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UFO: Afterlight

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8.4 User Score:

Mixed or average reviews

Based on 16 critic reviews
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Based on 20 votes
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Game Info

Publisher: Cenega Publishing / Topware Interactive

Developer: Altar Interactive

Genre(s): Turn-Based Strategy, Real-Time Strategy, Role-Playing Game

Players: 1

ESRB Rating: T (Teen)

Release Date: February 9, 2007

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]

Also On Metacritic

GAMES: UFO: Aftermath UFO: Aftershock

Cheat Codes & Hints: GameSpot Hints & Cheats

Also On The Web: Official Website

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

Worth Playing

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.

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Pelit (Finland)

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]

Jolt Online Gaming UK

Overall UFO: Afterlight provides a very worthwhile time investment as the reward you reap is a deep and intriguing strategy game with the kind of RPG elements that add a less geeky feel to it - a surprise hit with us.

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Strategy Informer

A great game that you’ll find yourself unable to step away from because you have to research one thing more, or expand to one more territory.

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Eurogamer

Yes, you'll find sleeker interfaces and more engaging gunfights in titles such as "Silent Storm," "Faces of War," and "Jagged Alliance 2," but none of those games come with anything half as involved or absorbing as Afterlight's amazing strategic layer.

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Armchair Empire

Though Aftershock might edge Afterlight for combat and UFO: Extraterrestrials might be a better X-COM clone for purists, Afterlight feels like the most thoughtfully designed and fun of the UFO titles to date.

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GamingExcellence

In general, the game lacks a sense of autonomy, forcing you to do everything yourself. For certain things, that can be understandable, but for elements like being attacked in battle, you would really hope the characters would be able to shoot back sometimes.

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PC Zone UK

Fans of the series are bound to love it and if you have enough patience, you too might uncover the gooey warmth at the heart of this initially cold title. [Apr 2007, p.85]

PC Format

If the repetitive invasion missions could be handled by the AI, "Total War"-style, it would've been a definite winner in my book. [Mar 2007, p.75]

Game Over Online

The engine is a lot of fun, but the campaign is a disaster, and it appears that Altar Games hasn’t learned anything since releasing UFO: Aftershock two years ago.

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IGN

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.

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VideoGamer

While Afterlight is a definite improvement over its predecessors, it still lacks that je ne sais quoi which would push it towards "classic" territory. Despite an iconic sci-fi setting and competent execution, Afterlight somehow fails to really spark the imagination.

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GameSpot

It may be an upgrade on its predecessors, but UFO: Afterlight still comes with some significant problems.

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PC Gamer UK

What really keeps me from recommending Afterlight, however, is the repetition of its bases. The relative simplicity of the fights, married to returning to the same locale time and time again, means the game is simply not thrilling enough.

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1UP

Another major issue is the game's tragically stupid A.I.

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Four Fat Chicks

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.

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What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this game is 8.4 (out of 10) based on 20 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Mark M. gave it a3:
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!

[Anonymous] gave it a9:
This is one of the best 'new' strategy games to come out. I played it all the way through twice. I would recommend this game to anyone who likes strategic management of a simulated colony or turn based tactical combat. I had to ding its score by a point due to a memory leak that the game suffers. After a few hours of gameplay the tactical combat game takes a very long time to load. The best solution to this is to save, exit the game, and relaunch. Otherwise, I'ld say this is a very excellent game with a decent repaly value. Well worth your money.

Muz gave it an8:
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.

Steven B. gave it a9:
Very good game, very much like the 'X' series, much better graphics and loads more options.

Kevin A. gave it a9:
A great continuation on a long running series. Interface is easy to learn and in-depth, and the story and research tree is deep enough to hold more than passing interest.

Mojmir K. gave it a10:
Great game. 3D engine is realy great.

Konrad W. gave it a9:
Fantastic game, great successor of UFO: Enemy Unknown, Terror From The Deep, not to mention Aftermath or Aftershock. However I miss the crazy artwork on the science & tech research where it shown aliens on the table and or locked away, etc. It just added another story layer, where in Afterlight it's seems to be simplified. In the end great game, worth spending countless nights, trying to beat the aliens in the field as well as in the lab. 2 Thumbs up, if there was a multiplayer (co-op play or Player vs. Player), I would give it 3 thumbs up.

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UFO: Afterlight

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