Whenever I get reminded this game came out in 2012 I'm always a little stunned. Stunned because the passage of time is terrifying, and because games have been ripping off XCOM EU's formula for ages. Shadowrun Returns dropped only a year later and pinched it wholesale, right down to having blue/orange movement. If I tried to rhyme off every game that borrowed from XCOM EU I'd be here until 2025's first review.
And, to be honest, why shouldn't they pinch mechanics from this game?
Gaming's history is littered with attempts to dredge ~the classics~ out from the murky waters of memory and doll them up for a brand new younger audience, whose attention spans are increasingly being fried each year. The majority of these attempts are abject failures, either not selling well or selling morbillions but discarding the franchise's identity like wet underwear and losing their soul alongside it. Hell, this game's developers have tried it ad nauseaum.
XCOM EU is the cake that Firaxis actually got to fucking eat. It is a remake of the original X-COM game but with the hyphen surgically removed (congrats on the bottom surgery) and a whole host of lipsticks and eyeshadows to pretty up the pig for a new audience. And I gotta tell you, the pig is gorgeous. I don't envy whoever pitched this to 2K, notoriously soulless goons that they are: "Hey man, let's take this influential but niche cult classic and remake it for a modern audience, it'll sell millions!".
It did.
This game's premise is extremely familiar to anyone still alive. You are in charge of an agency that has to simultaneously convince everyone on Earth that the deadly force lowering the population is a valid threat while also protecting them long enough to actually have a population left to sign the tax breaks. Yeah that's right, you're a COVID relief agency, welcome back to hell.
Jokes aside, the premise is simple. Aliens are invading, you need help from world governments to get money and staff, so go kill some aliens to make them like you. Also try not to cause the human race to go into a thanatophobic death spiral that ends with their surrender - which is the canon ending by the way.
There were a fuckton of games trying to hit that 'casual strategy' niche in the early 2010s, and I'd say the reason EU succeded and they didn't is... It manages to blend casual-friendly and accessible controls with both decent presentation and actual strategic depth. Your units start with an assault rifle, a pistol, two action points, a grenade and can spend two AP to move without taking an action. Later on you get more options, sure, but not many.
Where EU really shines is in how you can use those options, though. Take the humble grenade; kinda sucks, low damage, nukes all loot from an enemy, might set off environmental explosives and kill your Sergeant-rank medic. But it's guaranteed damage in a game where the dice are rolling every other action, and it can bust open firing lines that're blocked by the environment. The moment Young Mira realized this game was great? Realizing I could resolve what looked to be a Code Black (total party kill) by blowing a hole in a warehouse wall, which let my Heavy shoot a rocket in.
And sure, the pistol line of weapons seems utterly worthless given their low damage... Until you learn you can capture aliens for tasty buffs/rewards, and suddenly a way to do nonlethal damage even on a crit seems delicious. Echoing the famous comment from CoD4, switching to your pistol is faster than reload since the mere act of swapping consumes no AP but reloading does.
Really, compared to this game's infinite imitators and even its own sequel (which really doubles down on the RPG elements, the expansion triples down), EU is oddly reserved when it comes to actions. It becomes apparent when you compare the maps, for a lot of EU's maps are claustrophobi urban slug fights where it's difficult to outrange enemies and thus the need to take actions carefully is omnipresent. The only time the game ever goes a bit hard on giving you too many actions is if you train up a Support and give them Psionics.
And man, we need to talk about units. Each unit in EU spawns with a randomized nationality, voice, gender, and name. Simple, but due to the repetitive and stressful nature of the missions they undertake, it's really easy to form attachments to these compilations of random entries and be sad when they die, or relieved when they merely go into bleedout rather than instantly drop dead. It was a fantastic way to bridge the gap between casuals and oldheads by giving them something to discuss, a community builder that more than likely led to the still-blooming XCOM modding community.
You can even name them after your friends! Don't do it if you're really protective of them like me!
On the presentation front, too, this game looks fantastic despite the camera being WAY above ground. I only ever remember it's a 2012 title when I see the models up close, because the lightning and environments are exceptional. Even when- No, ESPECIALLY when they're being blown up, set aflame, and destroyed by 95% chance to hit shots that miss! Almost every mission occurs at night too, which makes this perhaps the only game to really flex UE3's great lighting capabilities - albeit, that made this and the sequel a nightmare to run on contemporary midrange hardware.
...
What, why are you looking at me? What have- Sigh.
Fine.
Alright. Enough praise. Let's talk about the three big issues. The three really big issues. They're bad. They're really bad. They're why I don't come back to this very often, but I do 2-3 playthroughs of the sequel every year.
