Egregoros

I know it's a two hundred year old game but I think XCOM: Enemy Unknown has a lot of bullshit mechanics and doesn't know what it wants to be. I appreciate that they are hardasses and put in squadmate permadeath, and I know every game dev is a blue-haired otherkin faggot queer, but can someone please make video games that not only masochists like?

Why put a mind control ability with 100% success rate on an enemy without warning? Why do it AGAIN and give the better mind control unit more range than the sniper rifle? Why allow non-medic classes to carry medkits but not to revive the downed medic with his medkit?
Why are players punished for playing carefully by time-wasting empty alien turns when they go slow, and punished for going fast by getting caught with their pants down? Why is there no interrupt for the mind control?
Why not design mechanics that are fun?

@WandererUber Sounds like you just dont like x-com games. I think Enemy Unknown is the best and most polished game in the series. The original UFO defence also didn't have "fun mechanics" as in video gamey mechanics such as medkits bringing soldiers immediately back to full functionality. It was more of a simulator, and the fun comes from roleplaying the scenario of humanity fighting a more advanced enemy. The unfair mind control ability, which also appeared in the original game plays well into this roleplay.
Not that it is a perfect game, I hated the very strict item limit cap, which made it not make sense to bring the mind shield, which does exist in enemy unknown. They should have had a more diablo like equipment page for each soldier in my opinion, where you can carry one of each of certain types of items. Instead of just one or two of any item type.

@EHP I find it quite strange that every time I make a thread about game design, people confuse personal preference and judging the quality of the workmanship.

>simulation vs video gamey vs "realism"
GabeN talks this in HL1 documentary. How is realism a good thing if it's not fun? Is his question. And in this case, mine would be, how is it the better simulation to DISALLOW people from making their soldier, who CAN use a med kit if he has one, to use the one literally on the ground with the dead medic to stabilize said medic?

>The unfair mind control ability, which also appeared in the original game plays well into this roleplay.
I wasn't complaining about the odds, I was questioning the decision of putting this in a game about estimating the odds, and not even telegraphing it. You're literally blindsided by this both times the enemy is introduced. No defense is possible.
And you're also not rewarded for playing it "tactically" and like a simulation, in general. The enemy patrols randomly teleport across the map, and you are punished by unnecessary long animations for taking your time. On top of that, the game actively signals a different approach, by making enemies emit audio queues that show you the direct path. Which, if you take it, immediately punishes you for it.
This has nothing to do with making an interesting simulator, or me not enjoying the fiction of fighting against an alien invasion.