UFO Alien Invasion Tech Demo Christmas Edition

Whenever turn-based strategy enters the conversation, there are a few titles that make the headline almost every time, with Heroes of the Might and Magic and X-COM series being amongst the most popular. The latter has generated quite the cult following, thanks to the vast amount of tactical options that were possible throughout the missions and the rather high difficulty bar.

UFO Alien Invasion is a game that emulates the immensely popular X-COM franchise and provides you with the same amount of fun and tactical choices, which can be used to complete a large variety of missions. The feeling and the atmosphere of the original series has been kept almost intact, as well as most of the gameplay mechanics that made it so addictive.

Before each scenario, the game allows you to handpick the team you want to participate in it, by choosing from a list of soldiers, each one of which has a certain background and is more proficient with a certain type of weapon. After the team is chosen, you are also allowed to set up their arsenal and equip them with guns and various other gadgets that can be used to gain the upper hand in combat. Beside pistols, sub-machine guns and shotguns are also available, depending on what kind of operation you want to conduct.

As it was the case in the original game, the mechanics are purely turn-based, which means that you get to perform a certain number of actions each round, after which you wait for the opponent to respond. Although this might not seem like it, the combat sequences get extremely exciting, especially since you have to wait and see whether you plan pans out the way you envisioned it in your mind, or the aliens massacre the entire squad.

From a technical point of view, this title is definitely superior when it comes to graphic quality, especially since it is designed to run on newer systems as well, without requiring any special software. Moreover, it also runs in higher resolutions and features better looking textures and special effects, although it does try to maintain the old look and feel of the franchise.

In the end, UFO Alien Invasion achieves its goal and almost perfectly depicts the highly-acclaimed TBS title based on the same idea, only with improved graphics, fewer bugs and the ability to run on high-end systems that do not support the old game anymore.