First of all, there's what I call the Overwatch issue. No, it has nothing to do with the bad Blizzard shooter. 'Overwatch' in XCOM is an ability any unit can use that ends their turn and makes them take a free shot at anything that moves during the enemy turn. This seems innocent, right? And it is to most players, but... Look, the core loop of each mission is walking into fog of war (unrevealed areas) and dealing with what comes out. Equipment is expensive to replace, there's no monetary replacement for training, and units die permanently... So the ideal strategy for nearly every mission is to use blue movement and Overwatch. Over and over. Over and over.
This issue comes first because it's one both the wider community and the developers actually agreed on. This game's expansion takes baby steps to address it, and the entire core of the formula was reworked for 2 to encourage players to stop being timid. Overwatch only gets more effective as classes level up; especially Sniper and Support who get endless buffs to it, and even rookies can get some kills with it if they equip any Aim boosting items.
The second issue branches off from this: XCOM EU, even with the expansion, is a very rigid and formulaic game. Good for a first playthrough, but on subsequent playthroughs it's very easy to... Solve the game, for lack of better words. There is always an ideal order, there are always ideal tactics, there are always ideal levelup perks to take, etc etc. The one thing all of EU's imitators/followups did right that the game itself didn't is giving most things a use.
I gushed over all the options available earlier, right? But when you repeat this game, there's always a best choice, and not even situationally. Snipers are never going to take Snapshot and most of Assault's perks are useless, you can just hug one side and be perfect.
Again, XCOM 2 solved this by giving each of the 4 base classes what amounts to subclasses. Its progenitor has no such luck. There are, indeed, dump options.
This is really obvious with the research and facility build options, too. I can't be too harsh though, because this is Firaxis' biggest problem as a studio: Experimentation is pointless, for these games tend to be Rubik's Cubes meant to be solved and even now in 2023 I'm amazed War of the Chosen bucked the trend.
Lastly, a combination of these two issues, is something harder to articulate without first talking about the sequel. XCOM 2's approach to balance is more focused on components. Individual enemies aren't very threatening, but combined with other enemies there start to be major problems. ADVENT officers are pathetic by themselves, but if they mark one of your units and anyone else is nearby, kiss that fucking unit goodbye. Likewise, your soldiers complement each other really well but it is fantastically hard to solo with any one class because of this. There's an effort made to encourage the player to invest in a variety of units, not just their A Team.
XCOM EU/EW is more individualist in comparison. There are a lot of enemies on Legend that, by themselves, can be run enders like Chryssalids or Mutons or Sectopods. Likewise, your units will likely snowball into unkillable embodiments of death that can kill endless enemies by themselves while the rest of your team sponge XP and twiddle their thumbs. Snipers were notorious for this in EU and the EW nerf bat didn't do much. There's not much synergy going on across the board, which is best embodied by the Support class (Specialist in XCOM 2): In 2 it utterly excels at aiding the entire team via either direct buffs or by hacking enemy emplacements/machines to reduce the overall threat in a mission. In EU it's best used as a self sustaining Overwatch machine that very occasionally stabilizes a dying unit. You could spec into team buffs, but they're inferior to simply becoming a turret made of meat.
If you've never played Enemy Unknown before, don't let my griping dissuade you. It is absolutely worth a full playthrough or two. Even if you're not all that into it, it could be nice to see a bit of gaming history; as I've alluded to throughout this entire review, so many games ripped off Enemy Unknown. I literally just got done with a 2023 release that was basically a homage to it. There's a reason everyone rejoiced when Jake Solomon announced he was coming back for 2, after all.
And hey, Happy New Year, folks! Here's to more 5s and less 1s, you know? Have a good one.
And, to be honest, why shouldn't they pinch mechanics from this game?
Gaming's history is littered with attempts to dredge ~the classics~ out from the murky waters of memory and doll them up for a brand new younger audience, whose attention spans are increasingly being fried each year. The majority of these attempts are abject failures, either not selling well or selling morbillions but discarding the franchise's identity like wet underwear and losing their soul alongside it. Hell, this game's developers have tried it ad nauseaum.
XCOM EU is the cake that Firaxis actually got to fucking eat. It is a remake of the original X-COM game but with the hyphen surgically removed (congrats on the bottom surgery) and a whole host of lipsticks and eyeshadows to pretty up the pig for a new audience. And I gotta tell you, the pig is gorgeous. I don't envy whoever pitched this to 2K, notoriously soulless goons that they are: "Hey man, let's take this influential but niche cult classic and remake it for a modern audience, it'll sell millions!".
