well my only Problem with the game is, well how detailed it can be, it seems daunting to me, being used to Limited numbers of 6 and 7 (7 in UFO games) while in the original you can have up to 20, now i'm not exactly one to shy away from such numbers but having played the newer ones it feels very daunting trying to Micromanage each soldier along with equipment and such.

Then only focus on six with a couple of backups. While those 20 would probably be necessary on harder difficulties I can say that the only time my important people died on normal were at the end and once when I moved someone to the wrong spot cause my mouse and the game don't get along very well (I will admit that I loaded from that). The only new people I ever got were mission reward ones (most of whom I didn't use) and a couple of drones to try them out and most of my people were never even clicked on.

I can see where Kain is coming from, if you've only played the UFO trilogy and the new X-Com, then you might be overwhelmed playing the first one.

Give the old game a whirl, you might find it easier than you think.

You don't need big squads until the end of the game anyway. I usually use six troops and an HWP.

Oops, I feel dumb now, I completely misread his post and thought he was talking about the new one.
Do ignore my previous post Kain, having not played the original XCOM I have no ground on which to stand here.