Hey guys,

I'm just wondering, is there any shame in quitting your first game? I have played about 6 or 7 hours and I thought I had everything mostly under control but my shit just got FUCKED by mutons and I really don't see myself recovering from this too well. I feel like starting a new game, now that I know how shit works and how to prepare for it. Has anyone else done this too?

You gotta crawl before you can walk. Do it up.

Only if you bump the difficulty up next play through ;)

I played it for 2-3 hours and after i got familiar and decided what i would actually want to aim towards i restarted it, i feel no game shame cuz why the hell would i.

@SAC said:

Hey guys,

I'm just wondering, is there any shame in quitting your first game? I have played about 6 or 7 hours and I thought I had everything mostly under control but my shit just got FUCKED by mutons and I really don't see myself recovering from this too well. I feel like starting a new game, now that I know how shit works and how to prepare for it. Has anyone else done this too?

No shame, do what you wan't its your game and you payed for it. Also skipping the tutorial can get you 3 additional guys up front, instead of them mandatory dying in the tutorial. So do what you must, as long as you enjoy the game on your terms.

@M_Shini: Haha yeah, I know, it's totally a silly question to ask if there is shame to feel from starting a video game over.

Im doing good in my first playthrough, almost no deaths since the start meaning really good veterans and im in the "plasma phase", but i just lost 2 countries because well, i guess its unavoidable with having to choose who to help every time?  
Should i worry about losing 2 countries?

Last night I played for three hours including the tutorial and had a nice squad built up; things were going well, but I was always conscious of Ryan's warning about things going real bad real fast. Then, when I got to the first mission labelled "very difficult", the one where I first encountered zombies, everyone died. I had nothing left except one sergeant and a bunch of recruits. And then I looked at the situation room and things had gone crazy. I honestly couldn't see how I could recover from that. I'm playing on Ironman so couldn't load the mission again, and I pretty much decided then and there to start again. The game made it very clear that this was a very important mission that I had to get right, and I absolutely wiffed on it. The problem is I'm not entirely sure how things went so bad so quickly; I know a few things I would do differently, but I wonder if there are just some situations where you are fucked either way.

Interesting to see the consensus in this thread, as I'm obviously in a very similar situation to the OP.

It's a game meant to have fun with, there's no shame in doing anything. I started over myself, but then continued to play on the first game for some reason. So now I have two games going, yay

I lost my boosted up squad during the first alien base mission, tough way to learn but the only solution was to start again.

I definitely didnt realise just how much thought the game was going to take and focusing on 4 or 5 soldiers was definitely the wrong approach

Instead of starting over, I just freely reloaded all my early mission wipeouts when I was first familiarising myself with the mechanics. I'm playing on Classic but not Ironman. At first I felt a lot of guilt because even my small triumphs came after 2 or 3 reloads. However after simply learning what buttons do what and how to strategise properly, I'm totally in the groove. The casualties are still coming here and there but I haven't needed to reload a bad mission in I don't know how long. The Situation Room is a big worry, however. I left it way late to launch any additional satellites. It's entirely possible I could lose the whole game on the council screen, what with all the countries going red right now.

My screw up hasn't been in missions, but strategic layer where I've clearly not been spending resources the way I ought to. It was far easier for me to figure out how to keep my soldiers alive in the field than it has been to direct everything back at the base. So, yeah, I'm close to starting over myself just to get a better start. I'm not completely out of it, yet, but one fubar mission and the whole thing is toast. Weird thing is that I've never had so much fun losing a game.

It's amazing how fast things can go from great to shit. It takes planning, execution, and a little bit of luck. I can't imagine playing this on the hardest difficulties.

@SAC said:

Hey guys,

I'm just wondering, is there any shame in quitting your first game? I have played about 6 or 7 hours and I thought I had everything mostly under control but my shit just got FUCKED by mutons and I really don't see myself recovering from this too well. I feel like starting a new game, now that I know how shit works and how to prepare for it. Has anyone else done this too?

I quit my first few games, and I'll probably continue to do so in games where things go really south. At a certain point it's just not fun any more, but I realized my mistakes, and knew I could do better next time.

I've restarted now and then too, when i feeled like the current play wasnt going too well.

I had to give up on 2 Iron man games each 12-15 hours deep. I spawned into a map and had the game glitch out and spawn like 6-7 high level units right on top of me and it killed my entire squad of high level guys. I tried to push on and just use my rookies but they were not even squadies and they could not get anything done. I had to restart. Now I'm doing a non-iron man and am near the end I think. Once I beat this game I plan to try iron man one last time, but if I end up getting screwed over because of the game bugging out I think I'm done with the game until it gets some heavy patching.

This game is about learning the hard way, and each subsequent play-through will be that much better.

I've restarted three or four times now due to stupid mistakes. Not capturing aliens early enough so I have to go after elite mutons to progress the story, not building enough satellites, relying too heavily on a core group of soldiers...

I'm about 4 hours in and I'm going to quit mine. I've made a few mistakes reguarding the base that I'd like to correct and most of my squad have been killed off leaving me with nothing but rookies.

