to disintegrate, decomposing and settling into the soil. The player must gather together the remaining peoples of the planet, find out what has happened, and, if possible, take vengeance. The aliens the player fights are known as the Reticulans, who are heavily based on Greys, controlling various horrific mutant lifeforms. Development and release Originally, the game began as an abortive project titled The Dreamland Chronicles: Freedom Ridge by the American company Mythos Games, headed by the original creator of the X-COM series, Julian Gollop. Following the bankruptcy of Mythos, the unfinished game was bought from Virgin Interactive by the Czech company Altar Interactive in 2002. However, disappointed with the state of development, and finding themselves unable to simply complete it, Altar soon decided to restart it almost completely, retaining only some of the original project's core concepts and ideas but practically none of its actual assets, featuring a completely different combat system and a largely new story. Even the game's title changed, first to UFO: Freedom Ridge and finally to UFO: Aftermath. Reception UFO: Aftermath received middling reviews. GameSpot gave it 6.4 out of 10 for some simplified and missing features, previously seen in X-COM, that would have allowed for more in-depth gameplay. IGN gave it 7.5 (Good), criticizing simplicity and lack of some features from the X-COM series. GameSpy noted "Cons: Bad AI and pathfinding; repetitive missions; shallow strategic gameplay; persistent inventory bugs," but praised some parts of the game. Legacy Both official and third-party tools exist to help modding UFO: Aftermath. In order to encourage user mods, the publisher held an official contest, resulting in mods affecting many aspects of the game, including skins, weapon models, and characters. The tools are also compatible with the first sequel, UFO: Aftershock. The third sequel, UFO: Afterlight, will not accept modded content or added content because of changes in its engine. References External links UFO: Aftermath entry at StrategyCore 2003 video games Alien invasions in video games Post-apocalyptic video games Real-time tactics video games Science fiction video games Single-player video games Video games about extraterrestrial life Video games about zombies Video games developed in the Czech Republic Video games set in 2004 Windows games Windows-only games Tri Synergy games