Straight to the point: A fantastic, immersive strategy game that is fairly easy to pick up but very hard to put down. With some good replay value it is also a great game for console-owning, strategy fans, as it isn’t just a dumbed down version of a PC title.
Originally, this remake of Microprose’s 1994 classic PC strategy game, XCOM:Enemy Unknown was going to be a first-person-shooter but thankfully it was re-designed to be a strategy game like the original; as it should be. Created by Civilization IV & V developers, Firaxis, it was bound to be good. I’ve heard so many good things about the original game, but sadly, have never actually played it; so I won’t be comparing it to that but recent strategy games on both PC and console instead.
Being a PS3 owner, I was feeling a bit deprived of decent strategy games, which I’m a big fan of, even though I must admit, I’m pretty rubbish at them. I bought a PC just for strategy games alone, which there is an abundance of. Console owners have a great deal of choice with FPS and driving games but there are very few console strategy games out there, mainly because the use of a keyboard and mouse is essential for lucid and enjoyable game play and this doesn’t really fit in well with the aforementioned gaming . I therefore was intrigued to see a new strategy game I could play on a console.
The story is that aliens have invaded earth and as the commander of XCOM, it is your job to defend the world from them. It is no easy task though, as they have more advanced technology and even psychic abilities; plus they can invade many countries at once. Be warned, this game is pretty difficult so I advise you to start on the easy difficulty setting.
The gameplay consists of 2 separate areas, tactical turn-based skirmish battles and base management. The XCOM HQ has a barracks, research labs, engineering, a hangar, a situation room and mission control room. In the mission control room you can see a global view of the countries which fund you to protect them and their current panic level. Building and placing satellites enables you to detect UFOs or abduction sites (Often you will have a choice of 3 abduction sites, which can be a difficult one to make). Each one has a different reward for completing it but you have to keep bearing in mind the panic level. Completing a mission in a certain country lowers its level but neglecting countries, raises theirs, and if it gets too high then they leave the project; resulting in less funding. If too many countries leave then the aliens take over earth and it’s game over!
Every enemy killed or equipment discovered on missions can be researched and developed to level the playing field as aliens get tougher and tougher to beat. Managing finances and buildings can be a struggle at first, particularly because research and buildings take time, and a few countries can easily leave the project because you haven’t been able to build satellites or uplinks quick enough.
When a UFO has been knocked down by your interceptors, or abductions sites have been discovered you can start the mission/skirmish battle area of the game. You start off with a team of 4 soldiers all with base abilities. The aim of each mission is usually to kill every alien on the map but occasionally you may need to escort someone to safety or dispose of an alien bomb. As I mentioned before, it’s turned based and so, at first, you need to place each soldier strategically around the map, giving each once appropriate cover before it’s the aliens’ turn; bearing in mind that you will have no idea where the aliens are and so will need to think about appropriate cover; when a soldier does get close to a group of aliens, they will be revealed and get ready to start attacking.
When aiming your gun, you can switch between targets, which have a percentage of probability to hit them. Sometimes a grenade is better, especially when the aliens are in cover, or you can select overwatch mode, which fires pot-shots at them when they move into your line of sight on your go. The cover you choose is very important and you can see how much cover each object will provide and from which angles. Cover can also be destroyed as the enemy tries to shoot you, leaving your soldier exposed for the next turn. ( if you choose to take cover behind a vehicle and it is hit, it may explode causing damage to your solider.) Also, flanking enemies is very important in order to succeed and they will try to do the same to you.
When you’ve completed a mission, soldiers who have scored kills will rank up giving them more abilities and specialisations, and so, giving you more ways to take out the enemy, along with new tech you acquire through research.
The variety of aliens increases as you get further into the game. The first few missions feature “sectoids,” which are based on the classic “greys” and have psychic abilities, “thin men,” which are aliens loosely disguised as humans, with poisoning abilities and “floaters” which are part machine and can hover around the map using their jet-packs. As the game progresses you run into even more enemy types and sadly they dont get any easier.
One of the main pulls for me in XCOM is the ability to customise each of your troops, even naming them if you want to. The more you use them the higher rank they will become, and are even assigned nicknames. This makes you start caring about who is in your team and when the unthinkable happens and one dies, I have to admit, its rather upsetting. Especially as you’ve just spent so much time ranking them up, getting to know them, getting use to their abilities and now you have to start the next mission with a rookie character to replace them. A nice touch to this feeling of loss is when you go to the HQ s “memorial of lost soldiers” complete with sombre bagpipe music.
The great thing about this game is how much choice you have, being fairly non- linear. There are a few objectives you need to complete in order to progress the story part of the game: including building certain items, capturing a certain alien etc. but you can do these whenever you want. There are so many choices in equipment, upgrades and buildings and there’s only a few compulsory ones, so you can play how you want.
There is also a 1V1 multiplayer mode which allows you to assemble a team, consisting both human and aliens, the equipment of your choice, and play against another player, online. This is good fun and the combination of the humans and aliens working together is a nice feature. For example you can use a sectoid’s psychic abilities to boost a human soldier’s stats.
Unfortunately It appears that there aren’t many people who are playing online, at least not at the moment, so don’t expect to be able to just jump into a game. An Issue compounded by the lack in choice in maps; there being only 5 in total.
Finally the graphics are not really that great to be honest and I could even stretch to say that they are below the par set by the current generation; most likely due to long development time. The most noticeable thing is the lack of texture detail, especially on human characters but this is not really that important in a strategy game as the main focus is obviously the gameplay itself; which can some times be let down by glitchy graphics and bad camera angles.
Overall, this is a great game for any strategy fan. In my opinion, it’s the best console strategy game around at the moment and the controls work pretty well for these platforms. The game is so immersive in fact I found myself rather addicted to it; that “just one more mission” effect.
It seems that firaxis is doing a good job of keeping the turn based strategy alive in time when real-time has pretty much taken over and they continue to reign!
