{"id":7933,"date":"2012-10-20T01:58:43","date_gmt":"2012-10-20T05:58:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.spacesector.com\/blog\/?p=7933"},"modified":"2013-10-04T09:22:34","modified_gmt":"2013-10-04T13:22:34","slug":"xcom-enemy-unknown-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.spacesector.com\/blog\/2012\/10\/xcom-enemy-unknown-review\/","title":{"rendered":"XCOM: Enemy Unknown Review"},"content":{"rendered":"
\""Nothing<\/a><\/p>\n

"Nothing like starting your day in the X-COM Geoscope room"<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

X-COM<\/a>\u00a0is probably one of the best sci-fi gaming series ever made for the PC, and no doubt one of Microprose’\u00a0most successful also.\u00a0The series has many titles but sci-fi and strategy enthusiasts tend to elect the first three chapters as the best, namely UFO: Enemy Unknown (aka X-COM: UFO Defense), X-COM: Terror from the Deep and X-COM: Apocalypse. These are science fiction real-time strategy games combined with turn-based tactics on an alien invasion setting.<\/p>\n

XCOM: Enemy Unknown from Firaxis Games and 2K Games is the new X-COM installment, and it’s a re-imagining version, or reboot, with a particular focus on the series’ first chapter. So, it’s not a straight remake. The game mechanics stayed basically the same, but there are a few significant differences as well, as not unexpected.<\/p>\n

Now, as there are at least two types of gamers reading this review: people who played the original game (OG from this point forward) and people who didn’t, I thought it would be interesting to include some notes on the review on what’s new, different or removed from the OG as I go through.<\/p>\n

I’m a long time veteran and fan of the series. These games were my life at the time. So, expect a review filled with references to the original games. However, I’ll do my best to keep the review completely meaningful even if you strip out all those references. XCOM:EU is a re-imagining version of previous X-COM games but it’s still quite a different game in itself, and deserves to be reviewed also by its own.<\/p>\n

So, first an introduction and some game description, especially for newcomers. Veterans can skip the next section and jump into “The Start”.<\/p>\n

Defend Humanity From an Alien Invasion<\/h3>\n

Your mission in XCOM:EU is the same as in the original games: you must lead a secret organization called X-COM (or XCOM) and deal with an alien invasion of unknown origin and purpose, over a series of hostile encounters. The encounters are the tactical part. The other half of the game, the strategic part, is where you try to understand what’s going on and need to figure out how to deal with the invading aliens, and find out what their purposes and secrets are in the hope to\u00a0understand them better and take better action against them.<\/p>\n

So, at the same time you react in the battle field with your special elite force, you must research whatever you recover from the alien encounters in order to progress through the game. This will lead you to unlock new technologies based on the alien invaders’ own\u00a0weaponry and\u00a0physiology.\u00a0You also maintain a small fleet of jet fighters standing by in case you need to try shooting down some alien ships.<\/p>\n

And, you must do all this with a limited funding that you get from\u00a0a series of countries through a somewhat\u00a0mysterious\u00a0and secretive council. However, you must assist these countries if they suffer alien abductions or terror assaults, otherwise they will cut their financing to the X-COM project. Lose more than eight countries’\u00a0support and it’s game over.<\/p>\n

\""India,<\/a><\/p>\n

"India, Germany or Canada? Hum... let me check the situation room"<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

X-COM in a sentence would be: React to a hostile alien activity; learn all you can about the aliens as fast as possible; defend humanity from\u00a0abductions\u00a0and terror incursions; turn the odds in your favor by countering the aliens absurdly technology\u00a0superiority and their element of surprise; hope to know more about their plans and find out where they are coming from, and with what purpose; neutralize them if possible; save humanity.<\/p>\n

Now, if you’re a sci-fi enthusiast tell me if wouldn’t want to be the commander of this organization? :)<\/p>\n

