XCOM: Enemy Unknown

 PC
User Score
8.2

Generally favorable reviews- based on 2608 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 2,075 out of 2608
  2. Mixed: 329 out of 2608
  3. Negative: 204 out of 2608
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  1. Cytokinesis
    Oct 27, 2012
    7
    I fell in love with this game when I first started playing it, but then something went horribly wrong. If you only intend on playing the game once or maybe twice then this game is a fantastic gem; a great experience. If you want to play more than that then it has some surprises in store. First of all the UI and controls are ok but they could be so much better on the PC. Every once in aI fell in love with this game when I first started playing it, but then something went horribly wrong. If you only intend on playing the game once or maybe twice then this game is a fantastic gem; a great experience. If you want to play more than that then it has some surprises in store. First of all the UI and controls are ok but they could be so much better on the PC. Every once in a while (rarely but it happens) you just get royally screwed by these forced camera angles. Also sometimes it just won't let you click on a space and the cursor doesn't even show up. This happens a ton when you use grappling hooks and it makes them unusable. At first the game seems like it has a lot of depth but you will exhaust it soon after a couple playthroughs. You will know where aliens are waiting for you on maps and the base building is really, really shallow. The lab is completely worthless and spamming workshops is the best strategy. Research is extremely shallow as well. There just simply aren't enough things you look forward to getting. All they needed to do is add completely random maps and balance the base building/satellites/research and this would have been an absolutely phenomenal game able to be enjoyed for hundreds, maybe even thousands, of hours. Right now you are probably looking at about 20-50 hours before you realize there is nothing more for you in the game. It's a real shame.… Expand
  2. oliver1h
    Nov 14, 2012
    5
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. This game had plenty of potential...Unfortunately they are mostly unexploited...My problems with the game boils down to these: 1. The maps are too small and repetitive (The makers of the game said the player will not see the same map during the campaign...Well that is not true) 2. The maps are too scripted (Enemies wait for the player to reach a trigger zone, than they start to move around and attack. They do not move around the map by themselves.)3. Weapon upgrades are too linear (Laser is better than simple projectile weapons, plasma is better than laser and projectile weapons etc.)4. The campaign is too short 5. Weak tactical layer (no stand, crouch, lay...) 6. Weak strategic layer (Build satellites, workshops, power generators, laboratories, and a few other building and that all...It is nothing like in the old UFO:EU) 7. You can't chose the nationality of your soldier (why can't we?) 8. You can't place your base where you want on the geospace (why can't we??)… Expand
  3. 21-5-73
    Oct 9, 2012
    7
    Aaah, remakes. Many of those, lately. After the Jagged Alliance one (true mess), here it comes XCOM.
    Being an old XCOMJAFTSStorm veteran, i think i'm allowed to a little cynism. Well, let's recap the pros and cons, shall we?
    UP: -New Graphic Redone: after 18 years, it was expected. Visual glitches and cameras bugs? They were expected too. If we wait, the patch will come. -New Turn    Aaah, remakes. Many of those, lately. After the Jagged Alliance one (true mess), here it comes XCOM.
    Being an old XCOMJAFTSStorm veteran, i think i'm allowed to a little cynism. Well, let's recap the pros and cons, shall we?

    UP:
    -New Graphic Redone: after 18 years, it was expected. Visual glitches and cameras bugs? They were expected too. If we wait, the patch will come.
    -New Turn System: simpler, faster. Nothing to discuss about it.
    -RPG Characters Personalization: faces, voices, armour colors, perks, nicknames. Nice adds.
    -More Objectives: very limited(defuse bomb escort save), but always a plus.
    -PERMADEATH MODE: for serious gamers.

    DOWN
    -Inventory Is Gone: EH?! What the...? I cannot pick objects, i cannot use objects or weapons unless i equip them before mission? I cannot save my dying fella with a soldier who didn't start with a medi?Unrealistic at least. Dumbed down at worst.
    -Only One Base: HUH?!? No more transfers, no more base specializations, NO MORE BASE DEFENCE MISSIONS?? Guess the magichated words: dumbed down.
    -Enemies wait like morons until you see them: i didn't believe it, then i saw it. What the hell? You're the invaders, brainless idiots, just invade! You expect me to blast you, and only then you make your whole turn?!
    -DOOM3 Greatest Hits: exception to last rule, sometimes they appear FROM NOTHING, like teleported, in your line of sight. Alien Powers? Human Bugs?
    -All the World is country: you can kiss goodbye desert, arctic, farm scenarios. Gonna fight in Egypt? Pennsylvania market! Well, I was expecting way less from the guys who ruined the civ series with the V chapter.
    The game is fun, dynamic, entralling. But dumbed down. Don't compare to the original, and you've a good game. You DO compare, and you've some irrealistic, simplified remake that's better than others(after-series, extraterrestrials, ecc).
    I am an old player, the original was my life, yet I mantain an open mind.
    But I'm gonna beddy-bye with two night demons in my ears: Dumbed and Down.    … Expand
  4. AxeMan
    Oct 13, 2012
    6
    Good game but provides a lesser experience than the original. I wasn't expecting nor desiring just a re-skinning of the original, but I wanted something that would give me the same level of experience that I had playing back in 1995. Unfortunately, there is not the same level of tension and malice that was in the original. The music, fog of war("where did that shot come from?!"), dynamicGood game but provides a lesser experience than the original. I wasn't expecting nor desiring just a re-skinning of the original, but I wanted something that would give me the same level of experience that I had playing back in 1995. Unfortunately, there is not the same level of tension and malice that was in the original. The music, fog of war("where did that shot come from?!"), dynamic enemy placement and movement, dynamic battlefield inventory(" yes kiddies, when Bob went down, I ran through a hail of plasma bolts to pick up his medkit and heal the team."), aliens attacking your bases, soldier skill advancement, and other mechanics made me feel like the threats were everywhere and that I was in control to deal with the threats. With the current game, the removal of so many game mechanics for the sake of "streamlined gameplay" feels more constrained. I guess you can only make so many decisions on a gamepad controller...and continuing on this thought, this game, like many others, has been designed, primarily, for a console. It is an unfortunate truth, but most non-MMO games are oriented to consoles because that is where the money is, and console players are not seeking the same type of gaming experience as a PC player. I don't have a problem with the game itself, it is OK, not my bag, but it's OK. I pose to you if this game had not used the X-COM IP, what would you have thought of it? For me, I would have given it a pass, but since it had the name, I bought it,and with it some expectations. It's a shame. PC gaming reality has set in. Deep gameplay now goes no further than a console controller.… Expand
  5. Ixam
    Oct 9, 2012
    7
    In short, good game, not great, probably worth $20-30. You have to ignore the payed reviewers, ie all the 10s that seem to think this game has nothing at all wrong with it. It is similar to the original in structure and gameplay, but in general it is highly simplified. Everything is simpler, this makes it less frustrating and tedious, but also means you have less control over pretty muchIn short, good game, not great, probably worth $20-30. You have to ignore the payed reviewers, ie all the 10s that seem to think this game has nothing at all wrong with it. It is similar to the original in structure and gameplay, but in general it is highly simplified. Everything is simpler, this makes it less frustrating and tedious, but also means you have less control over pretty much everything. For instance, in combat, there are no more TUs, no more saving TUs to look around the corner after your move, or saving TUs for reaction fire. There are no more individual stats, so you don't have to go through and sack half the soldiers you hire because they aren't brave enough. While this is pleasant in some respects, it does mean that any time things go wrong, it is almost always because of some random number generator in the game. There is no saying: "what could I have done differently?" It is just a matter of chance in combat. Honestly the worst thing in the game was that it lacks the tension and suspense of the original. I was never creeped out or put on edge by what is happening. It feels more like an action game than a game of suspense. This is mostly the result of the music and the alien appearance sequences. In the original, if your character moved somewhere bad, he just died, in this game, the aliens have a spawn cinematic and don't get reaction shots when you soldiers first appear. There is no concern about walking into a room and getting instantly killed. This makes the game much easier, but also makes the game much less suspenseful. Perhaps there could be a game mode where aliens don't have cinematic sequences, and also get overwatch shots immediately on spawning. So all in all, much much easier than the original, still quite fun, and not worth $50.… Expand
  6. Zeusbot48
    Oct 12, 2012
    6
    This game could have very easily been a 9, but two things are holding it back, one is that it has been significantly simplified compared to it's predecessors. The game is still fun, but not quite as engaging or replayable as it's ancestors. The other serious negative is the incredible number of bugs. I don't think I have ever even played a beta build of a game that was this buggy. Line ofThis game could have very easily been a 9, but two things are holding it back, one is that it has been significantly simplified compared to it's predecessors. The game is still fun, but not quite as engaging or replayable as it's ancestors. The other serious negative is the incredible number of bugs. I don't think I have ever even played a beta build of a game that was this buggy. Line of sight bugs out fairly often, with soldiers unable to shoot on enemies that are clearly in sight, shots are frequently taken through walls, the camera on large ufo missions pops to the exterior view so you can't see your soldiers, bits of terrain flicker and move your soldier to the wrong position when you try to use them for cover, perks fail to trigger, denying your soldiers their benefit, unit's abilities disappear, meaning they cannot shoot and are useless, and the strategic objective has bugged, leaving me unable to advance the campaign and forcing me to restart. There is no excuse for releasing a game in this state. Especially when it has so much potential.… Expand
  7. AtoningUnifex
    Oct 14, 2012
    5
    Ignoring the whole XCOM remake comparison (this is jist a different game with a similar story) and looking at the gameplay itself... it's annoying. I started off playing it and was instantly struck by the very limited number of equipment slots, the forced nature of having to choose from simultaneous attacks, only being able to attack UFOs with a single interceptor (which if that fails youIgnoring the whole XCOM remake comparison (this is jist a different game with a similar story) and looking at the gameplay itself... it's annoying. I started off playing it and was instantly struck by the very limited number of equipment slots, the forced nature of having to choose from simultaneous attacks, only being able to attack UFOs with a single interceptor (which if that fails you can't send another). It seems unrealistically limiting.

    Fighting past these initial impressions i got on with playing and for a while really got into the fast paced action style of play, would have probably given this a 7 at that time. Then i got further into it and realised that actually the controls are awkward and clearly converted from concole, rather than designed for PC, and they can be unsresponsiv too. Numerous times I've been unable to move or select things and even the wrong thing has been activated. The most damning thing, in my opinion though, is the game cheats - I know that's a stupid thing to say but it actually really does. I was having significant difficulty on a mission and decided to cheat myself - play a move, save after success etc. What i discovered is that even though the chance to hit may say 66% (which it did in my case) no matter how many times i replayed a particular shot, with the same soldier in the same position it missed every time. Must have retried about 20 times. So now I'm left wondering what exactly IS deciding whether shots hit or not, because it doesn't appear to be chance!! This on top of all the other little niggling bugs, glitches, limitations has really damaged my enjoyment of the game and left me feeling very mediocre about the whole thing.    … Expand
  8. Devalinor
    Oct 10, 2012
    7
    Good game, but too much dumbed down.
    No inventory
    No crouching
    No more ammo needed
    Not a real X-Com game
    If you have ever played X-Com Ufo defense you would know what i mean.
  9. Nesterhews
    Oct 12, 2012
    5
    Take Xcom and remove all the unique strategy elements that made it popular. Replace those with pretty graphics and quality voice effects, add in a poor ending and you have a fairly mediocre game. Not as bad as apocalypse but not worth 50 dollars.
  10. hb7phoenix
    Oct 13, 2012
    5
    To put it plainly - it's been watered down way too much. No soldier inventory, no turn units (which gave you so many more tactical options than here) - instead some arbitrary 2 move/shoot actions, no multiple base building, a stupid system that prevents you from actually helping every country (terror missions - in the original, you could actually do them all if you were smart with yourTo put it plainly - it's been watered down way too much. No soldier inventory, no turn units (which gave you so many more tactical options than here) - instead some arbitrary 2 move/shoot actions, no multiple base building, a stupid system that prevents you from actually helping every country (terror missions - in the original, you could actually do them all if you were smart with your base building/soldier management), no micro management of your base (I do like the ant farm view, just wish I could zoom in), a UI clearly made with consoles in mind.

    If you're brand new to the series, you will most likely enjoy this game a lot. If you're a die-hard fan of the original like me, you will most likely be disappointed once the novelty of playing a new XCOM game has worn off.    … Expand
  11. Lnzu
    Oct 13, 2012
    6
    The tactic is nice in this game, but the strategic level is broken. Unbalanced, user unfriendly -- the main problem is that the game won't allow you to act when you want, you can only react. Given that you can choose only one mission out of three each time, the panic level (the one that determine how well you do worldwide) will increase and increase, so you'll lose some countries anyway,The tactic is nice in this game, but the strategic level is broken. Unbalanced, user unfriendly -- the main problem is that the game won't allow you to act when you want, you can only react. Given that you can choose only one mission out of three each time, the panic level (the one that determine how well you do worldwide) will increase and increase, so you'll lose some countries anyway, you can do nothing about it. You can decrease their numbers (quiters), but you can't save all, even on normal. It's like every time three new fires starts and you can put only one out. And you can do nothing to prevent that. If you're lucky random missions and council orders will help you, but that's save&load game, which sucks. You don't have the power as a gamer to act when you want -- scan territories, put down alien infiltrations, you only react, and if you're not lucky with random events, you're screwed. I drop the game, as soon as I realised I can't be a commander, I can't sent several squads to investigate simultaniously different problem sites. WTF, I mean -- why I can use only one squad at a time, and on top of that I can't give'em order to go and survey the country I know being under threat. I can only react. With one squad. I say **** that **** I want to run an efficient organization, Xcom, not this crappy excuse for "last hope of humanity". **** it, it could be a great game if not for it's strategic component. Unless it's fixed, this game doesn't worth your money. It's frustrating all along, aside the tactical battles.… Expand
  12. Flamingcanine
    Oct 10, 2012
    5
    Not the Xcom you were looking for sums it up.

    As the dev diaries throughout the game wait for the release stated, anything difficult or somewhat "Not fun" like base defenses or assaults have been cut out, as has the ability to send a reasonably large squad. It has been replaced by a Decent perk system for each soldier class. The Difficulty has a huge gap between Medium and "classic"    Not the Xcom you were looking for sums it up.