I see no harm in it myself.

@SAC:But how awesome will be it be if you manage to succeed despite whatever significant setback you just encountered?

If you're playing on Normal, I think it's possible to make that sort of comeback.

I only restarted my first game because I exited the game thinking it auto saved, then when I came back I realized that it didn't. It was a plus though cause I realized I didn't have to replay the tutorial again and had freedom to choose my starting country from 5 instead of 2.

For me the best instances in persistent strategy games like XCOM come from crawling out of the deepest holes imaginable, but since it's your first game it will probably turn out to be a waste of time. If you have like infinite time go for it, otherwise NO SHAME!

It's your game, do what you want honestly.

I'm just letting mine spiral out of control, shit got bad.. fast.

If you first started playing with the tutorial on, restarting again with the tutorial off allows you to have much more control in how you build your base and other stuff.

Did the Hidden Base mission last night. FUCK. THOSE. CHRYSALIDS.

@Enigma777 said:

Did the Hidden Base mission last night. FUCK. THOSE. CHRYSALIDS.

I WHOLEHEARTEDLY AGREE (if you mean the first alien base you conquer, the one with the psychic alien at the end?)

I swear there must have been 20 of those fucking things in there, can't believe I made it out with my entire squad alive. Patrick "Boom Boom" Klepek managed to get an awesome RPG-shot in the middle of them, which probably did the trick.

@Cincaid said:

@Enigma777 said:

Did the Hidden Base mission last night. FUCK. THOSE. CHRYSALIDS.

I WHOLEHEARTEDLY AGREE (if you mean the first alien base you conquer, the one with the psychic alien at the end?)

I swear there must have been 20 of those fucking things in there, can't believe I made it out with my entire squad alive. Patrick "Boom Boom" Klepek managed to get an awesome RPG-shot in the middle of them, which probably did the trick.

Well they don't call him Tricky for nothing, ba dum tsh.

I'll see myself out.

@RollingZeppelin: Hehehe. Man, I love having my squad named after GB dudes, and hilarious random nicknames that comes with it. Like Jeff "Cash" Gerstmann.

I played normal on both ironman and without, then easy ironman and without. All four of those were about 3 hours each and all ended in bankruptcy and dead squads. Then I started a normal ironman again after that learning curve and threw in on satellites hardcore and have gotten to Psi ops stuff in the story and most missions are a peice of cake. That said, I my first few missions were bloodbaths, including my first non-tutorial. Learning to let soldiers go is a big part, learning enemy tactics a bigger part, and getting that sweet, sweet funding the biggest part. hell, you throw satellites at folks, they calm down and pay more. It makes the beginning tough, but it makes the rest a breeze if you survive the first 3 hours.

@Cincaid: that's awesome. My best soldier is Colonel Doctor John "Hulk" Zoidberg, lol.

My first game was Classic Ironman, and I rode that one all the way into the ground. Lost the game within three months. It was a great learning experience, because now I'm dominating on Normal.

As long as you learn something from a losing game, I wouldn't worry about restarting.

I didn't restart my game but I did reload an earlier save after a disastrous mission where I forgot to equip some new gear and lost most of my experienced crew. I felt bad about it, but I consider this first game to be a learning experience and will play ironman from here on out.

@Enigma777 said:

Did the Hidden Base mission last night. FUCK. THOSE. CHRYSALIDS.

I WHOLEHEARTEDLY AGREE (if you mean the first alien base you conquer, the one with the psychic alien at the end?)

I swear there must have been 20 of those fucking things in there, can't believe I made it out with my entire squad alive. Patrick "Boom Boom" Klepek managed to get an awesome RPG-shot in the middle of them, which probably did the trick.

I just quit my first game.

Was feeling too comfortable so I decided to switch from Normal to Classic as I began the alien base infiltration in Africa. Everyone in my squad died. I could keep going, but I like Classic a lot more and would rather start over with my new knowledge on Classic/Ironman than try to salvage my first game.

@Enigma777 said:

@Cincaid

@Enigma777 said:

Did the Hidden Base mission last night. FUCK. THOSE. CHRYSALIDS.

I WHOLEHEARTEDLY AGREE (if you mean the first alien base you conquer, the one with the psychic alien at the end?)

I swear there must have been 20 of those fucking things in there, can't believe I made it out with my entire squad alive. Patrick "Boom Boom" Klepek managed to get an awesome RPG-shot in the middle of them, which probably did the trick.

Yup, thats the one. I used up all my RPGs in the first 2 rooms. When I got to the 3rd one and opened the door I had 3 Chrysalids rush me and get right up in my business and I basically had to get a critical hit with every one of my remaining dudes or I would be fucked. So I reloaded the same checkpoint 20-30 times till the dice roles in my favor and then I had 3 dudes with 1HP left to fight the psychic boss guy. Thank god he was easy or I dunno what I would have done.... And then my rookie panics at the end and headshots my most powerful soldier. Fuck you Xcom!

This is making me feel better that once I had the alien skeleton key thing, I purposely slacked off and didn't assault the alien base for at least like 2 months, and instead spent my time getting more satellite coverage, doing some more research, and actually saving enough money to buy better equipment for my soldiers.

