JOIN THE DISCORD TO ADD A SOLDIER TO OUR RANKS! discord.gg/Y4Qu5EjbB2 We reached 101 names last night! That means it is finally time to release that discord! Thank you to all the people who showed up early and were able to leave a comment! They are all featured below. For the rest of you, go ahead and join the discord. The bot commands you will need are shown in the recruitment instructions channel. Old comment: If I heart your comment, that means I've got you in. Either leave a generic comment, or let me know what name you'd like your soldier to have. If I ever get more than 100 of you to manage I'll be setting up a discord bot for you all to go through instead. Keep an eye on the pinned comments on X-Com videos and the community tab for more info on that.
I remember the "must capture live deep one on first terror mission or fail the campaign" requirement all the way from 1995. Those first runs were harsh, without question.
Yeah that's just bad game design IMHO. A good game should NEVER require the player to know "in advance" that "one vitally needed trick or bit of info to avoid losing"m garnered from outside that game: either from either some wiki page, or from repeatedly losing game after game after tens or hours of invested time. You should be able to FULLY learn all that you need to know, from WITHIN each and every played instance of the game. Even better, not only each game instance should give you ALL the hints you need to progress in it, but each game instance should ALSO have some variations in it from other playthroughs, so that a good chunk of what you learned from some previous game, does not apply to the new game playthrough (unless if maybe yup layed tons fp laythrough and went through all possible variations). You wsould again have to find hints "in game" to "learn" how to win, but, again, should not be not dependent on getting "outside that specific instance of playing the game" information. It's like that previous old bug where the tiny alient scout, which was a VITAL element of the entire research tree, where you need to either capture the navigator alive or the command device intact, appeared only ONCE, very near the beginning of the game. ONLY ONCE! That was insanely bad design.
@@patrickrannou1278 UFO1 I think was an experiment in how dread and anxiety could be inspired in the player through forcing them into shallow dead-ends. UFO2 could be described as a game development experiment on how audiences react to this pattern stretched into absolute unfairness.
@@patrickrannou1278 That was back in the days when "value for money" meant "as many hours as possible without the ability to add new content after release" 😅 I don't know how many hours it took little me to get through the "tutorial" in _Fallout 2,_ but I nearly gave up the game.
The difficulty of this game is a direct result of the Beginner bug from the first game. Everyone loved it, but said it was too easy, "Even on Superhuman!" So the devs made it harder. Aliens have more time units, are better armoured and armed, more accurate, better at MC, and have way better terror units. Crysallids can now fly! Then there's the tech tree. My first playthrough couldn't be finished because I researched a Tasoth commander. You can completely miss out on better tanks or MC, if you research stuff out of order, or don't have a pre-requisite item in storage before completing the research.
The eternal debate as to why it's more difficult. I tend to agree with this side of argument. It just makes the most sense in context. Glad I didn't have to deal with the bugs on OpenXcom.
@@TonkarzOfSolSystem I don't think that's true. The first game has a bug that reverts the difficulty to Beginner after your first mission, but I've never heard of TFTD doing the opposite.
god bless you for making these two videos, i've been craving XCOM content ever since i saw the ahoy video, so having these 40/50 minute videos has been savoring my craving. i hope you cover the rest of the series, thank you for making this one!!
Thanks for watching! I'm not a big fan of the new games, though I'll have to play them at some point. As for apocalypse, I'm waiting for OpenApoc to be in a more finished state. Hopefully that happens sooner than later. I'll be playing some of the OpenXcom mods in the mean time, alongside a few other games.
I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS ! I hope to see more XCOM in the futur, especially XCOM apocalypse (who got a neat difficulty setting being about the world map).
I've been thinking about apocalypse, but at the moment my interests are focused towards the many mods for OpenXcom. Definitely something I'd like to play for the future, but likely not the next video. Thanks for watching! Hope this was worth the wait.
Apoc is so exploitable. You can park 3-4 advanced interceptors surrounding the warp gates and the second a UFO appears it gets blasted down. Then you can line up your men at critical points on the craft and set them to aggressive fire mode and as the aliens flee the burning ship they get slaugthered. Great fun but once you hit mid game ... kinda easy.
I'll always remember those dreaded Tentaculats. The rule of thumb is if you see one, you kill it instantly. It doesn't matter if there's a lobster man staying next to you, you kill the tentaculat.
I loved XCOM and remember being pressured to buy TFTD but I was put off by the entire principle: I knew what a "palette swap game" was as a kid, and I suspected the entire game's concept was one giant palette swap to try and quickly (and cheaply) ride on XCOM's coattails. "Hey, what's the opposite of land combat?" "Water combat?" "Great! There's our game. Now just make sea-versions of all the XCOM equipment and we've got ourselves another blockbuster!" It was also twice as difficult as regular XCOM, twice as ugly and confusing to fight underwater, and the sticker price was twice what XCOM had shipped at.
Despite this, people still love the underwater atmosphere the game has, so it's maintained a following. I mostly agree with you here, but I can't run an X-COM youtube channel without playing this game. Melee weapons were a nice addition, but most of the game is exactly as you said, a palette swap.
I feel like this is the same thing that happened to Fireaxis XCOM 1 and 2 as well. The same but a wild departure. If you enjoyed the gameplay of the first, you'd only enjoy it in the second if you were a diehard fan. The game is arguably uglier, but some people prefer the seconds vibe. It's always been funny to be how TFTD feels like a completely different game yet also feeling like a palette swap.
@@MrLegrooveth While frankly, 2's DLC made it basically Firaxis 3 with how much the Chosen changes the game. 1's DLC did add some, and felt like viable DLC, they didn't hold a candle to what WotC did.
I always thought they should have made a version of X-Com that included on-land and underwater. Then you could recover all those UFO's you shot down over water.
Half the reason I click videos like this is to see peoples reaction to facing Lobstermen for the first time. Sadism born from childhood trauma. I will never tire of hearing that whale-like cry when a Lobsterman dies. Great video. Now, do Xpiratez😎
Man, it'd take me a year doing this full time to beat Xpiratez. That and I'd forget to censor something in the video and be off the platform. Maybe someday. Also lobstermen are something else. Impossible to deal with head on, and still difficult with cheese.
Oh yeah. never forget the "saving" of the cruise ship, lobsterman shows for first time, got Ion Armor already, but just particle guns... so entire squad encircle the lobsterman, emptied all the clips for particle rifles and cannon, but unable to penetrate, lobsterman rotate on spot and fires back with sonic rifle also not possible to go trough.. then we leave in shame back to base. The trauma never left... :) It would be awesome moment for a movie about alien invasion tho, true WTF just happened..
@@PotatoCaravan There might be a streamer mode mod out there? I recall it being a contention point for XPirates and certain versions of XCom Files (to a lesser degree). I always preferred Final Modpack more myself anyway, tho the later versions of the 40k Mod also slap.
TO THIS DAY, 30 YEARS AGO, I WILL NEVER FORGET MY FIRST ENCOUNTER WITH A LOBSTERMAN. I had learned the key was to immediately sell off Nerf Dart guns, buy high explosive gas cannons and lots of grenades and demo charges. Saw a new alien, had the entire crew shoot full auto explosive at it, throw grenades, even a demo charge just to be safe. Next turn, had a soldier walk through the devastation and bubbles to examine the remains. He arrived at his destination and there the alien was, standing tall, glowing green eyes. I wasn't expecting this. He immediately beat my soldier to death with his bare hands. 12 year old me was terrified.
One of my favorite things to do in UFO Defense is to track down a soldier with single digit Psi Strength, hopefully even zero, and just leave him unarmed on the ship with the Blaster Bombers keeping anyone from reaction firing him while he eats all the psi attacks. I assume it works worse in TftD, but in UFO I can skimp on curating my soldiers for one more stat until endgame. The Hydro-Jet is something you slept on a bit, despite its nerfs from the Autocannon. The Phosphorous ammo isn't as good at lighting up the entire map with fire as AC-I, but it's still worth bringing on Artifact and Base missions for light, and you don't need as many smoke grenades since it'll dissipate faster.
It had occurred to me that I could have a low psi bait soldier on some crafts, but I thought it'd be a bit risky. If someone who had average psi got close to the psychic alien, there is potential to get hit by attacks. As for the phosphorous ammo, I can see the value in it, but since aliens have perfect night vision, I prefer to just leave flares everywhere. That's something I can employ during various OpenXcom mods in the future though. Thanks for watching!
@@PotatoCaravan im pretty sure in TftD the aliens will always go for the lowest psy strength agent on the team no matter the distance, though i could be wrong its been a while since i played it
@@henrymaliphant4152 Just off of gameplay from this run, I believe the aliens will go after the soldier that they have the highest chance of succeeding in an attack against. Since range is factored into this chance, I figured it was possible that someone with mid to low psy could get too close to the aliens and become the new target. If you did a less extreme version of what I did, and had everyone with 40-50 or higher psy strength, then it's likely the strategy would work due to the extreme difference in strength. Just having a guy or two with 1 psy however is not going to perfectly protect a team.
I always wanted to beat TFD when I was younger, but it was too difficult for kid me lol watching you do this made it seem relatively easy. I might go back and try it again after all these years
To reinforce other comments: yes, your video is well made. Doesn't get boring, informative and entertaining. I like to see more from you in the future. And since the older xcom aren't that well covered, seeing apocalypse and UFO defence mods would be neat. Either way I'm subscribed and eager to see what you do in the future. Even if it isn't xcom
Tyty! Apocalypse is planned once OpenApoc is done, and in the mean time I'm playing through mods. There will be other non XCOM videos in between, but I plan on always having an XCOM series going. Reaver's Harmony Megamod will be out sooner or later. I'm pretty deep into that run, but have no idea how much is left.
very detailed and enjoyable summary of your playthrough. Functions both as a guide and entertainment. I've always loved the x com series since I was a kid. Terror from the deep is tedious, as you said, but still enjoyable.
