Originally Posted by
Renomaki
people like to bitch a lot about current issues on CM, but they often tend to forget just how bad it was back in the day.
Back in ye old'in times, Hugger combat was the primary form of combat every marine had to face. Huggers has infinite life-spans, and every xeno could pick them up. This made it so melee combat with xenos was impossible, and having to go through so many god damn helmets in a single round was a huge hassle. Say what you will about pounce and spit spam, but at least you have a higher chance of survival compared to back in the day.
While a lot of xenos complain about how defibs make killing marines seem pointless, they tend to forget that back in the day, marines could CLONE new marines. This was a double-edged sword, because while cloning allowed long dead marines back into the fight (including specs), it also was a pain in the butt to deal with, moreso when there are PILES of dead bodies that need tending to. It was a lot of work, and even then, more than half the bodies were DNR anyway, and since researchers didn't really bother with the department that much, it mostly fell onto doctors, and there were not a lot of doctors back then either, so you can imagine how clogged medbay would get when they have to both conduct surgery AND clone 10 dead marines. At least back then the cyro-tubes had a use, though.
Crushers aren't as powerful as they used to be, but in a sense, that is a good thing, because it allows other xenos a chance to be useful. Back in the day, Crushers were so STUPIDLY OP that if you tried to evolve into anything that wasn't a crusher (besides a boiler), you would be mocked and called bald. They soaked bullets like nothing, were completely explosive proof, had an AOE stomp that made melee combat against them impossible, and this was also before napalm weapons were buffed, so not even fire could stop their high-speed rampage. Didn't help that they had the ability to drift, allow them to ram people around corners. Nowadays they are mainly siege engines, but in the past, they were the ultimate killing machine.
For xenos that think the Sadar is OP, try imagining 4 OF THEM in a single round. Back in the past, you didn't have to race to prep to get the kit you wanted. You just used a spec token and bought what you wanted. This would result in some very unpredictable loadouts for specs, where sometimes you'd get only one sadar and 3 smartgunners, 2 snipers and 2 B18 troopers, or the dreaded 4 Sadar team. Sadar might not have been as tough back in the day as it is now, but the fact that you could have 4 RPG troopers running around blowing up aliens at will? Yeah, that sounds like a bad time for xenos.
I could go on and on, but there are a lot of things that changed over the years, and sometimes I think people don't really appreciate the changes as much as they should. As flawed as they may be, they sure beat the shit we had to deal with back then, and I'm all the happier for it.