Before we start let me get one thing out of the way: I like shooters, I like reaction based games, I like over sized guns irrespective of who is holding them like a stereo type Chinese-American, a grumpy and painkiller addicted cop or a 2 ton car whose wheels are bigger than the car’s own body but that doesn’t mean I will not play games that make me think, that makes me plan my move and makes me wait a bit.

Now that all that has been said XCOM: Enemy Unknown initially looked like a game that was going to bore me since I’m not a fan of Age of Empire, Warcraft 3 and the like especially since it went a step further and wasn’t a real time strategy game but turn based instead so let’s see what I think about it at the end of it all.

Story:

Earth is under attack by an unknown alien force with superior technology and firepower, cities are ablaze, water sources are being poisoned, the worst of it is the innocent people being taken from their homes to be experimented on.

I’m the commander of a special operations unit known as XCOM which is built to deal with this threat. My name is not important, my past is not important but what I do from here on out in an attempt to turn the tide in our favour will either make me a legend or I will join the rest of the human race as a memory.

Sound:

The voice actors sound like bland soldiers irrespective of their countries of origin they sound quite similar except the soldiers you get in the elite soldier pack DLC who sound like some actual effort was taken on them. The main cast also sounds pretty stale but hey at-least you can tell they are different voice actors.

Graphics:

The graphics aren’t anything to write home about but do a decent job. The worlds are dark and and usually dull looking with a few bright parts here and there like the firing of the plasma weapons but overall they aren’t great.

The character models are better and give a clear understanding of what they are showing but due to the overhead/isometric view you usually don’t notice them

Gameplay:

The gameplay is divided into 2 components:   

1. The base building and resource management section
2. The reason we play this game and that is the turn based strategy section

We will go over them in that order:

Base building:

XCOM is backed by a council made up of multiple countries in each continent. These council members provide jobs, deals and financial support to the XCOM project. Their requests go from weapon pieces you find in the field to items you manufacture but they will happily reward you for each either in cash or assets.

There is a currency in this game which you use to build facilities and buy better weapons and armour for your troops. You get this currency from carrying out operations, providing assets to council and so on. The problem is that you are usually strapped for cash so there is a strategy aspect in how you spend your cash be it keeping the council happy so they pay you better next month or in stuff for your troops and base making you a better force to get rid of the aliens.

Along with the cash there are various assets like weapon fragments, rare metals, corpses and captives of aliens along with the technology you recover from their crafts. While you will usually notice a shortage of cash before all others you will also need these assets to build and improve your base and systems. You can sell these assets in the grey market but you can’t do it blindly since you might need them to build something so you have to weigh the profits and costs.

Turn based strategy:

When you start the game all your squad members are rookies so they have the same skill, health and weapons. For your first mission you are walked through how to control your characters and what all you can do each turn before and after you move so the game is not an ass and throws you face first into the mix.

Each of your squad members gets a turn in which they can move and shoot or do a dash that covers more ground and the turn finishes. If they choose to shoot or use “Overwatch” which makes them fire at the first enemy that moves in sight then the turn is over. This varies according to the classes which we shall go into now

After you finish your first level each of your squad members that got enough XP from kills will level up and be assigned a class from one of the following:

• Assault
• Sniper
• Heavey
• Support

Each of these classes play differently, for example the assault class can move more but is usually armed with high damage short range weapons like a shotgun so they need to get into the furball but can’t really get more than one kill and will need snipers and the other members to drop the enemies around them. On the other hand snipers can’t move and shoot their rifle in the same turn so they need to be positioned where they can cover the other squad members and are at the same time still well covered so that they don’t get killed by standing in the open.

After each mission your squad members will come back with assets that you can spend to improve your tech and will earn promotions depending on how they performed, these promotions let you give them skills like the snipers being able to take multiple shots if they kill an enemy which is a deadly game changer. Some squad members will also be not usable for the next missions if they were injured. This means that while you do power level some members you need to hire and improve others too in-case some of your members die.

This makes the game a thinking man’s game in the turn based strategy and out which is really unique in our world of first person murder.

Conclusion:

Get XCOM: Enemy Unknown, it starts easy and amps the difficulty while being very rarely unfair

Final Score: 9/10