Thank you for the time and effort - TFTD is one I just couldn't get into, and despite my promises to return to it, I just never did. Seeing how it plays out was brilliant to see.
@@emmaselmeci966 No problem lol! I'm not sure if holding the flare illuminates your soldier on DOS, or if that's just OpenXcom. Some of this stuff may not have worked back in the day, so I wouldn't feel bad about it. Thanks again for watching! Wouldn't be doing this without you all.
Glad to see someone still covering this gem of a game. In the majority of my playthroughs, I never use sonic cannons. Too heavy and no auto fire. I prefer 2, 6 man squads. Each squad has one grenadier(scout with double armed explosives....you drop him...he drops you), 2 gauss rifles, 2 gas cannons, and one shock launcher. I use this loadout for the entire game since most armored troops like Lobstermen are easily dropped by the shock launcher. Keeping both squads relatively close gives me two shots of the shock launcher if needed. Oh..and they are in diamond formation with shock launcher in rear and scout in front. I have been known to substitute one group with a coelacanth and 2 gauss troops early, but ditch that team once I have better troops and gear.
To me it’s pretty perfect sequel tbh. I do agree it could be more “underwater” focused and do the theme slightly better but in the end that’s exactly what I wanted back in the day - more of my favorite game just slightly different. 😂😂 - Also, this color scheme was a masterpiece, something way ahead of its time.
This makes sense. If I was playing before OpenXcom and the huge mod variety that it has, TFTD would be nice as an alternative to UFO defense. I just wish it could have done a bit more with the game, as it does feel like a palate swap.
Your name alone has earned you a sub and thanks for posting this i have played a few orginal X-Com games from the 90s and the obscure UFO games Aftermath,Aftershock and Afterlight but i have never played Terror from the Deep but have heard of it.
Thanks for watching! I had wondered for a while if there was an audience for game/videos like these, and I'm happy to see that there is. Glad you enjoyed, more eventually!
Loved the TFTD vibes as a kid but yeah, its hard as nails! Also, feel weird paying this as a compliment but been loving your UFO video to fall asleep to ;) Full power
Odd as it may be, it wouldn't be the first time I received such a compliment. I'm just happy to hear you've enjoyed the video for one reason or another. Thanks for watching!
God I love watching good ol crunchy strategy games. XCOM especially, the tendril of fear that you may just fail your playthrough with a few bad moves makes each turn a calculation.
Just finished watching this @potatocaravan . You did so good. I love this format of video so much. You are able to show us the breadth of your tactics in each type of mission and the depth of the game mechanics and how you exploited them to win effectively. We also got a lot of hilarious xcom moments of being surprised by new alien types or explosions wrecking a ton of your crew or aliens. Well done. I will be recommending this to my subscribers. I hope they all come over and watch what you have achieved here.
Thanks man! I really appreciate the kind words and the exposure! I'm thrilled that people are enjoying, as I'm really just making the videos that I want to see. Glad I'm not alone. Thank you so much!
i love x-com. I remember spending 4+ hours on terror missions on large cruise ships ending up failing because i couldnt find the last alien. Had to leave eventually
Long ago i beat the PlayStation version of this on superhuman with a single soldier. I basically thought it would be fitting that HE was THE superhuman. A lot of save scumming, and it was painfully slow to load on the PlayStation. Good times though.
Tried to go a bit faster with the summary here. I spent twice as long playing and had less than half as much to say. This would have been easily 2 hours had I gone into details on every mission like the UFO video. Let me know what you think. In comparison to mods, these games are short, so I'm leaning towards this style, however if you all have a strong opinion either way I can be swayed. Thanks for watching!
A blast from the past... and a terrorizing blast at that... as a X-Com 1 (UFO Unknown) player when it came out, I remember 2 being so much harder to beat... my teams usually died in the first few missions. Thanks for this video!
Thanks for watching! TFTD was a crazy shift in difficulty from the original. I've seen lots of comments here about people having never finished the game due to how hard it was. Glad you enjoyed!
Ive spent way too many hours on this game, returning to it every 4-5years or so.. its a great game. Happy to see someone actually completing it. Well done
Oh, my beloved TFTD. My first XCOM game. I know it's nostalgia talking, but it's better than first XCOM for me. Way harder, with that infamous tech tree bug back in day when only version was DOS version. I remember how proud I was when I finished it for the first time :D One of my favorite gaming memories. Sacrificing whole squad in depth of alien colony to extract target Lobsterman. Sheer panic when I heard that Tentaculat movement sound and praying I won't hear that knocking sound. The only thing I don't like is one aspect of late game. That aspect beeing: at some point you are to strong to lose, but to weak to beat the game. So whole thing become a grind. Painfull, boring grind. You have to do missions, because of score and to train your soldiers, but that's the only thing. No new stuff, tech, weapons, aliens. It loses its tension late game.
Don't let me take away your enjoyment of the game, I just liked options over difficulty. I agree with your point on late game, as thats a bit of an issue in both games. You can always just use only HWPs, but thats no fun when you've built up your soldiers over the whole of the game. Thanks for watching!
@@PotatoCaravan Do you have any plans to play modded XCOM? Old XCOM, I mean. There is great mod for TFTD called The World of (Terrifying) Silence. Fixes some problems with base game, expands a lot. There is also XCOM Files for first game, but I'm playing it for about a year now and I'm nowhere near the end, so I'm not gonna even suggest playing that for YT :D
@@Idaho86 Yep, I'm actively playing Reaver's harmony megamod and just entered what I'd consider to be mid game. You can keep up with progress in the vods channel if you're interested. I'll host a poll over here when I think I'm within a week or two or beating the game, and I plan on having a couple of TFTD based mods on there (I've got The World of (Terrifying) Silence bookmarked). You can also join the discord if you want a name in these videos too. Set that up after this got posted. Also I'd love to play some of the big mods like X-COM File and xPiratez, but as you mentioned, they will take forever. I have a consistent X-COM schedule of Mondays and Fridays for recordings, so if some of the non X-COM content I post does well, then I'll have a excuse to play them and go without posting X-COM for a while. We'll have to wait and see.
There was someone that told me that this version of x-com was the hardest due to how the A.I apparently cheats and seeing how this game played out I can finally understand. Thanks for this video it's almost like a good in depth (pun only slightly intended) review. Hope to see more from you!
Tyty! This version of X-COM is brutal, but I love the scale and complexity of it. I'll be releasing more eventually, just takes a while to get through a run. Thanks for watching!
While UFO Defense is one of my favourite games ever, TFTD was tedious at times, and at others it had horrible difficulty spikes. I completed it once and have never gone back. It broke me with (what i think was) a terror site that was massive and finding the last panicked, stationary alien took at least an hour of just stumbling around. After that I just wanted to get to the end and uninstall. UFO defense got so much right the first time around, that TFTD was 'the difficult second album' for me.
I prefer Terror from the Deep over Ufo Defense because I got so sick of the urban environments, fighting in warehouses and orchards. The bottom of the ocean was a nice change of pace. Also the enemy subs look more appealing to me than the almost featureless flying saucers.
The change in scenery is pretty cool, and UFO defense definitely starts to feel the same after a while. Both the games have shortfalls, and it just depends which bother you more. Thanks for watching!
How I do TFTD runs on Superhuman: Sell all weapons, buy Hydro Auto Cannons and Jet Cannons, make sure you have at least 3 rookies with 70 accuracy, if you don't, just reload the run and try again until the game spawns you with them, make sure all Jet Cannons and HAC's have explosive ammo not any of the other types Base in the Atlantic covering the Med In missions run rookies into the deep with the 3 snipers on the wings of the Triton, I use a Coel tank for this as the tank is just there to clean up if everyone misses and absorb more shots on average without completely melting unless extremely unlucky as Sonic does like 50 to 150% extra damage per shot on RNG chance. Hydro Auto Cannons for everyone else because auto shot x3 with explosive ammo with Rooks spread out is actually decent at killing Aquatoids if the snipers fail which brings me to: Aimed shots with Jet Cannons on the 70 acc Rooks and then kneel on the wings to stop aliens taking pot shots at you the next turn and slowly raise them into alien exterminators Research Sonic Pulsar and use that as your mainstay weapon (replacing HAC's with these and turn your Rookies into Grenadiers which allows them to work on land better) until you research Sonic Cannon Sonic Cannon will phase out Jet Cannon and you'll be in a strong position to get armor and Displacers eventually, do it properly you should end the game before September which is when the aliens start equipping all basic troops with DPLs (the Blaster Bomb equivalents in TFTD). Phasing out Sonic Cannon for Thermal Shok is optional as a stunned enemy is as good as a dead enemy
Good video as alway with a great naration (the only problem is the micro with who produce a slight background noise but not the most dramatic thing). For future playtrought after your Reaver Harmony one (which i hope receive the same tratement as your two last xcom and TFTD playthrought), you could trie XCOM apocalypse (great game with few playtrought online and no sort of superedit) or the XCOM file (great but TITANIC modpack for open xcom).