The Start<\/h3>\n

If you skip the tutorial at first play, which I strongly suggest you do not, you will jump right into your first tactical mission with a squad of 4 rookie soldiers. Rookie in the sense that they don’t yet show any particular trait worth exploiting. But first, you need to choose in which continent you want to set your base on. And that’s the first big decision you need to make right there, since each continent will give you a different kind of bonus, an important bonus. Strategy starts the very first second you start the game.<\/p>\n

But getting back to your first mission. In the OG you didn’t have the 4 soldiers squad limitation. You could send up to 14 soldiers into battle. This XCOM:EU new restriction is something I know many veterans dislike but I do not have a problem with it at all. Let me explain why.<\/p>\n

First let me agree by saying that 4 is too few soldiers. That’s why one of the very first things you need to do is work your way through the game to lift this limit to 5 and then to 6 troops as quickly as you can. But then that’s it, you cannot bring more than 6 units into combat, period. Think that maybe you would need better logistic support to send more than 4 soldiers into battle, and that more than 6 is not intended because XCOM’s organization is more like a special ops organization than a standard army unit. Secrecy,\u00a0discretion and efficiency\u00a0are\u00a0paramount, so less in this sense is more.<\/p>\n

But, why don’t I have a problem with a 6 squad limit?<\/p>\n

Because, I remember very well that in the OG you would love to bring plenty of troops in the beginning, when the aliens are far superior in tech. But, after a while (not that much time after), you would start bringing the same troops into battle over and over again, and fewer and fewer in numbers. Why? Because some soldier’s experience would increase after each battle which would lead them having better stats like aim, reaction and life, for example. So, you would end up with a smaller elite group and all the rest would be\u00a0dispensable\u00a0rookies with very little purpose other than serving as replenishing units when someone on the elite squad dies. At least this was my experience playing the OG.<\/p>\n

Moreover, let’s be honest. How many troops did you bring with you in mid\/late games in the OG? About half a dozen? Perhaps a bit more. 6 +1 tank, 6 +2 tanks tops? Another factor to consider is battle fatigue. After a while it could become a bit boring to cycle through a lot of soldiers. So, in my opinion the design decision of not having more than 6 soldiers is not really a big issue, if an issue at all. Perhaps you could go with one or two more but frankly I don’t think this limits the fun you take out from the game.<\/p>\n

\""Present<\/a><\/p>\n

"Present you my X-COM Dream Team"<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

More On Troops and Inventory<\/h3>\n

Your troops get promoted over time after finishing missions. And, it’s not only their stats that improve but they can also specialize in four different areas: Assault, Heavy,\u00a0Sniper\u00a0and Support. This is new. In the OG your troops were way more generic. They would get their stats improved over time, and you could exploit this to equip your best troops with your top gear, usually your best weapons. While the least interesting soldiers would become grenadiers, field medics, stunners, scouts or whatever other role you would design for them.<\/p>\n

In XCOM:EU your troops are either rookies (all almost identical with no specialization) or they specialize in one of those four categories.\u00a0And, they will specialize deeper and deeper because each category has its own skill tree \u00a0in which most of the times you must make important choices every time your troop “levels up”, in pure RPG style. Some people may argue that it would be better to have a word on what specialization a particular soldier gets, but quite frankly I think it makes more sense to let the computer assign a role and live with it for a change.<\/p>\n

I think the specialization is attributed randomly, I don’t think it’s related with what you do in battle at all, but I think that particular soldier may have\u00a0shown\u00a0aptitude for a particular specialization. I don’t think this is a problem really. You end up having a very diverse group. And when you reach a stage where you think you have too many Snipers, for example, you can just afford to dismiss some of them and hire new rookies and hope they specialize in something else. I think this is more realistic than “forcing” specializations.<\/p>\n

There’s inventory management in XCOM:EU, no doubt. You can equip your troops with different armor, weapons, decide to bring\u00a0grenades, stunners or other equipment. BUT, and this is another possible veteran complaint, you cannot choose freely what each unit brings to the battlefield. You can only equip your troops with one\u00a0grenade\u00a0for example, although that restriction can be uplifted with a special unlocked skill of a particular specialization. Also, each soldier can only bring one medikit with them, although again there’s a special unlock available to allow you to bring more and another unlocked skill that allows medikits to have a greater effect.<\/p>\n

