X-COM: Terror from the Deep

-For everyone who said, "There's nothing wrong with X-Com's gameplay, leave it alone," we give you 'X-Com Terror from the Deep'- essentially the same game, only much, MUCH harder. You thought you had it rough before? Get ready for underwater-exclusive weapons that do nothing for you when you're forced to fight on land. Oops, forgot to swap out your rotating harpoon shooters? Tough mustard. Do you like scouring a map for some hiding cold-blooded horror that just WILL NOT come out of hiding, then pops out of a closet door you thought you'd already checked and guns down your favourite soldier? Are you ready for shots to slam into enemies and watch in dawning horror as they just keep stalking forward, riddling your poor grunts with accurate fire? -The shift to the oceans as a battleground and the tougher, meaner, smarter adversaries you fight can make the game a grind. Ocean liner attacks can be particularly frustrating... good luck finishing one without casualties. Worse, there are missions that you MUST complete to have a chance of winning the game, a fact you might learn when it's too late. Ruthless, difficult, frustrating and wonderful, this game will leave you tearing out your hair and swearing at the screen... but it makes it so satisfying when you win and crush the loathsome alien invaders into fish paste. This game is ideal for micro-managers with an eye for detail and lots of sneaky tricks. It's particularly harrowing if you play it with Iron Man rules, but don't get attached to your soldiers, because casualties will be high.

I know this was not a huge upgrade over the original. But i felt so much more immersion and suspense fighting underwater! I felt the Music, SFX, and Aliens were big improvement. Aliens were creepier looking. I jumped from my seat several times when playing as a young kid. IMO its the best in the series. Newer games still struggle to compare to it. What i miss most is the Tactical turn based combat that had environments completely destructable, and all doors and walls could be blown up or shot till destroyed, Then you had snap shot which meant you fired 3 bursts of your weapon and many times the shots would miss and transverse the entire map and hit another alien or friendly by accident. You could prime grenades to go off one or two turns later. When you killed a soldier their primed grenade would drop and then go off after dying . The newer games feel a little more fixed and less dynamic. Bullets don't transverse the map and accidently hit other things or blow up other walls. they just miss and fly off the map. Pros: Build bases anywhere in water (more real estate on the geoscape.) Tactical turn based combat engine is more robust and everything you do in it effects something else. Can Get addicting building research bases Aliens can attack your base I think. (Its been a long time since i played.) If i play soon i will update this review for sure. I can't quite remember everything. But its amazing!!! trust me!

If you wanna play this game nowdays do it with OpenXCom Extended. It has a very simple installer that will discover your TFtD installation. You can play vanilla (original game) or with ton of mods improving graphics, music, giving you new weapons, maps etc.

The old X-COM series games are definitely worth a re-play! If you have played the first game in the series (UFO Defense aka "XCOM: Enemy Unknown" in Europe) then this is pretty much the same deal, but in a different setting. Missions are now on land and under water, and there are more weapons to research and use. I loved the "terror" missions on large ships! However, I remember Terror From The Deep as sometimes excruciatingly difficult, as many others have pointed out. Also the graphics are more "gritty" than the first game, worse in my opinion.