Tyty! Apocalypse is on my radar, however I'm waiting for OpenApoc to be completed. I have no idea how long that will take, however once it is done, I'll play Apocalypse. As for larger modpacks, that depends on how the non-Xcom videos do. They will take forever to beat, and I'll need to keep uploading something in that time.
though its a different format (video and not screenshot), this reminds me of the old something awful x-com LPs, how youve put this together. love how you step through the hiccups in each encounter in these edits too. well done carving your niche
I can see the preference in TFTD's research tree, but I always found it overly convoluted and far too intertwined. I always felt most of the requirements were arbitrary at best, put into place for - as you mentioned - pure difficulty spikes alone.
I don't disagree that the research tree is there for difficulty, as it feels like every other tech requires an alien interrogation, but the fact that there are requirements that take more than a month to complete was super interesting. It does help that I can use OpenXcom to browse the research tree whenever I want, and without that I'd probably be less fond of the complexity. It is in no way intuitive.
@@PotatoCaravan That's probably why I don't like it. my only experience with TFTD was the CD version before OpenXCom. Also, first time I've seen someone actually PLAY an X-COM game on Superhuman, worth a sub.
Played this with friends together on one PC. Trying a higher difficulty, opening the door and just exploding was a formative experience. I dont think any of us ever finished the game though. I resorted to savescumming which made the experience tedious. Liked the video. If you are looking for something which might fit: Neo Scavenger might work if you're not spoiled on it and should not take a fraction of an X-Com game.
I always used to take Dreadnoughts and Supply Ships from above. Once I had DPLs, MC, and Mag Ion Armor, one trooper scouted the four fans up top on the Dreadnought, and then we'd crack the roof with a DPL Torp. Once we scouted an enemy with a DPL, we'd MC one or both, and they would fire on each other or the Commander to kill all the officers and demoralize all lower tier enemies. We'd then move down from the upper entry point to clear with other troops clearing the surrounding area and create blocking positions to prevent runners. Rinse repeat
I had forgotten that the DPL can destroy sub walls. Should have made use of that during my run. I don't believe I had DPLs or MC at the time of the first dreadnought, but this would have worked well.
@@PotatoCaravan "Create your own entry point," "Treat ships as upside down buildings," and "Stack up (on doors) for entry" are 3 actual-world tactics I picked up organically from TFTD. And, yeah, we have to do it the old fashioned way before DPLs, MagIon, and MC, but once we have them, it's tilt time on Dreadnoughts.
I always found alien activity missions especially frustrating. The second stage, particularly the area holding the lift to the synonium device, was designed with a ton of tentaculats in elevated hiding places. If you weren't smart to that quirk of the level, you were in for a really fun time. The floating sonic tank was a bit of an equaliser if you got it in time, since tentaculats couldn't infest it and its armour was strong enough to resist their attacks most of the time.
This was my experience. I tend to underuse the various HWPs in the game, though right now that's due to the soldiers with subscriber names. There are a couple of mods coming up that I'll likely need to use them in. Thanks for watching!
Ok I've subscribed. This is incredible, I must have played the original so many times, but never terror from the deep. I was too hard. I highly recommend you do this with some mods, the 40k one and xpirates are two ive sunk far too many hours into. Loving this, and look forward to what comes next.
Tyty! I plan on playing through the popular overhaul mods eventually, they are just going to take forever to get through. I'm working on a plan for the channel during the massive downtime I'll have while playing one of these mods. Thanks for watching!
Am I wrong or does OTftD not have the same starter base option as OpenXCom? I know the two are built in a similar system, I'm just unsure if this was a conscious decision or forgotten about when you set up your base for OTftD. I don't really know enough about TftD in general to really comment, but hearing some of the commentary on some of the tweaks, I can def see how it's considered so much harder, even not counting water wounds basically being crush deaths.
It does have the same starter base options, I just wanted to play TFTD as close as was reasonable to the original experience. As for difficulty, most of it comes from the 2 stage missions, and the stats of late game aliens. The mechanics are about the same as UFO Defense.
I think the beginer month bug for the previous game wasnt taken into account for the harder difficulty of this game as the developers were aware of the type of issue it had. My source is tv tropes but i think this rumor does get spread around a lot.
My thought behind the overcorrection comment was based on the fact that people found the first game easy. In an effort to give them something more difficult, the difficulty of TFTD was pushed past what is reasonable. Not sure how true that is as I wasn't even born then, but I've seen this sentiment online a few times.
So after completing xcom for the 2nd time last week (might I add the QOL features make beating xcom original extremely easy compared to vanilla on DOS) I decided to get working on TFTD. Holy crap even on easy mode the dock/resort/shipping containers were hard. But then I did an alien colony for the first time. I did not expect how insane that would be. Lobstermen in their own habitat... RIP me in the 2nd mission LMAO :D
The game is brutal. Really feels like you're venturing somewhere you don't belong on a lot of the missions. Early game was the hardest, but without MC late game is still quite terrifying.
@@PotatoCaravan i finally finished it last night!! all i can say is that the auto sell feature in manufacturing is the best part of openxcom. feels a little cheesy. but hey. i got money! i think i got really lucky with capturing the right aliens before june. i had MC trained soldiers by september and was super super lucky to raid a LANDED dreadnought to get the commander. from there I levelled up 8 MC soldiers with good strength and decent skill (some had 70+ skill on the final mission). I've never seen so many panic'd aquanauts and lobstermen :D
terror missions stay significantly longer when targeted by an xcom craft. just cycle your interceptors towards the mission (with the new one targeting it BEFORE the old one reaches it) until you are in broad daylight. youll never suffer the night mission horrors again
When a mission is targeted by a craft, the timer on it despawning is paused. I didn't know that you could use an interceptor to extend this timer though. That's a nice tip.
YEah......I remember this game. First mission on superhuman. My soldiers opened the door and the enemy threw multiple sonic grenades between them. BOOM all the soldiers died. Then on normal difficulty I spend like 2 hours clearing a terror attack on a cruiseschip, I just couldn't find the last lobsterman. I finally found him in a closet in one of the passengers cabins.
I beat this game as a teenager in the 90s and we didn't have home internet access so I'd call my cousin and exchange intel on the game with him. That's how we (slowly) managed to finish it! You could do something similar on RUclips with the original Jagged Alliance.
Hey, man. Highly enjoyable vids, these. I myself love everything about classic X-Com games: art style, storytelling, immersive mechanics and their interaction with each other as well as the player, sheer atmosphere of actual alien horror. All that aside from one thing: actually playing the damn things. So watching someone this competent go against these insane odds is a treat. Thanks for the experience.
I want to like Terror From the Deep but there are so many frustrating elements. Biggest crime is not being able to use a blaster launcher on land. When I found that out as a kid I was pissed.
I also found that out half way through playing lol! Tried shooting one during a base defense, was told I couldn't, and got super confused as to why the aliens were running around with them if they couldn't fire them. Thanks for watching!
Brings back memories I remember first terrror mission on TFTD after playing x-com. I thought I won and then …. Bam, phase two, another level on the ship.
3:03 wow i can't believe i died on the first mission....WITH NO KILLS. Lucky i managed to redeem myself with the base defense. Jokes aside im really happy you added me, I actually showed my Grandpa that i was famous lol. I hope my name gets added if you do another x-com playthrough in the future.
You weren't alone there lol. As for the names, I've got a database file with all the names I've collected so far, and you're still in there. You should join the discord, as eventually I'm going to phase out all of the names not attached to a discord account, but you'll be in the next video or two for sure. Thanks for watching!
That it does. When trying to mind control a unit, you compare MC strengths/skill and have a random amount added or subtracted from the final value. If you have super low strength you're going to lose every time. Thanks for watching!
They were likely more concerned with the original setting first. Not sure if they we'll ever see this again since the game had mixed reception. Never know though.
Is XCOM apocalypse next in your list by any chance? I have some fond memories of that game and it's weird armour's, especially the megapol armour that gave me strong Guyver vibes.
I'm not playing apocalypse as the next XCOM game, but it is something I'd like to do soon. The OpenApoc project isn't finished yet, and I'd like to wait for its completion before making the video.
I'll have a mod vote sometime soon for what to play next. I don't know that i play to play the game with just brutal AI, but there are some mods on there that likely include it in some form. Rosigma on the other hand is something I'm thinking about adding to the poll!
Research does add something like 10-20 score iirc, also just to let you know having multiple sonars/radars in these games is actually good, as each has a *chance* to detect UFOs in their radius, so having a small/large/etc sonar or radar is actually useful
I don't know how but you make the game look so easy lol. You should try the new hard mode expansion for a future video. I haven't tried it yet but it looks like it adds a lot to the regular ufo defense. And maybe you can try Xcom apocalypse as well in the future. Just some suggestions.
I plan on playing apocalypse when OpenApoc is finished, and I'll be posting mod votes between videos. Reaver's Harmony Megamod won this time around, but hardmode will be one of the mods up to vote for soon.
It's on my radar. Of the older titles being recommended, X-Com is the only one I've played. Jagged Alliance 2 has been specifically asked for a few times, so there is a good chance I try it out, but I'm sticking with OpenXcom mods for a little while yet.
@@loszhor Not completely retro, as I'm planning on posting some of the random games I decide to play. I'm expecting to have X-Com or other retro games going on all the time for the channel, with the occasional random game I thought was fun. Same video format, just don't be too surprised if the new Factorio expansion gets a video.