    As the dev diaries throughout the game wait for the release stated, anything difficult or somewhat "Not fun" like base defenses or assaults have been cut out, as has the ability to send a reasonably large squad. It has been replaced by a Decent perk system for each soldier class.

    The Difficulty has a huge gap between Medium and "classic" which truly brings out the soldiers inability to shoot, while making the weakest aliens capable of killing swathes of units in full cover with one or two shots.

    Multiplayer is fairly fun, stripping away the already incredibly barren strategic layer to do combat with up to a arbitrary six units each. Choosing the units is a headache for human soldiers due to it being a cluster of lists, and the aliens lack any customization other then their individual names. Furthermore, instead of allowing humans vast customizeability like in the campaign, the units are effectively pigeonholed into three to five "sets" of skills.

    Worse, there are roughly only a dozen maps total, and only five Multiplayer maps, complete with knowledge of the best cover.

    While not a bad game, it is a thouroughly mediocre game for the time spent developing it, and it is not spiritually a successor to Xcom: UFO defense. It's a very different fish for sure.    … Expand
  13. tototototo
    Oct 9, 2012
    6
    It's not X-Com, so if that's why you're here you'll be somewhat disappointed. On its own merits the game is good, but not the best in the genre. The name hinders it really, since players will expect more from it.
  14. Crimson
    Oct 9, 2012
    5
    Fun game when it works, but there are alot of annoying bugs. Accuracy of weapon shots is buggy. I've seen point blank assault rifles and pistols report 20% accuracy, while long range shotgun shots report 80%. There seems to be no correlation between what you see on screen, and what will actually occur. Cover is equally buggy, with the shield (cover) icon seemingly useless. ManyFun game when it works, but there are alot of annoying bugs. Accuracy of weapon shots is buggy. I've seen point blank assault rifles and pistols report 20% accuracy, while long range shotgun shots report 80%. There seems to be no correlation between what you see on screen, and what will actually occur. Cover is equally buggy, with the shield (cover) icon seemingly useless. Many missions are buggy (its fun losing a whole squad to a disabled bomb that still blows). Cars constantly blow up (seems Michael Bay had a hand in this games development...) at even the slightest provocation taking your men with them, wouldn't be so bad if the 'flame' visual indicator wasn't buggy and only showed up 1/2 the time. The alien AI is pretty simplistic with them just standing around for you to find them on any given map. The strategic portion of the game was really dumbed down since the original, apparently picking up a med kit from a fallen ally was just 'too complex' for todays gamers...… Expand
  15. xephnid
    Jun 10, 2013
    7
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. This is a great game. It really is. But there are a few caveats you should consider before buying it.

    Most importantly: You *will* have to helplessly watch some of the soldiers you lovingly named, outfitted and leveled die. And it's even more likely you will watch innocent civilians die on your watch. The latter are nameless and you may not find yourself caring about them as much, but still...

    Another thing I found... unusual... is that the developers did their utmost to make gaming the outcome of random rolls impossible. All shots fired are based on pre-rolled seeds, so quick-loading wouldn't change the outcome. If there was quick-loading. But there isn't. There's quick-saving, yes, but there's no quick-loading. You will have to go to the menu to load a game. And the menu isn't available while there's alien activity or a cut-scene. And did I mention that higher difficulties cause the game to continuously save every little thing, so loading a save won't revert to an earlier state anyway? That's even more... um... unusual. The developers said they wanted players to commit to their actions. I say it discourages experimentation. You cannot simply try things out, because it may cost you soldiers.

    Speaking of cut-scenes: Every time a group of aliens spots you, there's a cut-scene. Every time one of your base team members makes a remark, there's a cut-scene. Every time your troops leave the base or return to it, there's a cut-scene. And so on. While all of these cut-scenes are short, they will most definitely become aggravating over time and reduce the fun of a second play-through.

    I would have given this game a rating of nine, because I enjoyed it an awful lot, but the reduced replay value made me subtract a point. The number of paid shills on this board cost it another. I've read quite a few of those ten reviews and they all smell funny. That kind of behaviour mustn't be rewarded.    … Expand
  16. X-Abrupto
    May 7, 2014
    7
    This game totally went under my radar until recently. I played the original XCOM game back in the mid-90's and I kept seeing people talking about this game called XCOM: Enemy Unknown, not realizing they actually remade it a couple of years ago. As soon as I figured it out, I went and got it.

    I don't think there are comparisons to be made with the original XCOM/UFO Enemy Unknown game    This game totally went under my radar until recently. I played the original XCOM game back in the mid-90's and I kept seeing people talking about this game called XCOM: Enemy Unknown, not realizing they actually remade it a couple of years ago. As soon as I figured it out, I went and got it.

    I don't think there are comparisons to be made with the original XCOM/UFO Enemy Unknown game despite the various similarities.

    This game has two major flaws.

    The first one is that it doesn't look good. Its uninspired main screen menu tells you it doesn't aim to be visually beautiful. It's not a big budget game with mindblowing graphics. I even wonder why they didn't chose to do cinematics with real actors instead of poorly animated computerd generated characters. Live acting would've reduced the cost ( it's a 2 days work, really ) and it would've made the game look better overall. But that's a personal opinion, of course.

    The second flaw, and probably the most important one, is that this game is unforgiving and brutal. It's not a Ninja Gaiden Black or Dark Souls type of challenge that forces you to sharpen your skills by practicing - and ultimately defeating the game with a feeling of accomplishment. This XCOM game is just ruthless and you can't do a thing about it. There's only a tiny difference of difficulty between easy and normal, and the normal mode is very, very hard. The game doesn't tell you what to do to augment your chances of winning, especially concerning everything surrounding the base management. It won't tell you how to make profits and how to augment your chances of victory. There's a lot of stuff you get to learn by yourself at the cost of tens and tens of hours of gaming filed with what I'd call gamer rape. You are most likely to restart your game once or twice. By the third time you play, you probably will master most of the elements of the game, but it's still very hard to beat.

    The combat mode is probably the best part of the game. Those who like military strategy will fall in love with this game. It's the strategic aspect of the game that kept me from giving up on it after realizing I had to invest on satellites when it was way too late. The combat mode can be very gratifying if you come up with strategies as you fight your enemies. If you send your squad to random spots without thinking of the consequences, you're most likely to get a severe beating at the hands of a formidable AI that could reduce Garry Kasparov to tears.

    But then again, the difficulty of the game catches up and you'll find yourself in terrible situations more than once. Your soldiers will die and you will fail some missions unless you save and load repeatedly. The AI isn't to blame here, because if you have a smart AI, why make it dumb to alleviate the difficulty? All they had to do was to reduce their hit points and reduce the damage they could deal to you to make the game easier. But it seems the people who made this game really wanted to make it almost impossible to play for an average gamer who can't spend days playing a single video game before he actually manages to understand the mechanics of the said game.

    Many so-called hardcore gamers will tell you this game is just like the old school games and that it was made difficult willingly. Sorry, but I don't agree. The good ol' hard games were hard because they were poorly designed and had close to no beta testing whatsoever. Battletoads, Friday the 13th, etc. etc. they were hard games because the people who made them had no idea on how to reduce the difficulty - or they simply didn't care. There's hard and then there's hell-worthy hard. This game falls in the second category.

    There's also something that bugs me in the combat mode. Sometimes I put my soldiers in specific areas, thinking they will get a higher accuracy percentage, but it turns out they don't. I think this game required a little more tweaking here and there concerning this department.

    Scenario-wise, it's very boring. They missed the opportunity of hiring a good writer who could've come up with a respectable story. Instead, we get dialogues worthy of a 10 year old boy playing with action figures.

    The music is pretty good in this game. It's highly reminiscent of Deus Ex: Human Revolution, but it still holds its own. There are some good tunes in this game.

    Ultimately, this game is still amazing despite the harsh criticism I have on it concerning the difficulty. You end up getting the upper hand of it, but it takes so much time ( definitely 20hours+ required to know what you're doing ). I mean, we either go to school or have jobs. Sorry to put it this way but let's be honest here. This game will only be loved uncondtionally by people who don't have a life. Normal people who play video games a couple of hours once in a while will quickly give up on it. I think that commercially speaking, this game is a failure since it only appeals to a very tiny portion of gamers out there.    … Expand
  17. Magnethead
    Oct 11, 2015
    6
    SO GOOD!...SO TERRIBLE! SO FRUSTRATING!

    The thing about Xcom is that the mechanics themselves are fantastic, they really are. The turn based squad strategy is fun, the overall research/building strategy is fine. The problem lies only in two elements: 1. Difficulty settings. 2. Random Number Generators. Let it be said, if you're fairly casual with strategy and you play this game    SO GOOD!...SO TERRIBLE! SO FRUSTRATING!

    The thing about Xcom is that the mechanics themselves are fantastic, they really are. The turn based squad strategy is fun, the overall research/building strategy is fine. The problem lies only in two elements:

    1. Difficulty settings.
    2. Random Number Generators.

    Let it be said, if you're fairly casual with strategy and you play this game casually on "normal" setting, the game is absolutely fine. No problems there. This review is not for you then, just ignore. That's just not for me.

    If you're very serious about strategy, you'll almost certainly find "Normal" difficulty too easy and "Classic" fitting in general (at least if you're only planning one playthrough). Sounds great, right? Could have been except for one thing: the variance on Classic. Everything is a roll of the dice, which is fine, but the variance is insane. You can do everything right and still lose the game in one brief moment of bad luck. I'll illustrate the problem with this one scenario that actually took place for me:

    Turn 1. Your squad arrives in the woods. You move them into defensive positions just in case you're being charged right off the bat. They're all in cover, they're all in Overwatch (guarding). Three aliens attack, the squad takes down the first one. The second one uses a skill that automatically deals 1 damage, it hits one guy.
    *BREAK* Let me here say that one damage is nothing, it really is nothing.
    So, the guy who got hit with the whopping 1 damage rolls a dice and panics. He panics by turning to his right and trying to execute his friend standing right next to him because... well, who knows. It's the standard panic reaction in this game. He rolls another dice and misses from point blank range. Just can't hit. Well, fine you think, but alas. Behind him is a seasoned veteran, a captain who has seen many battles. He rolls a dice too, he also panics. Now, he has taken 0 damage, he has merely seen one dude take one damage. Well, he handles panic in the same way and decides to execute one of his friends. He chooses your best solider (and medic) and nails her right in the back of the head with a critical hit, killing her instantly. End turn one.
    Turn 2. Bring up menu, quit game.

    Things like this just happen, they just do. You can restart the mission whenever they do, but it wears you out. Or it did with me. Worst thing is, they could fix everything wrong with this game so easily.

    1. rebalance panic.
    2. remove critical hits.

    Just those two things would limit the variance to a degree where the game would feel hard but fair. It's really all they needed to do and then the game would probably be a 10.    … Expand
  18. sinadoom
    Nov 13, 2014
    6
    Having never played a turn-based game, I decided to take the plunge into XCOM after seeing so many positive reviews for it. At first, the experience was ecstatic. I clocked in over 20 hours' playtime in a weekend! I was expecting the gameplay to be very dull, not accessible and for all the base management to be confusing and overly complex. But I was wrong - this game couldn't be any moreHaving never played a turn-based game, I decided to take the plunge into XCOM after seeing so many positive reviews for it. At first, the experience was ecstatic. I clocked in over 20 hours' playtime in a weekend! I was expecting the gameplay to be very dull, not accessible and for all the base management to be confusing and overly complex. But I was wrong - this game couldn't be any more accessible and easy to get into. I loved the simplicity of the mechanics but the depth that it could present the player with. In terms of combat and variety in soldiers, aliens, customisation, level design etc. Enemy Unknown is fantastic. You will never play the same map twice, which is highly impressive - especially given the variety of areas. You really feel a sense of control and importance - the theme of being a commander during a time of crisis is portrayed nicely without being mundane. Every action, every turn, every decision feels meaningful. And that's perhaps the best thing one can say about this game. Later on however, you realise the flaws in its design.

    Now, I'm the kind of gamer that likes perfection - I will restart until I get the result I want. Naturally, this isn't well-suited to turn-based games. Although I highly enjoyed the concept of XCOM and its gameplay, some design decisions and bugs make the game unplayable without the so called "save-scumming" tactic. The most noticeable issue is that of finding the aliens. The fog of war is so thick, your soldiers have to practically walk within a few tiles of the enemy to see them. But this is the real kicker: THEY GET TO MOVE EVEN THOUGH IT'S NOT THEIR TURN! So many times I have been cheated by the game because I spent about 3 turns dashing forward not finding any enemies, and all of a sudden I move ONE TILE forward and a bunch of them appear out of nowhere and surround me DURING MY TURN! This is clearly unfair and really takes away from the tactical element. It's just plain cheap and bad design; although it's not game-breaking most of the time so I can cope with it. The second major issue I have is line of sight and chance to hit. I find that the percentage you see is almost compeltely random and counter-intuitive. So many times I have moved my soldier to a tactically better spot to increase my chances of hitting the enemy, only to lose sight of them or to lower my chances. Whoever did the calculations for hit percents clearly didn't test it in practice - there are so many ridiculous examples where you're next to the enemy and miss yet can have a high chance of hitting them from obscure angles and, in rare cases, through walls! Having played fast-paced action games for so long, the idea of turn-based combat did seem ridiculously novel at times. I mean, you can target an enemy that's directly behind another enemy but not hit the one shielding your target. The visual representation of the combat is horrific at best. Oftentimes, the games will show plasma on your character even if the alien missed you but it shows that it hit, and vice-versa. It's as if the graphics/UI team had no communication with the gameplay designers and those that code the mechanics. The camera issues in this game are inexcsuable. Especially for levels with verticality and those inside buildings, the isometric design really exposes how bad of a job the developers did of using Unreal Engine 3. First of all, framerate drops. Then, when you try to select your units or point to where you want them to go, it keeps moving about or there is so little consistency between what you see on screen and what's actually going on. It's kinda hard to describe, but once you play the game you'll see plenty of minor bugs and the occasional major one (e.g. my Hover SHIV got stuck in a wall and couldn't move). I have read reports of corrupted saves and problems with the autosave feature too.

