When comparing X-COM: UFO Defense vs Ultimate Space Commando, the Slant community recommends X-COM: UFO Defense for most people. In the question“What are the best Turn-Based Tactics games on Steam?” X-COM: UFO Defense is ranked 13th while Ultimate Space Commando is ranked 20th. The most important reason people chose X-COM: UFO Defense is:
Keeping track of more than a dozen soldiers with 10 skills, their inventories (including ammo count and weight), dynamic visibility, line of sight, destructible terrain, consequences of missed shots (like friendly fire or destroyed loot), etc. quickly overwhelms noobies, putting the real strategy masters in the limelight. And this is just a battle out of many, with base building, personell management, logistics, reconnaissance, research and manufacturing between them.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Very deep strategy
Keeping track of more than a dozen soldiers with 10 skills, their inventories (including ammo count and weight), dynamic visibility, line of sight, destructible terrain, consequences of missed shots (like friendly fire or destroyed loot), etc. quickly overwhelms noobies, putting the real strategy masters in the limelight. And this is just a battle out of many, with base building, personell management, logistics, reconnaissance, research and manufacturing between them.
Pro Active open source clone
The openxcom team have re-implemented the entire game and fixed many of the longstanding bugs in the original. It allows you to play on modern machines and in much higher resolution. A copy of the original game is still required for the assets.
Pro Dark humor
Seems to have started the "evil aliens" trend.
Pro Fun but difficult gameplay
This is a difficult turn based strategy that offers many detailed combat mechanics such as armor, knockback, various hazards, etc. These mechanics come into play when considering each and every move making for a game where the player needs to plan out their attacks appropriately as any mistake will set them back quite a bit.
Cons
Con Artwork
The artwork is not to everyone's liking.
Con Can be difficult for newcomers
But only for a short time, because everyone who loves TBS can pick up the beat and rock in this game. Of course there are difficulty levels in this game made for the hardcore players too, which can appear to be unwinnable, but they are not.