This is a review for the game as it comes after you buy it. That means up to patch 1.5. So after I completed aftermath and aftershock(I liked both game especially aftershock) I started play afterlight. At that momment I didn't have internet to use mods or unofficial patches(as most people do) so I played the vanilla version. And oh man was I disappointed. Because of that I feel that I should start with the numerous drawbacks of the game. Graphics were too cartoony for my liking and bright for a Ufo game where you are trying to save the humanity. The first enemy you encounter was another disappointment. Some laughtable looking alien robots that you can't take seriously. In afterlight forget all seriousness. It doesn't feel like you command soldiers. It mostly feels like you command the local militia of a colony which consists from old grannies to teenagers. When you start the game the can't even run or crouch for cover even in light suits. You have to walk them all over the map like some invalids(I understand about the granny but the rest?) without strategy and shooting whatever moves. You have to train them later to run and there is a different training for crouching and laying prone(for light suits. You can only walk in heavy suits. In medium suits you can run and crouch but now lay prone. Mabe they are afraid that the suit will get dirty). People are talking about tactics in this game but I just don't see any. When in heavy armor you return to the tactics of 18th century. You put your troopers in heavy armor in a line(they can't take cover since they can't crouch or lay prone and can only walk) and shoot your enemies with laser weapons. When in light armor you can use tactics and cover but after a while you need to change to heavy if you want your people to survive. Then just put heavy armors and heavy laser weapons(with two shotgunners for the alien warbeasts) form a line and it's a walk in the park. The problems are not ending there. We still have a long way to go. The weapon variety is way to small(forget the many weapons from aftermath and aftershock.there are 3 human rifles, ONE sniper, no machineguns etc.) and most of them are becoming obsolite after a while. After you start fighting matriarchs for example the standard human rifle becomes completely useless(as most of the weapons tha shoot bullets) and the game forces you to go laserstyle or you can't win. Snipers are greatly nurfed and in the late game almost useless. They are also bugged or something since first level snipers are supposed to take accuracy bonus with precise shots but in my game it stayed the same. Now in the game there are 3 classes. Soldiers, scientists and engineers. There are also hybrids. This makes the game look more like a failed "how to organise you colony" simulator than a strategy game. You have to babysit not only your soldiers now but your scientists engineers and hybrids as well. So after a mission you have to arange those with two classes to return to the factory or lab and complete their other duties. Because it's not enought they are going to war. They have to work extra after the missions in factories. Like a **** militia. Your soldiers are brain dead as well and can't use medkits. In this game you have to be a scientist to use them. Other traits that I dislike is that you can't recruit more soldiers(game forces you to reload after a while), the crapload of bugs(almost as many as aftershock but at least aftershock was not anoying on top of its bugs), the plotholes(one advisor asks if it is morally right to take from the beastmen their homeworld but noone brings it up again), the luck of strategy form your enemies(they just trie to overwhelm you), the fact that beastmen have scanerlike equipment but I've never seen them to use it, the fact that diplomacy is a joke(if you sign a trade agreement only with war you can stop it), the luck of ap ammo(there is only heavy ammo which seems useless and light ammo which is good for snipers) so projectile weapons(except shotguns) become useless against almost everyone and that the advisors doesn't say the names of the soldiers that got healed or trained. You just know that someone got healed. I want to add tha soldiers with small bodies (eg the two twins) end up with huge heads in the battle map since the game has only one body model for men and it can't adapt them correctly. The most annoying thing though is when you are under attack. There is an advisor that pops out and tells you that there are invaders but when you try to push the show region button he just goes back and you are just confused without knowing where the invaders are so you have to search the whole map. Some of the things I liked were the weapon sounds, the psionic powers and the alien soldiers. All in all UFO:Afterlight v1.5 is a simplistic and downgraded version of aftershock and a big no imo. The worst UFO of the after series.

There are not much games where you can terraform Mars (or terraform something at all), so that's the reason why this game is really worth playing. Classic UFO in real time + many new cool features. That is realy weak - it is a story...

i think you should look after the original UFO games first. This is different from many important viewpoint. This one is aimed for kids and doesnt hav the thrilling athmosphere of the original. its really repetitive . and theres something wrong with the difficulty.