It did.
This game's premise is extremely familiar to anyone still alive. You are in charge of an agency that has to simultaneously convince everyone on Earth that the deadly force lowering the population is a valid threat while also protecting them long enough to actually have a population left to sign the tax breaks. Yeah that's right, you're a COVID relief agency, welcome back to hell.
Jokes aside, the premise is simple. Aliens are invading, you need help from world governments to get money and staff, so go kill some aliens to make them like you. Also try not to cause the human race to go into a thanatophobic death spiral that ends with their surrender - which is the canon ending by the way.
There were a fuckton of games trying to hit that 'casual strategy' niche in the early 2010s, and I'd say the reason EU succeded and they didn't is... It manages to blend casual-friendly and accessible controls with both decent presentation and actual strategic depth. Your units start with an assault rifle, a pistol, two action points, a grenade and can spend two AP to move without taking an action. Later on you get more options, sure, but not many.
Where EU really shines is in how you can use those options, though. Take the humble grenade; kinda sucks, low damage, nukes all loot from an enemy, might set off environmental explosives and kill your Sergeant-rank medic. But it's guaranteed damage in a game where the dice are rolling every other action, and it can bust open firing lines that're blocked by the environment. The moment Young Mira realized this game was great? Realizing I could resolve what looked to be a Code Black (total party kill) by blowing a hole in a warehouse wall, which let my Heavy shoot a rocket in.
And sure, the pistol line of weapons seems utterly worthless given their low damage... Until you learn you can capture aliens for tasty buffs/rewards, and suddenly a way to do nonlethal damage even on a crit seems delicious. Echoing the famous comment from CoD4, switching to your pistol is faster than reload since the mere act of swapping consumes no AP but reloading does.
Really, compared to this game's infinite imitators and even its own sequel (which really doubles down on the RPG elements, the expansion triples down), EU is oddly reserved when it comes to actions. It becomes apparent when you compare the maps, for a lot of EU's maps are claustrophobi urban slug fights where it's difficult to outrange enemies and thus the need to take actions carefully is omnipresent. The only time the game ever goes a bit hard on giving you too many actions is if you train up a Support and give them Psionics.
And man, we need to talk about units. Each unit in EU spawns with a randomized nationality, voice, gender, and name. Simple, but due to the repetitive and stressful nature of the missions they undertake, it's really easy to form attachments to these compilations of random entries and be sad when they die, or relieved when they merely go into bleedout rather than instantly drop dead. It was a fantastic way to bridge the gap between casuals and oldheads by giving them something to discuss, a community builder that more than likely led to the still-blooming XCOM modding community.
You can even name them after your friends! Don't do it if you're really protective of them like me!
On the presentation front, too, this game looks fantastic despite the camera being WAY above ground. I only ever remember it's a 2012 title when I see the models up close, because the lightning and environments are exceptional. Even when- No, ESPECIALLY when they're being blown up, set aflame, and destroyed by 95% chance to hit shots that miss! Almost every mission occurs at night too, which makes this perhaps the only game to really flex UE3's great lighting capabilities - albeit, that made this and the sequel a nightmare to run on contemporary midrange hardware.
...
What, why are you looking at me? What have- Sigh.
Fine.
Alright. Enough praise. Let's talk about the three big issues. The three really big issues. They're bad. They're really bad. They're why I don't come back to this very often, but I do 2-3 playthroughs of the sequel every year.
First of all, there's what I call the Overwatch issue. No, it has nothing to do with the bad Blizzard shooter. 'Overwatch' in XCOM is an ability any unit can use that ends their turn and makes them take a free shot at anything that moves during the enemy turn. This seems innocent, right? And it is to most players, but... Look, the core loop of each mission is walking into fog of war (unrevealed areas) and dealing with what comes out. Equipment is expensive to replace, there's no monetary replacement for training, and units die permanently... So the ideal strategy for nearly every mission is to use blue movement and Overwatch. Over and over. Over and over.
This issue comes first because it's one both the wider community and the developers actually agreed on. This game's expansion takes baby steps to address it, and the entire core of the formula was reworked for 2 to encourage players to stop being timid. Overwatch only gets more effective as classes level up; especially Sniper and Support who get endless buffs to it, and even rookies can get some kills with it if they equip any Aim boosting items.
The second issue branches off from this: XCOM EU, even with the expansion, is a very rigid and formulaic game. Good for a first playthrough, but on subsequent playthroughs it's very easy to... Solve the game, for lack of better words. There is always an ideal order, there are always ideal tactics, there are always ideal levelup perks to take, etc etc. The one thing all of EU's imitators/followups did right that the game itself didn't is giving most things a use.