@@PotatoCaravan JA2 is a classic and plays very similarly to XCOM in a lot of ways. Turn based strategy, obviously, but you also start with total newbies and have to carefully manage your money to hire, outfit and train a decent team. All the while a superior enemy is trying to force you out. Lots of fun, especially since JA2 was voiced and XCOM obviously was too early for that. Biggest difference in JA2 is all your soldiers are on timed contracts and there are no cheap "meat shields" - your mercs get mad quickly if casualties get high and will quit or refuse to renew their contracts, making for a different kind of "cascading failure" from the simply score system in XCOM. You also have to pay funeral expenses of anybody who dies in your command. Similarly to XCOM 2, losing a single soldier is a much bigger deal.
This was the first X-COM game for me when I was a kid and oh boy did it do a number on me! I remember doing my 15th base mission while wearing pajamas because I couldn't secure deep one in the right time. I didn't realize I was stuck and that hounts me to this day. Also something about doing research in the wrong order. Couple of years ago I did a blog in a closed forum where I recruited my soldiers to fight the fight. I decided that for the first time in my life, I was going to finish this game. I rushed research and just left every ship mission (oh I hate those!). When I finished, it felt really anticlimactic. This game is too hard for my liking in places it shouldn't be. Also really tedious. I won't touch this thing never again, I want my games to have a modicum of fun in them. Have you ever thought trying to beat the new XCOM's with Long War mods? They're really fun! I myself am a self-proclaimed "Two-time Long War Veteran". Or perhaps beating the Xenonauts (which also have somesort "long war" mod)? Also did a blog when playing these and the stories they generated amongs the recruits was hilarious! One of my long war medics used "healing crystals" and it was common joke that getting some infirmary time meant lots and lots of ice cream.
While I'm not a huge fan of the newer X-COM games, I've been considering Xenonaughts. It's one of the game I'll be circulating in the polls for what to play next, so it's very possible I end up playing.
There is technically in the extended version of OpenXcom, however this is simply a different game. UFO Defense and Terror from the Deep are separate games in the series, and I've played a different one for each video.
I played the original X-Com when I was a kid with the bug that dropped it to the easiest difficulty after the first mission. I thought I was pretty hot s*it at X-Com when I picked up Terror From The Deep. Holy f*ck did I get taken to school by that game.
I loved and still love this game as long as the research tree did not bugged or any aliens were deployed in a wall. Unfortunate that these both were too common in my games, so I only ended one time. They were even more frustrating than the too long missions or the insane difficulty peaks for me.
This game (and original ufo) is so good, and also in the same time so old, that it looks like kind of modern india A - pixel-art style game and is fresh again :)
It might be cliche to suggest the next game in the series, but a run of Apocalypse would be cool to see. I know you have a modded UFO playthrough in the works, so its just something for the future =D
I'd love to play Apocalypse, I'm just waiting to see if the OpenApoc project ever gets finished. I know it has a fair amount of the game complete, but it's not quite done yet.
What I dont understand is why you didnt fidle more with the display settings so your UI wouldnt be 1/2 of the size it should be. Also goes for the previous video.
I have such good memories of these games, but looking back on them, they really are a mix of both brilliant and daft ideas. Usually giving the player some overpowered weapons and skills quite early on, that ruin the gameplay. Worst offender being the mind control which not only spoils the difficulty but also ruins the mood since now the aliens are not this mysterious and powerful force, but just puppets. They should be much more resistant to being mind controlled, as they are the ones who invented it, and the humans are just trying to crudely learn the basics.
IIRC after UFO Defense success devs only had 6 month to make XCOM: TFTD thus the balancing being weird. I really liked TFTD for it's atmosphere and MC being strong doesn't really bother me, at worse you have the option to play Xenonauts style and TFTD allow you a lot of freedom in your strats just like XCOM: UD. XCOM: Apocalypse got it worse since they had to scrap a lot of stuff, the game is still good and it offer the choice of Real time or turn based combat thus I like these 3 old XCOM games because they are different and really tried something new, if they had the money and technology we have now.......
I also remember hearing that the game was made on a pretty tight timeline. I will agree that some of the balancing can waved because of this, but tentaculats in particular just don't sit right with me. As for a modern remake, I'd love to see that too! OpenXcom has been the work of a few people in their spare time, so you can only imagine what a team of paid devs could make.
I hope youre down for the Marbozir XCOM2 modlist, its absolutely incredible. Closest thing to feeling like the breadth of OG, but the depth is shocking.
Thanks for the entertaining video! Is there some reason you went for so long with sonic pistols? I typically skip them in favor for other research until cannons appear. Was the mc lab training up also mc-unrelated stats in the vanilla? I've never noticed. Also, I would never dare to attack alien base without MC training on superhuman. For the terror missions, I remember that in vanilla, you could almost always play them during the day by delaying deployment of the Triton. WP and well thought out!
Np! Glad you enjoyed. Yes, when facing aquatoids and gill men, this pistols do more than enough damage to deal with them comfortably. Additionally for the first month or two pistols are all you see, so I wasn't short on them. They also allow for 3 shots in a turn instead of the 2 shots from sonic cannons, so you'd see me swap back to pistols when an easy race came up. For the lab, no. It only trains MC skill. However using the MC disruptor item in missions does train more stats than just MC skill, and thats what I spent a lot of the later episodes doing. Finally, yes there is a way to do all missions during the day. When a mission spawns, there is a timer for it to despawn, however the mission will never despawn so long as it's targeted by a sub. If you have 2 subs and alternate who is targeting the mission without interruption, you can keep the mission alive as long as you need. Tyty, and thanks for watching!
JOIN THE DISCORD TO ADD A SOLDIER TO OUR RANKS!
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We reached 101 names last night! That means it is finally time to release that discord! Thank you to all the people who showed up early and were able to leave a comment! They are all featured below. For the rest of you, go ahead and join the discord. The bot commands you will need are shown in the recruitment instructions channel.
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If I heart your comment, that means I've got you in. Either leave a generic comment, or let me know what name you'd like your soldier to have. If I ever get more than 100 of you to manage I'll be setting up a discord bot for you all to go through instead. Keep an eye on the pinned comments on X-Com videos and the community tab for more info on that.
Can you name a soldier Overlord Kego ? If it's too long then Hunneychu.
Can you name a soldier AIDS Patient Zero
hi
Awesome! If I get in, hope I don't die in the first mission lol
(Just druidmancer is fine!)
Ok, what a roller-coaster, got fired, came back (gonna only comment at the end of the video now lol)
I remember the "must capture live deep one on first terror mission or fail the campaign" requirement all the way from 1995. Those first runs were harsh, without question.
Absolutely. Took me like 4-5 attempts to get out of early game when learning TFTD. I was on superhuman, but that's still brutal. Thanks for watching!
Yeah that's just bad game design IMHO. A good game should NEVER require the player to know "in advance" that "one vitally needed trick or bit of info to avoid losing"m garnered from outside that game: either from either some wiki page, or from repeatedly losing game after game after tens or hours of invested time. You should be able to FULLY learn all that you need to know, from WITHIN each and every played instance of the game.
Even better, not only each game instance should give you ALL the hints you need to progress in it, but each game instance should ALSO have some variations in it from other playthroughs, so that a good chunk of what you learned from some previous game, does not apply to the new game playthrough (unless if maybe yup layed tons fp laythrough and went through all possible variations). You wsould again have to find hints "in game" to "learn" how to win, but, again, should not be not dependent on getting "outside that specific instance of playing the game" information.
It's like that previous old bug where the tiny alient scout, which was a VITAL element of the entire research tree, where you need to either capture the navigator alive or the command device intact, appeared only ONCE, very near the beginning of the game. ONLY ONCE! That was insanely bad design.
@@patrickrannou1278 UFO1 I think was an experiment in how dread and anxiety could be inspired in the player through forcing them into shallow dead-ends. UFO2 could be described as a game development experiment on how audiences react to this pattern stretched into absolute unfairness.
@@patrickrannou1278 That was back in the days when "value for money" meant "as many hours as possible without the ability to add new content after release" 😅
I don't know how many hours it took little me to get through the "tutorial" in _Fallout 2,_ but I nearly gave up the game.
The difficulty of this game is a direct result of the Beginner bug from the first game.
Everyone loved it, but said it was too easy, "Even on Superhuman!"
So the devs made it harder.
Aliens have more time units, are better armoured and armed, more accurate, better at MC, and have way better terror units.
Crysallids can now fly!
Then there's the tech tree.
My first playthrough couldn't be finished because I researched a Tasoth commander.
You can completely miss out on better tanks or MC, if you research stuff out of order, or don't have a pre-requisite item in storage before completing the research.
The eternal debate as to why it's more difficult. I tend to agree with this side of argument. It just makes the most sense in context. Glad I didn't have to deal with the bugs on OpenXcom.
yeah we didn't consider it horribly difficult back in the day compared to 1. we didn't know of the bug.
Also the game has a bug that means it's always on the hardest difficulty regardless of what difficulty you pick.
@@TonkarzOfSolSystem I don't think that's true. The first game has a bug that reverts the difficulty to Beginner after your first mission, but I've never heard of TFTD doing the opposite.
@@chopperbyrne Hmmm... Well, to my understanding it was commonly known. I could be wrong though, it's a factoid I read somewhere a long time ago.
god bless you for making these two videos, i've been craving XCOM content ever since i saw the ahoy video, so having these 40/50 minute videos has been savoring my craving. i hope you cover the rest of the series, thank you for making this one!!
Thanks for watching! I'm not a big fan of the new games, though I'll have to play them at some point. As for apocalypse, I'm waiting for OpenApoc to be in a more finished state. Hopefully that happens sooner than later. I'll be playing some of the OpenXcom mods in the mean time, alongside a few other games.