You can’t equip your snipers with normal rifles or assault troops with sniper rifles and so forth. So, they designed the inventory and squad management in a way that forces you to specialize \u00a0your troops and avoid having you leveling up everything with grenades for example. And, in the end grenades are not that effective in any case. There could be other reasons that led them to implement this inventory restriction, like cover being a central aspect of the game, and grenades can destroy cover, or because maps are not that big. But more on that later.<\/p>\n

However, there’s one particular thing about the inventory topic that I strongly dislike. You cannot pickup stuff from the ground, from fellow soldiers that died or weapons that drop from stunned aliens. All alien weapons (very conveniently) break into pieces when they die but they do not break when you stun them. And, it would make all the sense to let your soldier use the only medikit available in the squad, that by chance belonged to a deceased fellow soldier. No, you can’t do that. You cannot pickup equipment, put stuff on the ground or throw equipment.<\/span><\/p>\n

You never release your weapon also, even if panicked. And this was one thing that was very good in the OG. You could interact more with the environment and the game felt more real. This inventory environment heavy restriction is a serious minus for XCOM:EU in my view. But perhaps something can be done about this in the future with more special perks, I don’t think it would be too hard to let troops pickup stuff from the ground if they have space left in their inventory.<\/p>\n

So, it’s fair to say that the OG inventory micromanagement, and by that respect some of the tactical portion of the game, was simplified. But, on the other hand, there’s the new specialization feature now, and it’s a lot of fun to specialize your troops and ponder what particular sub-skills you should choose for your soldiers. You can also employ different tactics with those skills. Perhaps the most obvious one is to suppress your enemies with your heavies, while others flank them and take them out. But it’s also possible to set ambushes, do reconnaissance\u00a0with your most mobile troops or with the use of battle scanners, or set up your sniper in higher ground and take out enemies without them even knowing you were there.<\/p>\n

In the end I think the inventory and tactical depth changes were a compromise. The specialization design decision led to the inventory having more restrictions but it did bring a lot of fun and strategy to the tactical side since it’s really cool to witness your soldier’s progression and your decisions to specialize him\/her further as they get promoted do feel meaningful and satisfying.<\/p>\n

So, overall I like what they did with the inventory and squad progression, but I would love to see the game get an update so that you can pickup stuff from the ground. If any XCOM:EU designer is reading this, guys, this is really important. Let soldiers pickup medikits and\u00a0grenades\u00a0from deceased fellows, or even allow them to throw them to other soldiers. This would surely enhance the tactical part of the game.<\/p>\n

No More Time Units<\/h3>\n

Another thing that is different in this new XCOM, and probably the most significant of the changes, is the way your squad moves and uses their abilities. Movement and actions are not based on time units anymore. Time units were a number of points each soldier had in the OG\u00a0to do anything you want with them in your turn. For instance, shooting with a particular weapon could take you, let’s say, 10 points. Moving: 2 points. Crouching: 4 points, etc.\u00a0When all your troops run out of TUs it was time to hit end turn.<\/p>\n

In XCOM:EU you don’t have points to spend but a set of predefined actions to do instead, which range from “move & move”, “move & shoot”, “move”, “shoot”, “use item”, “stay alert” and “take shelter”. Switching weapons doesn’t cost anything though. There are however special skills which allow you to “move & move & shoot”, “shoot & other action”, “shoot & shoot & shoot … & move” among other combinations. So, there’s plenty of movement and action variety alright.<\/p>\n