I gushed over all the options available earlier, right? But when you repeat this game, there's always a best choice, and not even situationally. Snipers are never going to take Snapshot and most of Assault's perks are useless, you can just hug one side and be perfect.
Again, XCOM 2 solved this by giving each of the 4 base classes what amounts to subclasses. Its progenitor has no such luck. There are, indeed, dump options.
This is really obvious with the research and facility build options, too. I can't be too harsh though, because this is Firaxis' biggest problem as a studio: Experimentation is pointless, for these games tend to be Rubik's Cubes meant to be solved and even now in 2023 I'm amazed War of the Chosen bucked the trend.
Lastly, a combination of these two issues, is something harder to articulate without first talking about the sequel. XCOM 2's approach to balance is more focused on components. Individual enemies aren't very threatening, but combined with other enemies there start to be major problems. ADVENT officers are pathetic by themselves, but if they mark one of your units and anyone else is nearby, kiss that fucking unit goodbye. Likewise, your soldiers complement each other really well but it is fantastically hard to solo with any one class because of this. There's an effort made to encourage the player to invest in a variety of units, not just their A Team.
XCOM EU/EW is more individualist in comparison. There are a lot of enemies on Legend that, by themselves, can be run enders like Chryssalids or Mutons or Sectopods. Likewise, your units will likely snowball into unkillable embodiments of death that can kill endless enemies by themselves while the rest of your team sponge XP and twiddle their thumbs. Snipers were notorious for this in EU and the EW nerf bat didn't do much. There's not much synergy going on across the board, which is best embodied by the Support class (Specialist in XCOM 2): In 2 it utterly excels at aiding the entire team via either direct buffs or by hacking enemy emplacements/machines to reduce the overall threat in a mission. In EU it's best used as a self sustaining Overwatch machine that very occasionally stabilizes a dying unit. You could spec into team buffs, but they're inferior to simply becoming a turret made of meat.
If you've never played Enemy Unknown before, don't let my griping dissuade you. It is absolutely worth a full playthrough or two. Even if you're not all that into it, it could be nice to see a bit of gaming history; as I've alluded to throughout this entire review, so many games ripped off Enemy Unknown. I literally just got done with a 2023 release that was basically a homage to it. There's a reason everyone rejoiced when Jake Solomon announced he was coming back for 2, after all.
And hey, Happy New Year, folks! Here's to more 5s and less 1s, you know? Have a good one.
While I'm not typically a fan of turn-based games, I thought I'd give the XCOM series a go since so many people have said it's great, and about 20 hours and a complete campaign later, yeah I think I see why.
By far the greatest strength of XCOM EU is the personality given to your characters. I would stream this in Discord calls every once in a while and had my friends create soldiers, which led to some laughs and sadness when one would land a lot of shots in quick succession or proceed to die. Besides my personal soldier, one of them even ended up being the "hero" of the story who decimated everything in her way. I knew the character storytelling was interesting before playing, but I didn't expect to become that attached to characters that frankly don't have much to say.
The gameplay systems also add a lot to the experience, particularly outside of individual battles. Having to choose between certain countries to protect while others collapse and stop supporting XCOM was great, since it never felt like a choice was particularly easy. Combined with researching and purchasing upgrades for soldiers, managing a pretty tight economy, and building up the base, and the sense of progression is great.
Only have some minor gripes with the game that hold it back from being a masterpiece. Namely, that you can't either pause during or fast forward an enemy turn. The amount of times a turn started with something that made me want to load a save, only to have to watch the other five aliens on the field necessitate that loaded save even harder, can be really annoying. Also the odd bug here and there, including some that made me close and relaunch the game itself.
But yeah, I'm really happy with the 20 hours I sunk into this game. It isn't too long, has plenty of strategy, and feels rife with personality. Will totally be checking out XCOM 2 at some point soon.
P.S. Found out after I finished the main game that Enemy Within is the same game but with added features. I only feel slightly stupid
By far the greatest strength of XCOM EU is the personality given to your characters. I would stream this in Discord calls every once in a while and had my friends create soldiers, which led to some laughs and sadness when one would land a lot of shots in quick succession or proceed to die. Besides my personal soldier, one of them even ended up being the "hero" of the story who decimated everything in her way. I knew the character storytelling was interesting before playing, but I didn't expect to become that attached to characters that frankly don't have much to say.
