XCom

Taskforce

Turn-Based Strategy in the X-Com Mode

Type:
Shareware
System Requirements:
Win 98+/500MHz+ CPU/DirectX 8+/3D Card
Developer:
Cornutopia Software

Fans of XCOM will find the gameplay of Taskforce familiar: you control a squad of heavily armed soldiers, and each turn you plan their moves. Each has a limited number of action points to spend, and movement, firing, and other actions require you to spend points. Opponents can 'opportunity fire' at you if you enter their field of fire (and they have action points remaining from last turn), so even though this is an "I move/you move" game, there's a sense of interactivity between the players as you move. Once you're finished with your turn, the other side performs its own actions under the control of the AI.


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Laser Squad Nemesis

None Dare Call it XCom

Type:
Subscription
System Requirements:
Win 98+/64 MB RAM/DirectX 8+
Developer:
Codo Technologies

...Because XCom is a trademark owned by Atari. But Laser Squad Nemesis is the true intellectual and gameplay heir of XCOM: UFO Defense (published in Europe as UFO: Enemy Unknown), the best-selling and best-loved computer game of 1995. No surprise there; Julian and Nick Gollop developed both games. But as is typical in this industry, they signed away all IP to get XCOM published.

If there were any justice in the world, they'd be spoken of in the same breath as Sid Meier and Will Wright--but in the late 90s, they found themselves with no publisher contract and no real hope of one, cast onto the slagheap by an industry that prizes brands above all and places no value on talent. And someone else owned the brand.


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