    Although XCOM is an unpredictable game, it is still linear in progression. It also has some scaling issues with the campaign; where you get all the awesome gear and have a kick-♥♥♥ base with the best weapons, jets, armour, research etc. only to be able to use them for a couple of missions before the end. In the latter half of the game, I had full satellite coverage and was drowning in money I might as well have wasted it. In early game, resource management feels really important and meaningful. Towards the end, you just sit on your wealth and can't really use your resources to help you further in combat. Although I think that's my playstyle. Indeed, XCOM is perhaps the best attempt I have encountered when it comes to balancing progression rewards with length of game.

    Overall, XCOM: Enemy Unknown is a game which convincingly sells the concept of Turn-Based strategy to those unfamiliar with the genre. However, the quality of its in-engine execution is shody and at the micro-mechanical level, it's almost broken. In terms of design and its vision, XCOM EU is ingenius. It definitely has replay value.    … Expand
  19. mthrl
    Aug 17, 2014
    5
    Could have been a really enjoyable game if it wasn't for the many game-breaking bugs that make it just plain annoying. I'm on one of the last missions in the game and yet every time I go back to try and complete it I get a bug where I'm stuck in the middle of my turn and can't do anything. It's been ages since the game's release and yet there is still no fix for the issue.
  20. dj_cole
    Feb 19, 2015
    7
    Xcom enemy unknown is the newest addition in the Xcom series. While it remains a solid tactical squad based strategy game, it does not live up to the lofty presence of the original Xcom.

    The series, for those unfamiliar with it, is based on leading a secret covert operations group, known as Xcom, as it attempts to secretly defend earth from an alien invasion. The game does allude to all    Xcom enemy unknown is the newest addition in the Xcom series. While it remains a solid tactical squad based strategy game, it does not live up to the lofty presence of the original Xcom.

    The series, for those unfamiliar with it, is based on leading a secret covert operations group, known as Xcom, as it attempts to secretly defend earth from an alien invasion. The game does allude to all of this being top secret, which seems a bit ridiculous as you play through the game, but that doesn't really matter to the gameplay. You act as supreme commander of the Xcom project, managing and building up a base of operations, sending out satellites to detect alien presence, managing the happiness of funding countries, researching and leading squads of up to six soldiers into battle that can then be leveled up as they gain experience.

    The game, like any other game, has evolved with its modern iteration. It is a sharp, fun and responsive squad based strategy game that has streamlined a lot of the annoying micromanagement features of past games, but has also simplified things and put a cap on squad member leveling up. It is a more accessible, but simpler game than past generations. That is good for the casual player, new to the genre but a detractor to seasoned players who enjoy the complexity.

    The game, in the most basic sense, plays like this. You have a base that you expand with various modules that you can build into your secret mountain hideaway. As you research new technologies new modules open up for upgrades or more efficient research. You launch satellites to gain funding from the various nation groups across the globe and to spot alien incursions. When incursions happen you deploy a squad of soldiers into a tactical, squad based "seek cover and advance" type gameplay that dictates a methodical approach to combat. As missions are failed or ignored panic will rise. Victories reduce panic. There are a handful of main story missions for advancing the game that are unlocked by certain milestones in the game, but the vast majority of missions are procedurally generated battles with aliens. There are basic research items, but as you kill aliens and do autopsies, capture and interrogate aliens, or shoot down and capture alien ships more research items are unlocked to gain better weapon and armor and new gadgets.

    There are four basic classes. Assault, heavy (machine gunners), snipers and support (medics) which each have their own skill trees that you can utilize as they level up. All four classes are needed across the game to face different situations. Medics to stabilize downed squad members, snipers to provide cover, heavies to deal huge damage in short bursts and assault troops to act as front line combat soldiers.. Later in the game psionic abilities are added which add some more variety to your soldiers, but psionic abilities are rare and only have three tiers.

    The aliens you face are variations on a few base models, but the variations offer enough change that the game continually changes and evolves as you proceed. New challenges are thrown at you every few missions that force you to think more carefully about how you combat the alien menace.

    The game looks good. It won't blow anyone away. It has its own style, but nothing that really sticks out as uniquely distinct. The technical side of the graphics are good enough and slightly better than your run of the mill top down game. Sound effects are well done and add to the experience and the voice acting is well done with squad members reacting to the battle.

    The controls on the PC are very easy to work with. Consoles are also surprisingly good, though moving the cursor around with the joysticks can be slow. The iPad controls are cumbersome and you can end up moving soldiers to areas you don't mean to because you have to press an area twice to move there.

    If you like squad based strategy games you I would highly recommend Xcom, even in its simplified version. If you don't like strategy games I would say Xcom probably isn't for you. The game can be pretty brutal, and may frustrate you as your favorite squad members are killed. Overall, a good game for strategy fans that may fall a bit on the simple side for veterans of the genre.    … Expand
  21. ratface
    Nov 21, 2014
    6
    It's an OK game. I guess it's the modern, console version of a great game. As such it's limited by the user interface and the attention span of its target market. Squad size is maxed out at six, and that feels difficult to manage with the 'click x to select next soldier', instead of clicking on his portrait. Research is very limited compared to the original. You are stuck with one baseIt's an OK game. I guess it's the modern, console version of a great game. As such it's limited by the user interface and the attention span of its target market. Squad size is maxed out at six, and that feels difficult to manage with the 'click x to select next soldier', instead of clicking on his portrait. Research is very limited compared to the original. You are stuck with one base and it does not get attacked.

    The tactical game is fun. Stances are gone and cover is much more important. Much better here than the likes of Aftershock. The balance is poor. On normal difficulty it's much too easy. On classic it's too hard.

    Not terrible but not great. Worth getting if it's on sale and you are bored.    … Expand
  22. amontillado
    Feb 22, 2015
    7
    Overall: a good game but certain core mechanics stop it from being a great game. It is repetitive and in the late game it can become monotonous fending off an easy alien attack while waiting for a research project to get done.

    At times glitchy, the pacing is affected in both tactical and combat situations when short cut scenes play everytime your character misses or scores a critical    Overall: a good game but certain core mechanics stop it from being a great game. It is repetitive and in the late game it can become monotonous fending off an easy alien attack while waiting for a research project to get done.

    At times glitchy, the pacing is affected in both tactical and combat situations when short cut scenes play everytime your character misses or scores a critical hit. It's good for when you're in between games or want to do a casual tactical game. Otherwise, it doesn't present enough challenge, variety, or smooth gameplay flow to make it a strong, day in, day out game.    … Expand
  23. xcomlite
    Oct 28, 2012
    6
    I'm a huge fan of the original game, and I just finished the Enemy Unknown campaign in about 40 hours of game play. I enjoyed one play through, but I probably won't replay it. As a stand-alone game, I would rate this as a solid 8, but as a continuation of the X-COM series, it's a 6 at best. For my money, this game is worth about $15-$20.

    "X-COM lite" is probably the best description I    I'm a huge fan of the original game, and I just finished the Enemy Unknown campaign in about 40 hours of game play. I enjoyed one play through, but I probably won't replay it. As a stand-alone game, I would rate this as a solid 8, but as a continuation of the X-COM series, it's a 6 at best. For my money, this game is worth about $15-$20.

    "X-COM lite" is probably the best description I could come up with. In 18 years (that's right, 1994 b**tches!!) since the original game was released, they've made no serious progress towards a better game mechanics. Other than the graphics, I can't find any aspect of this new X-COM game that is better than the original. Every aspect of the game has been dumbed down and hollowed out to the point of making it almost foolproof. Thanks for not letting me fail, my self esteem has never been better thanks to this game. But seriously, all the developers had to do was take the original game, add modern 3D graphics and they'd be done - instant classic reborn for the 21st century. Instead they had to tinker with the mechanics of the game in some serious ways to make it "easier" and more "accessible". I get it, the original X-COM was not the most user friendly game to play, but ultimately it's complexity was part of the reward of the game. It was a lot more fun to save the world when you were fighting as the underdog, and every little action made a difference when things were in the balance.

    You kiddies have fun with your little 6 person platoon. Back in my day, we'd regularly go into battle using this little craft called the "Avenger" that could shoot down the biggest ships and carried a 26 person platoon ready to deploy at the crash site. Now get off my lawn you kids!    … Expand
  24. omegaoftime
    Nov 6, 2012
    6
    Firaxis's reboot of X-COM streamlines much of the old mechanics in the original game, but the result is a mixed bag as it's plagued by many bugs that affect the overall enjoyability. Having clocked about 97 hours on the Steam version, what was an enjoyable experience starting from normal mode became frustration as I spent more time with the game. Some of the frustrations I've experiencedFiraxis's reboot of X-COM streamlines much of the old mechanics in the original game, but the result is a mixed bag as it's plagued by many bugs that affect the overall enjoyability. Having clocked about 97 hours on the Steam version, what was an enjoyable experience starting from normal mode became frustration as I spent more time with the game. Some of the frustrations I've experienced so far were enemies that teleported in and out of view at the end of a turn, SHIV (tank-like units) that get stuck or can't shoot, line of sight issues, and rocket launchers not hurting target is just a taste of the what's to come. Although not gaming breaking on easy and normal modes, these bug heavily affect game play on classic mode where you can lose entire squad due to any of the above. For example in my classic playthrough, I often get three or more enemy groups teleporting in front of my squad and wiping them out (this happens often).

    Also, the way the game decides on your chance of hitting is finicky and broken. You can miss often when your shot chance is 75%-100%. If your shot chance is 50%, don't expect to land any shots at all. Having an MBA and taking more than enough math courses (and statistics) for several lifetimes, it makes you scratch your head why you sometimes fail to connect on even 85% chance to hit shots. I've never had problems with other games that rely heavily on chance (like Final Fantasy Tactics) before until now. Even the original X-COM was fair in determining chance and probability.

    All in all, the game is enjoyable when the game engine decides to behave itself. However, I would not recommend paying full price for this game until Firaxis decides to patch up the bugs. You should be relatively fine if you play on easy or normal modes. But if you play on any other modes, expect to see severe bugs and broken game mechanics often.    … Expand
  25. Demonbox
    Nov 2, 2012
    5
    So (35 years old lover of the original here) how is this game?
    This game is not so bad as someone described it, still be assured, this is NOT your old XCOM.
    What i found very bad? The AI is more like an AS (Artificial Stupidity) and tries to compensate by cheating, hitting 100% and dealing tons of crits (not making the game harder btw, just annoying), is this THAT bad? Yes 'cause leaves    So (35 years old lover of the original here) how is this game?
    This game is not so bad as someone described it, still be assured, this is NOT your old XCOM.
    What i found very bad? The AI is more like an AS (Artificial Stupidity) and tries to compensate by cheating, hitting 100% and dealing tons of crits (not making the game harder btw, just annoying), is this THAT bad? Yes 'cause leaves no feeling of strategy... in a wannabe strategic game, the aliens will always behave like stupid, just they hit you more often and harder.
    You can ONLY equip 1 main weapon (only the one fitting for the class the game chose for yr soldiers), 1 side weapon and 1 (or 2 if you unlock certain perks) grenade/Medikit/Stunner/etc.
    The campaign is way too scripted, i tried as hard as i could to make it last longer (squeezed 70some hours out of 2 games classic+impossible) but that just means grinding mission after mission (after a while they start repeating).
    I only listed the bad aspects of the game, so why a 5? 'cause for a while you can have some fun with this alien game... For a while, then you will put it on yr shelves and leave it there forever and go back to the old (real) X-COM.    … Expand
  26. Triggerhappy
    Nov 22, 2012
    5
    A very mediocre turn-based console game. Read some of the negative reviews before purchasing, and take my word as a decade-long tactical games fan: this game offers NOTHING new. Nothing at all. There is absolutely NO reason to play it. Actually, I believe that even an RPG like Dragon Age: Origins had more of both strategic and tactical choices.
    Very dissapointing, unbelievably overpriced.    A very mediocre turn-based console game. Read some of the negative reviews before purchasing, and take my word as a decade-long tactical games fan: this game offers NOTHING new. Nothing at all. There is absolutely NO reason to play it. Actually, I believe that even an RPG like Dragon Age: Origins had more of both strategic and tactical choices.
    Very dissapointing, unbelievably overpriced. Oh, and the voice acting is atrocious. Borderline criminal.    … Expand
  27. xian
    Oct 31, 2012
    6
    A squad of soldiers in turn-based battles against evil aliens. This concept worked in 94/95 and still works today. I always liked the theme in XCOM. Defending against an alien invasion, doing autopsys, researching new weapons, equiping your soldiers, fly out into the night and show those alien greenheads out the door - it was fun in the old games and it's still fun in Enemy Unknown. TheA squad of soldiers in turn-based battles against evil aliens. This concept worked in 94/95 and still works today. I always liked the theme in XCOM. Defending against an alien invasion, doing autopsys, researching new weapons, equiping your soldiers, fly out into the night and show those alien greenheads out the door - it was fun in the old games and it's still fun in Enemy Unknown. The downsides: I don't want to give the narrative about console ports on pc again, but... here it is: mediocore graphics, simplified game mechanics, slowly responding interfaces, reduced tactical complexity tue to reduced control options, cheesy cut-scenes, railroaded storyline...

    The bright side: Only a few minor bugs at release (positive thing... I'm old...), no major balance problems. Nice story and technology concepts.

    Enemy Unknown is not a bad pc game and it's not one you will remember in two years either. But it's still a pleasant experience to play and probably worth your money.    … Expand
  28. DoctorFoxhound
    Nov 2, 2012
    6
    The game is gorgeous due to both exceptional graphics and design. I loved the turn-based combat and really enjoyed leveling up my crew with gear and skills.

    I'm giving this game a score of six mostly because of it's low replay value. I had a similar experience to some other reviewers in that I was obsessed with this game when I first got my hands on it, but after about 25-30 hours into    The game is gorgeous due to both exceptional graphics and design. I loved the turn-based combat and really enjoyed leveling up my crew with gear and skills.

    I'm giving this game a score of six mostly because of it's low replay value. I had a similar experience to some other reviewers in that I was obsessed with this game when I first got my hands on it, but after about 25-30 hours into it I got really sick of it... I no longer felt the need to upgrade my crew because they already felt maxed out, the environments and missions did start to feel repetitive, and pretty quickly I ran out of things that seemed worth researching in the lab. Despite having so much fun in the first days of owning it, I really can't see myself stomaching another playthrough.