The gameplay systems also add a lot to the experience, particularly outside of individual battles. Having to choose between certain countries to protect while others collapse and stop supporting XCOM was great, since it never felt like a choice was particularly easy. Combined with researching and purchasing upgrades for soldiers, managing a pretty tight economy, and building up the base, and the sense of progression is great.
Only have some minor gripes with the game that hold it back from being a masterpiece. Namely, that you can't either pause during or fast forward an enemy turn. The amount of times a turn started with something that made me want to load a save, only to have to watch the other five aliens on the field necessitate that loaded save even harder, can be really annoying. Also the odd bug here and there, including some that made me close and relaunch the game itself.
But yeah, I'm really happy with the 20 hours I sunk into this game. It isn't too long, has plenty of strategy, and feels rife with personality. Will totally be checking out XCOM 2 at some point soon.
P.S. Found out after I finished the main game that Enemy Within is the same game but with added features. I only feel slightly stupid
really quite astonishing. the gameplay loop of research, building facilities, and increasing passive income to utilize in combat is decidedly a winning one; the gameplay here is so satisfying in a way i haven't really experienced anywhere else. the b-movie tone and energy add a lot of charm to the game as well - i found myself getting really invested in the stories i would create on the battlefield and the war tales of my soldiers. insane replay value, too; at three deals this is nuts
great concept would recommend to fellow bed wetters! :D
Pro tip: you can name the soldiers after people you hate and send them to suicide missions
Years ago, I was introduced to the genre of turn-based tactics games with XCOM: Enemy Unknown, and for better or worse I was left chasing that incredible high ever since. The only other game that could provide that perfect mixture of strategy, risk management, and the iconic kick of RNG was none other than XCOM 2. While the sequel largely supplanted this one in terms of pure gameplay, every once in a while I still get the hankering to start a campaign in this atmospheric sci-fi horror setting to beat down aliens with my stompy mech soldiers.
But why was I so instantly captivated by this game? This wasn’t something I could easily answer at first while getting thoroughly obliterated as a newbie commander. That first campaign was confusing, brutal, yet still inexplicably fun. 1000 hours of play later, I’ve come to the conclusion that XCOM has the most perfect loop of interesting decisions and significant consequences constantly alternating one after another, keeping players invested all the way up until the endgame. The choices are weighty, varied, difficult but still intuitive to understand. Whether things go right or wrong, both newbies and veterans can always uncover a new layer of strategic depth.
I was hooked on this rapid and dynamic loop of learning, adapting, and gradually molding my troops into badass alien killers. My first campaign didn’t go very well, but as soon as it ended I was pumped to start the journey again with the knowledge that I had gained through my mistakes. Then I did it again, and again, until I finally won my first classic ironman campaign after a long, bloody war with a death toll in the 50s. That victory was one of the most memorable gaming moments in my life, and something I always hope to experience again when playing other strategy games.
But why was I so instantly captivated by this game? This wasn’t something I could easily answer at first while getting thoroughly obliterated as a newbie commander. That first campaign was confusing, brutal, yet still inexplicably fun. 1000 hours of play later, I’ve come to the conclusion that XCOM has the most perfect loop of interesting decisions and significant consequences constantly alternating one after another, keeping players invested all the way up until the endgame. The choices are weighty, varied, difficult but still intuitive to understand. Whether things go right or wrong, both newbies and veterans can always uncover a new layer of strategic depth.
I was hooked on this rapid and dynamic loop of learning, adapting, and gradually molding my troops into badass alien killers. My first campaign didn’t go very well, but as soon as it ended I was pumped to start the journey again with the knowledge that I had gained through my mistakes. Then I did it again, and again, until I finally won my first classic ironman campaign after a long, bloody war with a death toll in the 50s. That victory was one of the most memorable gaming moments in my life, and something I always hope to experience again when playing other strategy games.
its alright but not really my thing
I like the basic premise of this game, but the tatical combat is just so frustrating. As one quickly figures out, the optimal strategy is to slowly inch forward across the map, in order to only trigger one alien group at a time. This is very, very boring. Of course, you could charge ahead and 'take risks', but this usually just punishes you really hard by putting your soldiers out of position and giving a timing advantage to the enemy. This gets your soldiers killed, which loses the long game. So you either have a bit of fun and lose, or you bore yourself to death and win.
I cried when my guy died once
Played this bad boy with the Long War mod, they weren't lying it is RATHER long. After a month of almost daily consistent play I made it to the alien base assault which I think is like halfway through the game? Dense, fucking dense. Makes for a good podcast game.
