X-COM: UFO Defense (Russian novel)

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X-COM: UFO Defense (1997) is a novelization of the popular computer game of the same name by Vladimir Vasilyev. The book tells the story of one of the original eight soldiers from the beginning of the conflict to the destruction of the Cydonia base on Mars.

Another novelization by Diane Duane was published in 1995 in the United States.

According to the novel:

  • The Heavy Weapons Platforms are neither automatic nor are controlled from a base. Instead, the operators (one per HWP) stay on the plane. Their control panels allow them to see through the cameras of the tanks.
  • When an alien ship lands or crashlands, it creates a force-field just before touchdown, encompassing a large area (the size of the Battlescape) to protect the ship and prevent humans from escaping. Because the force-field is created before the landing, the alien ship is not always in the middle. Even if the ship takes off or is destroyed, the force-field persists for several days, suggesting that a device is required only to activate, not maintain it. X-COM scientists quickly created a cancellation generator to allow X-COM craft to safely pass through the force-field.
  • While the X-COM teams are engaging the aliens, recovery crews are standing by outside the force-field in helicopters, waiting for the "all clear" signal. The helicopters are also equipped with cancellation generators.
  • The reason X-COM soldiers are unable to use alien weapons before they are researched is attributed to the fact that all alien technology is keyed to alien DNA. Once an item is studied, scientists learn how to add humans to the "allowed users" list. Each soldier is required to know how to do it.
  • Besides the 1-100 psi-ratings, there exists an unexplained 0 rating, which basically means that the person is completely immune to any form of psychic control/attack but is also unable to use Psi-Amps. The only such person known was discovered by X-COM during a terror mission. A civilian hacker managed to reprogram a dead Muton's plasma rifle and aid the team on site (too many hours playing Doom). He then volunteered for field duty as an X-COM soldier. During psi-testing, he was found to have a 0 rating.
  • Unlike the game, where the Cydonia base self-destructs after the death of the brain creature, the X-COM team in the novel spends hours mining the base before blowing it up. There is also no mention of a tachyon signal being sent to Earth.
  • The alien base on Mars is only one of such bases throughout this sector of the galaxy. Each is constructed by a giant mothership before moving on to the next inhabited system. An alien ship arrives from another system under attack, seeking help. Unfortunately, it is mistaken for a saucer and is shot down. The X-COM team then kills the surviving pilots, mostly due to combat instinct. Only later do they discover that these aliens are different. While this is an interesting twist on the storyline, it is not explored any further. Also, for some reason, the ship's technology is not studied, even though it is obviously capable of FTL travel, and its construction somehow reminds the basic alien scout from X-COM: Terror from the Deep.
  • Soldiers with low (non-zero) psi-rating are given laser pistols and/or rifles instead of plasma, as lasers cannot penetrate powered armor. This policy was implemented after the main character was mind-controlled by a Sectoid and killed most of his team, before a Skyranger pilot, survived after a destruction of a cabin of Skyranger craft by a blaster weapon, managed to kill the Sectoid. The result: many well-trained soldiers dead and a Skyranger lost.
  • Although in the game aliens only attack land-based targets, a saucer lands on an offshore oil rig. The X-COM soldiers have to battle over a dozen Mutons and try not to get themselves and the rig blown up. The only mixed alien operation, with Muton's, Sectoid and Cyberdisc's altogether.