Another fantastic installment of a series that was, in my opinion, under rated and over looked. You play as a team on individuals awakened from Cryo sleep after the war for earth, with us losing. You task is to terraform Mars while the rest of humanity sleeps until the time where the planet can support them.

The game follows the typical format of the UFO series,if you have not played any before this i am sure alot of what is going on is going to be confusing. Research and develop new weapons, robots, and tech to aid you in your struggles. All in all this is one of my favorite games, i am sure if you like resource and time management paired well with turn based/RTS then you will enjoy this.

There game is not with out its faults, the worst thing is the difficulty curve is somewhat obnoxious, but it doesnt take away from the run and even replayability

I always been a fan of tactical squad game. I was introduced to the genre through x-com spending countless hours playing the game on a 486. UFO series pays homage to the x-com series but and is good in certain implementation. In fact, I prefer this than UFO extraterrestrial. UFO afterlight is the 3rd of the series. Not exactly an expansion but rather a continuation of the fight against alien. Except this time, you fight Martian. No unlike martian you watched in movie or read or kill in Doom 3, this martian are primitive called beastman. You've been banished to Mars by the reticulan and try to survive in the harsh enviroment, however you woke up the sleeping beasts. So it is up to you to fend off these buggers for survival,hog resource and terraform the planet for the sleeping humans in the cyro. If you failed, well not that the humanity will extinct. After all, there is still the Laputian on Earth.

I have had UFO: Afterlight for a few years now and I keep going back to it because its a great real time / turn based strategy game which is based on X-COM. The story is about the "you" the colonists of mars trying to survive when multiple alien races are also on the planet. Even today the graphics are pretty good and the sounds is just about right. The only real negative thing I have about the game is that it is really hard...and you really have to push yourself to stay ahead in research or the enemy will destroy you with advanced weaponary. Overall though a great game..buy it and enjoy!

Phew. Do not go into this game expecting X-COM, because X-COM it is not. If X-COM is here in Vancouver, then Afterlight is somewhere off in Asia Minor -- it's one of the farthest things from, right on the other side of the globe. The graphical style grates on me too. Finally, I'd like to drill out the eyes and ears of the people who made the base staff spout their random garbage every ten seconds, because they clearly did it to me first.

It does have its saving graces: they tried very very hard to do something original and succeeded. For those who are looking for original gameplay, by all means buy this game. It's got its quirks and entertainment value, and it's a great attempt at creating a stop-motion realtime tactical hybrid. That's what made its spiritual predecessor so great: it was the first of its kind. But to get to that you have to dig into a moderately steep learning curve (unless you scale it back into idiot-mode difficulty), an esoteric but very pretty interface that presents the most necessary information buried behind at least two menus (e.g., your resource stockpiles), and the overarching assumption that the player has read the manual cover to cover. Unlike deeper grand strategy games where reading the manual exposes the sheer complexity of the game, this game doesn't have that same degree of complexity and reading the manual is more of a chore. The interface in general just ruins it for me. Clicking here or there doesn't do anything, you're not set up to do whatever you want from the beginning but have to "unlock" the game as you go, and so forth. If you're willing to commit to it, you'll find yourself rewarded. Just dial down the speakers a bit any time you switch into the base menu and you'll be fine...

All in all, it's worth about a 6/10. It's not something you want to pass over, but don't buy it full price either. It's the sort of thing where if renting were possible, you'd rent it and not buy it.

Gamespot's review says get this game if you loved Xcom. Well, I hated Xcom but like this game. I waited for a sale to get it, but probably worth full price for most. No bugs, runs smooth, lots to do on the strategic side. The tactical game isn't a clickfest, which is a nice change. Lots of good reviews from others, too.

Still playing this, so I can't give an overall review (is the end worth it, for example).

The idea is very similar to the old UFO & XCOM games, which I loved, though this time you're on Mars. As the group who have set up a colony base on the red planet, you have to maintain your own resources, make roads into expansion and terraforming, and fend off the locals. There's a good amount going on, and between missions you won't be bored tweaking this and that. You even have political relations with the original protagonist aliens from UFO - and they're fighting on your side!!! It's very cool.

Also, the missions are semi-turn-based, though in a similar vein to UFO/XCOM. If you liked that, you'll like this - though it's less about counting action points, you have to consider this in an indirect way, especially when the action heats up a bit.

