This is the third of the original X-Com series, and when I tired it's real-time option, I never went back to turn-based. There are optional pauses for most events, especially for appearances of enemies.

The graphics are sprite-based for movement, but I think they hold up, to this day. In addition to graphics for game play, there's a database of illustrations with gorgeous detail that back in the 1990s, they couldn't support in game motion.

The enemies are all new for this third edition, and several of them are completely different from any other X-Com game, from the 20th or 21st century. There are some elements common to all X-Com games, such as mind control.

One of the best features of this game is that the best field agents, the ones who really save the last human population on Earrth, are otherwise despised, distrusted minorities: the humanoid droida and the "Grey-Alien"/human hybrids. it's a very subtle lesson, not preachy at all. The player just discovers that these two groups are by far best able to resist alien mind control. The droids are immune, and the hybrids can even fight back, with mind control of their own.

The economic system is simple, but when the pllayer sells surplus gear and ammo to make ends meet, the next week, the price the player can get goes down. Did you buy all the flying armor, all the craft weapons guidance systems, all the medi-kits? The pirces go up.

As much as I love Sid Meier's Civilization (Over 50,000 hours), this is still my favorite game.
The "action music" is energetic, but it's the atmospheric background music, also heard when no alien fight is happening, that really wins me over.

If you decide to give this game a try, see if you can get a copy of the pint guide book, by Prima. Their book for this game is very thorough, with items that make the game a lot more playable, including some exploitable Easter eggs.

Even if you never play the othe rearly X-Com games, this one stands on its own.

A friend, who knows me well, and knows role-playing gave me a life, when nothing else did, gave me this game for Christmas. The year before, he gave me Sid Meier's Civ 6, which is hard to beat, so that's one reason I've not played Pathfinder: Kingmaker as much. It's much easier to play Civ 6 (turn-based) with the sound turned off, while watching video.

I did get stuck in the castle, behind fallen roof beams, until I found a very nice, narrated play-through, that showed me how I'd missed the room with the key to a door. The rest has been very rewarding. The music and voices and art are wonderful, the puzzles engaging.

I'm still pretty lost, and don't have much time to write. The friends who started a Stardew Valley co-op game, in Windows, are about to start a session. It's still a bit overwhelming, but fun. And I've been able to have fun, playing alone, building up practice in the game world of the valley. I'm looking forward to being less lost, tonight. And after almost 14 hours, I finally discovered that hovering over the map reveals tool tips. That helps. But the map doesn't quite show where I am.

When I first played Sid Meier's Civ 1, I played to exhaustion, watching a friend's apartment, fell asleep on the floor for a few hours, and played again, until he and his wife came home. He let me keep the game. After a week, I settled down to a few hours per day, back when my disabilities made employment harder to find. That game, and Civ 2, 3, and 4, helped keep me going.

With Civ 5, another friend talked me out of the kiddie pool of lower difficulty settings, and I discovered how much fun each of the 40-some sides could be. The same friend gifted me Civ 6, for last Christmas, and I liked it so much, I gifted the $80 every-DLC-as-it-comes-out edition to another friend. I put about 15,000 hours into Civ 5, and have already put over 4,000 hours into Civ 6.

My first impression was as bewildered as had been my first encounter with Civ 5. Gorgeous as Civ 6 is, my main thought was channeling UPS: "What can brown do for you?" But eventually I figured out how to assign envoys. Now I can even interpret the graphics for developed hexes in others' empires' sepia tones.

Occasionally, the map gets stuck scrolling, and I have to save, exit, and restart the game. But I go weeks without that happening. I haven't run into any other annoying factors.

So far, I've played Pericles' culture-focused Greece, Russia for a religion win, China for wonder-spamming and science, Tomyris' unstoppable Scythians, and my favorite so far, the peaceful Canadians. Each one has been full of unique fun. I hope you enjoy this game. There are lots of good video play-throughs on YouTube and Twitch, of course. Watch before you buy, and you'll know what to expect. I think most people will find at least a few sides that they enjoy completely.

I first watched on YouTube, as a guy in Slovenia played through it. I still love and play the original X-Com games from the 1990s, so I wanted to see the new version. I was a little disappointed to find out that the largest ground force the game allows is 6 soldiers. But I understand that to have the level of 3D graphics and framework, something had to give. And I enjoyed watching the game so much that I bought it on sale, even before I had a computer that would run it.

I've since been able to run the game on a monster system with 16 GB of RAM, and on my laptop which has only an AMD Turion X2, and only the minimum 4GB of RAM. On my laptop, the game loads slower, but otherwise isn't significantly slower, for me. On my laptop, I have to run it windowed, with all graphics settings on Low, but it runs, and I'm still having fun. I've been playing for months in real time. In saved games, I'm past number 2200. And I haven't tried any of the DlC, as far as I know, and have yet to try Enemy Within. I'll get to it eventually.

If you like turn-based tactical games, with some research and building elements, I think you should at least check out some YouTube video of game play. The old Time Unit system has been replaced with two actions that can be: move-then-shoot; for certain level-dependent options, shoot-then-move-or-shoot-again; or double-move. I don't miss calculating TUs in my head.

I hope you all give it a look.

I played this game for over a year, back in the 1990s, and loved it. Recently, MetalCanyon, from Slovenia, was playing through it on YouTube, and I had such a good time watching that I started it up again. The graphics are simpler, but still fun, and it will run on just about any computer, with DOS Box or indirectly through Steam.

All the early X-Com games would occasionally develop a buggy saved game and crash, but all I've ever needed to do is go back to an earlier save and move forward.

Terror from the Deep is considerably more difficult than the first game. The tentaculates are more a threat than the chrysalids, as the tnetaculates can reach all levels. We can't avoid them by flying (swimming, in this case). And the wonderful smart missiles don't work on land. At least the tentaculates aren't found on land, either.

There are maybe more little hiding places in Terror than in the first game. It really pays to systematically search the map, keeping a lookout so an enemy doesn't sneak back into an area that's been searched. It can take a while, but it beats endlessly searching the same areas again. This series does teach some basics of small unit tactics.

The previous game is also well worth a look, with perhaps the most beautiful maps. The next game, Apocalypse, has a real-time option that I prefer strongly, and MetalCanyon, who really likes turn-based, enjoyed it.

This series is available for very little money, and there are good Let's Plays on YouTube. So many people love this series that a seriously updated remake is doing well. So I think you'll find the old series well worth a look and a try.