Much has been said about X-Com, including a really well done article about the game and its popularity written by Alan Au for the Escapist. Many believe X-Com to be the pinnacle of tactical gaming, and many attempts have been made at recreating the glory of this series but the solution is sitting right under our noses?

UFO: Extraterrestrials is both better and worse than X-Com, they have come the closest to recapping X-Com's high points, and with a couple changes I believe a sequal to UFO:E could actually exceed X-Com's greatness.

First, and most importantly is the AI... UFO:E is in desperate need of some intelligence in its artificial intelligence. If the aliens would actually work in pairs or small groups to search for the player's team, or guarding hallways or doors instead of facing a wall like an eTard. Better use of their equipment, such as actually using grenades, and kneeling behind cover... Simple things, but they would add much more challenge to the game. X-Com's AI was better than UFO-E's but even it didn't make use of search patterns or defensive positions.

After the AI is addressed, could we please fix the base design? X-Com bases were on a 6x6 grid and every one of the 8 allowed bases can have any base room. UFO:E reduced bases to 6x5, and only the main base could have anything but hangars and defenses. Removing the "General Stores" and its limitations on inventory wasn't a bad move, but having only one base which can launch troops was a bad move. Couple fixes, either revert to X-Com's method of every base is able to house troops, or increase the size of the main base. If the main base was 8x8, and the satellite bases were decreased to 5x5 it would work well. Either way, another small fix needed is allowing the PLAYER to place the "energy center" or whatever core base piece, since it cannot be altered later. Being able to rename bases would also be appreciated.

Last of the major changes would to give back the player's ability to recruit new troops at will. Whether or not death is reinstated doesn't matter much, but the option to hire and fire soldiers needs to be put back in.

And some other small changes... Fighters should be able to vary weapon loadouts like X-Com, two cannons or two missile weapons should be allowed. Lasers not having ammunition (unlimited ammo like in XCom), and basic level heavy weapons (X-Com has Cannon, Autocannon, and rockets, UFO:E only has rockets).

Did I miss anything?
IMHO with these changes, I'd play this game until my eyes melted and I starved to death.

Play a better variant instead, either the UFO series by Altar or even better UFO:AI which is even free, although sadly unfinished. It's much better than both the Altar series and UFO: Extraterrestials though, and even rivals X-Com. When finished it might even surpass it.

Yeah, maybe. I have played a bit of AI, and while I like it, I still go back to the original, older graphics, dosbox and all. There is something about the execution of the original that has never been captured by later versions that I have played.

For me, I think the only way to make it better would be to combine X-Com with the Fallout engine and make a cRPG out of it with the Fallout graphics...
Man that's dated, but still, you get my drift yeah?

Seeing as I'm partial to both X-com and Fallout (especially the SPECIAL system) I'd love to see it. Sure, the SPECIAL system doesn't need to be included, but the engine is great. What I would like to see too however is the first person perspective that both Altar and AI has. That you can choose to watch a scene from first person to see line of fire and such. That would most likely not work with the fallout engine. Perhaps the one used in Tactics, but not the others.

And while I agree that the first one has something special, I think that much of that is because of our memories of it. What I would like to see is something that just expands. Updates the graphics, the gameplay and the AI a little, and expands on the story, the enemies. A real sequel. Most games that try to imitate it either copy everything directly or deviate from the original a lot. I'd like to see everything expanded, not changed.