover from the aliens. You also need to control your budget, as you can't afford to overextend your reach. Researchers need to be paid, engineers (who build the new toys) need to be paid, base(s) need to be be built/expanded, planes need to be bought/maintained, supplies need to be replenished, and so on.
You can earn money by selling unneeded stuff, and you receive funding from the nations of the world; however, a nation can decrease its funding if it decides you aren't operating efficiently enough within its region. It's even possible that a nation gets so fed up with you that it signs a pact with the aliens and ceases funding altogether.
Once you join a ground battle, the game switches to Battlescape, which is an isometric view of the battlefield with realistic line-of-sight calculations and turn-based combat. Your mission is usually extermination of all aliens on the battlefield, though if you can capture a few it would surely help your research efforts. If you win, you also recover any alien artifacts left on the field, which can then be researched.
In combat, each of your soldiers has a specific number of Time Units. Doing anything (moving, shooting, turning around, rearranging objects in the inventory etc.) costs a number of TUs. Once a soldier is out of TUs, he cannot act any more this turn (he gets all his TUs back on the next turn, though).
The game aims to mix strategic considerations, resource management, and tactical combat considerations, along with plenty of authentic UFO lore.
Where do I start with this jewel? It is suffice to say that this game is still being bought on CD-ROM versions all over the world, and has lost little of its popularity since the day it was published.
UFO Enemy Unknown, or perhaps better known by the name of X-Com 1 is a strategy game where your job is to stop the alien invasion and threat to earth. You start off by building a base somewhere on the globe. You are initially given 3 crafts, 2 for intercepting airborn UFOs, and one with crew for getting rid of ground alien troops and survivors of shot-down UFOs. The base is also equipped with research, manufacture, radar, defense etc. facilities.
Each month you get fundings from every continent. The amount of money you get depends on how well you have controlled the alien threat on a certain continent. As the game progresses, you research new weapons, either from recovered aliens and their artefacts, or just normal earth weapons. The ground combat is turn-based, but nonetheless very dynamic and interesting.
I could go on talking about the game's features and possibilities but its just easier to download it and see for yourself. I can safely guarantee you that you will not regret it. It is one of my favorite, if not THE favorite, DOS game ever! This is the CD-ROM version that should be run from windows. It goes together with a patch that fixes graphic problems on Windows XP and some other system platforms. Download and enjoy!
Part of the X-Com Series
X-COM and its sequel Terror from the Deep are two veritable strategy masterpieces that need no introduction. Massively popular and deservedly so, the only reason you find them here on this site (which is supposed to focus on games) is that this is the by-now-hard-to-find native Windows 95 version, first released as part of X-COM Collector's Edition in 1998 :) For anyone who still needs convincing or has been living under the rock for years, you can find plenty of gushing reviews such as this one at GameSpot to change your mind:
"At first I didn't get it. The newsgroups were all abuzz about some game called X-something - everyone who played it seemed to become a near-zombie, talking about it incessantly and flooding the groups with endless threads and theories and strategies. It seemed interesting enough - building bases and killing aliens - but I still didn't get it. Frankly, it seemed tedious. I decided to take it home to see what all the buzz was about. Big mistake.
For the next few months, I spent every possible moment playing the game. Sleeping only a couple of hours a night, I would stay up 'till dawn playing, wake up minutes later and get right back into it. I was even going home from work at lunch to get a hurried hour in. It got so bad my roommates had a "talk" with me. Finally, I finished my first game, and proceeded to stumble about for weeks after, having paranoid delusions that aliens really were invading earth, cautiously looking for a flashing red "enemy in sight" warning in my peripheral vision.
And that was the brilliance of X-COM. The game managed to take two seemingly sterile genres - turn-based battle and resource management - and create a truly engrossing experience. The game is broken up into two main areas. As the commander of X-COM (a multi-national committee established to thwart an alien invasion), the player must construct facilities to house soldiers and research new technologies, while tracking alien movements and attacking their ships and troops. As more corpses and artifacts are recovered, scientists can be employed to learn more about the invasion and its origins. And every time the game starts to slow down a bit, a new piece of information will be delivered that creates a newfound sense of excitement and makes every battle seem that much more vital. Countless games later, the fun still hasn't diminished, and X-COM has held a proud position on my measly 400MB hard drive for almost two years.
If you call yourself a gamer but don't own X-COM, your collection has a more glaring gap than Ernest Borgnine's smile. Put simply, X-COM is a bona fide modern classic, standing proudly alongside Civilization and Populous as a benchmark in the evolution of strategy gaming."
"UFO: Enemy Unknown is the first game that was released under the X-COM series. It was released by MicroProse Software. The game is also known as UFO Defense in North America.
The game takes place in 1998 and there are increased reports of UFO sightings. There are also reports of human abductions and terrorism by aliens. The world's governments form their own troops to deal with the aliens. Japan was able to create its own unit called the Kiryu-Kai but the force was not able to intercept any alien activities.
In December of the same year, the world's leaders meet up in Geneva, Switzerland. There they create the group Extraterrestrial Combat Unit- X-COM.
You will be in charge of the X-COM which starts operation the following year. The game starts exactly on January 1, 1999. First you need to choose the location for X-COM's first base using the Geoscape screen which serves as the map of the world. From this base, you can control the activities of the X-COM forces.
There is a war that will erupt between the X-COM and the aliens and were it would last for three years. Because of the war there ere hundreds of UFO activities that intercepted by the X-COM. There were also plenty of crash sites as well as places that were attacked by the aliens.
Sending your troops to UFO crash sites will turn the game into a battle game where you have to defeat the aliens in a turn-based battle game. Your troops can win or lose to the aliens or you can also withdraw from the battle.
As the controller of the X-COM forces, it will be your decision what weapons that they can use, build new bases, recruit men which include engineers, scientists. You will also be in charge of research and development in the bases. The money for the X-COM comes from the nations that founded the X-COM force. The ten nations are able to monitor the financial status of the force through the financial report. The founding nations also monitor the status of the project and decide whether to make additional funding for the group or not.
The game is very interesting and intelligent and it will really give you a good time. The plot is well-made and makes for a really engaging game. The graphics is good, the game gas music that complements the whole surroundings of the game and the controls are easy to learn. I suggest you download this game now to experience a great alien adventure game."
How to run this game on modern Windows PC?
People who downloaded UFO: Enemy Unknown Collector's Edition have also downloaded:
X-COM: Terror from the Deep Collector's Edition, X-COM: Apocalypse, UFO: Enemy Unknown, Syndicate, Lords of Magic: Special Edition, Warcraft 2, Warhammer Epic 40000: Final Liberation, Civilization 2
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