TL;DR: The cornerstone of the modern tactical RPG genre, this game is a little simple, but more than rewarding enough to justify exploring.

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Sometimes a game is so fundamental to the genre it has helped sculpt that an in-depth review isn’t really necessary; it’s not quite required reading, but it would be weird to talk to someone who loves the genre but hasn’t played the keystone title. That’s the case for XCOM: Enemy Unknown. While it’s not even close to being the ur-tactical roleplaying game, it helped establish many elements of what we now take for granted in modern TRPGs. If you love games that have followed in its wake, or are just curious if you might be into this flavor of nerdy sub-genre, it has held up well and presents a terrific (if slightly simple) experience.

Earth is under alien attack. Until now individual governments have been keeping it under wraps as best they could, but things have gotten severe enough that they’ve banded together to build an international taskforce to coordinate defensive measures. As the head of XCOM, you’ll start with tiny teams of scientists, engineers, and combat personnel. It will be your responsibility to stretch the funding provided by member nations to grow these teams, analyze the threat we face, and eventually turn the aliens’ technology against them. Said funding is contingent on each country’s satisfaction with the job you’re doing, and how well-protected they feel, so you’ll need to slowly extend your vision and reach with satellites and local response fighters around the globe. It’s a fun, if slightly anodyne setting that provides tension and a satisfying power fantasy as you creep your way from underdog to juggernaut.

Missions will see you fielding a growing team of soldiers who individually level up and gain powers from simple skill trees, in addition to other forms of progression. Battles involve a number of different types of objectives that balance the need to carefully uncover the fog of war while also handling things quickly enough to secure resources or protect civilians. One of the best aspects of this game, which it takes directly from the 1994 original, is that even when you haven’t yet found your adversaries, you will hear them stomping around, smashing through windows, and firing weapons, the camera wildly panning to the still-shrouded corner of the map that seems to be the rough source of the sound.

On your turn, each trooper can move and carry out one action, with enough distinctions between different classes to keep things interesting. For example, snipers can only fire their rifles on turns when they haven’t moved, meaning you’ll want to hurry them into a nest where they’ll have a useful vantage for several turns to come. Another system to consider on every move is cover; each piece of the terrain will provide anyone behind it with either full or partial protection, making them much more difficult to hit. Since the enemies hold a substantial firepower advantage, this is incredibly important. When a soldier takes more damage than their armor can mitigate, they will be inactive for days or weeks until they heal, during which time they’re ineligible for sorties. If they lose all their hitpoints, they have to be stabilized or they permanently die, and some enemy attacks are so devastating that they can be killed outright. This all leads to you becoming invested in your team, and weighing their safety against tactical necessities. For added drama, you can even edit each soldier’s name and appearance to make your squaddies represent your friends, should you choose.

This should come as no surprise at this point in this write-up, but simple as many of these systems are by today’s standards, they come together in such a way as to hit a real sweet spot, and I absolutely loved playing this again after so many years. The Enemy Within expansion seamlessly adds content that isn’t critical, but spices things up a bit and introduces the idea of sacrificing your humanity for strategic gains. Enemy Unknown certainly has shortcomings, such as not having enough mission variety, but none of them should prevent you from trying such a well-honed experience, especially when it and all of its DLC content can be had for ten dollars on sale. Hop in, and if you enjoy your time with it, there are many, many more titles that have experimented further with its recipe that you may also love.

XCOM Enemy Unknown is not as deep and detailed as the original XCOM. It is a different kind of game, refined and simplified for the modern gamer and while I regret some of the lost complexity, this game is absolutely perfect at what it is trying to do.

Honestly my biggest problem with the game is the inclusion of Israeli soldiers. Their inclusion would make more sense if this was a game about murdering children instead of fighting aliens.

This is a masterpiece. It combines the logic of chess with the creativity and risk of DnD. It feels like two games in one, a deep management system and a precise turn based combat experience. Missions may seem impossible at first, yet with the right approach you can often win without taking any damage. The learning curve is excellent. It is very challenging, but always fair, and absolutely worth the effort.