I keep hearing about map repetition, but then I hear from the devs that they have 80 different maps spread out across the mission types. Honestly I don't really see it as a con. The original was fairly repetitive as well map-wise.
I thought the original had automatically generated maps. I must have completed it at least six times (probably more like 10) and I can't remember ever thinking "I've been on this map before". The positions of the aliens/civilians I think are automatically generated as well.
Of course in the original there's a "tropics" set of textures, arctic, desert, city, farmland and I think that's it. Perhaps they could include a couple more types of scenery, it had occurred to me that the original isn't very representative of reality in that respect. Perhaps showing an abductor ship actually teleporting or capturing a cow would be cool too
Well, I think I'll start on Classic but not Iron Man. Normal just gave me a vibe that it's honestly too easy. I'm a seasoned OG vet and have kept up on all the coverage so have a good idea of what's going on. At least this way on my first run through I won't throw the whole game on a squad wipe.
Admittedly I was watching an hour-long gameplay video on YT and the aliens had the team surrounded yet somehow only one human was killed. In the original, even on the beginner level you would have had to be extremely lucky to escape that relatively unscathed. But then, I think when I tried to play Superhuman difficulty on the PC (original game), on the first mission the aliens pulled psionic voodoo on me. I wasn't impressed. That's one thing about the original I wish had a bit more structure and logic to it - it seemed like if one of your men was spotted and got hit with mind control you had a good chance of your entire team being screwed in the process. There ought to be some line-of-sight principle to it IMO.
I'll never forget the time on the original when my team started on a terror site scenario, I had them a bit too close together exiting the ship and an alien grenade was thrown in. My team didn't have any armour. My jaw dropped at the carnage