X-COM: Terror from the Deep

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X-COM: Terror from the Deep

The cover for X-COM: Terror from the Deep for the PlayStation
Developer(s) Microprose Software Inc.
Publisher(s) Paul Hibbard & Pete Moreland [1]
Designer(s) Stephen Goss [1]
Series X-COM
Release date(s)
Genre(s) Turn-based strategy
Mode(s)
Platform(s) MS-DOS, Playstation
Media Floppy disk, CD-Rom
System requirements 33MHz 386, 520Kb base + 3MB extended RAM [2]
Input Mouse, Keyboard


X-COM: Terror from the Deep is a computer game, the sequel to UFO: Enemy Unknown (or X-COM: UFO Defense in North America), and the second part of the X-COM series. It was developed and published by MicroProse. Its interface is more or less identical to its predecessor, as is its graphics technology.

Contents

[edit] Description

Terror from the Deep (TFTD) on the surface is much like a skin change to UFO Defense. The game plays out the same way, equipment and enemies in TFTD are similar to the original, and all of the basic game mechanics are the same. However, the difficulty level has been substantially raised and there are a number of new features. However, many of the third-party programs which reduced the difficulty in the first X-COM game can also modify TFTD.

The motives of X-COM 2 being not much more than a X-COM 1 add-on can be best explained by quoting Mythos Games, developer of the original game:

"After completing UFO, MicroProse wanted to do a quick follow up within six months. We said that this was not feasible, and if it were possible it would be little more than the same game with different graphics. Instead we started work on X-COM: Apocalypse, which was much more ambitious. Once UFO/X-Com was clearly known to be a success, MicroProse suggested that we license the code for them to develop their own sequel. The rest is history."

In the original game, the player was tasked with defending Earth from invasion by aliens from Mars. Now, many years after the first alien war was won, a new alien menace begins to emerge from the deep oceans. The game plays out under water, with base-building and combat all being submerged beneath the waves. The only time in fact that the game moves onto dry land is for terror site missions, when the aliens attack a port, ship, or island holiday resort.

X-COM: TFTD, like the first game, consists of two parts. The GeoScape world view, a 3D map of the world used to track and intercept alien craft, and manage base facilities, research, manufacture, finance, etc. through a series of menu’s and sub-screens. The BattleScape engine is used for close personal combat between squads of aliens and humans, and takes the form of a turn based, isometric view, in which you move and fight with the aliens.

Terror from the Deep has in many ways an even stronger atmosphere than the original X-COM: UFO Defense, due largely to the fact that it is set underwater, where visibility is reduced significantly, especially at night. This combined with the rich background detail of the aliens and excellent, complex, history of their societies, revealed to the player slowly via research, and the quality of the graphics, provide a very believable and sometimes terrifying experience for the player. Yet, it was flawed by an infamous bug in the research tree that could "block" mandatory research to finish the game.

[edit] Inspiration

UFO Defense was strongly based on UFO culture, but Terror from the Deep had a different source of "alien" infestation. It was strongly influenced by Cthulhu Mythos. Cthulhu is an unearthly amoral god created by H.P. Lovecraft, horror and science fiction writer. The main adversary of Terror from the Deep is clearly based on Cthulhu, as his origins and appearance are very similar, and the final assault takes place on the city of "T'leth" (analogy to R'lyeh, sunk underwater city where Cthulhu permanently sleeps). The final enemy is just a tomb with the face of "The Great Dreamer" (which is Cthulhu's octopus head), where he sleeps. The "aliens" are now hybrid creatures called The Deep Ones, which is a direct reference to Lovecraft's Deep Ones, ancient race of hybrid Cthulhu followers. (See more references the game had in Cthulhu Mythos in popular culture). The tentaculat is described as a creature that "not even the depths of a Lovecraftian nightmare would spawn". The Gill Men are reminiscent of the hybrids between humans and fish referred to as "deep ones" in Lovecraft's story The Shadow over Innsmouth.

Another possible inspiration is The Kraken Wakes by John Wyndham, which feature aliens as an underwater threat. It is also possible that some old deep-sea stories and movies like Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne had some influence on the design of the game, as some weapons and devices have a retro look.

[edit] Alien races

There are eleven different alien races in the game:

[edit] The series

The complete series includes these titles:

The first two games are undeniably the most popular and most successful of the series, and the first was named Game of the Year by many gaming magazines. Apocalypse took some strange twists that disappointed many fans of the series. It introduced a real-time combat system, in addition to a modified turn-based system, and the creepy atmosphere was almost no longer present. After Interceptor, Hasbro Interactive bought MicroProse and acquired the X-COM brand.

Two more titles were planned for this series. Both were aborted when Hasbro shut down Hasbro Interactive in 1999 and 2000.

Hasbro sold all of its Hasbro Interactive intellectual property to Infogrames (now Atari) when it shut down the studios. Atari now owns the X-COM label, but according to insiders, never plans to revive it.

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b X-Com: Terror From The Deep Game Play Manual, 88. 0-431-11-202 0395.
  2. ^ X-Com: Terror From The Deep Technical Supplement, 8. 0-431-11-206 0395.

[edit] External links

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