    All of this being said, Xcom is a great game and for a lot of people, 25-30 hours of grade A, engaging game play is worth the price of admission. My only recommendation might be to wait until the game goes down in price if you are looking to pay 50 bucks for a game you can sink dozens and dozens of hours into.    … Expand
  29. antarem
    Nov 9, 2012
    6
    review for russian speakers people.
    Это хорошая игра, но XCOM 94го года в был в разы лучше. Все что    review for russian speakers people.
    Это хорошая игра, но XCOM 94го года в был в разы лучше. Все что разработчик смог улучшить это графику. Все остальное стало хуже. Что больше всего раздражает: теперь в игре нет такого понятия, как пуля - реального физического объекта; есть понятие попал - не попал.(никаких больше случайных убийств шальными пулями) Никакой разрушаемости в игре нет, пули пролетают сквозь двехметровые стены. Как вообще в ТАКТИЧЕСКОЙ игре можно было так наплевать на реализм. В общем кто не играл в первую xcom, советую это сделать, вы сами поймете, какая новая xcom получилась отвратная, благо что ее можно купить в steam, не заморачиваясь с dosbox'om.    … Expand
  30. Welgar
    Feb 8, 2013
    6
    You can't help but compare this game to the original two XCOMs. Pros:

    - Improved graphics with some nice visual effects (like over-the-shoulder view etc.) - Operatives' classes and special abilities - Innovative combat system (cover/flanking, two-stage movement) - Storyline of sorts Cons: - Strategic (globeview) part became silly and boring: you are limited to one base;    You can't help but compare this game to the original two XCOMs. Pros:

    - Improved graphics with some nice visual effects (like over-the-shoulder view etc.)

    - Operatives' classes and special abilities

    - Innovative combat system (cover/flanking, two-stage movement)

    - Storyline of sorts

    Cons:

    - Strategic (globeview) part became silly and boring: you are limited to one base; items are manufactured immediately; you can't sell what you've produced; moreover, many items are free and unlimited (like grenades or standard guns); basically you just assign research and build a few base facilities, the rest can be done right before a mission.

    - Few things to research and manufacture: only one advanced type of interceptors, several laser and plasma guns, a few armours, and some special items.

    - No inventory manipulation

    - Often unrealistic battle situations: e.g. chance of hitting an alien almost doesn't depend on distance, or you may stand just one step away from a high wall and be considered "exposed" from that side.

    - Overall, many things in the game don't seem logical/realistic. How is it possible that it takes 8 days for a few eggheads in my lab to research some mysterious crazy alien technology and immediately come up with blueprints for a new weapon (which the engineers will make for me in no time)? Or what is the connection between having satellites over three African countries and 33% increase in budget? And besides, where are all the other countries? Why don't I ever have missions there? It all makes role-playing quite difficult.

    - The game is short and not so replayable. It took me 28 hours of play to win the game while reading carefully every research report and being sometimes too strategic and cautious. And since you have a very linear story, you don't want to start over and hear all the same stuff again. I expected more.

    All in all, though the game, at least its tactical part, is still interesting and fun, it feels more like a simplified and cut-down version of the original XCOMs. Apparently, 2K will introduce more features as DLCs (something Microprose couldn't back in 1990s), which may be the reason for producing this game as it is.    … Expand
  31. RadarE33
    Dec 5, 2012
    5
    A game with excellent potential... just poorly executed. Playing on normal difficulty is adequate enough for overlooking the mass majority of the issues that plague this game, but upping the difficulty makes its glaring flaws all the more apparent. First things first: This game is uses a combat system that is similar to Fallout 2, with the addition of a cover based system to help yourA game with excellent potential... just poorly executed. Playing on normal difficulty is adequate enough for overlooking the mass majority of the issues that plague this game, but upping the difficulty makes its glaring flaws all the more apparent. First things first: This game is uses a combat system that is similar to Fallout 2, with the addition of a cover based system to help your troops not get shot. Naturally this might sound awesome, right? Well... unfortunately Firaxas and 2K couldn't spring for half decent AI that seeks to employ superior tactics. They opted instead to give the AI bonuses to aim, health and critical hit chance on the higher difficulties. This turns the game from a test of intellect and tactics to seeing if you can avoid getting steamrolled by dimwitted, cheating AI that kills your soldiers from half way across the map, with full cover to boot. Get used to that cause its going to happen. A lot. And when it does, your dopey soldiers (the "best of the best", as the game describes them) will panic, freak out and either run into enemy fire, hunker down in front of enemies, wildly shoot at them, or my favorite, shoot at your guys with surprising accuracy; another thing that's lacking from the best and brightest the world has to offer, as they can't barely hit the broad side of a barn. Yet they can kill your own troops with ease when panicked. These two companies, having a vastly warped sense of "turn based combat" will ensure that two things happen if you go scouting. 1. Upon spotting an enemy group, the enemy will get a free turn to position themselves against your soldier, DURING your turn, or 2. Your soldier will idiotically charge to where ever he or she was told to go instead of pausing to ask for new orders. This ensures your troops get slaughtered pretty quick, even with hunker down/ overwatch combos. If that isn't bad enough, cover is as durable as wet toilet paper, meaning that when you get shot at your cover will either crumble or catch fire, exposing you to a follow up barrage or forcing you to high tail it away from the vehicle/whatever, leading to a storm of plasma fire. Don't get me wrong; I like the fact that the scenery is destructive and can blow up. Its more that the devs wanted to inflate the sense of "difficulty" by stacking the odds against the player, rather than taking time and effort to create an AI that gives the player pause when it humbles them with strategy and tactics. The strategy element has some good elements to it, having to manage panic, finances and supplies. The problem is that what could have been a great strategy element is is reduced to something much more simplified and dull. Countries will freak the hell out if you bungle a mission, regardless if you managed to put a huge dent in alien forces before dying or rescuing a VIP/butt load of civilians in the process; they'll count as dead if you die. Either you kill everything in sight or you fail the mission, period, despite the fact that your mission (in about half the cases) is to stop terror attacks or protect VIP's. Partial credit would be nice (as was evident in the old XCOM games) but has given way to that CoD mentality; everything has to die no matter what, even in the face of objectives or feasibility. When the **** hits the fan (and it will), nations in the same continent will start to panic big, even though they didn't get attacked. The funding (something that wasn't an issue in the old XCOM) is scarce and serves only to once again, inflate the difficulty, despite the fact that you are the "last, best hope of humanity" and would naturally get loads of cash to do your job (see: the old XCOM). Because of requirements for even the basic of facilities, you could find yourself crippled if you opt for cash missions to purchase satellites, weapons, armor, or new troopers, all because the Dev's were too lazy to include a "personnel requisition" option that was present in the old XCOM. Worse yet is the fact that you can't sell any weapons or items you craft to council members; you're stuck with them. If you're lucky, a nation may ask to get that tech off you, but instead of negotiation they just tell you what you'll get. Gone are the days of being a dealer of all things alien. The story itself is good in the beginning but starts to fall apart once you research Psionics. In regards to the setting and logic behind R&D, it is truly laughable. Instead of reverse engineering alien tech and creating weapons that use materials from your own damn planet, you're forced to rely on alien materials (of which don't exist on Earth) to construct alien weapons that rely on... alien power sources. Humanity is well and truly boned if this is how we'll fight the aliens; if XCOM dies, everyone's back at square one. I don't even like the old XCOM and regret it's purchase, but I saw the potential for a truly awesome game. Sadly, it looks as if we'll have to wait for the realization of that potential, cause it isn't here.… Expand
  32. suneater
    Nov 30, 2013
    5
    People who bash Dark Souls for its "Artificial Difficulty" haven't played Enemy Unknown. This game takes a well known PC series and consolifies it, dumbing down the base building to a single base, dumbing down the soldier customization into locked equipment slots with a shallow skill tree, and dumbing down the combat into praying you don't get flanked by enemies who get free turns and statPeople who bash Dark Souls for its "Artificial Difficulty" haven't played Enemy Unknown. This game takes a well known PC series and consolifies it, dumbing down the base building to a single base, dumbing down the soldier customization into locked equipment slots with a shallow skill tree, and dumbing down the combat into praying you don't get flanked by enemies who get free turns and stat bonuses. On Normal difficulty the game is too easy, with enemy AI being dumbed down... yet on Classic difficulty they get free accuracy and critical hit buffs. Ironman Mode is unplayable because one year after launch and there are still frequent bugs and crashes that will count your mission as a loss after you restart the game.

    While you definitely get your money's worth with EU's lengthy campaign, be prepared for a lot of frustration due to your troops getting one-shotted regularly in the early missions, 3 marines missing their overwatch shot in the same turn on the same enemy, your troops shooting each other while panicked (in cover!), and not being able to hit the broad side of a barn until your unit is so kitted out they look like a Space Marine from W40k.    … Expand
  33. demongoat
    Oct 27, 2013
    6
    tl;dr good game built on bad foundations, possibly wrong devs lots of bugs, heavily simplified, base game mechanics broken, but still a lot of fun

    XCOM is a series known for its difficulty, encouraging players to use tactics to defeat a considerably more powerful force. Though it's had some 'rocky' games in the past, the original was met with critical acclaim for breaking a lot of    tl;dr good game built on bad foundations, possibly wrong devs lots of bugs, heavily simplified, base game mechanics broken, but still a lot of fun

    XCOM is a series known for its difficulty, encouraging players to use tactics to defeat a considerably more powerful force. Though it's had some 'rocky' games in the past, the original was met with critical acclaim for breaking a lot of ground in the Turn-Based Tactics genre. For its time, UFO Defense: Enemy Unknown was very well developed, with cover mechanics bringing a whole new level of tactics.

    Since the release of UFO Defense, there have been a total of 9 games released to the series, with XCOM: Enemy Unknown being the 8th. One would think it safe to assume that great strides have been made to the gameplay since 1994, a grand 18 years ago at time of release. Unfortunately, that is not the case.

    XCOM: EU's improvements are decent updated graphics bring the immersion up noticeably, nice customization options to personalize your troops plus gameplay has been streamlined to accommodate for console releases.
    However, the issues are also numerous. Poor QA testing has left many bugs even a year after its release, a large number of features were removed for 'streamlining' (I assume), and the continuation of relying on RNG to decide the outcome of a match flying in the face of 'tactics'. Cover has little effectiveness, accuracy issues meaning a point-blank shot can display a 20% chance to hit, repetitive mission mean a player can lose interest quickly and a lack of randomly-generated maps removes a whole level of dynamic gameplay.

    What is interesting is that, despite these glaring issues, XCOM: EU is still a lot of fun to play. For that I have to give it merit it's clearly a very good game, but I wonder how much that has to do with it being part of the series.

    On my Realistic Review Scale it gets a 4, slightly below being an average game due to some glaring faults.
    However, on the Metacritic Scale where an 8.5 is average, I'll have to give it a 6.

    A very good game marred by poor design decisions and QA but isn't that the tune of strategy these days?    … Expand
  34. Gixian82
    Jun 22, 2014
    6
    While nice looking and shiny on the first look and obviously fun for a lot of today's players, for anyone who grew on the old 1994, the new one is flat, shallow, repetitive and soon boring. I know the old game was not perfect, and a lot of micromanagement there was unnecessary, but still the remake is far too simplified and streamlined. While it looks like a strategy game, beside theWhile nice looking and shiny on the first look and obviously fun for a lot of today's players, for anyone who grew on the old 1994, the new one is flat, shallow, repetitive and soon boring. I know the old game was not perfect, and a lot of micromanagement there was unnecessary, but still the remake is far too simplified and streamlined. While it looks like a strategy game, beside the tactical combat (which may or may not suite you), there is no strategy involved in the game at all, as outside the tactical missions the game is fully scripted and ignores how good or bad you do. Anyone looking for a true XCOM game have much better choices around than this one.… Expand
  35. SittinginBasket
    Oct 23, 2012
    5
    A fair game, with interesting gameplay and visuals. However, the game lacks in story-depth and suffers from the lack of attention and story-telling after the first half of the game. The game has extremely little variety in choices and missions. Research and interrogation is extremely simple and short-lived, without adding much to the story, and is quickly forgotten. The best items can beA fair game, with interesting gameplay and visuals. However, the game lacks in story-depth and suffers from the lack of attention and story-telling after the first half of the game. The game has extremely little variety in choices and missions. Research and interrogation is extremely simple and short-lived, without adding much to the story, and is quickly forgotten. The best items can be attained early in the game, and research and production no longer have a function in the late game. Missions are extremely repetitive, and will force you into completing the same missions over and over again with absolutely no variety. Ending is extremely disappointing, and again drops the ball with story-telling when compared to the first half of the game.… Expand
  36. faceless-1
    Nov 18, 2013
    7
    This game is not bad, but original X-COM was better. No base battles, space ships got simplified (only sky ranger), no and team you waaay smaller. The good idea was soldier classes, but sniper class is way overpowered in compare to others. Still XCOM: Enemy Unknown is solid game and good tribute to original X-COM.
  37. IonDissonanc357
    Nov 20, 2013
    7
    Fun game but not worth the $40 i spent on it. I'd say you get around $20 worth of fun out of it. The line of sight is unpredictable and shooting down ufos is extremely boring and might as well not even be a part of the game. Maybe it's just my computer but the voice overs simply don't work.
  38. Hall7718
    Feb 21, 2014
    5
    Purchased this game in a Steam sale and spent about 6 hours playing it. The mechanics started feeling repetitive and unoriginal after the first 4-5 missions. Game mechanics are in every game, but for some reason this game kept reminding me that it was a game... not an action packed experience. Before others say I'm not cut out for turn based games... I've got hundreds of hours playingPurchased this game in a Steam sale and spent about 6 hours playing it. The mechanics started feeling repetitive and unoriginal after the first 4-5 missions. Game mechanics are in every game, but for some reason this game kept reminding me that it was a game... not an action packed experience. Before others say I'm not cut out for turn based games... I've got hundreds of hours playing Civilization V. XCOM wasn't the game for me.… Expand
  39. Newfr
    Oct 14, 2012
    6
    Let's face it - this is a good game by today standards. But this is also a terrible remake. And i can't blame all fellow **** here stomping this game into the ground because they feel cheated. That's true. New game has about 25% of everything old game has. Less techs to invent, less items to create, less abilities to use... There are lots of this "less". Some trying to say that it'sLet's face it - this is a good game by today standards. But this is also a terrible remake. And i can't blame all fellow **** here stomping this game into the ground because they feel cheated. That's true. New game has about 25% of everything old game has. Less techs to invent, less items to create, less abilities to use... There are lots of this "less". Some trying to say that it's simplified version of XCOM i will stay with "dumbed down" term. So i believe if Feraxis made it a new IP this game could be accepted a way better. So it's simple if you played old XCOM - avoid this game. You probably will be greatly disappointed. It's nowhere near the original and i recommend you to start looking in direction of indie game called Xenonauts (in beta stage atm). It's not XCOM by name, but it's XCOM by spirit. But if you like beating game in 2 days on normal without losing a single soldier and never heard of original IP - try this. It's not a bad game after all. And if you liked this new XCOM try the old one after (or Xenonauts i mentioned above).
    So about score. If that was a new IP i would give it a solid 9. But as i remake of original XCOM...let's see...25% of 10 is about 3. Arithmetic average is 6.    … Expand
  40. LoneDutyer
    Jun 9, 2013
    5
    Enjoyable experience and a solid purchase, but felt just a TAD too casualised to really be 'X-Com' to me. Late to the party, just logged onto MC for the first time in ages and thought I'd go through some of my purchases for posterity's sake.

