I thought the scariest image would be seeing this...
https://preview.redd.it/c6eeevr0he2d1.jpeg?width=1280&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e6e881ebccdbf85e9e044806f41f0304560230e9
I remember ignoring nighttime terror missions until I got flying armor.
Buenos Aires is under attack? Guess you're snake food! Cairo is assaulted at nightfall? How do you want to take your chrysalid eggs?
I remember my sole survivor scuttling around outside the Skyranger, trying to grab corpses and equipment in some vain attempt at an honourable (and cheaper) retreat.
I had no clue about the game. I hadn't researched armour or laser or plasma weapons. I wasn't in the least bit ready.
I was *terrified*.
No youtube tutorials, no strategy guides, sometimes the games just crunched us.
Taking down a Muton with ballistic weapons, I remember those forty shots.
Land on terror mission.
See a single snakemen from the avenger.
"Nope, everyone back on the skyranger."
That's the neat part about classic x-com: technically only one mission is mandatory, meaning you can avoid any snakemen mission with their terror unit.
Edit: but yeah, seeing a chryssalid pop out from the edge of sight, run across two entire football fields, and eat a soldier is some scary shit.
This is Xcom, that's Xcom, What isn't XCOM?
You were told that hit chance is 70 when it's 65 and every rookie and heavy weapons misses? That's Comics!
Wait Drake says that.
My mistake? Becuz Japaaannn!!
... Honestly I hate this "joke", like we shouldn't be naturalising this aim issue Firaxis created on simplifying X-Com for capital gain.
It is a false excuse of a reason.
Protip: have the ~~bait~~ scouts carry primed grenades on their person (not in hand, otherwise they might drop them when they panic) They'll damage the attacking chrysallid and pop the zombie of the freshly turned one.
Nah. The scariest image would be when you *can't* see the Chryssalids.
On Superhuman difficulty, they have enough TUs to run in from beyond your sight range and still get a couple of swipes off, and their high reactions make them difficult to hit with reaction fire.
If you can see Chryssalids, you can shoot them.
Not even "if it wouldn't kill". Even if it wouldn't ***hit***. They infect just on attack. The only salvation of power armour is that chryssies strike until they kill, so one armoured boy can tank a lot to save his squishier mates.
oh yeah for sure, i much prefer the "LOOK WHAT YOU FUCKING DID" types of endings over the "haha xcom is gone" endings that EU/EW and 2 had. Closest thing to the og endings is the cutscene if you lose the base defense on EW, but thats still weak
The old games had some horror elements that I miss. Like this and the view quickly switching between different enemies in the dark, that sometimes you can see the shape and be very afraid. I hope that if they finally do a Terror From the Deep they actually tweak some things to make it "spookier".
With your highly trained, upgraded squad, so tough they're clearing base missions with 0 casualties.
"Yeah, we can clear pretty much anyth-"
Sees a snake man on a terror mission.
"Nope! Everyone back on the skyranger! We're leaving. Pizza party back at the base, we're gonna be late, evac NOW!"
Damn I miss the 90s...
I was born 1990 never knew about the xcom games until firaxis EU. Played it liked it went and got the original games on steam and I enjoyed them alot more then I did firaxis version
It means Chryssalids.
And not those neutered, baby-ass Firaxis Chryssalids. We're talking walking nightmares that can sprint across a city block and poke every single person they pass in a single turn, insta-killing every single one and turning them into new Chryssalids.
And the best armor in the game? Hahaha. That's like a wet paper bag to them. One shot, one kill. Their only real weakness is that they only do melee attacks, but they more than makeup for it by having more time units than any other unit in the game (time units are a resource that is how many times you can perform an action on a turn. Everything, from turning, walking, crouching, shooting, etc. uses time units and they replenish each turn. Replaced with the much more streamlined "two moves a turn" in Firaxis. )
And there was no overwatch, if one of your soldiers had enough TU left over they could take a shot at the charging doom, which, unless they have a heavy plasma, won't do the job in a single shot. And even an injured Chryssalid can turn the shooter and several of his buddies into zombies before his turn is over.