I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS ! I hope to see more XCOM in the futur, especially XCOM apocalypse (who got a neat difficulty setting being about the world map).
I've been thinking about apocalypse, but at the moment my interests are focused towards the many mods for OpenXcom. Definitely something I'd like to play for the future, but likely not the next video.
Thanks for watching! Hope this was worth the wait.
Wasn't there a guy working on an open version of apocalypse. I wonder how that project is going.
Apoc is so exploitable. You can park 3-4 advanced interceptors surrounding the warp gates and the second a UFO appears it gets blasted down. Then you can line up your men at critical points on the craft and set them to aggressive fire mode and as the aliens flee the burning ship they get slaugthered.
Great fun but once you hit mid game ... kinda easy.
@@PotatoCaravanI think it would be quite interesting to try an xPiratez. You'll have a blast 😂
@@dexterorvill4157 I don't even want to know what youtube would do with an xPiratez video...
I'll always remember those dreaded Tentaculats. The rule of thumb is if you see one, you kill it instantly. It doesn't matter if there's a lobster man staying next to you, you kill the tentaculat.
They're the worst
I loved XCOM and remember being pressured to buy TFTD but I was put off by the entire principle: I knew what a "palette swap game" was as a kid, and I suspected the entire game's concept was one giant palette swap to try and quickly (and cheaply) ride on XCOM's coattails.
"Hey, what's the opposite of land combat?" "Water combat?" "Great! There's our game. Now just make sea-versions of all the XCOM equipment and we've got ourselves another blockbuster!"
It was also twice as difficult as regular XCOM, twice as ugly and confusing to fight underwater, and the sticker price was twice what XCOM had shipped at.
Despite this, people still love the underwater atmosphere the game has, so it's maintained a following. I mostly agree with you here, but I can't run an X-COM youtube channel without playing this game. Melee weapons were a nice addition, but most of the game is exactly as you said, a palette swap.
I feel like this is the same thing that happened to Fireaxis XCOM 1 and 2 as well. The same but a wild departure. If you enjoyed the gameplay of the first, you'd only enjoy it in the second if you were a diehard fan. The game is arguably uglier, but some people prefer the seconds vibe. It's always been funny to be how TFTD feels like a completely different game yet also feeling like a palette swap.
@@starcraft2own The change from Firaxis 1 to 2 was much bigger, they refined the design a lot and added a load of variety
@@MrLegrooveth While frankly, 2's DLC made it basically Firaxis 3 with how much the Chosen changes the game. 1's DLC did add some, and felt like viable DLC, they didn't hold a candle to what WotC did.
I always thought they should have made a version of X-Com that included on-land and underwater. Then you could recover all those UFO's you shot down over water.
Half the reason I click videos like this is to see peoples reaction to facing Lobstermen for the first time. Sadism born from childhood trauma.
I will never tire of hearing that whale-like cry when a Lobsterman dies.
Great video. Now, do Xpiratez😎
Man, it'd take me a year doing this full time to beat Xpiratez. That and I'd forget to censor something in the video and be off the platform. Maybe someday.
Also lobstermen are something else. Impossible to deal with head on, and still difficult with cheese.
Oh yeah. never forget the "saving" of the cruise ship, lobsterman shows for first time, got Ion Armor already, but just particle guns... so entire squad encircle the lobsterman, emptied all the clips for particle rifles and cannon, but unable to penetrate, lobsterman rotate on spot and fires back with sonic rifle also not possible to go trough.. then we leave in shame back to base. The trauma never left... :) It would be awesome moment for a movie about alien invasion tho, true WTF just happened..
@@PotatoCaravan There might be a streamer mode mod out there? I recall it being a contention point for XPirates and certain versions of XCom Files (to a lesser degree). I always preferred Final Modpack more myself anyway, tho the later versions of the 40k Mod also slap.
TO THIS DAY, 30 YEARS AGO, I WILL NEVER FORGET MY FIRST ENCOUNTER WITH A LOBSTERMAN.
I had learned the key was to immediately sell off Nerf Dart guns, buy high explosive gas cannons and lots of grenades and demo charges.
Saw a new alien, had the entire crew shoot full auto explosive at it, throw grenades, even a demo charge just to be safe.
Next turn, had a soldier walk through the devastation and bubbles to examine the remains.
He arrived at his destination and there the alien was, standing tall, glowing green eyes. I wasn't expecting this.
He immediately beat my soldier to death with his bare hands.
12 year old me was terrified.
Water sectoid going down sounds nice too. And MCd Lobsterman doing Your bidding feels good.
One of my favorite things to do in UFO Defense is to track down a soldier with single digit Psi Strength, hopefully even zero, and just leave him unarmed on the ship with the Blaster Bombers keeping anyone from reaction firing him while he eats all the psi attacks. I assume it works worse in TftD, but in UFO I can skimp on curating my soldiers for one more stat until endgame.
The Hydro-Jet is something you slept on a bit, despite its nerfs from the Autocannon. The Phosphorous ammo isn't as good at lighting up the entire map with fire as AC-I, but it's still worth bringing on Artifact and Base missions for light, and you don't need as many smoke grenades since it'll dissipate faster.
It had occurred to me that I could have a low psi bait soldier on some crafts, but I thought it'd be a bit risky. If someone who had average psi got close to the psychic alien, there is potential to get hit by attacks.
As for the phosphorous ammo, I can see the value in it, but since aliens have perfect night vision, I prefer to just leave flares everywhere. That's something I can employ during various OpenXcom mods in the future though.
Thanks for watching!
@@PotatoCaravan im pretty sure in TftD the aliens will always go for the lowest psy strength agent on the team no matter the distance, though i could be wrong its been a while since i played it
@@henrymaliphant4152 Just off of gameplay from this run, I believe the aliens will go after the soldier that they have the highest chance of succeeding in an attack against. Since range is factored into this chance, I figured it was possible that someone with mid to low psy could get too close to the aliens and become the new target. If you did a less extreme version of what I did, and had everyone with 40-50 or higher psy strength, then it's likely the strategy would work due to the extreme difference in strength. Just having a guy or two with 1 psy however is not going to perfectly protect a team.
I always wanted to beat TFD when I was younger, but it was too difficult for kid me lol watching you do this made it seem relatively easy. I might go back and try it again after all these years
It's not too bad if you know what you're doing. It just becomes extremely monotonous once you've got the best items.
To reinforce other comments: yes, your video is well made. Doesn't get boring, informative and entertaining. I like to see more from you in the future. And since the older xcom aren't that well covered, seeing apocalypse and UFO defence mods would be neat. Either way I'm subscribed and eager to see what you do in the future. Even if it isn't xcom
Tyty! Apocalypse is planned once OpenApoc is done, and in the mean time I'm playing through mods. There will be other non XCOM videos in between, but I plan on always having an XCOM series going. Reaver's Harmony Megamod will be out sooner or later. I'm pretty deep into that run, but have no idea how much is left.
very detailed and enjoyable summary of your playthrough. Functions both as a guide and entertainment. I've always loved the x com series since I was a kid. Terror from the deep is tedious, as you said, but still enjoyable.
Thanks! That was the goal when making it.
You are very easy to listen to and your detached kind of humour clicks with me. Please more of this or any other retro game, good stuff
OpenXcom has mod support, so you can expect more content like this eventually. Thanks for watching! Glad you enjoyed.
Thank you for the time and effort - TFTD is one I just couldn't get into, and despite my promises to return to it, I just never did. Seeing how it plays out was brilliant to see.
I wouldn't have played the game either if not for this video, so I get that. Thanks for watching!
33:11 jesus, giving a scanner to a mind-controlled alien never even crossed my mind, this is a crazy strategy
That and having them hold a flare at night to illuminate themselves were super useful strategies this run. Thanks for watching!
@@PotatoCaravan ouch, now I'm embarassed, UFO is one of my favorite games and I didn't know that either. Thanks for the video and the tips, Potato!
@@emmaselmeci966 No problem lol! I'm not sure if holding the flare illuminates your soldier on DOS, or if that's just OpenXcom. Some of this stuff may not have worked back in the day, so I wouldn't feel bad about it. Thanks again for watching! Wouldn't be doing this without you all.
Glad to see someone still covering this gem of a game. In the majority of my playthroughs, I never use sonic cannons. Too heavy and no auto fire. I prefer 2, 6 man squads. Each squad has one grenadier(scout with double armed explosives....you drop him...he drops you), 2 gauss rifles, 2 gas cannons, and one shock launcher. I use this loadout for the entire game since most armored troops like Lobstermen are easily dropped by the shock launcher. Keeping both squads relatively close gives me two shots of the shock launcher if needed. Oh..and they are in diamond formation with shock launcher in rear and scout in front. I have been known to substitute one group with a coelacanth and 2 gauss troops early, but ditch that team once I have better troops and gear.
I really enjoy this format for X-COM content. I've got so many ~150 part let's plays in my watch later that I'm never going to get around to.
I had the same thought when I decided to make this type of content. Thanks for watching!
To me it’s pretty perfect sequel tbh. I do agree it could be more “underwater” focused and do the theme slightly better but in the end that’s exactly what I wanted back in the day - more of my favorite game just slightly different. 😂😂 - Also, this color scheme was a masterpiece, something way ahead of its time.
This makes sense. If I was playing before OpenXcom and the huge mod variety that it has, TFTD would be nice as an alternative to UFO defense. I just wish it could have done a bit more with the game, as it does feel like a palate swap.