As I say, I've not played it all the way through (yet). I think I know I will! :)

This is the best of the 3 games in this series. Besides the cartoony characters which I don't like much, most other aspects are doing fine - the game mechanics and the game world are fantastic. I feel like I'm playing the X-COM game a decade ago. (What a memory!)

The only setback is that the game occasionally crashes without an obvious reason, which I think tolerable. Highly recommended for old and new players!

All the games in this series were good, but Afterlight is far and away the best. It has a tactical system that strikes a nice balance between turn-based lulls and complex tactics. The small number of soldiers adds personality and increases the tension in combat, even it does get a little frustrating when you have to replay a mission just because one character was killed. The tech tree and overland map give it a "one more turn" quality that only Civ games have matched for me in the past.

Honestly, if you're going to play this series start here, with the last game, then go back and play the others. The developers really improved with each game in the series.

I love this game! I know some people say it is not as good as the original XCOM, but I say it is better. It has a story, that helps you keep motivated. I really enjoyed the scientist popping up and telling you what is going on and discussing the problems at hand with each other. Made me feel more apart of the game. The cartoony graphics put me off at first, but I really learned to enjoy them as I played. I think it is the best of the 3 in the series, the second one being the next best. This game gave me many hours of enjoyable game play.

I got this as part of a bundle pack (it was bundled with the two previous games). I found it to be enjoyable and deep enough, but it's a bit more cartoony in art style than the previous installments in the series and that just didn't "do it" for me as much as the somewhat grittier art in UFO: Aftershock in particular.

It's still a fun game, though! There are plenty of cool technologies to research, and like the second installment in the series, you can field an army made up of several different races eventually, as well as your own customized drones. Definitely worth picking up and playing if you're a fan of the genre.

Probably the best of the After_ Series, it does a much better job of making you use tactics and positioning instead of merely moving as a clump. Unfortunately, none of the games really capture the feel of a desperate fight of the original X-com, as your soldiers are neither expendable, nor random. It's a rare mission where you lose a man, and the loss can really cripple you with the levelling system.

This game is great, If your a fan of RTS's and RPG's (As i am) Then this should be a 'Must Have' on your list. It gracefuly combines RPG elements (such as leveling up, equipment managment, etc) with exelent RTS elements (Real time Combat and , Although lacking, Resource Managment) As stated allready, the reaserch tree is quite expansive and the variety of equipment follows suit. (From high tech laser weponry and alien gadgets to building your own, or scavenging, Droids) Over all i think its an exelent game (Not having played the old X-Com Series) and find little to no fault in its playablitly, Namely due to the fact that you can pause the game (to give comands, re-orientate camera, heal,etc) Ala Baldure's Gate, Icewind Dale, NWN, etc...

Well-made mix between the tactical and strategical aspects. The various patches has improved the game alot, especially the interface system. Still abit difficult to keep track of your employees and some areas of the strategic game should have been rethinked (base-building was better in X-Com for instance). Still an impressive game, especially on the ways they let the player choose his own strategy. Diplomacy and research works very well in this regard.

At first I was extreamly sceptical about buying anything related to the old Xcom series. Then I looked at the screen shots. I do not know what I expected at first, but I developed the thought that the screens were childish looking, or cheesy.

Since I've been rather board lately, I went ahead and picked up this title, desperate to have some working memories of the old Xcom game. Luck.

This is an awsome game, after looking past a little childish graphics and audio, learning to do things a little different, this has turned out to be one of my best bought games this year.

This game is phenomenal! Finally a true heir to the original X-COM, I have not played the other 2 games but they looked weak and the reviews were pretty poor. UFO:afterlight does a great job of capturing the feel of X-COM without being a straight copy with better graphics. The story line so far has been intriguing but the game is just addictive. The camera control is a little weak but nothing you can’t manage.

By far the best in the series. It seems they took all the feedback and evaluation of the previous two titles, and applied all that learning to this third game. So far the only downside is the fact that there seem to only be a handful of the tactical battle theaters, and the indoor alien ones look a little weird and confusing. But, the technology tree, the region and resource management in the strategic view, the additional enemies, and even the story as it develops, all are very welcome. In addition, much of the unit equipment and management system has been improved, so it's a lot easier to equip and deploy units. There are still some minor issues in terms of usability, but overall if you've enjoyed the previous two games, you will definitely enjoy this one more.