GAMES: GameSpot | GameFAQs MUSIC: Last.fm | MP3.com MOVIES: Metacritic | Movietome TV: TV.com
Home | About Metacritic | About Metascores | What's New | Wireless Versions | Discussion Forums | Advertising Inquiries | Contact Us | RSS
Metacritic.com: We Deal With Criticism
     Help
> Switch to Advanced Search  
Film Video/DVD Music Games TV

Games

Playstation Reviews
PS3 | PS2 | PS One | PSP

Xbox Reviews
Xbox 360 | Xbox

Nintendo Reviews
Wii | DS | GBA | Cube | N64


PC | N-Gage | Dreamcast

How Metascores Are Calculated
Discuss Games In Our Forums

 

Upcoming & Recent Releases

sort by name sort by score

xx Age of Pirates 2: City of Abandoned Ships
xx Alien Shooter - Revisited
xx Alien Shooter 2: Reloaded
xx Altitude
xx America's Army 3
75 And Yet It Moves
79 ArmA II
xx Armed Forces Corp.
xx Astro Tripper
75 BattleForge
74 Battlestations: Pacific
75 Bionic Commando
78 Blood Bowl
59 Blueberry Garden
xx Book of Unwritten Tales, The
90 Braid
xx Burnout Paradise: Big Surf Island
81 Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood
80 Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena, The
76 Chronicles of Spellborn, The
67 Codename: Panzers - Cold War
73 Cogs
64 Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 - Uprising
70 Company of Heroes: Tales of Valor
69 Cryostasis: Sleep of Reason
41 Damnation
66 Dark Sector
89 Dawn of Discovery
82 DCS: Black Shark
53 Death Track: Resurrection
xx Delta Force: Xtreme 2
76 Demigod
xx Drug Wars
71 Elven Legacy
89 EVE Online: Apocrypha
81 Fallout 3: Broken Steel
78 Fallout 3: Point Lookout
77 Fallout 3: The Pitt
50 Fenimore Fillmore's Revenge
xx Final Fantasy XI: A Crystalline Prophecy
65 Flock!
80 Free Realms
72 Fuel
78 Ghostbusters: The Video Game
54 Gobliiins 4
63 Godfather II, The
36 Grey's Anatomy
xx Hannah Montana: The Movie
xx Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
xx Helldorado
xx Hinterland: Orc Lords
xx Humans, The
xx Hunter, The
xx Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs
72 Killing Floor
xx Larva Mortus
66 Last Remnant, The
20 Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust
xx Light of Altair
75 Maw, The
79 Men of War
76 Mevo & the Grooveriders
xx Military History Commander: Europe at War
74 MLB Dugout Heroes
63 Monsters vs. Aliens
74 Neverwinter Nights 2: Mysteries of Westgate
72 Officers
xx Operation 7
xx Orb and the Oracle, The
78 Overlord II
80 Path, The
88 Plants vs. Zombies
xx Pool Hall Pro
xx Pro Cycling Manager: Tour de France 2009
79 Prototype
xx Railworks
xx Raycatcher
70 Restaurant Empire 2
xx Righteous Kill 2: Revenge of the Poet Killer
73 Runes of Magic
xx Samantha Swift and the Golden Touch
72 SBK 09 Superbike World Championship
xx Scorpion: Disfigured
64 Secret Files 2: Puritas Cordis
74 Sherlock Holmes vs. Jack the Ripper
77 Simon the Sorcerer 5: Who'd Even Want Contact?!
86 Sims 3, The
xx Smashing Toys
73 Spore Galactic Adventures
26 Stalin vs. Martians
xx Stateshift
68 Still Life 2
42 Stormrise
92 Street Fighter IV
71 Superstars V8 Racing
51 Terminator Salvation
xx Theatre of War 2: Africa 1943
xx Three Cards to Midnight
70 Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X.
61 Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
xx Trine
31 Tunnel Rats
xx Up
61 Velvet Assassin
72 Virtua Tennis 2009
76 Wallace & Gromit's Grand Adventures Ep 1: Fright of the Bumblebees
73 Wallace & Gromit's Grand Adventures Ep 2: The Last Resort
75 Wallace & Gromit's Grand Adventures Ep 3: Muzzled!
62 Wanted: Weapons of Fate
xx Warrior Epic
58 Wheelman, The
xx Women's Murder Club: A Darker Shade of Grey
72 World in Conflict: Soviet Assault
xx WSC Real 09: World Snooker Championship
77 X-Men Origins: Wolverine - Uncaged Edition
xx Yosumin!
78 Zeno Clash

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed games.



Printer-Friendly Version Email This Page Discuss In Our Forums
UFO: Afterlight pc Game Reviews
UFO: Afterlight
Critic Score
Metascore: 71 Metascore out of 100
User Score  
8.3 out of 10
based on 16 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
based on 19 votes
Read user comments
Rate this game

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]

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

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...

90
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.
Read Full Review
84
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]
81
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.
Read Full Review
80
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.
Read Full Review
80
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.
Read Full Review
80
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.
Read Full Review
78
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.
Read Full Review
76
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]
75
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]
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.
Read Full Review
74
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.
Read Full Review
70
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.
Read Full Review
65
GameSpot
It may be an upgrade on its predecessors, but UFO: Afterlight still comes with some significant problems.
Read Full Review
62
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.
Read Full Review
50
1UP
Another major issue is the game's tragically stupid A.I.
Read Full Review
40
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.
Read Full Review

What Our Users Said

Vote Now! The average user rating for this game is 8.3 (out of 10) based on 19 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.

Read more user comments...

Discuss this game in our forums

Return to top of page
Home | FILM | DVD/VIDEO | MUSIC | GAMES | TV | Forums | About Metacritic metacritic.com

Popular on CBS sites: iPhone 3G | Fantasy Football | Moneywatch | Antivirus Software | Recipes | E3 2009

About CBS Interactive | Jobs | Advertise

© 2009 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. | Privacy Policy | Terms of Use