    TACTICAL +Feels frantic and tense, at least in the early-mid game before your dudes get bulk health. +Looks nice. A good visual update to the    Enjoyable experience and a solid purchase, but felt just a TAD too casualised to really be 'X-Com' to me. Late to the party, just logged onto MC for the first time in ages and thought I'd go through some of my purchases for posterity's sake.

    TACTICAL
    +Feels frantic and tense, at least in the early-mid game before your dudes get bulk health.
    +Looks nice. A good visual update to the series.
    +Options you didn't have in the original, like suppressing enemy units and flanking. In some respects combat more tactical.
    -Heavy class becomes more or less useless except for suppression and rocket-launcher by the mid-late game.
    -Squads felt too small and made losing a unit even more crippling than the original.
    -Inventory dumbed down ridiculously: Why can't my soldier in powered jetpack armour carry more than one grenade or rocket?
    -Dumbed down targeting in the original, blowing open a wall with your plasma rifle was a viable tactical option, for example
    -Action system abstraction can sometimes be grating.
    -NO RANDOMISED MAPS. This was probably my biggest gripe. Cripples replayability, criminal lack of effort. This would've been a 7 for me otherwise.

    GLOBAL
    +Looks shiny, sounds cool. Very atmospheric, and the cutscenes/lore for everything is generally pretty good, even if they do recycle some templates.
    +Progression felt very rewarding, expanding options tactically by where you decide to expand and establish satellites.
    -Arbitrary dichotomy where you always have to choose one nation to ignore. Can we seriously not just buy a second skyranger?
    -Only one base no base defense? That was a vital part of the original game.
    -Randomised classes for recruits could mean highly unbalanced teams enjoy your four useless Heavies who will just take up space.

    That's all I can remember from playing this last year. Decent purchase, but nothing special and a lot of design decisions which seem highly questionable. It would've been nice to maybe have a more modular version of the game where you could get more strategic depth by enabling old-school options at the start of the campaign, to appeal to both audiences.    … Expand
  41. GoneTomrrow
    Nov 29, 2012
    7
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. A solid remake all-in-all. I played the original DOS games and most of the sequels, which are hard acts to follow. This newest incarnation manages to have the core of what made the original extremely fun: well crafted turn-by-turn combat, variety of weapons and equipment, resource management, researching and reverse engineering alien tech, etc. The graphics are very good; the temple ship is truly a masterpiece of a stage. There is a lot not to like as well, of course. Normal difficulty is too easy, taking 40 hours to beat for me. XCOMEU is far less complex than the original, in a bad way. Combat has been oversimplified, with the boring "move, shoot, repeat" scheme. The original with time units was much more fun; you could spend all your time units shooting, moving, swapping a weapon out oof your pack, or all three. I was displeased to discover that there was only one alien base in the game (several in the OG). The end stage, while very fun, was disappointing - no Mars? Really? Very anticlimactic ending. When you investigate a crash site, you are dropped practically on top of it in a tiny area. The enemies are now "aggro'd" WOW-style and just stand around until you approach. They don't move around otherwise. I miss the old crash site maps which were larger and required exploration. The maps in general become repetitive. I also think the overall atmosphere of the game is too tame; the eery stage music of the original is permanently etched in my brain. Oh, and lastly, where is the Snakeman? A lot of negative points said here, but as I said, the heart of the original is still there and I was glued to my PC for the few short days it took to beat it. Worth buying.… Expand
  42. BAPACop
    May 27, 2013
    7
    This is the first and only X-COM game I've ever played, so I'm not rating it down because it isn't the same. I'm rating it so low because it is not a strategy game as it is billed. There are several major reasons for this.

    First, the "random" aspects are not actually random. I'm not talking about how savescumming is prevented due to the random seed. I'm talking about how the computer is    This is the first and only X-COM game I've ever played, so I'm not rating it down because it isn't the same. I'm rating it so low because it is not a strategy game as it is billed. There are several major reasons for this.

    First, the "random" aspects are not actually random. I'm not talking about how savescumming is prevented due to the random seed. I'm talking about how the computer is a cheating bastard. I had a mission once where the first enemy to fire scored a critical hit every time. It didn't matter which enemy was shooting, where they were shooting from, who their target was, where their target was, the cover their target was in, or if the enemy that was shooting took their shot before or after another enemy moved. I tested this by retreating continually and forcing the enemy to follow me to take their shot. I crossed the entire map back to the start point, and without fail the first shot taken by the AI every turn resulted in a critical hit.

    Second, the cover system is absolutely horrendous. There are four levels of cover. 0 is no cover. 1 is "half" cover. 2 is "full" cover. 3 is "full" cover with the Hunkered Down ability active. These aren't the actual numerical values as the game uses them to calculate anything, they're just my observation. Okay, now that I've explained that, forget about it, because the game will. Enemies can and will shoot you through walls. The shots will visibly pass right through them. They will shoot you through floors. They will shoot you through bus stops. They will shoot you from fifty feet into the adjacent room behind a solid wall where the only way you can see them is from their red outline because even the camera can't see them. A car provides the exact same amount of cover when it's intact as it does when it is a smoldering wreck. It's very annoying to get hit by an enemy who is making a shot that is simply not physically possible.

    Third, the computer is a cheating bastard. Yes, again. They don't follow any movement rules, it seems. When you encounter enemies they immediately interrupt your turn to move into cover. Floaters can teleport onto your flanks at will. Berserkers can interrupt your turn to move. Thin Men will literally drop from the sky on your flanks. Sectopods can take three actions per turn. Enemies will spawn right in the middle of your squad. Groups of enemies will teleport around the map if you lose sight of them. In other words, there is no strategy involved in placing your units, you just need to hope the game decides to be nice.

    Fourth, squad panic is simply awful. XCOM is supposed to be the world's most elite military force. So why do they act like they've never been in a firefight before? One of your units takes a hit, and your other members of the world's most elite military force turn all the way around, take aim on the person beside them, yell "HELP ME!" and shoot them in the face. Losing a squad member because they got shot through a wall is bad enough, now you're just rubbing it in for no good reason.

    Fifth, global panic. The first thing I want to point out is how incredibly stupid this sort of conversation must sound. "Hello, is this XCOM, the world's most elite military force focused on fighting the alien invasion? This is the President of the United States. We have decided we are being invaded by too many aliens to require the help of the world's most elite military force focused on fighting the alien invasion. Please stop saving our citizen's lives." The second thing is that the system is simply broken. Not taking a mission in a country increases the panic levels of all the countries on that continent for some reason, not just the one being attacked by aliens. This means that no matter how well you are playing the game, you will eventually lose. A game where you are guaranteed to lose is a very badly designed game.

    Sixth, I have an underground complex filled with advanced technology, soldiers who can practically blow things up with their minds, multiple satellites over every continent, multiple heavily armed interceptors stationed on every continent, but when three cities get attacked by aliens at once I can only send one group of six people while the other ninety-three soldiers twiddle their thumbs in the Barracks.

    To summarize, XCOM: Enemy Unknown is not a strategy game. It fails at the most important element of a strategy game: Rewarding strategy. It would get a 0 for that reason, but it's actually quite entertaining once you realize it's not a strategy game and start to play accordingly. That, and it changes the lights on my keyboard to coincide with the enemy turns and I think that's neat.    … Expand
  43. Jenne
    Apr 2, 2013
    6
    A disappointment. Certainly the best XCOM game since Terror from the Deep and a ok game for what it is but that's about it. It's short, dumbed down, the production values are iffy, the RNG combat mechanics stupid and annoying, the art style terrible. Too bad Firaxis didn't want to make a truly great game. They just wanted to make an accessible game.
  44. Rabbidbone
    Oct 26, 2012
    5
    A decent game let down by a marketing strategy to parade it in on the shoulders of a colossal masterpiece. Though it does not, by any stretch of my experience, deserve the 0 scores it is getting, I do understand and share much of the old Xcom fans' gripes about this instalment. My take on the game's overall shortcoming is basically this - they critically misunderstood the very core essenceA decent game let down by a marketing strategy to parade it in on the shoulders of a colossal masterpiece. Though it does not, by any stretch of my experience, deserve the 0 scores it is getting, I do understand and share much of the old Xcom fans' gripes about this instalment. My take on the game's overall shortcoming is basically this - they critically misunderstood the very core essence of Xcom. Instead of pitting you up against an unforgiving and overwhelming invasion and then enabling you to rise above the challenge through various game mechanics; the game offers you static, mediocre invaders and a linear path to salvation and then sets up arbitrary handicaps through game mechanics as a means of creating a challenge. Although the resulting level of challenge is somewhat similar, the resulting level of satisfaction is devastatingly different. It felt more like I was fighting the game developers and trying to get around their in-game hurdles than actually fighting off a relentless alien invasion. A shame really.… Expand
  45. Ram911
    Nov 10, 2012
    6
    when I first started playing this game I thought it was fun. The graphics are really cool. It was not, to me at least, an easy game to beat. But, after a while it started to seem ridiculously difficult. In order to shoot at (and usually miss) an alien I would have to stand out and expose my self to their next shot. Which many times would kill my soldier. After finding that I could notwhen I first started playing this game I thought it was fun. The graphics are really cool. It was not, to me at least, an easy game to beat. But, after a while it started to seem ridiculously difficult. In order to shoot at (and usually miss) an alien I would have to stand out and expose my self to their next shot. Which many times would kill my soldier. After finding that I could not shoot at and hit an alien at a distance I would walk right up next to an alien and my chances of hitting him would still only be 1%. And sure enough I would miss the shot and bye bye soldier on the alien's next turn. The game started to feel very scripted. It seemed like the strategy component of the game was an illusion. Much like winning a game on a slot machine by luck is an illusion. To those who don't know, slot machines pay off at predetermined pulls of the handle. It can pay off at the 50th pull of the handle or the 500th pull of the handle etc. etc. The only luck involved is if you are the person pulling the handle at the 50th pull. It got to be boring to play after that. And I lost interest. I think this game is getting to high of a score for its playability level. I recognize all the hard work the game creators put into this game and I appreciate the effort. But I don't think they succeeded in making an Xcom worthy game.… Expand
  46. Turk
    Jul 1, 2013
    6
    This game is what Duplo is to the Lego brand. Simple, simplistic and lacking almost any depth beyond choosing A, B or C. That it did so well despite all its manifest shortcomings shows just how very hungry the market is for games like these that we will devour this half-baked swill like caviar. That being said, there are moments of fun to be had.

    It was also very, very buggy on    This game is what Duplo is to the Lego brand. Simple, simplistic and lacking almost any depth beyond choosing A, B or C. That it did so well despite all its manifest shortcomings shows just how very hungry the market is for games like these that we will devour this half-baked swill like caviar. That being said, there are moments of fun to be had.

    It was also very, very buggy on release and I've not seen much in the way of improvement. God bless Firaxis for having what passes as innovation in this market but they have the development skill of an indie studio.    … Expand
  47. nop
    Oct 22, 2012
    5
    This game is a marketing success but a creative failure. I loved original XCOM game and really wanted to enjoy playing this remake. But several hours into the game I started to feel that I've been cheated. Imagine a "reboot" of original Quake, where you can only carry two weapons, regenerate health while moving from one waist-high cover to another through linear levels, watchingThis game is a marketing success but a creative failure. I loved original XCOM game and really wanted to enjoy playing this remake. But several hours into the game I started to feel that I've been cheated. Imagine a "reboot" of original Quake, where you can only carry two weapons, regenerate health while moving from one waist-high cover to another through linear levels, watching unskippable cutscenes after every few minutes. This is what you feel if you played XCOM/UFO games before. Shallow and dumbed down kids-friendly piece of mass entertainment. Seriously, I'm surprised that after infinite ammo they didn't add regenerating health. Base building is a joke compared to the original. Geoscape is just a pretty animation. This is earth defense simulator minus the simulator part. This is a game where radio stations can work from underground caves, satellites can hover above arbitrary location on the globe and psionics only works if you break glass window first.… Expand
  48. glock30owner
    Oct 14, 2012
    6
    XCOM: Enemy Unknown should never had been included in the XCOM franchise, its lack of tactical and strategic options available in the original 3 games (X-COM: UFO Defense, X-COM: Terror from the Deep, and X-COM: Apocalypse) is highly disappointing to X-COM fans.
  49. FredMark
    Oct 15, 2012
    5
    After playing 40 hours, I can say that this game requires some serious mods to be interesting and/or remotely similar to original.

    From brainless base design/research to repetitive combat missions (although original had it too, to be fair) there are a lot to be desired. Most importantly, there is no option to turn movement animation OFF or speed it up, so the game will chew your time    After playing 40 hours, I can say that this game requires some serious mods to be interesting and/or remotely similar to original.

    From brainless base design/research to repetitive combat missions (although original had it too, to be fair) there are a lot to be desired.
    Most importantly, there is no option to turn movement animation OFF or speed it up, so the game will chew your time as you have nothing better to do.

