Alright, for the last few years, I've lived as much of an un-hype life that I can. If there was a game or movie that I was interested in, I would go out of my way to avoid all trailers, quicklooks, and discussion about it (this new Star Wars movie is testing my limits of what I can avoid). I just paid attention enough to find out if it was worth my time and then I would buy it on sale and play it later. I found that by having zero expectations of a game before I play it allows me to enjoy it for myself without being corrupted by other people's disappointments.

Unfortunately, not having any hype for a game makes me hesitant to start a new game. I've had XCOM installed on my computer since before I bought and played through MGS5 but I have little desire to start it up. So why should I start playing this game tonight?

you play it if you want to play good a good strategy game.

Are we talking original 1991 X-COM or the 2012 reboot XCOM? If the first, I'd probably lean towards starting with X-COM 2: Terror from the Deep, which I think has a more interesting setting and major bugs aside, improves the UI quite a bit.

I'm telling myself I'll play it this year and treat my efforts as canon. That way I'm under no pressure to beat it.

@fisk0: The 2012 reboot. I actually also have Enemy Within.

If you have no desire to play it, do something else.

X-COM is a pretty good tactics game, pales in comparison to Final Fantasy Tactics or Tactics Ogre or even Disgaea but it's still a pretty good tactics game. The difficulty curve has the same issues that every Firaxis game has other than Gettysburg! in that it's maybe slightly difficult to start and then utterly trivial about 10%-40% of the way through the game depending on the difficulty.

XCOM: Enemy Unknown was my favourite game of 2012 (?). It is a fantastic game, I'd recommend it for anyone. The base management stuff can be difficult/a bit overwhelming, but it's fine to fail a few (many) times.

OMG.. play xcom! - get the xpac too!

Absolutely, and I would definitely plum for 'Enemy Within' expansion straight off the bat, as its integrated into the campaign.

Surely you must have been interested enough in it to obtain it in the first place? If you have it installed just play it.

You say you want to go in neutral but still need us to hype it up. I don't understand!?

It won game of the year here. And it's great. Just play it!

It's one of the smartest reboots of a lapsed franchise that understands the core of what made the old games work but is not afraid to tinker and reinvent aspects of the original to modernize the game for a new audience. It is one of those games that is so good that it everyone should probably give it a shot even if they are not fans of the genre.

That said it is not perfect, once you've played a lot of the game the way they handle certain aspects of the game is kind of annoying. Like for instance when you encounter a group of enemies the game cuts to a quick cinematic of the enemies reacting to you before they move to their positions. The enemies sort of get a free turn that interrupts your turn and this can be really annoying with some enemies. The way they fade out overhanging geometry is sometimes kinda buggy and the controls (especially mouse/keyboard) can be kinda fiddly when dealing with multiple elevations of terrain.

Some of those problems seem to be addressed in XCOM 2 but I still think it is worth playing Enemy Unknown. I mean you already own it and it will only take a hour to determine if you like it or not. XCOM doesn't have the legs that many other strategy games do (at least without Mods) but it is probably a more immediately rewarding experience, especially compared to the original game which is mostly a how-to-not-die-while-exiting-a-shuttle simulator for the first 10 hours.

It's a real good game. You should play it

XCOM is a totally worthy attempt at rebooting that series and making a strategy game for people who aren't otherwise way into crazy tactical stuff. As someone who loves the original X-COM UFO Defense a whole lot, there are parts of Enemy Unknown that are a little too "My first turn-based strategy game" for my tastes, but it's absolutely worth taking a look at if you're curious.

So you've already bought it? Why not load it up and see if you like it or not? As someone who was new to turn-based strategy games, I think XCOM was an excellent jumping off point for me to try something different.

I would definitely give it a shot. It's very accessible for new-comers to the genre (like me) and it's really satisfying when a plan works out nicely.

I'd recommend going with Easy or Normal difficulty to begin with, and be prepared to start over a few times as you learn the ropes. Unlike many other games, you can easily get yourself into a situation in X-COM where you just won't be able to win. I started over a lot, but it was still a ton of fun. I found X-COM to feel somewhat like a Roguelike since every game is a little bit different, and I learned a little bit and got farther on each subsequent attempt.

It also may do you some good to read up on strategy for Classic Ironman mode and see what it takes to succeed at that level. If you employ just some of those strategies, you'll do a lot better on Easy or Normal. A lot of it is basic stuff, like never fire from low cover, suggestions on the order of research, and stuff like that.