I think that apoc was a little bit too close to the
uncanny valley, as well as suffering from a few related effects in the game mechanics department.
what I mean is that several aspects of the game were meant to be really cool, but the execution of it failed just short of being brilliant, which resulted in the opposite effect.
- the graphics were more detailed, making the lack of certain details, the lack of variability and the choppiness of animations all the more noticeable.
- the economics system tried to simulate an intricate web of relations between "factions" (government, companies, public order agencies as well as xcom and the aliens), but the mechanics were somewhat flawed, which could result in potentially game-breaking flukes
- the real-time-combat system was interesting, but sometimes weird
apart from that, I loved a lot of the ideas. the sim-city-like environment with cars and people moving around, the ability to actually rob other factions or cripple them by blasting their buildings... the pseudo-retro-scifi look of the vehicles... destructible armor that can be changed in-battle (very RPG-like!)... half-alien hybrid soldiers with stronger psi capabilities... lots of good stuff.