I mean, it was still rough, and I lost 2 dudes I think, but I feel like that was another case of the tutorial rushing you through story events ASAP, when you should probably take your time with them. If you just jump into the alien base at the first opportunity you get instead of waiting a bit, you will probably get pretty messed up.

@BisonHero: You want to make sure everyone's got laser weapons or carapace armour, preferably both, before going into that base. Otherwise you are going to get fucked. I had to kill 9 floaters, 6 chryssalids, a Cyberdisk, and 3 Mutons. I had three guys left.

Then the sectoid commander kills two dudes.

Godamnit X-COM!

I'm in my first game still and if the panic meters are any indication shit is going to go sideways. I could restart and have a better first ten hours or so but then what happens when I get into new territory? I might as well keep going and keep learning in order to go into my next game with as much knowledge as I can.

As far as I'm concerned games like XCOM are designed to be restarted. You cut your teeth the first few times making dumb mistakes, then seal the deal using what you've learned.

In a way, it's just like dating.

Oh yeah I gave up 10 hours into my first game for sure. It was like June or July, and I hadn't captured the outsider, nor raided the base. So I was doing perfectly in all my missions but panic was getting crazy because I didn't realize you had to hurry. I also had no additional satellites, hadn't researched any beam weapons, or better armors, or really anything. My interceptors weren't upgraded at all. I had completely mismanaged my money as well, so I was continually broke. Hey at least none of my dudes died.

Now I'm about 8 hours into my current game, everyone's rocking plasma rifles, or heavy lasers and sniper lasers, plus I have carapace armor on everyone, I have full satellite coverage across North and South America plus Europe, and I raided the base. Plus I just built my own flying saucers. And I'm still in May, which is like month three. I'm fucking loaded with cash and still no fatalities. I'm too scared to bump up to classic, but I feel like normal is pretty easy once you have the hang of things.

my save got corrupted on my first play through, so yeah, not much choice but to start from scratch, no idea what happened but it crashed whenever i would scan for activity for more than a day.

it's not a perfect game, but it's damn fun, don't feel bad about starting over.

Im on Game 13!

@SAC said:

Hey guys,

I'm just wondering, is there any shame in quitting your first game? I have played about 6 or 7 hours and I thought I had everything mostly under control but my shit just got FUCKED by mutons and I really don't see myself recovering from this too well. I feel like starting a new game, now that I know how shit works and how to prepare for it. Has anyone else done this too?

I say no. I ask you this though, is there shame in constantly reloading saves so that your squad members don't die? 'Cause that's what I did throughout my play-through.

I restarted after 5 hours of my first game, I had mismanaged my upgrade path and got mashed by Mutons

I came very close to restarting just before the alien base. I still had to build the skeleton key and had absolutely no alloys (having wasted them all doing research and such, not realizing I would need them for something so critical). I was also lacking in satellite coverage pretty badly, and I wasn't getting any UFO missions to get any alloys from. I figured I was thusly boned. 4 countries were on the verge of pulling out.

But once I managed to get a few satellites up and finally shot down a UFO, I got the skeleton key knocked out and went right for the base. Once I got that taken care of, it was like a massive burden was lifted. You get a ton of resources from that, not to mention a global panic reduction.

I would say that assaulting the alien base is definitely an early (mid?) game checkpoint. If you can get past that and everything looks reasonably safe, I think that's a good metric to go by.

First off, I subscribe to the many worlds theory of XCOM, and believe that each time you open a new game, it creates a parallel universe, and you are damning neglected save files to constant torment and abduction by leaving them in an uncompleted state, worse than any win or lose.

Second: @Cincaid said:

Patrick "Boom Boom" Klepek

Patrick Klepek as a Heavy? I can see literally any other role, but carrying that much gun needs a Vinny or larger. Persons of a Patrick or Drew size would be better suited to a faster movement speed role, like Support or perhaps Assault.

@Farbelowaverage:

My main six are:

• Jeff - Assault
• Vinny - Support
• Brad - Sniper
• Drew - Sniper
• Dave - Heavy
• Ryan - Heavy

Patrick is whenever someone gets hurt! No offense to Patrick, I just named them from original crew and onward. There's an Alex as backup as well.

@Cincaid: You make Jeff sad by not naming a Heavy as him. :(

Have you done the first alien base? If panic is the problem completing the base can save your ass, otherwise go for it, no shame.

I was thinking about doing this myself, but I think I have enough of a handle on things to scrape through. I was doing great, A's on every council "report", and then like 12-13 hours in I got totally screwed when huge UFOs started showing up. Been losing a lot of soldiers ever since.

I started my first game on Normal Iron Man thinking it'll be a challenge but not too difficult. Got my ass handed to me and I finally surrendered when I encountered my first Cyberdisc (and it wasn't even the one that wiped out my best soldiers). I've since gone to play on Normal and it's become much more manageable. I will get to finishing a game in Iron Man one day...

@Tennmuerti: His nickname is "Cash", so I'm sure he's alright with it :D