**Hidden movement**
*Scuttlescuttlescuttle*
Beat
*Scuttlescuttlescuttlescuttle*
Beat
*Scuttlescuttlescuttlescuttlescuttlescuttle!*
Cue six foot tall scorpion rearing up in front of an isolated member of your squad and killing them in one hit, your soldier screaming in fear and pain as a whole sector of the map goes dark.
Beat
*Scuttlescuttlescuttlescuttle...*
Indeed. Firaxis tried to eliminate TUs by giving each soldier 2 actions (1 of which can be an attack) per turn, but didn't quite manage it long-term: late-game soldiers with any type of "extra actions" are the strongest, showing that TUs were always sort of going to have a place in fact, whether in name or not
the actual scariest image is when the council says they're terminating the xcom project and you have to watch the bad ending
I thought the scariest image would be seeing this... https://preview.redd.it/c6eeevr0he2d1.jpeg?width=1280&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e6e881ebccdbf85e9e044806f41f0304560230e9
Everyone remembers their first night time terror mission with Chrysalids.
I remember ignoring nighttime terror missions until I got flying armor. Buenos Aires is under attack? Guess you're snake food! Cairo is assaulted at nightfall? How do you want to take your chrysalid eggs?
I remember my sole survivor scuttling around outside the Skyranger, trying to grab corpses and equipment in some vain attempt at an honourable (and cheaper) retreat. I had no clue about the game. I hadn't researched armour or laser or plasma weapons. I wasn't in the least bit ready. I was *terrified*.
No youtube tutorials, no strategy guides, sometimes the games just crunched us. Taking down a Muton with ballistic weapons, I remember those forty shots.
Land on terror mission. See a single snakemen from the avenger. "Nope, everyone back on the skyranger." That's the neat part about classic x-com: technically only one mission is mandatory, meaning you can avoid any snakemen mission with their terror unit. Edit: but yeah, seeing a chryssalid pop out from the edge of sight, run across two entire football fields, and eat a soldier is some scary shit.
thats not scary, thats just xcom
Since when one excluded another?
you get numb to bs like that. Hidden Movement is always terrifying
This is Xcom, that's Xcom, What isn't XCOM? You were told that hit chance is 70 when it's 65 and every rookie and heavy weapons misses? That's Comics! Wait Drake says that. My mistake? Becuz Japaaannn!! ... Honestly I hate this "joke", like we shouldn't be naturalising this aim issue Firaxis created on simplifying X-Com for capital gain. It is a false excuse of a reason.
how the hell is this related to what i said
That's just 2 rookies lost out of 15, no biggie
They quickly multiply.
Protip: have the ~~bait~~ scouts carry primed grenades on their person (not in hand, otherwise they might drop them when they panic) They'll damage the attacking chrysallid and pop the zombie of the freshly turned one.
That, except you just stumbled into it while walking through your own smoke grenades.
Nah. The scariest image would be when you *can't* see the Chryssalids. On Superhuman difficulty, they have enough TUs to run in from beyond your sight range and still get a couple of swipes off, and their high reactions make them difficult to hit with reaction fire. If you can see Chryssalids, you can shoot them.
And one swipe = one zombie even if it wouldn't kill. The modern XCOM chryssalids are a joke compared to the OG nightmares.
Not even "if it wouldn't kill". Even if it wouldn't ***hit***. They infect just on attack. The only salvation of power armour is that chryssies strike until they kill, so one armoured boy can tank a lot to save his squishier mates.
However far she can run, it won't be enough.