    On other hand, I did play this game for 40 hours and its moment at first.    … Expand
  50. noxx
    Oct 15, 2012
    5
    For every thing this game does right there is a bad thing to even things out.
    Awesome to customize your soldiers, few customization options. Amazing atmosphere, terrible camera inside UFOs. Fighting around the world seems like fighting around the same place. Streets of japan are filled with american cop cars and yellow cabs. Absolutely no distinction between Brazil, London, India,    For every thing this game does right there is a bad thing to even things out.
    Awesome to customize your soldiers, few customization options. Amazing atmosphere, terrible camera inside UFOs. Fighting around the world seems like fighting around the same place. Streets of japan are filled with american cop cars and yellow cabs. Absolutely no distinction between Brazil, London, India, Australia, Etc.... It's Firaxis and it's Xcom, great company and great legacy, right now I'm 30 hours into the game and I'm very frustrated by the percentages. An Assault soldier with an alien shotgun beside a Muton has only 28% chance of hitting him? And my fully leveled sniper can't hit a target in clear sight? Very weird decisions were made in this game and I wanted so much to love it. Until some patches come along and an expansion to give it more diversity, stay away!    … Expand
  51. DrMutomofobo
    Nov 26, 2012
    5
    A decent game in it's own right, and it works well as a tribute to the 1993 original as it contained enough of the original themes to make me nostalgic. That being said, it's way too dumbed-down to be considered the same caliber as it's predecessors were.

    Almost everything is generic and automated, from how the organization itself is administered to how the soldiers interact with the    A decent game in it's own right, and it works well as a tribute to the 1993 original as it contained enough of the original themes to make me nostalgic. That being said, it's way too dumbed-down to be considered the same caliber as it's predecessors were.

    Almost everything is generic and automated, from how the organization itself is administered to how the soldiers interact with the environment when on tactical missions. It leaves you very little choice, and even less room for variation. The soldiers lack any distinguishable traits whatsoever, except for appearance and nationality at least; as they've removed evolvable stats in favor of a primitive class-system with very limited perks as they rank up. Inventory has also been standardized, and you can't even pick up equipment from fallen friends or foes on the field. The option to construct new bases is gone, as is the option to properly control air missions. The tactical missions lack interactivity, as you can no longer free-aim to destroy obstacles (or just for fun) and all bullets fly in a straight line only to disappear into thin air if they miss their target, effectively removing the joy of unintentional collateral damage and the unpredictability which follows it. Aliens just stand around in groups awaiting activation rather than roaming the field and positioning themselves favorably from start, and you can only deploy a maximum of six soldiers to a mission (four at the start - you have to research in order to reach the maximum six). Maps are small and very predictable too, usually you just move forward in one direction jumping from cover to cover massacring one alien group at the time until you're done.

    Multiplayer could have been awesome, but it's way too unimaginative to even be considered "ok". Here too, they've stripped your options down to a minimum. Only mode is 1vs1 squad elimination, even though single-player mode offers various settings which could have been extremely fun in multiplayer; and you use a simple "buy-for-points" system when building your squad rather than something more sophisticated (and rewarding). Also there's no progression whatsoever besides a place on the very primitive win/loss ratio-based ladder. Perhaps a system like the one they've implemented in Shogun 2: Total War would be better? At least it gives the player a feeling of achievement, something the present system doesn't provide at all.

    All-in-all... This is a game that offers very little variation, very little choice and a downright backwards level of interactivity. It makes most the decisions for you by limiting your options to the extreme. It works well enough as turn-based action, but as a strategy-and-tactics-game it fails miserable. Especially considering how successful the originals were in that aspect.

    If you avoid comparing it to the original franchise, which is actually way more complex and rewarding than this game is despite the fact that it's been almost twenty years since their release; you'll enjoy playing through it once. The replay-value however, is almost non-existent due to the previously mentioned lack of choices, variation and interactivity.

    The only real strength to this game is the fact that it contains just enough of the original games to reimburse your enjoyment of those. At least that's what it did for me: Made me reinstall the oldies and play them instead.

    I'd advice anyone to do the same ;)    … Expand
  52. GolovA
    Aug 21, 2013
    7
    It is probably wise to formulate an opinion about a game after all the hype is gone, and mind is more or less free of enhanced commercialism and subjectively stereotypical advertisement which are hypocritically aimed at a “specific consumer group”. With this in mind, let me jump to my opinion of the game “XCOM Enemy Unknown”.
    THE BAD:
    1. I am playing Patch 3, and the game is very buggy    It is probably wise to formulate an opinion about a game after all the hype is gone, and mind is more or less free of enhanced commercialism and subjectively stereotypical advertisement which are hypocritically aimed at a “specific consumer group”. With this in mind, let me jump to my opinion of the game “XCOM Enemy Unknown”.
    THE BAD:
    1. I am playing Patch 3, and the game is very buggy still: sometimes the cinematic slow-motion slows down to such a crawling speed that a restart of the game is required (forced task end); when I change the Race of a soldier, the Hair style inevitably changes as well, and in a few clicks choses a Helmet, so the face of the soldier is not visible; when a Sniper is using a grappling hook, she can jump to unreachable places (going through the ceiling of the UFO, for example) and gets stock there; after reviving a critically wound soldier, my soldiers are unable to move (happens rarely, but still). I could go on listing minor bugs that plague this game, which at this point should really be a polished joy ride.
    2. The game is not polished (as stated above), and its sharp corners keep poking you while you are trying to dive into its atmosphere: the explanations of items (weapons, armor, vehicles, etc.) are very vague some of them being actually incorrect at all (for an example refer to Arc Weapon on XCOM WiKi); when selling items on Grey Market, you cannot input numbers and need to click (however many times) on the arrow, selling items one-by-one, which is a major turn down when you have 700 Elirium, and want to sell 300 (the math in clicks is obvious); when a Soldier levels up, his uniform color changes, resetting to some default; there is no random generator really (but mods do fix this nuance) which might or might not be a problem, but when you perform an action, and later Load a saved game that action will always-always-always yield the same result, even when approached with different strategy (so let’s say you want to capture an alien, and your Arc weapon misses if you Load a saved game, and try it with a different soldier, or both soldiers you will NOT subdue the Alien, because AI has decided that the Alien will not be paralyzed in this game); again, I can go on, but the point remains this is far from a polished game.
    3. Atmosphere and Mood of the XCOM Series: the atmosphere borders between a Serious Strategy and a Childish Hentai, and accomplished none in the end. Seems the game was designed in order to cover the widest playing group possible, and thus lacks essence, dedication, and a focused approached aimed at the unique quality of this series. There is no haunting mood, feeling of constant danger and glooming doom, smell of secret societies, spreading panic, mystery, and so on there is also an xBox-style button-presser, with soldiers in Pink Uniforms, cut scenes with energetic Anime aliens (Rated for Every one), and bulky, shapeless weapons. The game tries to make everyone happy (as, unfortunately, is the case with most titles today) and comes out a mediocre stereotypical improved clone of its own glorious original of the past.
    4. Random Soldier specialization: yeah. I think I know where the designers are coming from with this but I wish I could turn that feature off.
    THE GOOD:
    1. Strategy and Tactics: are ok but very predictable and repetitive. The strategic overview of the Base and Earth is nicely executed, and all decisions are somewhat balanced. I say somewhat because that is what they are (remember unpolished?), but with some Mods the game becomes a very well thought-through strategy. Tactics are also improved with mods, but I like them as they are: you move your squad (of up to 6 people) in a turned-based combat, shooting or capturing aliens, saving civilians, destroying trees! Special abilities of soldiers make the approach of each unit and the team overall pretty unique to your playing style.
    2. A very nice game to play still. Don’t get me wrong there a good sides and bad sides, and this game is a good game, but definitely not a 9/10 as I see everywhere. Fun to play, fun to research, fun to make money, sad to lose good soldiers (even though random specialists they were!). Fun mediocre gam which lacks atmosphere.
    3. MODABLE! And that is very important: there are many good mods to XCOM Enemy Unknown, which improve it, rebalance it, and make it even prettier.
    OVERALL: Good game. 7/10. Wish it was not aimed at the AVERAGE GROUP but at the dedicated XCOM Gamers and people who respect a good tactical turn-based and appreciate the depth of UFO conspiracies.    … Expand
  53. chevmech
    Feb 3, 2013
    5
    Thanks Firaxis, for forcing an operating system upgrade in order to to play it. We feel that probably should have been flagged in larger fonts. We also hope Steam will refund our money- guess we'll find out next week or whenever Steam support deigns to respond to our tickets. Regards, Your customers with XP.
  54. SlickNick
    Nov 28, 2012
    5
    A fun and addicting game on normal. Bugs and bad-AI-so-cheat-compensation kill classic or impossible modes. Because the developers didn't develop any worthwhile AI for the enemy in this game, they cheat for the computer on classic and impossible difficulties. You don't notice it in normal because you can actually go blow-for-blow and win. All you have to do is advance, stay in cover,A fun and addicting game on normal. Bugs and bad-AI-so-cheat-compensation kill classic or impossible modes. Because the developers didn't develop any worthwhile AI for the enemy in this game, they cheat for the computer on classic and impossible difficulties. You don't notice it in normal because you can actually go blow-for-blow and win. All you have to do is advance, stay in cover, and shoot, and you'll win on normal. What you don't notice (because there aren't that many patrolling alien squads in normal) is that alien packs don't walk around the map, they randomly teleport anywhere on it and then aggro when they see you. In the higher difficulties you can't go blow-for-blow, but instead have to use flanking and/or luring tactics. Except that enemies can teleport anywhere if they're not in your Line-of-Sight and attempting to perform any remotely tactical movement will result in another pack of aliens spawning in your LoS.

    This results in only one tactic that works, which is also extremely boring: creep forward with one scout, trigger a single alien group, run back to the rest of the squad sitting in cover and overwatch, and hope aliens follow you. Nothing as exciting as sitting in overwatch for 50 turns, right?

    The base-management is trivial as well. There are no research dead-ends, you can research everything fairly quickly so there isn't any strategy in researching. Satellite and panic management is the only remotely strategic part of the base-management.    … Expand
  55. SoManyGoblins
    Jun 20, 2013
    5
    Too dumbed down for my taste. I'm an X-Com fan, but not a hardcore one, I'm not one of those guys who're still replaying the game every other weekend after some 20ish years, I'm just an average (more or less) gamer, and this felt like a seriously watered down version of a strategy game. It's not bad, but it's not good either, just average at most. The UI is a joke, clearly designed forToo dumbed down for my taste. I'm an X-Com fan, but not a hardcore one, I'm not one of those guys who're still replaying the game every other weekend after some 20ish years, I'm just an average (more or less) gamer, and this felt like a seriously watered down version of a strategy game. It's not bad, but it's not good either, just average at most. The UI is a joke, clearly designed for consoles. The battlescape is clearly designed for consoles, there is no free aiming, everything is constrained so the game works ok on a gamepad, in fact, now that I think about it, having used a mouse made everything so much cumbersome! Going through menuses, selecting soldiers abilities on battle, everything was tedious thanks to using a mouse. This is not a bad strategy game, it's just a lousy PC strategy game. Oh, and the plot sucks big time and boring.… Expand
  56. delekhan
    Nov 27, 2012
    5
    At first i like it ... but only one base - squad is limited to 6 - why ? All countries finance 6 ! persons only sqad. You need for example weapon fragments to build somethig - what for alloys - ok , ellurium ok but weapon fragments ? I have for example undestroyed weapons but no ineed weapon fragments and i cannot destroy it myself. You are unable to move invetory of one soldier toAt first i like it ... but only one base - squad is limited to 6 - why ? All countries finance 6 ! persons only sqad. You need for example weapon fragments to build somethig - what for alloys - ok , ellurium ok but weapon fragments ? I have for example undestroyed weapons but no ineed weapon fragments and i cannot destroy it myself. You are unable to move invetory of one soldier to another. If you shot alien his weapon is always destroyed . Enemies waiting to find you but may appear from nowwhere. Its not like strategy but america comics lonely hero ( 6 heroes) versus weak horde of enemies. It shoud be tottaly diffrent - vast armies versus aliens not so many but with better technology and extremely hard to beat… Expand
  57. Truthserum
    Oct 7, 2013
    6
    This is my first review, and i'm going to promise all, when you see my tag, it'll likely be the only honest and critical review of a game around. I'm so tired of these fanboy responses, or hater responses.

    Anyway, here's the nuts of it. The new Xcom game is great in many areas (you'll read many of them in these lists: gfx, ambiance, sound, music, art, troop management, resource    This is my first review, and i'm going to promise all, when you see my tag, it'll likely be the only honest and critical review of a game around. I'm so tired of these fanboy responses, or hater responses.

    Anyway, here's the nuts of it. The new Xcom game is great in many areas (you'll read many of them in these lists: gfx, ambiance, sound, music, art, troop management, resource management, alien threat management, country management, etc all real nice). And it deserves play and praise (still overpriced tho, but all games are when they just come out :)

    Yes, it is a somewhat less depthful than the original (everyone who tells you "no it isn't" is a newbie fanboy who lacks objectivity. I promise). But its not so bad, as this new game brings a lot to the table, plus one its key "depth" failures is actually linked to its awful "enemy spawn gameplay design" which i'll detail next (and maybe its something they could improve on)

    Its "enemy gameplay spawn design" is awful because, essentially it works like an MMO grind. The enemies hang about in "spawns" of 3. Some "spawns" travel short patrol circuits which might cross paths without another spawn. Basically you inch forward, hook the "first spawn" in your way (which ALWAYS consists of 3). then pull back (so you don't trigger any other "spawns"). You kill them, then rinse and repeat. Sometimes a patrolling spawn maybe crosses the battle ground if you did not pull back enough and you might face upto 6 enemies, but this is rare. You also sortof HAVE to do this since the fights are pretty tough, and the percentages weirdly and repeatedly defy what they promise?

    After you realise this what the combat is about, after a couple of missions, it gets boring. Kill 3. move up a bit. kill next 3, move up a bit, etc. During a fire-fight sure some fun stuff can happen, but its always your squad versus 3 (or sometimes 6) enemies and you know more or less where they are. I can't give this game more than a 6 as a result, since the "on ground" conflict is key to the game. And as polished as the visuals are, it can't make up for the flaw of a poorly designed encounter mechanic.

    The original had a better, more natural, encounter system. The enemies patrolled around the map, sometimes near each other, sometimes not, all random i guess, following whatever script was written for them. You had to fan out to find them (a motion detector kit was there to help you) and you NEVER knew when you'd run into them. you'd get surprised, A LOT, cover was vital, but it could get blown away (fun), and you never knew when more aliens would pitch up (attracted by the noise or whatever script dictated them). So you developed strategies to deal with that. More work than this new version of the game sure, but never boring. never predictable.