\""No<\/a><\/p>\n

"No more Time Units."<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Now, some veterans think that abandoning the TUs concept is X-COM heresy and that this basically kills the game for them. I’m not of such opinion. I think TUs did allow you more freedom. For example, you could move, and then move again, and again until your heart’s content and you run out of TUs. Now basically you only move once or twice. At first glance this seem to simplify the game but in my opinion it does not. It frees you from doing little calculations and lets you focus on the big picture instead.<\/p>\n

And the patterns you now have at your disposal were exactly what you did most anyway. Your constant question in your mind in the OG was “how far can I go with points left to shoot? Before, it was a calculus and distance challenge, now the UI gives you a nice overlay with the “safe” range where you’ll be able to move and still be allowed to shoot your weapon if you want to. By the way, the UI is quite clean and easy to use, so there’s no major point to report there, and no need to talk about it throughout the reminder of the review, which is always a huge compliment to the UI in my opinion.<\/p>\n

You may say that you possibly waste “turn time” by moving just a single extra tile outside the shooting safe distance, and that you would have points to spare if you had TUs. But, that was your decision. See it like this. When you decide to send your soldier some place where he can’t fire his weapon on his turn, then you’re actually assuming that you didn’t need to shoot in the first place and just wanted to go exactly to that spot because it gives you nice cover and you’re through with that unit.<\/p>\n

I don’t miss TUs. The new pre-defined moves system is fine by me. I’m convinced that the new movement and action system does not restrict your freedom when moving and shooting. It actually helps you figure out where the sweet spot is, where to send your soldiers and still have time to move, shoot and take cover. So, I don’t think deciding not to go with TUs simplified the gameplay. I think it eased the experience for the same outcome.<\/p>\n

The Base<\/h3>\n

The XCOM base, also known as the “Ant Farm” in XCOM:EU, due to its underground construction, is where you make all the game’s high-level decisions, and therefore where all the strategy part of the game unfolds. It’s in your base, more precisely in the Geoscope,\u00a0that you monitor the alien’s incursions through your satellite system. It’s also where you do all your research, build your equipment, manage your soldiers and hold your ships ready for interception.<\/p>\n

\""The<\/a><\/p>\n

"The Ant Farm" aka X-COM Base.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

In the OG you could build more than one base. Each, if you liked, with its own complement of soldiers, ships and radars to track more alien incursions. In XCOM:EU you have only one base. What happens is that in this new XCOM the radar concept was abandoned in favor of a satellite system. So, you don’t need a base in each continent to track more UFO’s. You launch satellites over other countries to achieve the same purpose.<\/p>\n

To be honest I didn’t fancy having to manage multiple bases in the OG. I didn’t really care much about them. I always felt that other bases were just placeholder support stations required to extend the operations range and gain the favor of more countries to join the cause. In my view XCOM:EU achieves the exact same thing with just one base with the new satellite system. I prefer it this way. Now you’re forced to focus completely on your own base, the one you really do care about. That’s where everything happens, so, I think going with just one base, although hurting the nostalgia effect a bit, was the right way to go. I do miss base assaults by the aliens though …<\/p>\n

Research in XCOM:EU is very similar to the OG. You research the aliens, their weapons and all sorts of materials collected from your missions. Urban missions may bring some alien corpses and weapon fragments but alien ship assaults will grant you all sort of goodies that the research team is more than eager to study in order to unlock new possibilities.<\/p>\n

You can construct more research labs in your base if you want. More labs equals more scientists, more scientists unlock new gear and more answers faster. You can also get more scientists from special missions rewards or from having the support of specific countries.<\/p>\n

Research is a central aspect on the game’s storyline progression. Developments there will lead you forward in the game’s campaign, sometimes with some nice cut-scenes. And, you must decide at all times\u00a0what you should be doing next. Should I research a new armor or a better weapon? Could I unlock useful information by\u00a0analyzing\u00a0a special type of alien corpse right now or should I proceed immediately to research a campaign objective? Money is\u00a0scarce, especially in harder difficulty games, so, you will be questioning yourself very often on what you should be doing next.<\/p>\n

\""Hey,<\/a><\/p>\n

"Hey, where are all the other 20 scientists, they can't be all in vacation..."<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Speaking of campaign, there’s the single-player mode, which is the game’s main mode, but there’s also multiplayer where you can play with a friend in a death match kind of gameplay where one player gets to play the aliens and the other the XCOM soldiers in six-unit squads.<\/p>\n

But getting back to research. I’m pleased with how XCOM:EU deals with this mechanic. The “tech-tree” is not that big but perhaps more or less the same size as in the OG. However, I have the feeling that I didn’t\u00a0exhaust\u00a0it yet after finishing the game in classic difficulty. For example, there were still some alien species to capture for interrogation, perhaps those would trigger other interesting outcomes.<\/p>\n

The breakthrough cut-scenes are good in general and help making you feel more immersed in the game. Perhaps it would be interesting to be able to tweak how fast the research takes, but, overall, I’m quite pleased with how research works in XCOM:EU.<\/p>\n

Now, your theoretical breakthroughs need to be put into practice, right? And that’s where your base engineers come in. Engineering is a special place in your base where you can build all sorts of new gear and special equipment. Building stuff is pretty straightforward. Have the cash and the necessary resources and you can build plenty of new weapons, armor, ship upgrades and other special equipment.<\/p>\n

The number of engineers you have at your disposal are, like the number of scientists, another resource you need to manage. You need engineers to build satellites, a critical resource in the game that you use to monitor countries in order to obtain their financial support and lower their panic level. If they reach critical panic they will leave the council and you lose another source of cash. Moreover, all the latest and\u00a0advanced\u00a0equipment requires more and more engineers. You can acquire more by building more workshops in your base, or, like with scientists, by finishing special missions or by installing satellites in specific countries that grant new engineers each month.<\/p>\n

\""We<\/a><\/p>\n

"We lost a few countries but looks like everything is under control at the moment"<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Still in the engineering topic, there’s a special building called the Foundry that you can unlock later in the game that will grant you modifications to pre-existing gear to make it more effective. This is another interesting layer on-top of regular building tasks because it gives you more choices and complicates your decisions even more. Now, you don’t only need to choose what to research next and what to build, but also think if perhaps a better (or even faster) road would be to improve what you already have.<\/p>\n

I feel that the engineering part of the game is very strong. There’s plenty of stuff to build, way more than you will ever afford (again depending on the difficulty level).<\/p>\n

But, perhaps the best way to deal with an alien invasion is to shoot down their ships before they reach the ground, and start doing their alien things. So, you have a fleet at your disposal, that you can decide to increase in time, with the best fighters Earth can assemble. These are highly modified fast attack \u00a0fighters codenamed RAVEN. They come\u00a0equipped\u00a0with powerful long range Avalanche missiles, as in the OG. Of course, these will not be sufficient to deal with bigger and more dangerous alien ships…<\/p>\n

These fighters are at your disposal to attack the alien ships in the hope to bring them down and learn more about their secretes BEFORE they launch panic and abduction incursions. Letting them go away after being detected can seriously hurt your aspirations and if you’re unlucky they can discover one of your satellites and shoot it down. Losing satellites is a huge blow on your progression, so you will want to keep a minimum set of fighters ready for what may happen at all times.<\/p>\n

Is this really an X-COM game?<\/h3>\n

And now, with most of the exposition part of the review done, it’s time to answer how successful this title really is for both newcomers and X-COM\u00a0veterans. But, before I give you my take on that, it’s important to understand what made X-COM so fantastic in the first place, a true cult among gamers. Then I’ll let you know if XCOM:EU is a worthy successor or not. I value your time so I’ll be brief and stick to the point.<\/p>\n

The original X-COM’s success was,\u00a0in my view, largely a consequence of: the game’s setting and\u00a0atmosphere, nonlinear progression and meaningful\u00a0decisions.<\/p>\n

