X-COM: Terror From The Deep

In X-COM: Terror From The Deep, the player directs the international organization X-COM , which previously opposed the invasion of aliens , and now redirected to threats from the depths of the sea. Unlike the previous game , in Terror From The Deep a significant part of the action takes place at sea and under water.

At the time of its destruction, the Martian civilization sent a powerful signal into space that reached a huge spacecraft that fell to Earth (in the Gulf of Mexico ) millions of years ago. In 2040, a new threat, this time emanating from the depths of the sea, forces the governments of the leading countries of the world to revive the organization X-COM ^[2] .

The concept and mechanics of the game have not undergone significant changes, but the graphic component Terror From The Deep has undergone significant processing. The atmosphere of the game has become more gloomy than music, which brings fear and keeps the player on their toes ^[2] . Cards of the tactical regime increased in size, as a result of which the duration and complexity significantly increased ^[2] . Due to the large size of the map and its saturation with elements of the environment, the “problem of the last newcomer” became even more relevant. After the destruction of the majority of aliens, one or more survivors hide and do not give out their presence. To detect them, the player has to comb through a large amount of space, which can take a long time. In addition, during the mission of terror on the ship, the last alien survivor may be in a place physically inaccessible to X-COM soldiers.

The main equipment and artifacts from the previous game moved almost unchanged, changing only the name and description according to the new "sea" setting. So, the mind control ( Mind Control ) turned into a molecular control ( Molecular Control , MC ), the energy source elerium-115 ( Elerium 115 ) - into zerbytes ( Z'rbite ), an alien weapon instead of a plasma one became acoustic and so on ^[2] . However, the characteristics of all weapons were underestimated. Some weapons can only be used underwater. For the first time, a full-fledged melee weapon appeared in the game (in the first part, the player only had a stun baton to capture newcomers).

Compared to the first part, the emphasis of missions has shifted towards terrorist attacks by aliens. Instead of one type of missions of terror in the first part of the game (in the city), there were three of them (in the port, on the island and on the ship, and the ship can be one of two types - passenger or cargo, and the map of each of the two types of ships is not randomly generated , and one for the appropriate version of the "ship" missions). In addition, there were battles in the "alien activity sites" (reports of finding such places are received in the same way as the tasks of preventing terror). “Missions of activity”, as well as missions on underwater bases of aliens consist of two stages (as the final mission on Mars in UFO Defense) ^[2] . The number of alien varieties decreased from five to four, but the number of terrorist units increased from six to seven. Mixed teams also appeared, when on one mission (both when storming downed or stranded alien ships, and in missions of terror and protecting their bases), you can meet representatives of different races.

The tree of research of technologies has become much broader and more confusing compared to the first part, because of which several errors have crept into the concept of research, which under certain circumstances make the passage of the game impossible.

The Toy Shop magazine noted that the game largely repeats the first part of the gameplay, but at the same time, set high marks (4.5 / 5 graphics, sound, plot and overall 5/5 appeal) ^[2] .

• X-Com: Terror From The Deep on Absolute Games
• The Terror From The Deep page in the X-COM Games Encyclopedia (Eng.)