Let's Play: UFO Aftershock!
Posted: 2009-02-22 02:54am
In the same spirit of other Let's Plays, I've decided to give a run at an underrated but still entertaining game: UFO Aftershock. Although it's no X-COM, it captures much of the spirit. UFO Aftershock takes place in the UFO:Aftermath/Aftershock/Afterlight series, and is generally the middle child. The story is interesting, and I'm interested in playing in a bit of a narrative manner. If you'd like to sign up for my brave forces, please feel free to. Also, I'll direct military operations and research in a manner as suggested by postings here.
It is similar to X-COM otherwise, although it is played in a pausable real-time manner with a global geoscape and a tactical battlefield. To succeed, we must research new weapons and technology. We must defeat enemies and make allies. And we must find a future for a refugee humanity.
So, without further ado, let's begin!
---
(Omniscient Narrator)
In the early 21st Century, mysterious UFOs appeared without warning, with hundreds of sightings on every continent. This mysterious alien visitation proved to a fledgling humanity that it was not alone in the universe. Some hoped for peaceful contact, while others feared the worst. Rioting broke out into a near public hysteria as the aliens continued their enigmatic activities, while all the Earth's governments sat, paralyzed by indecision on what to do.
At the peak of public disorder, a giant alien mothership arrived in Earth's orbit. As with the previous UFO sightings, all communication attempts failed. Within six days of it's arrival, in an event known as 'The Nightfall', the alien mothership released trillions of microscopic spores into the atmosphere. These spores multiplied amidst scenes of great disorder in all major population centers, creating great masses in the skies as their invisible forms aggregated. Having reached critical mass in the skies, the spores begin to rain down, and over the course of several days, begin to clog the streets and bodies of water, smothering people in their homes, and burying animals in the wild. Virtually all higher lifeforms on Earth were wiped out, or mutated into something unrecognizable and alien.
Humanity had little time to react. All attempts to stop the spores failed. With no other options, pockets of survivors packed food, water and survival supplies into secured bunkers and waited for the worst. After a few weeks, the spores dissolved into the soil of the earth, returning the surface to a changed, but habitable condition.
Early in the 'Twilight' as it would be called, numerous groups of survivors emerged from their underground shelters to explore their new world. They found dead cities and poisoned farmlands, feral beasts and disgusting mutants. One group, the self-appointed Council of Earth made great progress in gathering survivors and fending off mutant hordes. When the Aliens returned once more, the war for Earth began anew.
Astonishingly, the Council of Earth (CoE) was left undetected as the Aliens continued their bizzare experimentation on Earth's ecosystem. With recovered aircraft and surviving military personel, CoE Aircraft engaged UFOs in aerial dogfights while their ground pounder counterparts pressed forward to secure more territory and resources. During the war, it was discovered that the aliens were little grey men called 'Reticulans', who had killed most of humanity for some grand ecological experiment. They were not a military force, but a science mission. With UFOs made clumsy by Earth's atmosphere and gravity, Humanity was able to fight the alien menace. However, final victory remained out of grasp.
Late in the war, a new enemy appeared. The spores that snuffed out human civilization during the Nightfall was only preparation. New pockets of organic 'Biomass' started appearing on multiple continents, a rapidly growing substance that devoured organic and mineral resources to produce mutated structures across thousands of miles of land. Although humanity had developed crude Repulsors to push back the psionicaly receptive biomass, mankind was fighting a losing battle.
Then, the Reticulans offered a truce.
If Mankind would cease hostilities, they could have a new home. The Reticulans now understood that mankind was a race to be respected, and explained their actions. They were renegades, outcast from their civilization for their radical views. They needed a suitable planet for the creation of something new: An organic supercomputer formed from the combined mass of a whole planet. If completed, they would have created a god.
Reluctantly, amidst great debate, the CoE accepted the Alien offer. Those who wished to go were given an alien Mothership, newly remodeled into an orbital colony. It's new human settlers named it Laputa, a flying island where humanity could survive and thrive, until the day this Reticulan project was completed and they could leave to a new home. A new Earth.
Things were good for a time, when life seemed to almost return to normal aboard Laputa. Only over the years did problems arise. Communications with the surface was lost. Systems started failing. Some forty years have passed since Laputa came online. Riots broke out, with rebel groups demanding that the Council of Earth do something about their home's deterioriation.
Unable to repair many critical systems, the Council of Earth cracked down on any dissent with an iron hand. In the fighting between Council forces and rebels, Laputa's engine systems became critically damaged. The Island was doomed to destruction.
