Where's the pressure?
Now all of this is well and good, but how does this complex sounding system of micromanagement and what developers Altar call ‘Simultaneous Action System’ or SAS (that pauseable order thing) actually play as a game? Well it all hangs together pretty well, with the base management and research stuff taking up only as much time as you want it to. Being able to pause the game and figure out what to do firmly puts the emphasis on the strategy, so much so that at times UFO: Aftershock feels a bit like a puzzle game as you try to figure out how to complete a mission without taking serious losses or losing a soldier.
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Click for larger imageBut there is one problem with UFO: Aftershock that takes the edge out of the gameplay in a big way and that is the SAS. No, no, not the guys in black-ops gear abseiling down the building, the combat system SAS. The problem is that pausing the game whenever anything happens takes all the tension and urgency right out of it. You never feel under pressure to make a decision or pushed for time to quickly issue orders and hope it all works out well. Perhaps it’s me expecting too much, but I did feel disappointed that rather than put me under pressure and force me to come up with new tactics quickly, I was able to amble off, have a cup of tea and mull over my next move as my soldiers and the aliens all patiently waited for me to make up my mind.
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Click for larger imageI know this isn’t a real time strategy game but you start to wish it was perhaps a bit more forceful, maybe giving you 60 seconds of paused play to make your mind up and tell your squad what to do. Having all the time in the world makes this feel more like a sci-fi version of chess with none of that frantic clock bashing they do near the end of those timed matches. Don’t get me wrong, there’s plenty of depth here and lots to keep the strategists happy but what’s missing is any sense of urgency… being able to halt the action takes the pressure off straight away and lets you work to correct any mistakes you’ve made. Now you could argue that I’ve missed the point of the whole thing but I haven’t. I played the X-COM games and enjoyed them hugely and the combat here is very similar… it’s the ‘pause whenever’ feature that takes all the pressure off the player.
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