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2007 · Altar Games · Post-apocalyptic · Real-time strategy

UFO: Afterlight

UFO: Afterlight is the third in a three-game squad-based tactical strategy-RPG series clearly inspired by the original X-COM games, with similar themes and gameplay, but with its own post-apocalyptic horror spin on the concept. The game is rendered in isometric 3D and features tactical combat in real-time with pause.

Released: 9 February 2007
Platforms: Windows
Genres: Post-apocalyptic Real-time strategy Real-time tactics Role-playing Science Strategy Tactical Turn-based strategy
Developers: Altar Games
Publishers: TopWare Interactive 1C Company
Series: UFO
Modes: Single-player
Perspective: Bird view / Isometric
Themes: Science fiction
Country: Czech Republic
Age ratings: PEGI 12 ESRB T USK 12
Languages: Czech, English, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Polish, Russian, Spanish (Spain)
Time to beat: 35hmain story61hcompletionist

About

UFO: Afterlight is a 2007 real-time tactics/turn-based strategy video game and the third in Altar Games' UFO series. Like its predecessors UFO: Aftermath and UFO: Aftershock, it combines squad-level tactical combat with overlying strategic elements inspired by the 1994 classic UFO: Enemy Unknown.

›Story

The story is situated on Mars. It starts where UFO: Aftermath left off and runs simultaneously with UFO: Aftershock. While the Laputans on Earth are fighting Wargots and Starghosts and finding out what caused the destruction of their home planet, a small colony on Mars is trying to survive and flourish.

The player will gain more details about the activities of intergalactic organisms, called Myrmecols, in the solar system. The scientific research and communication with different factions on the Earth gives him a different perspective on the events of the two previous sequels. In UFO: Afterlight, the players will meet with brand new technologies, unusual environment and enemies both old and unknown.

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Gameplay

UFO: Afterlight is played in two parts. The first part is the strategy game consisting of claiming territory, building structures on the planet, managing research and production, managing personnel training, base management, and diplomacy where items and resources may be traded with other parties. The second part of Afterlight is the tactical game where, much like the previous UFO titles, up to seven soldiers may be equipped and deployed to accomplish a goal in missions. Some mission goals are to capture or kill a specific enemy, destroy or retrieve a particular item, and the ubiquitous kill everything that moves.

Story

Following the canonical “bad” ending of UFO: Aftermath, humans agree to the terms of Reticulans who invaded Earth: some humans are moved to the Laputa over Earth (the events of UFO: Aftershock), while 10,000 colonists in cryo-sleep and a small research team are moved to Mars, with intention of terraforming the planet and making it a new home for humanity.

Immediately before the events of the game, a member of the excavation research team, Jurgen, stumbles upon an alien structure filled with robots of unknown origins. The robots awaken and attack, killing him in the tutorial mission. Soon, robots begin emerging from buried structures all over Mars. They begin attacking Human stations and even damage a critical water pipeline from the North Pole. The colonists are forced to recover and begin manufacturing armaments to protect themselves against the new threat.