Mainly judging my experience with the Long War mod rather than base game here (base game is great, an all time classic, five stars easily), I thought it was.. good! I think my experience would've been much better if I wasn't such a proud young man and played on Iron Man mode, reloading saves would've been a god send.
As a game that fulfills the fantasy of blowing up a little grey alien's head with a shotgun, it's excellent, seeing those little freaks ragdoll never gets old. As a tactical experience, a couple of pain points make it feel flat out bad. One thing is that you do not know where enemies are positioned when you start a mission. This isn't bad, it creates a nice early game tension, it feels like a decision based on atmosphere. The really bad thing is that, when you do spot an enemy, it is not just one or two, it will typically end up being a group of like, 4 or 5. And when you spot them, they will all move for free, and will get to move whenever it's their turn as well.
As a game that wants to fulfill the fantasy of being a little squad overwhelmed by an insurmountable threat from outer space, it's fine it's cool it's not a big deal. As a tactical game, where you are often encouraged to play slowly, carefully, and live with your decisions both good and bad, it's a feature that gets more and more grating as the game progresses, doubly so in Long War. You do not just encounter and alert one squad of aliens on a map, you encounter and alert several alien squads in a map. In late-game missions, it feels like the objective is to just feel around and tryyy to only fight one squad at a time without alerting and dragging in other squads to a fight to avoid getting overwhelmed, it doesn't make me feel "tactically smart", it makes me feel like I'm gaming the system to have a chance to keep playing the game.
The thing that ends up killing you is that, on a given mission, the enemy is going to have a better turn economy than you, an army of 12 getting to move and shoot is going to get more opportunities to do so than an army of 6. The enemy is going to get more chances to roll the dice to kill you, while you've got to manage your own dice rolls against them. The big thing is that oh haha xcom soldiers are bad at aiming, which is absurdly true, even with the second wave option to improve soldier aim. I cannot tell you how many times I flipped a coin and lost like 4 times in a row.
There is a bit more to manage in Long War, the "air game" is more important, because the game is so long resource management and basebuilding can have cascading effects. If you manage your resources well, you can try to build yourself back up again from lost soldiers, battles, lost jets, etc. It just takes time, it takes in-game days to do that. Days that are going to be spent fighting more aliens, having to bench soldiers due to fatigue/injury for even more days, etc etc.
This is where the gameplay loop tickled me, the resource management and "air game" feels great, it feels like the game is giving you answers for all your woes as you progress. Do your soldiers have shitty aim? Try out these shotguns instead. Do your jets keep getting shot down? Here's a research project that could help with that. Ohhh you're really close to being able to afford this new weapon that melts alien-eyes, but you'll probably need to scavenge a UFO to get the resources.
Maybe I should've looked into playing an easier difficulty and chosen more modifier to give me an edge due to the "tactical fighting" feeling like poop and butt to play, they felt like a chore to get back to managing research projects, construction, keeping countries happy, espionage, etc etc. I prefer when strategy games aren't THIS reliant on random numbers, it feels cheap most of the time. If I make a mistake and get punished for it, that's fair. If a little grey takes the shot of a lifetime and hits a 10% chance shot, I just don't know. I just don't know.
Mainly judging my experience with the Long War mod rather than base game here (base game is great, an all time classic, five stars easily), I thought it was.. good! I think my experience would've been much better if I wasn't such a proud young man and played on Iron Man mode, reloading saves would've been a god send.
As a game that fulfills the fantasy of blowing up a little grey alien's head with a shotgun, it's excellent, seeing those little freaks ragdoll never gets old. As a tactical experience, a couple of pain points make it feel flat out bad. One thing is that you do not know where enemies are positioned when you start a mission. This isn't bad, it creates a nice early game tension, it feels like a decision based on atmosphere. The really bad thing is that, when you do spot an enemy, it is not just one or two, it will typically end up being a group of like, 4 or 5. And when you spot them, they will all move for free, and will get to move whenever it's their turn as well.
As a game that wants to fulfill the fantasy of being a little squad overwhelmed by an insurmountable threat from outer space, it's fine it's cool it's not a big deal. As a tactical game, where you are often encouraged to play slowly, carefully, and live with your decisions both good and bad, it's a feature that gets more and more grating as the game progresses, doubly so in Long War. You do not just encounter and alert one squad of aliens on a map, you encounter and alert several alien squads in a map. In late-game missions, it feels like the objective is to just feel around and tryyy to only fight one squad at a time without alerting and dragging in other squads to a fight to avoid getting overwhelmed, it doesn't make me feel "tactically smart", it makes me feel like I'm gaming the system to have a chance to keep playing the game.