    I like the newly released Xcom expansion, it certainly looks to add more cool features, etc, I just wish they'd modify the "enemy spawn system" to make the enemies more autonomous and surprising.

    Good Gaming all.    … Expand
  58. TheDraguun
    Nov 14, 2012
    5
    Fun game that captures the spirit of the old XCOM. But bad usabillity (buttons jumping around, missing informations, navigation, ... ) and heaps of game breaking bugs. A game with a focus on character progression is worth nothing if the caracters get lost in bugs (stuck On-Mission, disappear from selection and levelup, ...)
  59. NOKIM
    Dec 3, 2012
    7
    Im an old fan of x-com and while this game is entertaining, its defenitely nothing to be compared to the original in terms of replay value. I could go into details but ill just point out some pros and cons.
    pros:
    updated graphics awesome character models great visuals cons: limited replay value lack of in battle option-cant pick up weapons, turns not based on energy poor tactical    Im an old fan of x-com and while this game is entertaining, its defenitely nothing to be compared to the original in terms of replay value. I could go into details but ill just point out some pros and cons.
    pros:
    updated graphics
    awesome character models
    great visuals
    cons:
    limited replay value
    lack of in battle option-cant pick up weapons, turns not based on energy
    poor tactical battle options(you can wipe everthing without doing much exploring)
    lack of stat growth options

    I could list a lot more things its lacking on, that the original did not that made it such an amazing replay value game. But all in all, if you have never played it, this is by far the best remake so far from all the fails that iv seen and tried. is it worth playing..yes, are you likely to still be playing it a year from now...probably not.If you have the original you will probably stil be playing that one 20 years from now.    … Expand
  60. The_Choad
    Feb 12, 2013
    6
    The original Xcom games were the epitome of the turn-based strategy genre. This latest offering sees it remade into 'strategy lite', with Firaxis doing away with what they thought was chaff. Unfortunately this has the effect of completely undoing the Xcom feel. The SP campaign is over far too quickly, half that of what it really should be, but what is there is well polished andThe original Xcom games were the epitome of the turn-based strategy genre. This latest offering sees it remade into 'strategy lite', with Firaxis doing away with what they thought was chaff. Unfortunately this has the effect of completely undoing the Xcom feel. The SP campaign is over far too quickly, half that of what it really should be, but what is there is well polished and obviously well thought out. I can understand the frustrations of the old school Xcom players (of which I am one, TFTD best game ever) but I can also see the new potential of what has been developed with X:EU 2013. The DLC is laughable, an obvious money grab that players were smart enough to see and subsequently ignore, prompting Firaxis to cancel what they had planned in favour of more worthy material. Gameplay is interesting, it will take you a while to see just how simple it is (particularly if you are an old hand), something which has divided opinion. There are now only two strategic aspects when on the battlescape. Using cover and line of sight. This sometimes leaves you frustrated in that the enemy can make seemingly incredible shots hit, when only a few hairs on your head are sticking out of cover. This is the new system. Partial cover gives you moderate defence, in turn making you slightly harder to hit. Full cover decrease that chance further still. Armor simply adds more blocks to your health (another strategic element removed) with better armor adding more blocks. I did finally get into the game, and overall I enjoyed it. That's not to say I approve of all the changes but there is room for perfection, if Firaxis have the wit to see it. The Ant farm homebase was a gimmick as far as I was concerned. I didn't use it, feel the need to use it or satisfy any vanity therein. The inability to rename your ships was an oversight and the fact that all soldiers have American accents regardless of their nationality was cheap and did nothing to impress the 'new look' Xcom, it was lazy. Nevertheless, X:EU was a decent effort and worthy of a look, though I would advise against buying it at full retail if you are a die--hard Xcom fan.… Expand
  61. Thunderstorm
    Dec 3, 2013
    5
    Decent game, nothing special. The conceptually broken auto-save ruined the game for me after a day. Didn't feel like starting over or with all my main goons dead.
  62. Outlier
    Oct 11, 2013
    5
    Summary: a fun (aggravating), addictive tactical game with a lot of surprises, but half-baked. The half-baked stuff: your squad will take missions all over the world from Africa to Russia, yet every map has English street signs and pretty much looks the same. Be prepared for cover and line of sight to be utterly meaningless and for enemies to drop out of the sky in your flank and in theSummary: a fun (aggravating), addictive tactical game with a lot of surprises, but half-baked. The half-baked stuff: your squad will take missions all over the world from Africa to Russia, yet every map has English street signs and pretty much looks the same. Be prepared for cover and line of sight to be utterly meaningless and for enemies to drop out of the sky in your flank and in the rear. Might as well have the hand of God come out of the sky and squish a squad member. Enemies will fire through solid objects and even whole buildings to make a mile-long shot against an soldier they have had no contact with and crit. Buggy in a "QA missed that" sort of way: ex: the interface for training psy soldiers has three slots, but will only take two. I beat this thing, but I won't say it was a fun experience-more of a trial by fire with a lot of loaded saves.

    I really enjoyed the fact that each individual squad member can be customized with a full on char gen, so that when they are slaughtered you know them by name and can scream "Not Crawford!!!"

    There is a vertical dimension to the game, with lots of rooftop climbing and flying, but I found the interface difficult to use for vertical movement, you never really know if you can scale a wall until you rush it and get stuck at the base pounding on the grapple button.

    The 'flight' mini-game is really just plain dumb. Now if we had some control over the interceptors, that would be something. Otherwise it's just a little cutscene where we find out how much you have spent on your air coverage.

    Base building is the usual tree-type thing, I found this aspect of the game pretty easy to beat.

    I had fun, but I'm looking for a tactical game where there are some understandable and logical rules that both sides play by. The whole 'aliens dropping out of the sky" thing soured me on this game, as did the line of sight and cover issues. There's nothing like losing a squaddie who was about to make Colonel near the end of a mission when he is swatted by the AI. That's just aggravating. A "C" game.    … Expand
  63. gas
    Oct 17, 2012
    7
    I have to lower my score , after the first playthrough i gave a 9, but actually im going to finish my second and sadly the game is loosing a lot of appeal.
    The problem primary is that what you can research and develop is not enough and various to make any difference between different games, basically you will end doing exactly the same things, researching the same things, and exectuing    I have to lower my score , after the first playthrough i gave a 9, but actually im going to finish my second and sadly the game is loosing a lot of appeal.
    The problem primary is that what you can research and develop is not enough and various to make any difference between different games, basically you will end doing exactly the same things, researching the same things, and exectuing all the same steps every game you will wanna play.
    Also, even if the maps are not few, its quite easy to predict enemy spawn.
    Anothe note not positive is that i think the game is really too short, and you are foced also to speed up cause the panic pressure.
    Basically i still think that this game is very good (on its own, even if different from the old xcoms), but its lacking longevity and relplay value to be really a masterpiece.
    -----------------------------------------------------
    To all the ppl GIVING LOW SCORES cause chance to hit / cover system bugs, READ THIS first. At start i was thinking too that the game had terrible bugs related LOS and targeting, but i was wrong, surely it doesnt help the fact the ruleset is not explained in the manual nor on firaxis site. Fact is this game is more similar to chess then to previous x-com games as idea. To be short about that, this game is based on a strict and working ruleset similar to a board game, hitting is absolutely not related to the point to point projectile trajectory " LOS" that is visible looking the position of the soliders Consider that what you see in 3D as idea is a fictional representation of the ruleset. The ruleset is very very simple and basic, and one understood its really a lot interesting and fun. In the game there is ACCURANCY which is set by default as 65, there are low covers (half shield icon) which gives +20% defence, hi covers (full shield icon) that gives +40% cover. There are modifiers which can be many things, specific traits, perks, elevation etc. The formula is CTH = accurancy - target defence +- modificators. So if there is shooter at a corner, target behind a 40 tons big truck with a half shiled icon position, the shooter can hit the target even if in 3D the bullet pass into the truck, as the rule means you can always hit soliders behind 20% or 40% covers. The only situation when when LOS is obstructed is, one full cover tile in between 2 other full cover tiles, or one single full cover tile strictly in line with the shooter. In the same manner is possible to flank one enemy, a covered enemy have a red alien icon as default, to avoid his cover having as result the yellow alien icon (which means target is out of cover) as ruleset you need to place your shooter past the imaginary orthogonal axis that is projected by the block giving the cover to the target. Im sorry if its not very clear maybe, im not english and im tryin the best i can. There are also specific rules to determine the cth and covers between shooter and target from different elevation zones (+20% hit being higher then target + modificators), and specific rules to determine how works the half covers and full covers in between, but not adjacent to the shooter and target we are considering. Basically this game is based on xcom as setting and basic mechanics, but its a lot different compared to most of the tbs as its absolutely not based to the LOS you can see on the screen to hit the targets, and guys this system works, its simple but very tactical. Told that this game imo is great, cause the target here i understood after some days of playing, its not to just adapt the old xcom with new graphics (which in case is something i expected too at start tbh), the target is its to have a new specific ruleset to possibly create a strategic E-sport. Hope that this one beside the review can help ppl to understand better the game as many bad scores are given cause a misunderstanding of how the game works. Collapse    … Expand
  64. psycros
    Oct 15, 2012
    6
    The fact this game could have easily been done on a PSX3 (maybe even the PSX2) says a lot for its lack of tactical depth or content. The fact that its got far too many bugs (I sure *hope* their bugs) for a turn-based game says even more. From what I know of the original, this is at most "XCOM Lite" with five-year old graphics. It feels rushed and I'm afraid that much of the game wasThe fact this game could have easily been done on a PSX3 (maybe even the PSX2) says a lot for its lack of tactical depth or content. The fact that its got far too many bugs (I sure *hope* their bugs) for a turn-based game says even more. From what I know of the original, this is at most "XCOM Lite" with five-year old graphics. It feels rushed and I'm afraid that much of the game was held back as DLC - the next few weeks will surely tell. But the single biggest problem is the AI. Even on "easy" its no cakewalk, because the bugs are present regardless of difficulty level. These flaws give the AI ridiculous advantages, such as being able to target you when you can't target it back. I've lost count of the times a squad member was hit by multiple foes and when my turn came to fire I was greeted with "no targets available" - and the enemy hadn't moved an inch. Sometimes enemy grenades come through closed doors, which you can't see or shoot through. I've watched aliens move a full turn, shoot and wound one of my guys, then move another full turn and finish him off. The Floaters are particularly awful with their ability to jet-jump across half the level. Take away it cheats and the AI is still reasonably smart, but that seems due mostly to its omniscient knowledge of the battlefield. All the enemies are pre-placed at mission start, and don't move until you stumble upon them. You won't see them before they see you because there's no "sneak" ability in this remake. Even "overwatch" is a tactically kind of pointless because enemies can see everything at all times. In fact, there's virtually no tactical abilities to speak of beyond minor defense and offense buffs that would be more at home in World of Warcraft than XCOM. Even certain gear has been rendered pointless, like frag grenades, which only rob you of valuable salvage and do no more damage to most enemies than a weapon crit. You can only carry one anyway. Your characters have an incredibly limited gear loadout..I didn't play the original XCOM but surely you could have more than one offensive grenade, or a grenade AND some extra armor? There are also various oddities that have an ironic comedy value, like the random audio warnings your troops bellow out. "Their moving to flank!" as the enemy digs in, or "their pulling back" as the enemy rushes towards you - you'll laugh, you'll sigh, you'll reload your game. A lot. And that's another sore point because each time you load a game it takes a little longer than the time before, maxing out for me at around 50 seconds on a fast AMD system with an SSD and 8gb of RAM. The camera in multi-level structures seems to fight you much of the time, constantly jumping between levels for no apparent reason. I've also heard about issues with armor being removed from troops who've just returned to active duty after recovering from wounds. Most of the character dialog is 80's cartoon quality, although sometimes is rises above. The descriptions of the technologies you're researching are actually fairly believable near-future jargon: geeks shouldn't feel compelled to nitpick. I was disappointed in the complete lack of air battle renders, however, since every mission shows them repeatedly. Its also funny to land in Africa and be surrounded by American-looking cars and sort-of-English writing. A bit more variety in models and levels would have been a major immersion builder: I've seen five different environments in two dozen missions. Its not all bad news, though. XCOM succeeds in atmosphere - you can cut the tension with a laser cannon (esp. when you know how easily your people can die). There's real potential in this game, but it needs bugs squashed, more set dressing and a little more depth and a AI rebalancing. I'd definitely wait for the first major patch, which could well fix a lot of what's wrong with this title.… Expand
  65. ArchangelX
    Oct 15, 2012
    5
    Quite literally, this is X-Com Lite. It basically has taken every portion of the OG X-Com and watered it down to a super simplified level. Compared to games like JA2, Silent Storm, Fallout Tactics, etc...the tactics portion is laughably simplified. Tactics consist primarily of move, shoot...or just shoot. Some special techniques allow for a bit more variety, but with only twoQuite literally, this is X-Com Lite. It basically has taken every portion of the OG X-Com and watered it down to a super simplified level. Compared to games like JA2, Silent Storm, Fallout Tactics, etc...the tactics portion is laughably simplified. Tactics consist primarily of move, shoot...or just shoot. Some special techniques allow for a bit more variety, but with only two movement options, the game is severely limited. The LoS is simply RNG all the way, and cover is pretty much a joke. There is no true cover, it's just numbers. Aliens repeatedly shoot through cover, as well as drop in on you (floaters) even through solid objects like the roof. Although the original game had RNG, this game simply pores it on heavily.

    Instead of being a game about skill and tactics, it's simply a dice-rolling game. Flanking is broken in many ways, as well, and the UI is absolutely horrid for the PC.

    As mentioned, every other portion of the OG, has been taken, and watered down. The inventory system is a joke, you can only sell alien components and bodies without the ability to sell your useless old inventory. Many items for your craft are simply one-time affairs that you will need to continually produce to use. The Archive Research is very sparse and the item graphics are tiny and inconsequential.

    In fact, compared to the OG, this is simply a scripted, choose-your-own adventure. UFOs in the original game actually had purpose, you could track them, watch them setup bases, watch them supply them, watch them stage terror attacks if you killed too many ships, and actually had to worry about being attacked at your base. This new iteration leads you on a scripted path through the game that is simply not going to be able to provide the unlimited replay value of the original.

