X-COM: Terror from the Deep
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X-COM: Terror from the Deep is a computer game, the sequel to X-COM: UFO Defense (or UFO: Enemy Unknown in Europe), and the second part of the X-COM series. Its interface is more or less identical to its predecessor, as is its graphics technology.
Terror from the Deep on the surface is much like huge skin change to UFO Defense. The game plays out the same way, equipment and enemies in TFTD are similar to the original, and all of the basic game mechanics are the same. However, the difficulty level has been substantially raised and there are a number of new features.
In the original game, the player was tasked with defending Earth from invasion by aliens from Mars. Now, many years after the first alien war was won, a new alien menace begins to emerge from the deep oceans. The game plays out under water, with base-building and combat all being submerged beneath the waves. The only time in fact that the game moves onto dry land is for terror site missions, when the aliens attack a port, ship, or island holiday resort.
X-COM: TFTD, like the first game, consists of two parts. The GeoScape world view, a 3D map of the world used to track and intercept alien craft, and manage base facilities, research, manufacture, finance, etc. through a series of menu’s and sub-screens. The BattleScape engine is used for close personal combat between squads of aliens and humans, and takes the form of a turn based, isometric view, in which you move and fight with the aliens.
Terror from the Deep has in many ways an even stronger atmosphere than the original UFO Defense, due largely to the fact that it is set underwater, where visibility is reduced significantly, especially at night. This combined with the rich background detail of the aliens and excellent, complex, history of their societies, revealed to the player slowly via research, and the quality of the graphics, provide a very believable and sometimes terrifying experience for the player.
The series
The complete series includes these titles:
- X-COM: UFO Defense
- X-COM: Terror from the Deep
- X-COM: Apocalypse
- X-COM: Interceptor
- X-COM: Email games
- X-COM: Enforcer
The first two games are undeniably the most popular and most successful of the series, and the first was named Game of the Year by many gaming magazines. Apocalypse took some strange twists that disappointed many fans of the series. It introduced a real-time combat system, in addition to a modified turn-based system that was close to useless, and the creepy atmosphere was almost no longer present. After Interceptor, Hasbro Interactive purchased MicroProse and acquired the X-COM brand.
Two more titles were planned for this series. Both were aborted when Hasbro shut down Hasbro Interactive in 1999 and 2000.
Hasbro sold all of its Hasbro Interactive intellectual property to Infogrames (now Atari) when it shut down the studios. Atari now owns the X-COM label, but according to insiders, never plans to revive it.
External links
- MobyGames' entry on the game (http://www.mobygames.com/game/sheet/gameId,543/)
- Official Strategy Guide on Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/076150074x/qid%3D1109312945/104-5987457-4267143)fr:X-COM: Terror from the Deep