One of the best turn-based tactical video games on the market was “XCOM: Enemy Unknown,” which was released on October 9, 2012. Its expansion, “XCOM: Enemy Within,” added new features and made the game more interesting to play. This also led to a sequel called “XCOM 2” with its own expansion too.
This game was created by Firaxis Games and was published by 2K Games and garnered a lot of praise from different gamers and reviewers. This will be my Game Review of this classic tactical game.
Worthy Western tactical game to have
This video game is one of the best tactical games to play during its era due to its unique way of fighting against enemies in tactical gameplay.
Players can hide their characters behind cover that can give them full or half defenses, which immensely helps them evade incoming shots from the aliens. They can also move from one spot to another to catch their enemies off guard or get away from the heavy fire.
This type of gameplay was so new to me at that time that I immediately devoted a lot of time playing this game. The enemies are aliens who are trying to conquer Earth and it was up to the XCOM team to fight against this threat and wipe out the opposition.
New gameplay with new expansion
“Enemy Within” introduced new features for players to try out and it immensely improved the gameplay experience for everyone. It added two new ways to improve characters like making them have mechanical limbs.
The other method was to put implants inside the bodies of these soldiers to awaken new abilities and increase stats.
New enemies were also introduced in this new expansion for “XCOM: Enemy Unknown.” New humanoid enemies entered the fray who were in league with the aliens and disrupted the operations of the XCOM team. There were also new allies that joined up with the new missions that were added.
Not much pressure compared to sequel
Unlike the sequel “XCOM 2,” the first video game was easier to manage due to less pressure being applied to it. The only pressure players will be feeling comes from the council that checks up on the team and the commander (you) on their accomplishments. If they are happy with the results, they back up the plan, but if they are not happy, they will abandon you.
Compared to the sequel, this feature in this first game was easier to manage. Players can make the council happy by just finishing missions flawlessly and without casualties. If the difficulty was higher and the Ironman mode was on, then that would have been very challenging to finish.
A lot of things to do besides the main story
Another great feature of this game is its replay value, which are its numerous missions to do. Players are able to fight aliens in different scenarios that do not have any relation to the main story. They can also hunt for alien ships, shoot them from the sky, kill the survivors, and loot all of the good stuff.
“XCOM: Enemy Within” is a good follow up to its vanilla version and adds tons of features to try out.
This is one of those games that gamers should at least try out first before playing the sequel. I am rating this game a solid 10 out of 10 points due to its fun value.
Check out the "XCOM: Enemy Within" Official Security Breach Trailer here:
