15 hours ago
2
What did you bash portion recovering from your large aesculapian thing, Sin? Well. Loath arsenic I americium to speech astir myself ("lol. lmao." - Combative New Ed), I... don't know? There was immoderate Ultima Underworld, immoderate workers, immoderate resources, immoderate Pagonians pioneered. But successful the dimensionless vortex of first-time-off-since-2020, I deliberation I did... nothing. The lists hardly moved.
Except, finally, for a crippled I struggled with past year. A unusual game, easy punished, arsenic each turn-based games indispensable beryllium for dolt reasons, for not being bloody XCOM. USC Colon Counterforce is much similar old XCOM, aka UFO. But it's not a recreation of that, nor of Aliens, its different evident inspiration. It diverges arsenic overmuch arsenic it reminds, and makes immoderate mistakes successful a mode that we each must, erstwhile pursuing our ain individuality alternatively of an content of idiosyncratic else's.
I privation I'd fixed it a 2nd accidental sooner. I privation I could shingle everyone and accidental "This! This is the way! There is much than 1 path, if you conscionable look for it! Yes, the 1 earlier you stumbled. But look astatine it it. See the admittedly weakly-named USC, and its bruises. It is beautiful. It is itself".
Aliens are doing an Aliens connected a mining and not evil subject planet. You pb a squad of soldiers to halt them. Scanning the hexy aboveground reveals hordes, nests, occasional installations, and pinkish spacerocks to kill, salvage, and mine, zooming successful to the pinkest hexes to physique mining installations quadrate by square, with walls and generators and machinery to boost businesslike oregon refresh your soldiers, should the aliens sojourn to wound everything.
You'll request supplies. No, much than that. Your archetypal ngo volition beryllium a catastrophe (within the campaign, oregon one-off missions), astir apt due to the fact that you ran retired of ammo. This aggravated me. It amazed me. It exhausted what I had. It did an Aliens. USC is not sadistic oregon (ugh) "hardcore", but it wants to consciousness similar throwing soldiers into a horde, not level 1 avatars bullying 4 bronchitic trainees equipped with plasma tweezers. Every confrontation teems with claws and teeth, and they volition each travel astatine once. Even the smallest could past respective hits, and the biggest instrumentality full magazines similar an insult. Some woody acerb oregon poison harm and there's a occurrence 1 present and everyone's bleeding and the meds origin paralysis if you overdo them and what the hell however galore much are there?
But I've loved it since I came back. You're the archetypal team, see. That one-off ngo was the prologue; the squad that disappeared truthful my run 1 would cognize better. They'd request much supplies, and to physique mines for precious spacerocks. I'd person to larn each 7 harm types, which alternatively of boring HP damage, origin "buildup" of antithetic problems. Each behaves differently, and is washed distant with antithetic items.
USC: Counterforce, see, is not astir levelling supermen to get the champion perks. It's astir preparing. Your squad amended with experience, but they commencement retired with bully skills, your commandant already maxed out. Moreover, skills are axenic bonus. A feline with 5/5 successful Heavy weapons volition beryllium dramatically better, but everyone tin usage them. Even perks are humble passive bonuses chosen erstwhile and early. Marksmanship girls reload faster and people much captious hits with tiny arms, Agility guys determination faster diagonally (which adds up erstwhile Action Points are successful the 30-60s). It's not hard to max retired respective skills, and 2/5 successful melee is simply a decent backup.
Just astir everything is granular, including equipment. 10 inventory slots connection ample possibilities, but galore things might beryllium useful. A chestplate, state mask, 2 ammo types, a backup weapon, scanner, pills that swap 1AP for a driblet of morale, 1 cardinal types of medkit. The "Field Expertise" accomplishment is astir moving items quickly: a godsend erstwhile it's ngo signifier 2 of 3 and everyone's desperately handing meds and knives and 12 bullets backmost and distant similar each trans idiosyncratic you know. You'll privation country for loot too, since thing other is free.
Spacerocks tin person into cash, but that lone funds building. Equipment is bought with credit, which depends connected your boss's approval. It won't agelong forever, truthful spacerocks besides acceptable into a web of conversions and trades betwixt 8 materials for crafting instead. You commencement with entree to miniguns, grenade launchers, and refreshingly unusual guns similar the bio-rifle, which poisons aliens and heals humans, oregon the quadseeker, which hits 4 targets and tin sprout astir cover. But it each costs.
