Something went wrong. Try again later
    Follow

    XCOM: Enemy Unknown

    Game » consists of 19 releases. Released Oct 09, 2012

    The classic tactical turn-based combat returns in this modern re-imagining of X-COM: UFO Defense.

    mikeinsc's XCOM: Enemy Unknown (Xbox 360) review

    Avatar image for mikeinsc

    Outstanding Strategy Game

    Speaking as somebody without much nostalgia for the original title, I have grown to love X-Com: Enemy Unknown the more I have played. The game is exceptionally deep. You always have something new to research and create. You always have some crisis to deal with at all times. There is a lack of dead time and the feeling of barely staying on top of all problems is your constant companion.

    You have several jobs for your soldiers to pursue and different builds for those specific builds. A squad heavy with Heavies and Snipers ended up being a favorite as it tended to give you tons of options. Your sniper serves as one of the most effective soldiers as your back up. The heavy becomes a major necessity against the tougher enemies. Support is nice, but it seemed limiting. Not saying the support is useless (I didn't much use health recovery items, but I imagine it can be extremely helpful in the tougher difficulties), but for my particular playstyle, it was not a terribly useful group. Explosives and long distance killing were the secrets to my success, but other manners of attack were equally valid.

    There is no lack of things to do between missions. It is wise to keep soldiers in your barracks and to bring along one or two rookies on missions to develop them. You have to work to keep your allies calm, as when things go bad, they will end up freaking out and possibly leaving your group --- which limits your funding to pursue projects and launch more satellites and to build more aircraft to defend against alien incursions. The constant need to generate research to improve your weapons and tactics against enemies is a fun diversion in and of itself. The game lends itself well to numerous replays as you have numerous ways to handle most scenarios.

    The game seems long but not tedious. The missions have a similar underpinning but they all play out differently. You'll find enemies you like and enemies you grow to hate (the Thin Man with their irritating poison cloud attack after dying were specific irritants to me). You have to take all of your confrontations slowly as the AI is quite adept at flanking you and corralling you into massive kill zones. And while your characters don't have a lot of personality, the difficulty in building up one to be a major ass kicker makes the risk of losing one of the your more senior soldiers a terrifying prospect, making one be very careful the more powerful you become.

    The game has no real flaws. Mission variety is pretty good. You have some where you have to save civilians from an alien attack (which is difficult since the aliens only goal is to kill the civilians and they will do so as quickly as alienly possible), you have to recover alien artifacts, and you have to occasionally just battle a massive ship full of aliens. The missions last long enough to be fun but not repetitive which is a difficult balancing act that a lot of titles cannot pull off.

    This is a true must-have title, one of the true greats of this generation. You really need to get it.

    Other reviews for XCOM: Enemy Unknown (Xbox 360)

      A Successful Resurrection Chained Down by It's Own Apathy 0

      I am of the mindset that the XCOM first person shooter that was proposed two years ago was not a bad idea. Breathing life into a franchise that’s been long dead is tough, often foolhardy effort made in order to capitalize on some lost nostalgia of a very small portion of gamers. That being said, I understood the blowback that 2K received when the news hit, understood the clamoring for something more traditional, understood why pause needed to be taken and an announcement made to cool the flames ...

      8 out of 9 found this review helpful.

      A flogging willingly endured 0

      XCOM: Enemy Unknown is a turn-based strategy game developed by Firaxis. Brutally challenging and immensely satisfying, XCOM grabs a hold of you and never lets go. It’s packed to the brim with interesting content, always testing your willpower and ability to make consequential decisions. The game juxtaposes a resource managing strategy component with a turn-based combat game that combine to create a robust, demanding experience. Constantly faced with critical decisions, XCOM will have you balanc...

      1 out of 1 found this review helpful.

    This edit will also create new pages on Giant Bomb for:

    Beware, you are proposing to add brand new pages to the wiki along with your edits. Make sure this is what you intended. This will likely increase the time it takes for your changes to go live.

    Comment and Save

    Until you earn 1000 points all your submissions need to be vetted by other Giant Bomb users. This process takes no more than a few hours and we'll send you an email once approved.