XCOM: Enemy Unknown Review

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"Mission Accomplished"

"But sir.We burnt down the entire city of Chicago, lost half our squad, and had to leave behind 2 million citizens"
"Yeah, AND we got a laser-rifle. Mission Accomplished"
"But Sir"
"Mission. ACCOMPLISHED"

Concept and Context

Enemy Unknown is a reboot of the classic 1994 PC turn-based strategy game franchise that began with "UFO: Enemy Unknown" I have never played the original game, but from what I've heard it was pretty darn neat. Turn-based strategy games have alllllways been my favorite genre, and XCOM is one of the few fully 3D incarnations out there... So clearly I was pretty damn excited for this game, and it did not fail to impress.

The overall premise is as follows, aliens have attacked Earth; in response the world's governments have set up a paramilitary force to fight back back against their far more technically advanced enemy. YOU command that force, and send squads of 6 customized soldiers to various missions around the world to try and lower the panic that is spreading like air-borne ebola.

Between missions you also build up your subterranean hive. At first I was kind of worried about the HQ concept, but being able to watch your company of badass-super soldier-troopers of doom hanging out in rec-rooms is actually quite amusing. I found myself making squads based more on who my soldiers chose to  hangout with, instead of whom made the most tactical sense. Being able to name your soldiers, choose their equipment and looks adds a feeling of depth that in reality isn't REALLY there.

 The story progresses as you collect alien corpses for autopsies (to learn weaknesses), living aliens for interrogations (to learn enemy tactics),  enemy tech (for reverse engineering) and enemy weapons (For...shooting the enemy with.)

"We will rape your soul"

Storywise, the game isn't exactly the rosy picture of human superiority that a lot of sci-fi games paint. You start off against the weakest aliens in the game, and they can still kick your ass with a single lucky shot. I cannot stress enough that this game is HARD. Even on the lowest difficulty, there will be times that you have been playing for 10+ hours before realizing that a choice you made early on has made it impossible to win. The enemy AI is absolutely unforgiving, if you fuck up even slightly with a squad member's position, you can expect to watch them die painfully.

"Time, and time again. Forever."

When a new soldier is recruited, they start off as just a catch all class, but at their first level they randomly gain a specialization (either assault, heavy, sniper, or support.)   As your soldiers earn experience they get promoted and can learn abilities that can help them in more and more specialized roles. But the concept this game will beat into your head over and over from the very beginning is that every choice has a tradeoff. Do you want your sniper to be realllllly good at covering his allies? Or should he have a battle scan that can reveal a bit more of the map?

"Why can't he do both?"

"Because XCOM, THAT's why!"

Combat

At the start of each mission you begin with your little squad surrounded by fog of war in a randomly generated environment. It's fairly rare to know where the enemy is from the start, so you have to spend a decent amount of time LOOKING for them. Which can in and off itself get annoying. Your troops  can either move and shoot, use a special class ability, or just sprint to try and get to a better position but sacrifice their attack. Cover is insanely important in this game, from the very beginning to the very end. Even more important is making sure that all of your squaddies' line of fire intersect. Especially early on when it feels like your elite operation just picked up high school kids from across the country, gave em assault rifles, then sent them to fight aliens with no training. WHY the hell can't a soldier kill an enemy from 5 feet away with a shotgun? Because XCOM that's why.
If one of your troops get injured they have to sit in the medbay for however long it takes for them to heal up. While it may not seem like too big of a deal, if you decided to focus on just making one squad of elite troopers losing one of them for even one mission can be a bitch. I have yet to play through this game without losing a single soldier, so obviously you need to have a TON of backups.

"Reporting for duty"

"Awe, that's cute. Look at their adorable little rifles!"

The reverse engineering eventually allows you to start equipping your force with advanced arms and armor, and nothing feels quite as good as having a full squad covered head to toe in power-armor sprinting out of their transport ship ready to take names and curb-stomp alien scum. You're able to build interceptor jet fighters to engage UFO's (Of varying sizes) and if you knock one out of the sky you can assault it to steal all the technology that survived the crash (which can speed up your development of better equipment very nicely.) You can also build little combat drones that can do a ton of damage,  but cost a LOT of money to research, build and maintain. Eventually you can research in psychic abilities that while amusing don't REALLY change the game too much.

"You were saying?"

"Fuck."

There are quite a few different alien species you encounter and each one has their own special role. LEARN THAT ROLE as quickly as you can, or learn to enjoy watching your people ripped to shreds. While most of the enemies seem more or less well balanced, one of the last types you encounter is a walking robotic tank of doom, the Sectopod.

"I'm bringin' sexy back."

The amount of damage that bitch up there can inflict on you in one round is nothing less than whorish. I'm talking your entire squad wiped out in a single shooting phase before you even knew the cocksucker was there. For virtually every other enemy unit there is a class/unit set up that you can make that will provide you with roughly the same abilities. You don't get a sectopod. You don't get anything that can pump out anywhere NEAR as much damage as a sectopod can. Kill these cocksuckers the moment you see them.

ANYYYWAYS. If you choose to ignore requests from help from XCOM's member nations, eventually they may end up pulling out of the project, which  means you will lose a monthly income boost, lose that nations special ability, and will have to fight that much harder just to survive. If 8 nations pull out, you lose. So... Good job on that one COMMANDER.

Things I disliked:
Too much chance when it comes to each individual soldier's growth. Small tech tree, small ability tree. Most classes can only bring one piece of equipment to battle (can either have a grenade, a scope, or a med-kit? WHY?!) Glitches can push the game's difficulty from fun to idiotic (If a soldier dies because the player fucked up, so be it. If a soldier dies because an enemy soldier somehow saw and killed him through two cars and four buildings, that's just stupid.) All the levels end up blending together by about mid-game, could have definitely used more environments. Ending is kinda "eh" story line in general is pretty bland.  Occasionally feels like its "chance to hit" is entirely random (gets really annoying when you only have a 10% to hit with a sniper rifle from 200 feet away, but the enemy will ALWAYS hit you from the same distance with a shotgun.) Very little variety of mission types (although the ones there are, aren't too bad.) And....last but not least....

FUCK SECTOPODS.

"No no no silly little human. Sectopod fucks YOU.

Things I liked:
A full 3d turn based strategy game that doesn't dumb down the genre for mainstream consumption. Customizing soldiers is fun as hell. The "ant-farm" view of your base was a fantastic idea. The same glitches that can get you fucked up for stupid reasons, can also help you in those exact same ways. Rain levels just feel awesome. Will randomly have slow motion segments that make you feel like it was a movie, and doesn't do it often enough for it to become boring. Does a fantastic job of forcing you to think strategically, even if you have no military training you'll quickly realize exactly how you should move as a unit. City combat feels as hectic as it actually is in the real world. Constantly makes you feel like you're fighting a losing battle.

"Sir, I think you may have over-reacted"
"We heard something weird coming from that building, do you hear it anymore?"
"No sir..."
"Then shut up. Why do you have to be such a sourpuss all the time?"

Final say:
If you're already a fan of this genre, definitely buy this game. If it ends up being profitable then hopefully similar will also have a revival. If you've never played a game in this genre, and don't mind losing a few times, then it is an excellent introduction to one of gaming's best kept secrets.

9/10