That adds different magnitude to preparation: tactically, USC is astir balancing swarms and high-threat people prioritisation, but strategically, it's astir doing that erstwhile each bullet, each bandage has a budgetary accidental cost. So you larn to transportation pistols, hack doors and determination barrels to dilatory enemies truthful poison and occurrence tin bash their grisly work. Sniper rifles are fantabulous worth per shot, but overwhelmed without backup from launchers and SMGs. Blades evidently request nary ammunition, but their existent powerfulness is raising defence, redeeming lives and medkits. Everything works champion successful tandem. You indispensable larn however to usage each accomplishment and instrumentality arsenic supplies fluctuate betwixt unpredictable fights.
Soldier skills are capped hard, and there's nary accepted research, nary unlocks, and thing becomes obsolete. As the locals get narkier, your antagonistic is upgrades and prototypes. Every idiosyncratic limb tin beryllium upgraded with materials (and downgraded for a afloat refund), and 5 factions can, for capable spacerocks, regenerate your upgrades with amended versions. Prototypes adhd different magic spread to gamble spacerocks in: a caller variant of a weapon, with randomised bonuses. A spot similar Borderlands, this could supply a paralysing pistol oregon a ace accelerated cryoblaster, oregon useless junk. But you indispensable manufacture these blueprints, draining yet much materials. Their prime depends connected faction reputation, too, and your bosses dislike everything they like, particularly giving spacerocks to the smugglers, the lone reliable root of immoderate materials.
Little successful USC works rather similar its peers. Combat is asymmetrical, unpredictable, attritional. Aliens are hardy, but large weapons are costly to run, truthful you'll larn wherever to enactment your shield feline and erstwhile his AP should spell connected blocking vs stabbing. The unthinkable inferior of welding torches (until you deed a level with nary power), erstwhile you should conscionable fto a coiled bleed, and especially, positioning. A quirk reminiscent of Odium means immoderate weapons tin lone purpose astatine targets wrong a "star" shape, others lone successful 8 oregon 4 cardinal directions. Unrealistic, sure, but truthful what? It’s an absorbing wrinkle, and forces you to actively limb and presumption everyone to enactment each other, not conscionable usage Optimal Loadout. Opportunity occurrence is little restricted, but anemic aliens determination first, truthful that requires thoughtful positioning and range-setting too.
That's the main thing, speech from the tough, swarming enemies, that makes USC genuinely great. All that granularity, each those possibilities, creating country for chaos and desperation portion ensuring that teamwork is captious and bully mentation pays off. High AP scope tempts you to sprint recklessly crossed an unexplored country to assistance immoderate soldiers successful trouble. Beagle hacks the door, and done it prevarication aggregate aliens... and the generator. Hambo chucks immoderate grenades in, obliterating the room, allowing 2 different soldiers to tally done and distract the alphas astir to decorativeness disconnected mediocre Gremlin... and plunging the installation into darkness, unleashing deity knows what arsenic each the doors connected the level automatically open. And yet, sometimes the handiest happening a worker tin bash with her AP is tally successful adjacent truthful her headlamp volition look a Crawler that someone's struggling to hit.
Aliens don't usage accidental fire, but immoderate volition find flanking routes, question retired the wounded, claw done doors and walls. Some fly erstwhile wounded, others volition termination different aliens if it's the fastest mode to get to you. Their turns are unluckily slow, and there's excessively small accusation astir missions oregon crippled systems. Some of this I see a Good Thing - questions to reply done inaugural alternatively of a wiki reducing everything to boring nerd calculation. But they enactment acold excessively overmuch enactment and vexation upfront, which exacerbates USC's biggest occupation by far: the sheer clip and enactment it takes to hole everyone, each time.
Jagged Alliance fans rejoice, for USC is each astir gearing everyone up for each mission. The precocious Action Points, accelerated shooting, 18 soldiers per fight, and each those weapons, ammunition types, upgrades, prototypes, tools, imaginable problems (Flamethrower good! Flooded installation bad), cost/benefit analyses, ngo instrumentality times requiring you to pencil successful the adjacent mission's supplies... adjacent this condemnation benignant of reflects however playing Soldier Mum tin marque a encephalon buzz. But it's besides s l o w. The prep surface is awkwardly laid out, and lacks timesaving functions similar resistance and drop, saved loadouts oregon replenish buttons. You tin instantly store a soldier's gear, but past person to retrieve 17 grenades successful crook to spot their price. It's acold from the worst I've seen, but it's unintuitive, and ne'er becomes arsenic creaseless arsenic it should considering the clip you'll walk there.
Preparation is fractional the game, and the weighing of options and imaginable tactics makes it rewarding. I emotion that USC is similar this alternatively of "give M4 to Assault class, property Best Perk". There's thing large here, and wonderfully antithetic contempt its precise fashionable influences. But its friction burns excessively overmuch to contradict that it's fallen abbreviated of its potential. I privation it had recovered the assemblage who'd admit what it does, the enactment that carried it a small further.
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