So i went ahead and bought this today and to be honest I really like it but your skills do not transfer over (a question asked on the most recent bombcast). This game is leagues harder than what I've played on the new one and I think a lot has to do with the random generation of maps.  I'd argue some enemies seem way tougher as well and your troops are more fragile than a beautiful little flower.   Let me set the stage:
 
   We get a call for a panic mission, I send in my skyranger with 14 soldiers on it.  I walk out of the sky ranger with my first (2) people, two cyber discs are right in front of it.  I shoot a single one about 12-15 times, it does not die, their turn it kills 4 of my guys. Then your friend and mine, commander shepard goes berserk (a form of panic that involves the solider unloading as much ammo as possible in one turn). He is in the back of the skyranger, kills 6 soldiers, everyone else in the skyranger either panics or also goes beserk. I cant move a single person next turn and I have a total of 2 soliders left after this massacure. I abort after a single turn. Thus, skills of any kind do not transfer over. 
 
I really am enjoying the game though, its a much different pace than the new one and I'd suggest anyone who enjoys the new one to give it a go (only 4.99 on steam).

So your Shepard went renegade I see.

@Icicle7x3 said:

So your Shepard went renegade I see.

There's something vaguely sexual about this statement.

Yeah, your troops are way more fragile.

Good thing you get 12-16 of em.

Its much harder, but there's something incredibly rewarding when you:

Mind control a sectoid.

Have him run up to his dead buddies and fill up his inventory with the corpses of his friends.

Set a high explosive to explode and put it in his inventory.

When the mind control wears off, the sectoid panics and runs off, only to explode in the darkness.

Its much harder, but there's something incredibly rewarding when you:

Mind control a sectoid.

Have him run up to his dead buddies and fill up his inventory with the corpses of his friends.

Set a high explosive to explode and put it in his inventory.

When the mind control wears off, the sectoid panics and runs off, only to explode in the darkness.

I'd disagree that your skills don't transfer over. I'm good at new xcom cause I played the old one and terror and jagged alliance 2 when I was a teenager. You learn to hold your guys back, put them into over watch, support each other and not over extend. The mechanics change but your basic tactics remain the same.

Yeah, that's what I figured.

I'd disagree that your skills don't transfer over. I'm good at new xcom cause I played the old one and terror and jagged alliance 2 when I was a teenager. You learn to hold your guys back, put them into over watch, support each other and not over extend. The mechanics change but your basic tactics remain the same.

As much as people like to think that the new one is a good re-make, the games are quite different. While they still remain in the same genre and deal with the same tone and style the actual gameplay mechanics have pretty much been completely redesigned. That's not to say either is better, but the games doesn't really have that much in common except for the premise and gameplay themes.

But your rookies are even more expendable in X-COM!

When talking about the original being harder. Don't forget the other difficulty levels exist in the new one.

Sure normal is a walk in the park, and even classic is manageable. But it took me 10-15 restarts just to get past the first couple of missions when playing on impossible. Your rookies can just as easily get one shot, and you only have 4 of them to start with and they can even fail to kill a simple sectoid with even a crit. It's just a different kind of hard imo.

If rookies on classic/impossible went against 2 cyber disks in their basic gear, they would have just as easily been slaughtered.

@Tennmuerti said:

When talking about the original being harder. Don't forget the other difficulty levels exist in the new one.

Sure normal is a walk in the park, and even classic is manageable. But it took me 10-15 restarts just to get past the first couple of missions when playing on impossible. Your rookies can just as easily get one shot, and you only have 4 of them to start with and they can even fail to kill a simple sectoid with even a crit. It's just a different kind of hard imo.

Don't forget that other difficulty levels also exist in the old ones that make the new ones seems like a joke. Don't believe me? Go start a new game in XCOM Apocalypse on SUperhuman difficulty.

@Sackmanjones: I'm glad you picked it up. UFO Defense and Apocalypse were my favorite game when growing up. Played them so many times which is kinda funny because I HATE turn base combat. Enjoy them. While the new one is by no means a slouch but compared to the originals the new x-com game is a far cry.

The thing about the original XCOM is that, much like this new one, it becomes a lot easier once you get plasma and psionics. Don't get me wrong, it's still a total bastard, but losing a single soldier is a lot less devastating than in the new one.

@mordukai said:

@Tennmuerti said:

When talking about the original being harder. Don't forget the other difficulty levels exist in the new one.

Sure normal is a walk in the park, and even classic is manageable. But it took me 10-15 restarts just to get past the first couple of missions when playing on impossible. Your rookies can just as easily get one shot, and you only have 4 of them to start with and they can even fail to kill a simple sectoid with even a crit. It's just a different kind of hard imo.

Don't forget that other difficulty levels also exist in the old ones that make the new ones seems like a joke. Don't believe me? Go start a new game in XCOM Apocalypse on SUperhuman difficulty.

I very well might pick you up on that offer.

Once I finish my impossible ironman run of the new one.

@Tennmuerti said:

@mordukai said:

@Tennmuerti said:

When talking about the original being harder. Don't forget the other difficulty levels exist in the new one.

Sure normal is a walk in the park, and even classic is manageable. But it took me 10-15 restarts just to get past the first couple of missions when playing on impossible. Your rookies can just as easily get one shot, and you only have 4 of them to start with and they can even fail to kill a simple sectoid with even a crit. It's just a different kind of hard imo.

Don't forget that other difficulty levels also exist in the old ones that make the new ones seems like a joke. Don't believe me? Go start a new game in XCOM Apocalypse on SUperhuman difficulty.

I very well might pick you up on that offer.

Once I finish my impossible ironman run of the new one.

Awesome. I'm sure you'll have blast. While the new xcom is a good game it's no where near as intricate as the old ones. Apocalypse might very well be the best xcom game ever made if you can ignore the graphics. Let me know how it goes.

If the 5 bucks is to high a price point UFO:AI is an opensource version.

Apocalypse the best XCOM ever made?!

Holy shit, I know people that would straight up murder you for saying that

Give UFO: Afterlight (on Steam) a shot.