Your name alone has earned you a sub and thanks for posting this i have played a few orginal X-Com games from the 90s and the obscure UFO games Aftermath,Aftershock and Afterlight but i have never played Terror from the Deep but have heard of it.
Thanks for watching! I had wondered for a while if there was an audience for game/videos like these, and I'm happy to see that there is. Glad you enjoyed, more eventually!
Loved the TFTD vibes as a kid but yeah, its hard as nails!
Also, feel weird paying this as a compliment but been loving your UFO video to fall asleep to ;)
Full power
Odd as it may be, it wouldn't be the first time I received such a compliment. I'm just happy to hear you've enjoyed the video for one reason or another.
Thanks for watching!
At least thanks to this invasion, lobster'll be cheap...
That it will.
God I love watching good ol crunchy strategy games. XCOM especially, the tendril of fear that you may just fail your playthrough with a few bad moves makes each turn a calculation.
There's not much out there similar to these games!
Dude this was great thanks for spending the time making it!
Thanks for watching! I'm just happy people are enjoying these.
Just finished watching this @potatocaravan . You did so good. I love this format of video so much. You are able to show us the breadth of your tactics in each type of mission and the depth of the game mechanics and how you exploited them to win effectively. We also got a lot of hilarious xcom moments of being surprised by new alien types or explosions wrecking a ton of your crew or aliens. Well done. I will be recommending this to my subscribers. I hope they all come over and watch what you have achieved here.
Thanks man! I really appreciate the kind words and the exposure! I'm thrilled that people are enjoying, as I'm really just making the videos that I want to see. Glad I'm not alone. Thank you so much!
@@PotatoCaravan you are so welcome Potato. Seriously. You are very awesome at what you do. I wish I was doing this in 2009 when i started youtube.
@@Malkasphia That hindsight for ya. Wouldn't dwell on it too much. Out of your control now. Thanks again!
29:56 Those kinds of laughs are always the best.
i love x-com. I remember spending 4+ hours on terror missions on large cruise ships ending up failing because i couldnt find the last alien. Had to leave eventually
Been there, I like motion scanners for this reason, but even they sometimes fail if the alien in sitting in place panicking,
Ive never played XCOM before but your videos have been very entertaining. Im very excited for more!
Thanks! More soonish.
Long ago i beat the PlayStation version of this on superhuman with a single soldier. I basically thought it would be fitting that HE was THE superhuman. A lot of save scumming, and it was painfully slow to load on the PlayStation. Good times though.
That does sound like it'd take forever. An impressive feat regardless of methodology though.
Tried to go a bit faster with the summary here. I spent twice as long playing and had less than half as much to say. This would have been easily 2 hours had I gone into details on every mission like the UFO video. Let me know what you think. In comparison to mods, these games are short, so I'm leaning towards this style, however if you all have a strong opinion either way I can be swayed. Thanks for watching!
A blast from the past... and a terrorizing blast at that... as a X-Com 1 (UFO Unknown) player when it came out, I remember 2 being so much harder to beat... my teams usually died in the first few missions. Thanks for this video!
Thanks for watching! TFTD was a crazy shift in difficulty from the original. I've seen lots of comments here about people having never finished the game due to how hard it was. Glad you enjoyed!
Ive spent way too many hours on this game, returning to it every 4-5years or so.. its a great game. Happy to see someone actually completing it. Well done
Tyty!
Cheers for these, needed a bit of retro X-Com for my work day.
No problem, glad you enjoyed!
Oh, my beloved TFTD. My first XCOM game. I know it's nostalgia talking, but it's better than first XCOM for me. Way harder, with that infamous tech tree bug back in day when only version was DOS version. I remember how proud I was when I finished it for the first time :D One of my favorite gaming memories. Sacrificing whole squad in depth of alien colony to extract target Lobsterman. Sheer panic when I heard that Tentaculat movement sound and praying I won't hear that knocking sound. The only thing I don't like is one aspect of late game. That aspect beeing: at some point you are to strong to lose, but to weak to beat the game. So whole thing become a grind. Painfull, boring grind. You have to do missions, because of score and to train your soldiers, but that's the only thing. No new stuff, tech, weapons, aliens. It loses its tension late game.
Don't let me take away your enjoyment of the game, I just liked options over difficulty. I agree with your point on late game, as thats a bit of an issue in both games. You can always just use only HWPs, but thats no fun when you've built up your soldiers over the whole of the game. Thanks for watching!
@@PotatoCaravan Do you have any plans to play modded XCOM? Old XCOM, I mean. There is great mod for TFTD called The World of (Terrifying) Silence. Fixes some problems with base game, expands a lot. There is also XCOM Files for first game, but I'm playing it for about a year now and I'm nowhere near the end, so I'm not gonna even suggest playing that for YT :D
@@Idaho86 Yep, I'm actively playing Reaver's harmony megamod and just entered what I'd consider to be mid game. You can keep up with progress in the vods channel if you're interested. I'll host a poll over here when I think I'm within a week or two or beating the game, and I plan on having a couple of TFTD based mods on there (I've got The World of (Terrifying) Silence bookmarked). You can also join the discord if you want a name in these videos too. Set that up after this got posted.
Also I'd love to play some of the big mods like X-COM File and xPiratez, but as you mentioned, they will take forever. I have a consistent X-COM schedule of Mondays and Fridays for recordings, so if some of the non X-COM content I post does well, then I'll have a excuse to play them and go without posting X-COM for a while. We'll have to wait and see.
There was someone that told me that this version of x-com was the hardest due to how the A.I apparently cheats and seeing how this game played out I can finally understand.
Thanks for this video it's almost like a good in depth (pun only slightly intended) review. Hope to see more from you!
Tyty! This version of X-COM is brutal, but I love the scale and complexity of it. I'll be releasing more eventually, just takes a while to get through a run. Thanks for watching!
While UFO Defense is one of my favourite games ever, TFTD was tedious at times, and at others it had horrible difficulty spikes. I completed it once and have never gone back. It broke me with (what i think was) a terror site that was massive and finding the last panicked, stationary alien took at least an hour of just stumbling around. After that I just wanted to get to the end and uninstall.
UFO defense got so much right the first time around, that TFTD was 'the difficult second album' for me.
This is about how I feel, the attempt at making the game difficult just made the game tedious.
Thanks for watching!
I prefer Terror from the Deep over Ufo Defense because I got so sick of the urban environments, fighting in warehouses and orchards. The bottom of the ocean was a nice change of pace. Also the enemy subs look more appealing to me than the almost featureless flying saucers.
The change in scenery is pretty cool, and UFO defense definitely starts to feel the same after a while. Both the games have shortfalls, and it just depends which bother you more. Thanks for watching!
Tentaculats are so creepy.
Especially the UFOpaedia entry.
I primed 2 grenade in advance... i will fall and kamikaze if zombified😂
@@theeraphatsunthornwit6266 This is the way.
How I do TFTD runs on Superhuman:
Sell all weapons, buy Hydro Auto Cannons and Jet Cannons, make sure you have at least 3 rookies with 70 accuracy, if you don't, just reload the run and try again until the game spawns you with them, make sure all Jet Cannons and HAC's have explosive ammo not any of the other types
Base in the Atlantic covering the Med
In missions run rookies into the deep with the 3 snipers on the wings of the Triton, I use a Coel tank for this as the tank is just there to clean up if everyone misses and absorb more shots on average without completely melting unless extremely unlucky as Sonic does like 50 to 150% extra damage per shot on RNG chance. Hydro Auto Cannons for everyone else because auto shot x3 with explosive ammo with Rooks spread out is actually decent at killing Aquatoids if the snipers fail which brings me to:
Aimed shots with Jet Cannons on the 70 acc Rooks and then kneel on the wings to stop aliens taking pot shots at you the next turn and slowly raise them into alien exterminators
Research Sonic Pulsar and use that as your mainstay weapon (replacing HAC's with these and turn your Rookies into Grenadiers which allows them to work on land better) until you research Sonic Cannon
Sonic Cannon will phase out Jet Cannon and you'll be in a strong position to get armor and Displacers eventually, do it properly you should end the game before September which is when the aliens start equipping all basic troops with DPLs (the Blaster Bomb equivalents in TFTD). Phasing out Sonic Cannon for Thermal Shok is optional as a stunned enemy is as good as a dead enemy
Good video as alway with a great naration (the only problem is the micro with who produce a slight background noise but not the most dramatic thing). For future playtrought after your Reaver Harmony one (which i hope receive the same tratement as your two last xcom and TFTD playthrought), you could trie XCOM apocalypse (great game with few playtrought online and no sort of superedit) or the XCOM file (great but TITANIC modpack for open xcom).
Tyty! Apocalypse is on my radar, however I'm waiting for OpenApoc to be completed. I have no idea how long that will take, however once it is done, I'll play Apocalypse. As for larger modpacks, that depends on how the non-Xcom videos do. They will take forever to beat, and I'll need to keep uploading something in that time.
though its a different format (video and not screenshot), this reminds me of the old something awful x-com LPs, how youve put this together. love how you step through the hiccups in each encounter in these edits too. well done carving your niche
Funny enough, you're the second person to say that. Glad these videos remind people of something they are (assumedly) fond of. Thanks for watching!
Hey just found your channel keep up the solid videos great content rooting for ya
Thanks!
I can see the preference in TFTD's research tree, but I always found it overly convoluted and far too intertwined. I always felt most of the requirements were arbitrary at best, put into place for - as you mentioned - pure difficulty spikes alone.