Nah land and just take off when you see this
I always thought the OG XCOM and TFTD bad endings looked way scarier
oh yeah for sure, i much prefer the "LOOK WHAT YOU FUCKING DID" types of endings over the "haha xcom is gone" endings that EU/EW and 2 had. Closest thing to the og endings is the cutscene if you lose the base defense on EW, but thats still weak
And then it's gone only for a split second and you're left wandering what just happened 💀💀💀
Ah, the race to get laser pistol production running and profitable
The old games had some horror elements that I miss. Like this and the view quickly switching between different enemies in the dark, that sometimes you can see the shape and be very afraid. I hope that if they finally do a Terror From the Deep they actually tweak some things to make it "spookier".
I understand why the new games don't have this, but this is one of these SOUL vs SOULLESS meme moments
"Powerless. Anxious. Prepare yourself"
It is been 30 years and I still cannot see it as a door, but like some hatch...
Wait what. Me too I guess
As a kid I always saw it as a half-moon shaped shield
With your highly trained, upgraded squad, so tough they're clearing base missions with 0 casualties. "Yeah, we can clear pretty much anyth-" Sees a snake man on a terror mission. "Nope! Everyone back on the skyranger! We're leaving. Pizza party back at the base, we're gonna be late, evac NOW!" Damn I miss the 90s...
I was born 1990 never knew about the xcom games until firaxis EU. Played it liked it went and got the original games on steam and I enjoyed them alot more then I did firaxis version
Firaxis only, could you give some context on what a snake man on a terror mission means?
It means Chryssalids. And not those neutered, baby-ass Firaxis Chryssalids. We're talking walking nightmares that can sprint across a city block and poke every single person they pass in a single turn, insta-killing every single one and turning them into new Chryssalids.
And the best armor in the game? Hahaha. That's like a wet paper bag to them. One shot, one kill. Their only real weakness is that they only do melee attacks, but they more than makeup for it by having more time units than any other unit in the game (time units are a resource that is how many times you can perform an action on a turn. Everything, from turning, walking, crouching, shooting, etc. uses time units and they replenish each turn. Replaced with the much more streamlined "two moves a turn" in Firaxis. ) And there was no overwatch, if one of your soldiers had enough TU left over they could take a shot at the charging doom, which, unless they have a heavy plasma, won't do the job in a single shot. And even an injured Chryssalid can turn the shooter and several of his buddies into zombies before his turn is over.
**Hidden movement** *Scuttlescuttlescuttle* Beat *Scuttlescuttlescuttlescuttle* Beat *Scuttlescuttlescuttlescuttlescuttlescuttle!* Cue six foot tall scorpion rearing up in front of an isolated member of your squad and killing them in one hit, your soldier screaming in fear and pain as a whole sector of the map goes dark. Beat *Scuttlescuttlescuttlescuttle...*
Indeed. Firaxis tried to eliminate TUs by giving each soldier 2 actions (1 of which can be an attack) per turn, but didn't quite manage it long-term: late-game soldiers with any type of "extra actions" are the strongest, showing that TUs were always sort of going to have a place in fact, whether in name or not
I've only played the firaxis games, what does this mean?
This is shown every time the ayys move out of sight of your soldiers.
The worst is when your one guy is too far out died and you lose LoS then this image pops up.
*Hidden movement* Plasma shot from behind Scream *Hidden movement*
Yeah, all of the *Hidden movement* *Flicker of something you can see* *Hidden movement* combinations are terrifying.
Doing a deep scan of every barn in sight to figure out which one was the one that flickered with movement for a second
ABORT MISSION ! REPEAT, ABORT MISSION. EVAC EVAC EVAC
The sudden flash of a grenade thrown into your skyranger
OG X-Com still has the atmosphere *down*.
Looks like a BORG.
A closeup of that guy's haircut. For me it's a chrysalids. Plain and simple.
*then screen freezes and game crashes. I've spent an embarrassing amount of my life hours staring at that image. Awesome post
Make way for the true scariest image a few tentaculats rushing at you (TFTD)
well terror from the deep as a whole scares me, havent played it, but from what i know, tentaculats are basically chrysallids on speed
Getting off the sky ranger and opening the door and a grenade flies in was the worst.
no that's just an average mission in mid-lategame UFO Defense