UFO: Afterlight PC
UFO: Afterlight Image
Metascore
71 out of 100

Mixed or average reviews - based on 16 Critics What's this?

User Score
8.4 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 36 Ratings

Your Score
0 out of 10
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  • Summary: UFO: Afterlight is the next instalment in the "UFO: Aftermath" and "UFO: Aftershock" series, bringing a completely new insight to the story of Aftershock, this time from the perspective of lonely human inhabitants on Mars; combination of global strategy and tactical missions; completely new story built on the events from UFO: Aftershock; large number of new technologies, weapons and equipment to develop; completely new environments on a different planet than Earth; highly replayable game because of the player’s key decisions on diplomacy and research; strong RPG elements, the player knows his team by names. Strategy: new enemies and new alien races with variable weapons and battle tactics; several character classes with different attributes, skills and trainings; diplomacy has strong influence on the game story; research enables terraforming of the planet in later stages of the game; improved and transparent construction and building management; friendly interface and easy orientation in the game, useful information available at time and place where needed. Tactics: advanced tactical part of the game with the possibility to enter buildings, thermo visions and more; player may use different height and destructible elements of environment to his advantage; tactical missions controlled by intelligent scripts guarantee reasonable behavior of enemies; authentic physical model; player must adapt his tactics during the game as the enemies change and grow stronger, hardly two missions are the same; aliens and robots in your team; hostile environment requiring the use of different types of spacesuits; opportunity to mind-control your enemies and use psionic abilities. [Cenega Publishing]… Expand

Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 10 out of 16
  2. Mixed: 5 out of 16
  3. Negative: 1 out of 16
  1. Worth Playing
    90
    The game is just plain fun and has a terrific timeless appeal to it. This is the sort of title you could play through once or twice right away (even though it might take you three months), and then reinstall it again a year, two years, even five years later, and still have just as much fun.
  2. Pelit (Finland)
    84
    Offers a captivating mix of genres. The shell game works very well, actual fighting is only OK. The weapons are not very cool, and team members should be able to defend themselves automatically. There is still no destructible environment or randomly generated battlefields, either. Come on, Altair! [Mar 2007]
    All this publication's reviews
  3. IGN
    74
    Ultimately though, the lack of variety in the battles and the time lost wrestling with a less than convenient base interface will dampen your enthusiasm.
  4. Four Fat Chicks
    40
    Gamers the world over would thrill to play a soup-to-nuts remake of X-COM, updated with modern tech but otherwise essentially the same. In trying to mimic X-COM but also leverage original ideas, Altar's UFO series has succeeded only in highlighting its shortcomings - shortcomings particularly egregious in this disappointing installment.

See all 16 Critic Reviews

User Reviews

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Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 17 out of 20
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 20
  3. Negative: 2 out of 20
  1. ChuenLee
    10
    This game is awesome! After updating the game with all the latest patches, I don't have any problem with it whatsoever. The patch also improves things like automatic putting injured soldiers to the hospital so I don't have to micro-manage it. The patched AI seemed to be very challenging and sometimes I have to completely change my strategy to complete the mission. I hope that the development team will continue their good work in improving the game and at the same time put in some effort to make a sequel!… Expand
  2. Muz
    8
    Great game. But don't compare it to X-Com, the UFO and X-Com series are very different. Unlike the first of the UFO games, almost everything in Afterlight has changed drastically, from the research to base management to unit training and combat. I'd recommend it for any fan of research and tactical combat.… Expand
  3. Artoflameness
    5
    This is not the spiritual successor of the original UFO games. The battles are in real time (altough you can pause and issue commands to your units) and the atmosphere is unlike the original one: This one is cartoonish-childish, missing any tension or thrill of the old UFO games.
    Beside the barren, and empty battle maps the 2 major faults of the game are:
    - Defensive battles are repetitive, and are happening too frequently,
    - Badly calibrated, and designed difficulty.
    Normal diff. here is like insane or impossible one in any other game. You have to know the tech tree (especially the weapon and armour researches) or you will restart the game a dozen of times.    … Expand
  4. MarkM.
    3
    Plain and simple review: When it comes to strategy, I like the war aspect. But, frustrating management of individual characters, especially when the civilization starts growing, gets ultra annoying. I shouldnt be the one responsible for doing every little thing for the characters, like putting them in the hospital. That should happen automatically in a strategy game. Thing like that really bug me. Let me upgrade my war weapons and fight already!… Expand

See all 20 User Reviews

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