I don't disagree that the research tree is there for difficulty, as it feels like every other tech requires an alien interrogation, but the fact that there are requirements that take more than a month to complete was super interesting. It does help that I can use OpenXcom to browse the research tree whenever I want, and without that I'd probably be less fond of the complexity. It is in no way intuitive.
@@PotatoCaravan That's probably why I don't like it. my only experience with TFTD was the CD version before OpenXCom. Also, first time I've seen someone actually PLAY an X-COM game on Superhuman, worth a sub.
@@Xenolord Tyty!
Played this with friends together on one PC. Trying a higher difficulty, opening the door and just exploding was a formative experience. I dont think any of us ever finished the game though. I resorted to savescumming which made the experience tedious.
Liked the video. If you are looking for something which might fit: Neo Scavenger might work if you're not spoiled on it and should not take a fraction of an X-Com game.
I've seen neo scavenger before, but don't have very deep knowledge on the game. I'll note it down, got a list of requests piling up now.
I always used to take Dreadnoughts and Supply Ships from above.
Once I had DPLs, MC, and Mag Ion Armor, one trooper scouted the four fans up top on the Dreadnought, and then we'd crack the roof with a DPL Torp. Once we scouted an enemy with a DPL, we'd MC one or both, and they would fire on each other or the Commander to kill all the officers and demoralize all lower tier enemies. We'd then move down from the upper entry point to clear with other troops clearing the surrounding area and create blocking positions to prevent runners.
Rinse repeat
I had forgotten that the DPL can destroy sub walls. Should have made use of that during my run. I don't believe I had DPLs or MC at the time of the first dreadnought, but this would have worked well.
@@PotatoCaravan "Create your own entry point," "Treat ships as upside down buildings," and "Stack up (on doors) for entry" are 3 actual-world tactics I picked up organically from TFTD. And, yeah, we have to do it the old fashioned way before DPLs, MagIon, and MC, but once we have them, it's tilt time on Dreadnoughts.
Keep up the work gamer this content is epic.
Thanks!
Tedious is the right word for those huge maps.
I always found alien activity missions especially frustrating. The second stage, particularly the area holding the lift to the synonium device, was designed with a ton of tentaculats in elevated hiding places. If you weren't smart to that quirk of the level, you were in for a really fun time. The floating sonic tank was a bit of an equaliser if you got it in time, since tentaculats couldn't infest it and its armour was strong enough to resist their attacks most of the time.
This was my experience. I tend to underuse the various HWPs in the game, though right now that's due to the soldiers with subscriber names. There are a couple of mods coming up that I'll likely need to use them in. Thanks for watching!
Awesome videos! Can't wait for more
Thanks! More eventually...
You went from 227 to 1,850 subs in 2 weeks. I think you got a winning formula. :)
Does look like it, just need to figure out how to speed up production.
@@PotatoCaravan and more creative ways to produce a product, like Antarctica challenge, beat superhuman with only 1 base on antarctica
Just found your channel and wow! Very good content here.
Tyty!
Really enjoyed this, thanks a lot :)
Thanks!
Ok I've subscribed. This is incredible, I must have played the original so many times, but never terror from the deep. I was too hard.
I highly recommend you do this with some mods, the 40k one and xpirates are two ive sunk far too many hours into.
Loving this, and look forward to what comes next.
Tyty! I plan on playing through the popular overhaul mods eventually, they are just going to take forever to get through. I'm working on a plan for the channel during the massive downtime I'll have while playing one of these mods. Thanks for watching!
I remember this being the hardest game I had ever played when it came out. Still ranks as the hardest xcom game IMO.
For sure. The game doesn't give you an inch.
Am I wrong or does OTftD not have the same starter base option as OpenXCom? I know the two are built in a similar system, I'm just unsure if this was a conscious decision or forgotten about when you set up your base for OTftD.
I don't really know enough about TftD in general to really comment, but hearing some of the commentary on some of the tweaks, I can def see how it's considered so much harder, even not counting water wounds basically being crush deaths.
It does have the same starter base options, I just wanted to play TFTD as close as was reasonable to the original experience. As for difficulty, most of it comes from the 2 stage missions, and the stats of late game aliens. The mechanics are about the same as UFO Defense.
@@PotatoCaravan The base start's pretty fair, especially for what is basically a first completion run.
I think the beginer month bug for the previous game wasnt taken into account for the harder difficulty of this game as the developers were aware of the type of issue it had.
My source is tv tropes but i think this rumor does get spread around a lot.
My thought behind the overcorrection comment was based on the fact that people found the first game easy. In an effort to give them something more difficult, the difficulty of TFTD was pushed past what is reasonable. Not sure how true that is as I wasn't even born then, but I've seen this sentiment online a few times.
So after completing xcom for the 2nd time last week (might I add the QOL features make beating xcom original extremely easy compared to vanilla on DOS) I decided to get working on TFTD. Holy crap even on easy mode the dock/resort/shipping containers were hard. But then I did an alien colony for the first time. I did not expect how insane that would be. Lobstermen in their own habitat...
RIP me in the 2nd mission LMAO :D
The game is brutal. Really feels like you're venturing somewhere you don't belong on a lot of the missions. Early game was the hardest, but without MC late game is still quite terrifying.
@@PotatoCaravan i finally finished it last night!! all i can say is that the auto sell feature in manufacturing is the best part of openxcom. feels a little cheesy. but hey. i got money! i think i got really lucky with capturing the right aliens before june. i had MC trained soldiers by september and was super super lucky to raid a LANDED dreadnought to get the commander. from there I levelled up 8 MC soldiers with good strength and decent skill (some had 70+ skill on the final mission). I've never seen so many panic'd aquanauts and lobstermen :D
terror missions stay significantly longer when targeted by an xcom craft. just cycle your interceptors towards the mission (with the new one targeting it BEFORE the old one reaches it) until you are in broad daylight. youll never suffer the night mission horrors again
When a mission is targeted by a craft, the timer on it despawning is paused. I didn't know that you could use an interceptor to extend this timer though. That's a nice tip.
YEah......I remember this game. First mission on superhuman. My soldiers opened the door and the enemy threw multiple sonic grenades between them. BOOM all the soldiers died.
Then on normal difficulty I spend like 2 hours clearing a terror attack on a cruiseschip, I just couldn't find the last lobsterman. I finally found him in a closet in one of the passengers cabins.
Sounds like TFTD. I didn't even try the cruise ship missions, though only partially for that reason.
I had once that dinosaur with backpack in a cabin, how could that bugger even fit through the door?!
I beat this game as a teenager in the 90s and we didn't have home internet access so I'd call my cousin and exchange intel on the game with him. That's how we (slowly) managed to finish it! You could do something similar on RUclips with the original Jagged Alliance.
I've got Jagged Alliance on my list of game to check out. It'll likely be in a vote for one of these videos.
And the cargo ship terror missions are a 2-parter. Until late game, I pretty much just land and immediately dust off on those.
Yep, and that's what I should have done.
Just stumbled across your channel and want to wish you great luck!
Thanks!
Hey, man. Highly enjoyable vids, these. I myself love everything about classic X-Com games: art style, storytelling, immersive mechanics and their interaction with each other as well as the player, sheer atmosphere of actual alien horror. All that aside from one thing: actually playing the damn things. So watching someone this competent go against these insane odds is a treat. Thanks for the experience.
Thanks! I fully understand that feeling, there are many games I'd just prefer to watch others play. Glad you enjoyed, thanks for watching!
I want to like Terror From the Deep but there are so many frustrating elements. Biggest crime is not being able to use a blaster launcher on land. When I found that out as a kid I was pissed.
I also found that out half way through playing lol! Tried shooting one during a base defense, was told I couldn't, and got super confused as to why the aliens were running around with them if they couldn't fire them. Thanks for watching!
I had the same reaction far earlier, when I took my expensive torpedo launcher tank to my first terror site and discovered it couldn't fire.
Still amazed at how many intricate mechanics were simulated in this old of a game
It's something that a lot of us miss from newer games too.
Wonderfully done. Thank you
Tyty! Thanks for watching!
Brings back memories
I remember first terrror mission on TFTD after playing x-com. I thought I won and then …. Bam, phase two, another level on the ship.
Yep, game is brutal.
Never played the old XCOM games but this was an interesting watch.
Thanks!
Hells yeah, more classic XCom
I do love this game. Going to be posting some OpenXcom mods once I finish them!
3:03 wow i can't believe i died on the first mission....WITH NO KILLS. Lucky i managed to redeem myself with the base defense. Jokes aside im really happy you added me, I actually showed my Grandpa that i was famous lol. I hope my name gets added if you do another x-com playthrough in the future.
You weren't alone there lol. As for the names, I've got a database file with all the names I've collected so far, and you're still in there. You should join the discord, as eventually I'm going to phase out all of the names not attached to a discord account, but you'll be in the next video or two for sure. Thanks for watching!
Having zero MC Skill greatly increases chances of getting MC'd as far as I remember.
Fun video!
That it does. When trying to mind control a unit, you compare MC strengths/skill and have a random amount added or subtracted from the final value. If you have super low strength you're going to lose every time. Thanks for watching!
Another very entertaining video. Don't neglect your studies for RUclips though haha
Thanks! Not planning on it, though college is not all that it's made out to be anymore. Lots I could say there...
I love the deep-sea setting. I wonder why the new X-COM games didn' t go there.
