XCOM: Enemy Unknown
I personally never played the original XCOM, so all I knew heading into Enemy Unknown was that whatever I was in for, was going to be pretty hard, and there would be aliens. I was not let down in either category, the aliens have a very X-Files little gray men feel that contrasts the super-military styling of the XCOM troopers rather nicely. There isn't much of a story in Enemy Unknown, but the premise is strong enough to serve its purpose. Aliens have invaded, and you are the commander of a multinational organization with a sole objective, you guessed it, stop the aliens. One thing is sure, it's not going to be easy.
The old XCOM was notoriously hard and inaccessible. EU keeps one of those things, the better of the two. EU remains very hard, while including tutorials good enough to make you confident in the systems. The combat needs to be taken very slow, lest you get one of your few squad-mates killed by a bad move on your part. If you don't stay on your toes, the game can lull you into a false sense a of security that usually ends with a dash too far away from the rest of your squad, reveling the alien that's probably going to end that unit. While it is turn-based, XCOM moves very fast, making you almost feel like its real time. Losing one of your troopers in much more severe than in other games, because in XCOM when someone dies, they're gone.
Most strategy games have you throwing units at the enemy until you win. XCOM handles this in a completely different way. The lasting effect of losing a trooper really hits home once the game starts handing out nicknames. Losing units before they get nicknames still hits home, just not as hard as losing “Missionary” or “Dozer”. It also helps feel more significant due to the levels that do not transfer to your other guys. Their gear does though, which is nice, because XCOM has an insane economy.
Being the multinational operation XCOM is, it gets funding from sixteen different countries around the world. The nations give you a base rate that is different for each one, but once you put a satellite over top, they give you from seventy to one hundred and fifty credits more each month. Along with your monthly salary you get a grade from a mysterious counselor that is never explained. While the explanations are pretty nonsensical, and the fact that countries wouldn't give you plenty of money while the earth is being invaded makes little to no sense, the economy adds an entirely new strategy to the game. Having to choose between a new fighter jet, or a few more rifles for your troops feels weighty and meaningful. But my favorite part is that you can lose funding.
The countries that provide you with funding have panic meters. If a country is at level 4 panic at the end of the month, they cut their funding, and are gone. Yup, just like your soldiers, if you lose funding from a country, there's no wining them back. This leads to just one more thing that you have to balance. There are ways to reduce panic, from launching a satellite to having a successful mission in a country. If you keep up on satellites and do all optional missions, panic levels are not that hard to maintain.
I played through on the PS3, the game looked pretty good, but it did have some serious issues. The frame rate would drop dramatically during heavy action, there was some texture pop-in, but the thing that made me that saddest was when my PS3 completely froze. I'm not sure if the issues would be for everyone, or if they are because I have a near-launch system. While the PS3 version had some issues, I still highly recommend this game.
From the intense, extremely satisfying combat, to the insane economy, XCOM Enemy Unknown is a fantastic game. I would have no problem recommending this game to anyone, especially if you are a fan of turn-based games like Civilization.
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