The thing that ends up killing you is that, on a given mission, the enemy is going to have a better turn economy than you, an army of 12 getting to move and shoot is going to get more opportunities to do so than an army of 6. The enemy is going to get more chances to roll the dice to kill you, while you've got to manage your own dice rolls against them. The big thing is that oh haha xcom soldiers are bad at aiming, which is absurdly true, even with the second wave option to improve soldier aim. I cannot tell you how many times I flipped a coin and lost like 4 times in a row.
There is a bit more to manage in Long War, the "air game" is more important, because the game is so long resource management and basebuilding can have cascading effects. If you manage your resources well, you can try to build yourself back up again from lost soldiers, battles, lost jets, etc. It just takes time, it takes in-game days to do that. Days that are going to be spent fighting more aliens, having to bench soldiers due to fatigue/injury for even more days, etc etc.
This is where the gameplay loop tickled me, the resource management and "air game" feels great, it feels like the game is giving you answers for all your woes as you progress. Do your soldiers have shitty aim? Try out these shotguns instead. Do your jets keep getting shot down? Here's a research project that could help with that. Ohhh you're really close to being able to afford this new weapon that melts alien-eyes, but you'll probably need to scavenge a UFO to get the resources.
Maybe I should've looked into playing an easier difficulty and chosen more modifier to give me an edge due to the "tactical fighting" feeling like poop and butt to play, they felt like a chore to get back to managing research projects, construction, keeping countries happy, espionage, etc etc. I prefer when strategy games aren't THIS reliant on random numbers, it feels cheap most of the time. If I make a mistake and get punished for it, that's fair. If a little grey takes the shot of a lifetime and hits a 10% chance shot, I just don't know. I just don't know.
Great tactical gameplay - especially at the start, it can feel really stressful in a fun, tense way. Eventually (at least on lower difficulty levels), you can reach a point where you're sufficiently ahead that you can just keep playing indefinitely. I like that the game has real stakes with permadeath, even if I don't always like it in the moment! The new technologies / facilities give a real sense of progression across the game, and the combat has a decent level of variety with the different classes, so you can create a balanced squad to take out to the fight.
Cool story, interesting gameplay.
Good strategy game!
Good strategy game!
Siempre me matan al batallón pero el juego está guapardo.
I want to play more of this game. Cuz it’s epic
Narrative: 4 - Gameplay: 4.5 - Visuals: 3.5 - Soundtrack: 3.5 - Time: 4
Stars: 4
The strategy games have a special and complicated spot in my heart. I can say with a lot of energy that I love those games and that I’m always up to play them, but… They, just like the open world genre, are in the highest tier of unfinished personal games. I guess that happened because in the very essence of those games lies real challenges, punishing experiences and – therefore – frustration. A strategy game usually takes about 30 minutes to go through a level. In most of them, this number can easily make an hour and, eventually, up to 4 hours. For any casual, or even hardcore, gamer that’s a huge investment of time. The frustration of losing after that kind of sacrificed time isn’t an arithmetic progression but a geometric one. If you add a perfectionist mindset and an urge to play a lot of different games to the equation, you have the “special and complicated” thing I was talking about. It won’t come as a surprise that it took me 5 years to finally finish this game. But, boy, it is worth it.
Stars: 4
The strategy games have a special and complicated spot in my heart. I can say with a lot of energy that I love those games and that I’m always up to play them, but… They, just like the open world genre, are in the highest tier of unfinished personal games. I guess that happened because in the very essence of those games lies real challenges, punishing experiences and – therefore – frustration. A strategy game usually takes about 30 minutes to go through a level. In most of them, this number can easily make an hour and, eventually, up to 4 hours. For any casual, or even hardcore, gamer that’s a huge investment of time. The frustration of losing after that kind of sacrificed time isn’t an arithmetic progression but a geometric one. If you add a perfectionist mindset and an urge to play a lot of different games to the equation, you have the “special and complicated” thing I was talking about. It won’t come as a surprise that it took me 5 years to finally finish this game. But, boy, it is worth it.
Never played older X-COMs, but this one I found insufferable.
First of all, I think it looks ugly and sounds very generic. Second of all, it acts like it's some kinda cinematic experience, while having no sense of good pacing and delivering all information through simple talking heads. Third of all, the controls are very unintuitive, there's no free camera rotation, mouse wheel changes elevation for some reason instead of zooming in/out, and the zoom keeps resetting after each turn. Plus I hate these tacked-on "cinematic" close-ups for simple actions that you're gonna be doing thousands of times. They get old really quickly.