The original X-COM’s setting puts you in control of a special operations organization fighting back an alien invasion. You have all the odds against you. The aliens are\u00a0extremely\u00a0ahead technologically. They are ruthless and you’re the only hope humanity has to deal with them. The mechanics that the game puts at your disposal: a highly advanced research\u00a0department, a fleet of interceptors and a squad of special operation units at your command makes you feel important and you end up caring for all of them in a very deep way. It can’t become much better than this.<\/p>\n

The original game’s atmosphere was just plain brilliant. You were always under a killing suspense on what you are going to find out next. There are horror and surprise factors to consider as well. Your tension builds up and you couldn’t help not to glue yourself to the screen. Ultimately all of that, including the game’s music, make you feel that you’re part of what’s going on, you feel\u00a0completely\u00a0immersed and immediately\u00a0believe and start to live this great experience.<\/p>\n

Another key aspect in X-COM games is that your decisions do matter. The lives of your men and women depend on your decisions both tactically and strategically. You are responsible for your troops safety and you end up caring a lot about them.\u00a0\u00a0The loss of one squad member could mean sayonara<\/em> to succeeding on a particular mission or even the entire game. You really had to look out for your troops and protect them from danger at all costs. This tension, this life-or-death confrontation is slowly disappearing in today\u2019s games, where dying in games doesn\u2019t mean anything anymore. What\u2019s the fun with that? In the original X-COMs you could always save your game, yes, but if you made some bad moves, that could cost you the entire battle or even the entire game.<\/p>\n

And Now The Verdict<\/h3>\n

From one X-COM veteran to another, or to a newcomer. Is XCOM:EU a true X-COM game?<\/p>\n

YES, XCOM:EU is a worthy X-COM successor! With that I mean, I’m convinced that it will please both newcomers and X-COM veterans that were crying inside for more experiences in the X-COM world.<\/p>\n

The setting is intact. You truly believe that you’re back in the X-COM world. From the Skyranger (the ship that takes your troops into battle), to how research works, to more or less the same type of weapons involved and some familiar faces among the aliens, you do believe you’re back in X-COM.<\/p>\n

The game’s atmosphere, the suspense, the horror and surprise factors are all there. Now magnified by the XCOM:EU’s great graphics and absolutely\u00a0gorgeous\u00a0animation scenes. There’s an option to disable the action animations but they’re so good that you don’t want to deprive yourself from watching them every time. The music is quite good also. Some scores are even brilliant and quite exquisite at places.<\/p>\n

\""Very<\/a><\/p>\n

"Very nice animations that you simply can't get enough of"<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Your decisions do matter and the lives of your soldiers and the future of humanity is\u00a0literally in your hands. However, you will want to play the game on the higher difficulty levels, and preferably on Ironman mode (where you can’t save and reload for different outcome), in order to feel that tension to the fullest. If you’re a veteran my advice is that you start a game on Normal<\/em> difficulty just to get the basics but\u00a0quickly\u00a0switch to Classic <\/em>where I think all the fun resides. I finished a Classic difficulty game but I’m eager to start a Classic-Ironman game soon.<\/p>\n

But, be warned, this game can be quite difficult to play, at least in the first few sessions and particularly on the game’s first few missions. Newcomers are advised to reduce one step on the difficulty. Start on Easy<\/em> and quickly switch to Normal<\/em> but probably you should stick there for your first game.<\/p>\n

There’s also an\u00a0Impossible<\/em>\u00a0difficulty level but I don’t think you will want to mess with that so quickly. Impossible-Ironman is surely a nightmare and probably one challenge I imagine only a few bunch of people will overcome. So, there’s considerable replayability alright.<\/p>\n

It’s All Good?<\/h3>\n

No. Unfortunately there are some shortcomings. Some of them are not that serious but I think others are quite major, and ultimately the reason I think the game is (not yet) a true masterpiece.<\/p>\n

