9. Projectile Physics
If theres one thing the old game has over the new one, its projectile physics. In the original X-COM, each round fired from a gun, whether it was a bullet, laser, or plasma bolt, had its own amount of damage and its own probability of hitting the target. Anything that got in the way of a round got destroyed if its health value was lower than the damage from the round. The new XCOM uses a hit probability system it gives the attack as a whole a probability to hit, assigns a certain amount of damage once it does, and lets the game animate it. If youve ever wondered how Thin Men can kill soldiers behind full cover on Classic difficulty and above, now you know. This is also why you can sometimes hit aliens with overwatch or suppression fire and not do a thing to them, even though rounds are clearly hitting them. The RNG has decided that they will live and hasnt told the weapon animations this, leading to even more rage inducing moments. While X-COMs projectile physics were by no means perfect (theres a GIF out there of a rocket passing through a Sectoids head, showing that the RNG can screw you over in that game too), its certainly a lot fairer to the player than the current system. Not only that, but it brings back a lot of the destructibility thats lacking in the early phases of the new XCOM, where youre lucky to punch some holes in walls with the bullets in the starting guns. And it might even solve that pesky problem of the Arc Thrower not stunning aliens when your soldier is right next them.