The actual combat seems fine, but it didn't really strike me as anything special. It's your standard, run-of-the-mill turn-based combat. It is kinda cool how you can change elevation and enter buses and shit like that. But it's also the kind of game where you can be hiding behind a stone wall and somehow get hit by the enemy, or approach the enemy, shoot them point-blank and miss. This kinda immediately ruins all the immersion they're so desperately trying to create with that "cinematic" bullshit.
First of all, I think it looks ugly and sounds very generic. Second of all, it acts like it's some kinda cinematic experience, while having no sense of good pacing and delivering all information through simple talking heads. Third of all, the controls are very unintuitive, there's no free camera rotation, mouse wheel changes elevation for some reason instead of zooming in/out, and the zoom keeps resetting after each turn. Plus I hate these tacked-on "cinematic" close-ups for simple actions that you're gonna be doing thousands of times. They get old really quickly.
The actual combat seems fine, but it didn't really strike me as anything special. It's your standard, run-of-the-mill turn-based combat. It is kinda cool how you can change elevation and enter buses and shit like that. But it's also the kind of game where you can be hiding behind a stone wall and somehow get hit by the enemy, or approach the enemy, shoot them point-blank and miss. This kinda immediately ruins all the immersion they're so desperately trying to create with that "cinematic" bullshit.
Possibly considered the father of all modern grid-turn based games, Enemy Unknown does feel a bit overshadowed by its successor in gameplay, balance, presentation, music, story, characterization and depth. Why play EU when you could be playing XCOM 2?
Honestly no idea, it's still fun and addicting, but it's not as polished as its sequel. Still recommended to see how an old IP got the reboot of its lifetime and to mow down some aliens, which is always funny until you get RNG screwed.
Honestly no idea, it's still fun and addicting, but it's not as polished as its sequel. Still recommended to see how an old IP got the reboot of its lifetime and to mow down some aliens, which is always funny until you get RNG screwed.
É um jogo divertido, mas se torna repetitivo com o tempo (joguei um total de 17h), a partir de uma parte eu fiquei só no automático, joguei um pouco do XCOM 2 e não lembro de ter sentido isso. Apesar dos pesares, é um bom jogo de estratégia, é muito massa esse apego que você cria com os soldados. Descansem em paz Calabrezzo e Tuco Salamanca, vocês lutaram bravamente.
99% chance of hitting...
Holds up surprisingly well to this day.
good but second game is better
Not terribly compelling narrative, but some great strategy gameplay. I just wish it had some more personality that was interesting.
Extremely good and infinitley replayable. Super fun strategy game with permadeath that makes every decision mean something I loved this game. Pro tip: start in Africa.
Impressionante como é bom esse joguinho
XCOM: Enemy Unknown (2012): Le falta pulido, y en ocasiones dependes en exceso del azar, pero reinventó un género, y sólo por eso merece cierto respeto. Es muy duro, y te hace estar pendiente de mil cosas y con la mente siempre ocupada y enfocada. Muy grata experiencia (7,95)
Lost my whole team stopped playing :/
Amo los juegos que me hacen arrepentirme por mis acciones. Éste fue tan fuerte que tuve que bajarle la dificultad. Lo amé.
With the DLC, an absolute treat.
I did not like tactics games, but this game sunk its claws into me. Love the aesthetic.
To set the stage I did not expect to enjoy this as much as I did. I like the more Fire Emblem side of the genre and didn't enjoy Mario + Rabbids that much, but hey like 17 euro for everything in a bundle why not? I also have not played much western games and XCOM is my most western feeling game I ever played.
Even if the game can encourage you to play extremely slow and my fe experience makes me wary of permadeath, I adored the tension these two things create, especially with the sound design of ambient music and alien noises.
XCOM's story leans way more in to vibes then a linear defined experience. It starts with the stark , but let's be honest accurate trope of Earth's nations only being able to come together and set aside their differences only due to an extra-terrestrial threat. It asks us to ponder what it means to be human as you repurpose more and more alien tech etc... and you start to wonder where is the line between human and alien.
Even if the game can encourage you to play extremely slow and my fe experience makes me wary of permadeath, I adored the tension these two things create, especially with the sound design of ambient music and alien noises.
XCOM's story leans way more in to vibes then a linear defined experience. It starts with the stark , but let's be honest accurate trope of Earth's nations only being able to come together and set aside their differences only due to an extra-terrestrial threat. It asks us to ponder what it means to be human as you repurpose more and more alien tech etc... and you start to wonder where is the line between human and alien.