They were likely more concerned with the original setting first. Not sure if they we'll ever see this again since the game had mixed reception. Never know though.
Is XCOM apocalypse next in your list by any chance? I have some fond memories of that game and it's weird armour's, especially the megapol armour that gave me strong Guyver vibes.
I'm not playing apocalypse as the next XCOM game, but it is something I'd like to do soon. The OpenApoc project isn't finished yet, and I'd like to wait for its completion before making the video.
@PotatoCaravan ah I didn't realise it wasn't finished yet, fair enough.
Hey man, do you dare make a play through with Brutal AI? Also i would quite enjoy watching you play mods like Rosigma
I'll have a mod vote sometime soon for what to play next. I don't know that i play to play the game with just brutal AI, but there are some mods on there that likely include it in some form. Rosigma on the other hand is something I'm thinking about adding to the poll!
tftd is a game i really want to love but playing it is just agonizing, respects for scraping it out
Tyty! I never would have had the interest myself if not for this video. Completely understand where you're coming from.
Research does add something like 10-20 score iirc, also just to let you know having multiple sonars/radars in these games is actually good, as each has a *chance* to detect UFOs in their radius, so having a small/large/etc sonar or radar is actually useful
I did know this, I just rushed the transmission resolver here, and never needed to use this strat.
@@PotatoCaravan Fair enough, also very enjoyable video.
@@agentduck9285 Tyty!
I don't know how but you make the game look so easy lol. You should try the new hard mode expansion for a future video. I haven't tried it yet but it looks like it adds a lot to the regular ufo defense. And maybe you can try Xcom apocalypse as well in the future. Just some suggestions.
I plan on playing apocalypse when OpenApoc is finished, and I'll be posting mod votes between videos. Reaver's Harmony Megamod won this time around, but hardmode will be one of the mods up to vote for soon.
@ wow those all sound great. Cant wait!
Also, will you do Jagged Alliance 2?
It's on my radar. Of the older titles being recommended, X-Com is the only one I've played. Jagged Alliance 2 has been specifically asked for a few times, so there is a good chance I try it out, but I'm sticking with OpenXcom mods for a little while yet.
@@PotatoCaravan Cool! I'm getting the "Retro Game Vibe" from this channel except with games you can name people for the gimmick.
@@loszhor Not completely retro, as I'm planning on posting some of the random games I decide to play. I'm expecting to have X-Com or other retro games going on all the time for the channel, with the occasional random game I thought was fun. Same video format, just don't be too surprised if the new Factorio expansion gets a video.
@@PotatoCaravan JA2 is a classic and plays very similarly to XCOM in a lot of ways. Turn based strategy, obviously, but you also start with total newbies and have to carefully manage your money to hire, outfit and train a decent team. All the while a superior enemy is trying to force you out. Lots of fun, especially since JA2 was voiced and XCOM obviously was too early for that.
Biggest difference in JA2 is all your soldiers are on timed contracts and there are no cheap "meat shields" - your mercs get mad quickly if casualties get high and will quit or refuse to renew their contracts, making for a different kind of "cascading failure" from the simply score system in XCOM. You also have to pay funeral expenses of anybody who dies in your command. Similarly to XCOM 2, losing a single soldier is a much bigger deal.
This was the first X-COM game for me when I was a kid and oh boy did it do a number on me! I remember doing my 15th base mission while wearing pajamas because I couldn't secure deep one in the right time. I didn't realize I was stuck and that hounts me to this day. Also something about doing research in the wrong order.
Couple of years ago I did a blog in a closed forum where I recruited my soldiers to fight the fight. I decided that for the first time in my life, I was going to finish this game. I rushed research and just left every ship mission (oh I hate those!). When I finished, it felt really anticlimactic.
This game is too hard for my liking in places it shouldn't be. Also really tedious. I won't touch this thing never again, I want my games to have a modicum of fun in them.
Have you ever thought trying to beat the new XCOM's with Long War mods? They're really fun! I myself am a self-proclaimed "Two-time Long War Veteran". Or perhaps beating the Xenonauts (which also have somesort "long war" mod)? Also did a blog when playing these and the stories they generated amongs the recruits was hilarious! One of my long war medics used "healing crystals" and it was common joke that getting some infirmary time meant lots and lots of ice cream.
While I'm not a huge fan of the newer X-COM games, I've been considering Xenonaughts. It's one of the game I'll be circulating in the polls for what to play next, so it's very possible I end up playing.
I love you clear and concise explanation of your gameplay. Makes me want to play XCOM again!
Tyty, and there always seems to be something new in the mod space if that's your thing!
Im a little confused by the mention of episodes. Is there another channel with a more full version of these videos?
Check the description
Is there additional content in the openxcom? I can't remember some things in this and previous videos. Such as sprites and silicoids
There is technically in the extended version of OpenXcom, however this is simply a different game. UFO Defense and Terror from the Deep are separate games in the series, and I've played a different one for each video.
I played the original X-Com when I was a kid with the bug that dropped it to the easiest difficulty after the first mission. I thought I was pretty hot s*it at X-Com when I picked up Terror From The Deep. Holy f*ck did I get taken to school by that game.
TFTD is super hard, especially without 2 decades of knowledge available.
I love TFTD, but is definitely only for die hard fans of OG Xcom.
It's not an easy game.
long-form oldschool xcom videos are so cool lol
Thanks!
Yes, each research has a custom score value that is credit to the month that you finish it.
That is good to know. Thanks for watching!
Here's hoping for the inevitable X-COM Interceptor playthrough
Subscribed and excited for more~
Should be less than 8 months this time lol.
This mindcontrol bullocks always put me of that game xcom
I loved and still love this game as long as the research tree did not bugged or any aliens were deployed in a wall. Unfortunate that these both were too common in my games, so I only ended one time. They were even more frustrating than the too long missions or the insane difficulty peaks for me.
Yeah, I can't imagine playing the game on anything other than OpenXcom.
This game (and original ufo) is so good, and also in the same time so old, that it looks like kind of modern india A - pixel-art style game and is fresh again :)
It might be cliche to suggest the next game in the series, but a run of Apocalypse would be cool to see. I know you have a modded UFO playthrough in the works, so its just something for the future =D
I'd love to play Apocalypse, I'm just waiting to see if the OpenApoc project ever gets finished. I know it has a fair amount of the game complete, but it's not quite done yet.
@@PotatoCaravan fair enough! taking a look at the wiki, it seems a bit buggy. (og apocalypse i mean)
What I dont understand is why you didnt fidle more with the display settings so your UI wouldnt be 1/2 of the size it should be. Also goes for the previous video.
I wish someone combined both games into one, but properly balanced it. Imagine playing both at the same time lol.
I believe someone is working on a mod like that for OpenXcom. Something I'll likely play eventually.
Wonderful niche, and I hope to see more. You've got a talent for this.
Thanks! I plan to do more soon, though it may take a few months.
32:42
Uncle Rico if he was an X-COM soldier
I have such good memories of these games, but looking back on them, they really are a mix of both brilliant and daft ideas. Usually giving the player some overpowered weapons and skills quite early on, that ruin the gameplay. Worst offender being the mind control which not only spoils the difficulty but also ruins the mood since now the aliens are not this mysterious and powerful force, but just puppets. They should be much more resistant to being mind controlled, as they are the ones who invented it, and the humans are just trying to crudely learn the basics.
IIRC after UFO Defense success devs only had 6 month to make XCOM: TFTD thus the balancing being weird.
I really liked TFTD for it's atmosphere and MC being strong doesn't really bother me, at worse you have the option to play Xenonauts style and TFTD allow you a lot of freedom in your strats just like XCOM: UD. XCOM: Apocalypse got it worse since they had to scrap a lot of stuff, the game is still good and it offer the choice of Real time or turn based combat thus I like these 3 old XCOM games because they are different and really tried something new, if they had the money and technology we have now.......
I also remember hearing that the game was made on a pretty tight timeline. I will agree that some of the balancing can waved because of this, but tentaculats in particular just don't sit right with me. As for a modern remake, I'd love to see that too! OpenXcom has been the work of a few people in their spare time, so you can only imagine what a team of paid devs could make.
I hope youre down for the Marbozir XCOM2 modlist, its absolutely incredible. Closest thing to feeling like the breadth of OG, but the depth is shocking.
I'll take a look at it. The newer games aren't my favorite for a number of reasons, but I'll happily look through some mods to see what they change.
Thanks for the entertaining video!
Is there some reason you went for so long with sonic pistols? I typically skip them in favor for other research until cannons appear.
Was the mc lab training up also mc-unrelated stats in the vanilla? I've never noticed. Also, I would never dare to attack alien base without MC training on superhuman.
For the terror missions, I remember that in vanilla, you could almost always play them during the day by delaying deployment of the Triton.
WP and well thought out!
Np! Glad you enjoyed.
Yes, when facing aquatoids and gill men, this pistols do more than enough damage to deal with them comfortably. Additionally for the first month or two pistols are all you see, so I wasn't short on them. They also allow for 3 shots in a turn instead of the 2 shots from sonic cannons, so you'd see me swap back to pistols when an easy race came up.
For the lab, no. It only trains MC skill. However using the MC disruptor item in missions does train more stats than just MC skill, and thats what I spent a lot of the later episodes doing.
Finally, yes there is a way to do all missions during the day. When a mission spawns, there is a timer for it to despawn, however the mission will never despawn so long as it's targeted by a sub. If you have 2 subs and alternate who is targeting the mission without interruption, you can keep the mission alive as long as you need.
Tyty, and thanks for watching!