There are a few glitches I\u00a0spotted\u00a0that I think will be easy to iron out, like scientists hanging on the base walls. The event list still displaying research ETA for something that was already researched (although that disappears in your next couple of actions, so it’s not that serious). There are also some camera glitches (some a bit serious) that although very annoying in a particular set of missions is not really that big an issue because it doesn’t happen so often.\u00a0Sometimes you also get the impression that some aliens pass through walls and that you can also fire through walls but those are probably graphical engine “little” problems that may not be solvable and that we must forgive and forget. That doesn’t happen too often though.<\/p>\n

Sometimes the UI shows different values for “to-hit” percentages on the main firing tab and support firing UI assistant (the red alien heads that represent how many aliens are on your line of sight at a given moment). Aliens doing powers signals where they are even if they are not in line of sight. You can’t move to the tile where there’s an enemy. This denounces where an alien is without it being on any soldiers’ line of sight. I’m sure these problems will be possible to iron out easily with patches. Although they DO count for my review score assessment of course.<\/p>\n

Then there is a more serious bug. I didn’t want to spoil it for you, so skip the rest of this paragraph if you don’t want any kind of spoilers. You can build special armored units later in the game called SHIV. And, there are many improvements you can make to them. They are quite useful also. But, people are reporting<\/a> lots of different problems using them. Some say they can deploy them but they can’t fire. Others say, like I experienced, that you cannot even deploy this mini-tanks even if they appear as “active” in the soldiers roster. Basically the SHIV functionality is currently broken or half broken, and so, you lose faith in this feature and don’t bother producing them. Which is a shame because they are quite useful and important in the game. Quite strange that the quality assurance team didn’t spot this one.<\/p>\n

But now the game’s worse aspects. The parts I think they really got it wrong and it’s a pity because they don’t allow the game to achieve its true potential.<\/p>\n

Game progression feels a bit too\u00a0scripted. I mean, you do need a script because you’re effectively telling a story, and you eventually need to go from one key event to the next to unlock the end game. That’s fine. This is not, and never was, a complete sand-box game. However, from my six or so games I played so far, the events always turn out to be more or less the same, in the same order, or at least in the beginning. First a few abduction missions, then a special mission from the council (there are a few of those by the way, a nice new addition to the series), then perhaps your first UFO ship interception, then your first terror mission, then more abductions, then a landed UFO, and so on. I mean, that’s what usually you would expect from X-COM but not with such a strict order of events. I got the feeling that I was reliving the same experience over and over again. In the OG I think that your progression, although also including a linear segment, the storyline segment, was much more random, in what could happen. At least this was my impression playing the game.<\/p>\n

Now, one of my worst fears about XCOM:EU did materialize. I don’t think the maps are big enough. Moreover, I don’t feel that discovery is a major element in the game anymore. I got the impression that maps looked too small and it was quick to find aliens by looking at the gameplay demos. But those were just demos, right? Well, it was not only in the demos. If you exclude a couple of special scenarios, the remaining maps are a bit too small for my taste. Perhaps the designer’s idea was to offer more instant action to players and feared that if maps were considered too big and the alien locations too hard to find that would be a bummer for many gamers. Perhaps. But fans of the original, like me, hardcore fans, will most probably get\u00a0disappointed\u00a0with this one.<\/p>\n

And still on the maps issue, I don’t think there is enough variety either, and this is perhaps the most serious of problems because it affects both newcomers and veterans in the same way. Although I read somewhere that there are about 80 different maps available, and quite beautiful ones one has to say, they can become a bit tiring after a while and it will not be uncommon to repeat some of them throughout your play session. You see, the maps are not randomly generated piece by piece in XCOM:EU, they are fixed, or at least very few things change from session to session.<\/p>\n

Alien positions do change, but as the maps are not that big you\u00a0will\u00a0start to guess very rapidly where the aliens must be. Because there aren’t that many places they can be, especially in urban maps. This is not good. And, the art style is very repetitive also. The same cars, cabs, dinners and buildings architecture in missions in Brazil, the USA or China. I can suspend my disbelief, but not that much sorry. Forests are also very look alike and there are no special terrains like desert, snow or jungle. I feel quite\u00a0disappointed\u00a0with this map variety lacking.<\/p>\n