A band of rebels managed to break into the 'Forbidden' craft bays shortly after the disaster, forcing their way to dozens of escape shuttles as the ship began to break apart. Hundreds made it, before Laputa broke into broken peices, each disappearing in the fires of reentry. With many people having been born on Laputa, Earth was a place of myths. Setting a course for the Reticulan Laputa, the band of survivors hoped they could find refuge... or take it by force.
---
It is similar to X-COM otherwise, although it is played in a pausable real-time manner with a global geoscape and a tactical battlefield. To succeed, we must research new weapons and technology. We must defeat enemies and make allies. And we must find a future for a refugee humanity.
So, without further ado, let's begin!
---
(Omniscient Narrator)
In the early 21st Century, mysterious UFOs appeared without warning, with hundreds of sightings on every continent. This mysterious alien visitation proved to a fledgling humanity that it was not alone in the universe. Some hoped for peaceful contact, while others feared the worst. Rioting broke out into a near public hysteria as the aliens continued their enigmatic activities, while all the Earth's governments sat, paralyzed by indecision on what to do.
At the peak of public disorder, a giant alien mothership arrived in Earth's orbit. As with the previous UFO sightings, all communication attempts failed. Within six days of it's arrival, in an event known as 'The Nightfall', the alien mothership released trillions of microscopic spores into the atmosphere. These spores multiplied amidst scenes of great disorder in all major population centers, creating great masses in the skies as their invisible forms aggregated. Having reached critical mass in the skies, the spores begin to rain down, and over the course of several days, begin to clog the streets and bodies of water, smothering people in their homes, and burying animals in the wild. Virtually all higher lifeforms on Earth were wiped out, or mutated into something unrecognizable and alien.
Humanity had little time to react. All attempts to stop the spores failed. With no other options, pockets of survivors packed food, water and survival supplies into secured bunkers and waited for the worst. After a few weeks, the spores dissolved into the soil of the earth, returning the surface to a changed, but habitable condition.
Early in the 'Twilight' as it would be called, numerous groups of survivors emerged from their underground shelters to explore their new world. They found dead cities and poisoned farmlands, feral beasts and disgusting mutants. One group, the self-appointed Council of Earth made great progress in gathering survivors and fending off mutant hordes. When the Aliens returned once more, the war for Earth began anew.
Astonishingly, the Council of Earth (CoE) was left undetected as the Aliens continued their bizzare experimentation on Earth's ecosystem. With recovered aircraft and surviving military personel, CoE Aircraft engaged UFOs in aerial dogfights while their ground pounder counterparts pressed forward to secure more territory and resources. During the war, it was discovered that the aliens were little grey men called 'Reticulans', who had killed most of humanity for some grand ecological experiment. They were not a military force, but a science mission. With UFOs made clumsy by Earth's atmosphere and gravity, Humanity was able to fight the alien menace. However, final victory remained out of grasp.
Late in the war, a new enemy appeared. The spores that snuffed out human civilization during the Nightfall was only preparation. New pockets of organic 'Biomass' started appearing on multiple continents, a rapidly growing substance that devoured organic and mineral resources to produce mutated structures across thousands of miles of land. Although humanity had developed crude Repulsors to push back the psionicaly receptive biomass, mankind was fighting a losing battle.
Then, the Reticulans offered a truce.
If Mankind would cease hostilities, they could have a new home. The Reticulans now understood that mankind was a race to be respected, and explained their actions. They were renegades, outcast from their civilization for their radical views. They needed a suitable planet for the creation of something new: An organic supercomputer formed from the combined mass of a whole planet. If completed, they would have created a god.
Reluctantly, amidst great debate, the CoE accepted the Alien offer. Those who wished to go were given an alien Mothership, newly remodeled into an orbital colony. It's new human settlers named it Laputa, a flying island where humanity could survive and thrive, until the day this Reticulan project was completed and they could leave to a new home. A new Earth.
Things were good for a time, when life seemed to almost return to normal aboard Laputa. Only over the years did problems arise. Communications with the surface was lost. Systems started failing. Some forty years have passed since Laputa came online. Riots broke out, with rebel groups demanding that the Council of Earth do something about their home's deterioriation.
Unable to repair many critical systems, the Council of Earth cracked down on any dissent with an iron hand. In the fighting between Council forces and rebels, Laputa's engine systems became critically damaged. The Island was doomed to destruction.
A band of rebels managed to break into the 'Forbidden' craft bays shortly after the disaster, forcing their way to dozens of escape shuttles as the ship began to break apart. Hundreds made it, before Laputa broke into broken peices, each disappearing in the fires of reentry. With many people having been born on Laputa, Earth was a place of myths. Setting a course for the Reticulan Laputa, the band of survivors hoped they could find refuge... or take it by force.
---
