First of all, people should be aware that the UFO series is NOT X-com, even tho it is inspired by it. The three UFO games (Aftermath, Aftershock and Afterlight) are one big story and get better from game to game. I found myself that after some mods and patches from the community (use google) the game is very enjoyable as soon as you get in your head that it simply is not X-com. Also without any patches it is still a very good game if you like blowing up mutants and aliens.
The graphics are nice for the time and i enjoyed the story a lot, specially the storyline missions that are very hard and give you new pieces as of what happened to the planet. Even tho the research and production feels a bit weird, once you have a nice set of skilled soldiers and some nice weaponry, the battle against aliens and mutants is a lot of fun for many hours.
If you plan on playing the trilogy, be sure to start with this part - it only gets better from here, as the production, research and ressource handling is improved from part to part (and different in every game).
Give the game a chance and play for longer than two hours, and you will have a good time playing this and remembering it for one of the 'good old games'.