\""Wait<\/a><\/p>\n

"Wait a minute, haven't we been here before?"<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

But there are very nice touches put in maps. Birds flying around, squirrels passing by and excellent renderings. And, other nice touches like hearing music when you’re inside a bar. This is all great stuff but please give us more and bigger maps in the near future. Randomly generated if possible.<\/p>\n

Bottom Line<\/h3>\n

XCOM: Enemy Unknown is an extremely addictive, gorgeous and fun game to play. It should live up to the expectations of the large majority of the X-COM hardcore fans. And, I’m sure people who never played the series will also have a blast and a huge nice surprise by playing this game, now with much better graphics than the original game, cool animations and cutscenes.<\/p>\n

It’s a real joy to see your troops evolve over time, and you do start to get emotionally\u00a0attached to them. Losing one of your elite soldiers is a big deal and really forces you to look out for them carefully, especially if you want to go more serious in the game with the “no-save” Ironman mode.<\/p>\n

To the X-COM series newcomers I say this: prepare yourself for a great ride. If you\u00a0enjoy science fiction, and particularly enjoy dealing with aliens, then you will simply love this game. But, even if you do not\u00a0particularly\u00a0like sci-fi or aliens, if you like strategy war games and also like RPG elements in them, like character and skills progression, then you will also love this.<\/p>\n

If you’re a X-COM series veteran please do yourself a favor, don’t hold yourself back from playing this wonderful game just because you think it doesn’t contain some of your original X-COM’s favorite features. This is not UFO: Enemy Unknown, this is XCOM: Enemy Unknown, a great reboot to the series and an excellent addition to the sci-fi PC strategy genre. I thank Firaxis and 2K for developing this wonderful game. I sincerely hope they are planning to release expansions and even sequels.<\/p>\n

This was definitely\u00a0one of my best, if not the best, gaming experiences in recent years, and one that I highly recommend to anyone.<\/p>\n

Note: This review was done with the PC version.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n
\"XCOM:<\/a><\/td>\n\n

XCOM: Enemy Unknown<\/a><\/h3>\n

(PC, XBox 360, PS3)<\/h3>\n

Buy at GamersGate<\/a>, Green Man Gaming<\/a>, Gamestop<\/a>, Amazon<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0Steam<\/a>.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n

\n
Space Sector score:<\/span><\/strong><\/div>\n
9.4\/10<\/span><\/strong><\/div>\n
excellent<\/div>\n
(about the score system)<\/small><\/a><\/div>\n<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n\n
The Good:<\/strong>
\n– Highly addictive gameplay
\n– Squad progression is rich in features and great fun to watch and experience
\n– Great graphics, outstanding animations and enjoyable cutscenes
\n– Solid design makes all your decisions count
\n– Tense atmosphere and sense of fear
\n– Excellent music at places
\n– Lots of “YES!”relief moments that give you goose bumps<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
The Bad:<\/strong>
\n– A few bugs and glitches
\n– Maps are too small and lack variety
\n– Game progression feels a bit too scripted at places
\n– Lacking inventory interactivity (e.g. not possible to pickup items)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

XCOM: Enemy Unknown is an extremely addictive, gorgeous and fun game to play. It should live up to the expectations of the large majority of the X-COM hardcore fans and at the same time please newcomers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1668,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"registered_only","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[56],"tags":[742,741,117,1097,231,519,621,697,744,751],"class_list":["post-7933","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-game-reviews","tag-2k-games","tag-firaxis-games","tag-pc-game","tag-ps3","tag-real-time-strategy","tag-sci-fi-strategy-game","tag-turn-based-tactics","tag-x-com","tag-xbox-360","tag-xcom-enemy-unknown"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spacesector.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7933","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spacesector.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spacesector.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spacesector.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1668"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spacesector.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7933"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.spacesector.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7933\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spacesector.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spacesector.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spacesector.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}