    Truthfully, this is a beautiful, hopped up version of X-Com with every single complexity watered down for a simple audience. When the preferred way to play on the PC is with a controller, you know what you can expect. It's a fun game...but it's nowhere near to being as good as the original.

    Very, very disappointing.    … Expand
  66. Bantha-Fodder
    Oct 16, 2012
    5
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I like this game.

    But I can't help feeling that it should have been so much more. Had it not been hyped as a re-imagining of the original, beloved UFO: Enemy Unknown I probably wouldn't feel quite as let-down. As it stands, while there is much that is good about this game (I actually found myself warming to the smaller squad sizes in combat, despite this being one of my greatest initial concerns) there are nonetheless, many things that smack of a lack of effort

    I really do not like the new engineering and research model, through which I can only build laser rifles (for example) if I have the requisite minimum number of engineers on staff. Huh? I should be able to research or build stuff regardless of how many scientists or engineers I have! - just make it take longer to achieve results - like it did in the original. This in an unnecessary mechanic and an annoyingly artificial way of stunting the player's advancement.

    At a strategic level, it all feels very 'linear'. One of the best things about UFO was the way that - at the very least one had an impression of freedom.

    Combat is a mixed bag - it retains some of the suspense of the original and eliminates those annoying hunts-for-the-last-alien by including a nifty little feature which has your team sometimes getting a clue as to the enemy's location by having them hear movement during the alien turn. Yet it cannot be denied that it is hugely simplified. No inventories, set classes, no choice on the type of shot (auto, snap or aimed replaced by 'fire') and perhaps most importantly the character statistics which were so vitally important in the original appear to have been discarded entirely. The 'overwatch' read - opportunity fire - ability no longer relies on the character's reaction stat to determine if and when they fire during an alien's movement - they simply open fire.

    Getting read of action points/time units makes for a more fluid, fast-paced tactical experience but it also diminishes a lot of the scope for freedom. I do not like the fact that someone can move and fire while a character who stays put the entire turn can still only fire once. Then there are the problems others have mentioned such as only being able to fire at aliens. You cannot activate the 'fire' command unless there is a visible bad guy to shoot. What's the point of having a destructible environment if you can't wantonly blow it to pieces?!?!?

    Despite all this, as I said as the start, I do actually like this game. Whether that is a sad indictment of the dearth and quality of strategy titles available today or because it's a good title in its own right only time will tell.

    I'd give this a 7 if taken as a one-off but only a 4 if viewed as part of the UFO/XCOM family (so, yeah, a 5 overall - go figure).    … Expand
  67. redeux
    Nov 28, 2012
    5
    To keep this short: It was an interesting game and caught my attention pretty quickly at the start. I enjoyed playing through it but It's not the type of game where I personally would keep coming back to.
  68. HARALD
    Oct 13, 2012
    6
    This is a ok action game but its a poor xcom game.I played the game for many hours and felt that i never got to enjoy the game play, most of the reason was the camera whiche was very poorly implemented. But my biggest problem with this game was that combat got boaring the more i played. The maps where not scary, and lacked soul. If you are a pereson who like action i can recomend thisThis is a ok action game but its a poor xcom game.I played the game for many hours and felt that i never got to enjoy the game play, most of the reason was the camera whiche was very poorly implemented. But my biggest problem with this game was that combat got boaring the more i played. The maps where not scary, and lacked soul. If you are a pereson who like action i can recomend this game. But if you are looking for a grate turened based game, you will be very disappointed in this game.

    The constant chattering of the units get boring fast. The units dont represent the contry they are from. My chinees sniper is american im think og sending him on a solo misson to get rid of him. And that is also som of the problem for this game. Its to muche like an american action movie, and not a realy good one at that. If you are ufo fan youll need to play this game only to find out you dont like it. If you dont know xcom this might be a very good game for you.

    I am a huge x xom fan so xcom:enemy unkown gets 6/10    … Expand
  69. bluejay3463
    Oct 13, 2012
    6
    The game is heavily story based, and the story is completely linear and very short. After a couple of playthroughs you get pretty sick of the exact same story points occurring at the exact same. I have only played a few days and I have already memorized the exact course of actions needed to complete the story, because there are just not that many steps.

    This is made even worse by the    The game is heavily story based, and the story is completely linear and very short. After a couple of playthroughs you get pretty sick of the exact same story points occurring at the exact same. I have only played a few days and I have already memorized the exact course of actions needed to complete the story, because there are just not that many steps.

    This is made even worse by the fact that the story is heavily dependent on a sense of mystery, which is completely gone after the first playthrough.

    To add insult to injury, the line of site mechanics are junk, the enemies are omniscient and get a free turn when you get within about a mile of them, and both the enemies and your team can often shoot through several feet thick walls of alien alloy. Even the tactical combat aspect is not great.

    This game doesn't have the variety of game play mechanics that the first XCOM did, or that games like Civilization have. And the main story is much shorter than many of the good tactical RPG's like Final Fantasy Tactics or Valkyria Chronicles (much less variety in gear and abilities as well). The meta game is completely dumbed down. The entire thing plays like a tablet game.

    If the game had great tactical combat, a deep tech tree, a greater variety of abilities and gear, and more sophisticated finance / base management mechanics, you could ignore the repetitive story from game to game. But without those components story is too much a part of what value this game delivers and that is burnt out in the first playthrough. Overall its was not a bad attempt, but this is a mediocre game and definitely not the successor to the original XCOM.    … Expand
  70. Mordobb
    Nov 21, 2012
    6
    Visual execution is good. But as an Xcom remake it fails at many points. Many eyecandy and too few results, its clear someone in a high seat did not know WTF Xcom mindset should be. Waste of money player side and producer. 6 char limits give No way to have any tactic at all, and doesn t stand at all. Too small maps sometimes even corridors
    Too short reshearch = limited wprkshop options    Visual execution is good. But as an Xcom remake it fails at many points. Many eyecandy and too few results, its clear someone in a high seat did not know WTF Xcom mindset should be. Waste of money player side and producer. 6 char limits give No way to have any tactic at all, and doesn t stand at all. Too small maps sometimes even corridors
    Too short reshearch = limited wprkshop options too = limited tactics
    air and land "cavalry" ain t there.
    No replay value.

    If you know what i m talking about go see Xenonauts...i downloaded the demo after JA:bia failure and this Xcom, and finaly, even being alfa, someone seems to be knowing whats its doing.
    Too bad they haven t the funds this Xcom Has.    … Expand
  71. Sycharth
    Oct 17, 2012
    5
    I have bought the game as I am/was a huge fan of the original series and because I am an old school gamer (36 year old). I have obviously finished the game after playing furiously and I have this sensation of emptiness...
    Opinion:
    Short, easy and somewhat poor AI, because as the difficulty increases basically the AI cheats by lowering your % of hit on enemies. Very dumbed down version of    I have bought the game as I am/was a huge fan of the original series and because I am an old school gamer (36 year old). I have obviously finished the game after playing furiously and I have this sensation of emptiness...
    Opinion:
    Short, easy and somewhat poor AI, because as the difficulty increases basically the AI cheats by lowering your % of hit on enemies. Very dumbed down version of the original , mainly to suit mainstream console gameplay and as long as you have 6 guys in squad, anything combination works as the games is fairly linear. Also poor graphics on PC version. This is not 1999 anymore and we deserve better texture packs and a lot better quality on cutscenes.
    As mentioned before by other users, there is a script decided before every mission starts (after you launch it) on which all the hits and miss of your team have already been setup. You can save and load 1001 times and the results will be exactly the same. This is not strategy this is watching an interactive slideshow. They have just removed all the char stats from affecting the game and they are just there for cosmetic value.
    Despite all this still a fun game to play through on a weekend on normal difficulty, a week on classic and 10 years on Impossible :P
    Buy at your own risk (you will be disappointed if you played the original)    … Expand
  72. foolx
    Oct 18, 2012
    6
    So i was about to buy this game for the xbox 360. Thanks to a friend of mine, he lend me his pc-version to first test the game. Thanks!
    I would never ever pay 60
  73. Blackcat7k
    Oct 14, 2012
    7
    XCOM: Enemy Unknown Review

    I came in thinking that Firaxis was just giving us the original XCOM with a slick graphics upgrade. I was pleased and saddened by some of the changes to the original formula of the game. After finishing XCOM:Enemy Unknown on Classic I can say that Firaxis did a commendable job, but it is very apparent that much of the old gameplay that gave the original a    XCOM: Enemy Unknown Review

    I came in thinking that Firaxis was just giving us the original XCOM with a slick graphics upgrade. I was pleased and saddened by some of the changes to the original formula of the game. After finishing XCOM:Enemy Unknown on Classic I can say that Firaxis did a commendable job, but it is very apparent that much of the old gameplay that gave the original a tense, tactical feel was taken away in favor of a more streamlined approach. Graphics and Sound:

    The graphics have a feel that seems to fit the original look of the game. The special effects and sounds for the weapons fit the game very well and definitely sell the game. The switching camera angles can also invoke a sense of achievement or trepidation depending on if you're seeing one your soldiers gunning down an alien or a new deadly group of aliens coming into view. Sometimes enemies will appear to stand on thin air and there seem to be clipping issues with some flying enemies becoming stuck in ceilings and being completely invisible unless you blow the roof away. These aren    … Expand
  74. Deepestblue
    Oct 18, 2012
    6
    As a fan of the X-COM franchise I was all eager to get my hands onto this game finally. Long story short: If the (3D-)graphics wouldn't be so nice, this would be a major disappointment. In the traditional X-COM games I loved the variety of options I have, and the simplicity yet power of the user interface. In XCOM:Enemy Unknown on the other hand I feel extremely limited, up to the point ofAs a fan of the X-COM franchise I was all eager to get my hands onto this game finally. Long story short: If the (3D-)graphics wouldn't be so nice, this would be a major disappointment. In the traditional X-COM games I loved the variety of options I have, and the simplicity yet power of the user interface. In XCOM:Enemy Unknown on the other hand I feel extremely limited, up to the point of having the feeling that most of steps I have to make to be successful are pretty pre-defined (and not hard to figure out), e.g. order of research. The above mentioned user interface is clearly inferior to the traditional X-COM games: things are well hidden, you click too often, mouse- and keyboard-input are somewhat not streamlined (aparently optimized for gamepads rather). A consequence of both shortcomings is that I feel less attached to "my crew", "my station" and "my mission".

    Another - for me personally - really big downside is that simply destroying stuff (buildings, etc.) is happening far less and has far less strategical meaning than in the original games. Yes, it looks nicer, but in the old days you could really blow up an UFO from afar with 4 guys using rocket launchers if you wanted to. No more today.

    Don't get me wrong, XCOM: Enemy Unknown is not a bad game, but that is a consequence of the timeless game concepts. Sadly, Firaxis failed to pick up on the huge opportunity to bring this to the next generation - despite the very nice 3D-graphics everything else seems to have been cut down, simplified/banalized and not thought through.

    It will make you play it once with a lot of joy, but it will not make you love it for months and play it over and over again as the good old XCOM from 1983.    … Expand
  75. Spgsamuel
    Oct 7, 2013
    5
    at first i played it and it really sucked. its not x-com or aftershock or aftermath,

    once i came to terms with this i gave it a fair go, none expectationally like before. I started to have a really good time, soldier development is great. i really wanted them to live and they get really cool nicknames depending on their heroic encounters, kinda awesome. its full of awesomeness really.    at first i played it and it really sucked. its not x-com or aftershock or aftermath,

    once i came to terms with this i gave it a fair go, none expectationally like before. I started to have a really good time, soldier development is great. i really wanted them to live and they get really cool nicknames depending on their heroic encounters, kinda awesome. its full of awesomeness really.

    i did not notice the 'sucky AI' i never get gamers who demand perfection, like xcom had perfect AI it was easy to outsmart a grey with bug exploits etctec. its a freakin game you guys need to learn to use you imagination a little. i mean in a movie when captain fantastic goes all rubbery and wraps around dr doom you say wow that is so unrealistic that would never happen in real life, no you use a thing called initiative and try to accept that while a movie it has limitations and they rest is your problem.

    anyway like i said it was good. for mabey six hours... then i chuffing finished it.

    Ill never play it again theres nothing there... tooo play. i wish i hadnt bought it its kinda like a waste of time, dont get me wrong its good and fun when you commit. but them its over, poooof no replay value its more like a piece of junk, not xcom, good, but shorter than a fat guys appendage.

    Disapointing.    … Expand
  76. Skulb
    Oct 28, 2012
    5
    Reworking a classic like X-Com is obviously gonna be a challenge. But the continuous failure of gaming companies to get the feeling of the two original games right is just amazing. Once more almost everything that made the original such a great game has been removed, and meaningless fluff has been added.
    The worst part is the incessant hand holding the game forces on you. Two hours into    Reworking a classic like X-Com is obviously gonna be a challenge. But the continuous failure of gaming companies to get the feeling of the two original games right is just amazing. Once more almost everything that made the original such a great game has been removed, and meaningless fluff has been added.
    The worst part is the incessant hand holding the game forces on you. Two hours into the game I`m still waiting to be allowed to choose for myself what to do in my base, but am being guided around as if I`m completely brain dead. In between all this insulting babysitting there are endless cut scenes with pointless dialogue, so that whenever you do try to explore your base you risk one of the uninteresting inhabitants giving you a dull explanation for why you can`t be where you clicked, complete with panning cameras. The whole experience in the base makes you wish there was some option to turn the entire guided experience off. It`s not as if you need to hear a single word being said by anybody anyway.

    The actual tactical game is so simplified it doesn`t even compare to the original game. No inventories, not enough space to really be tactical, poor camera controls and the endless loss of game controls as the camera pans around to give you that utterly meaningless "movie" feel. The first NPC encountered even insists on talking for about 5 seconds every turn while you sit and wait for her like a moron.

    Compared to this the original dropped you in at the deep end let you explore the game yourself. There were no cut scenes and endless droning dialogue to waste your time, and you had detailed base and tactical control. Why is it so impossible these days to just let players play the game on their own?
    Whatever merits this game has is totally lost in all this, at least for me. I`m sure members of the fluoride generation used to being treated as imbeciles will enjoy it, but for seasoned gamers it is unbearable.    … Expand
  77. Judge_Ice
    Oct 16, 2012
    7
    Cool game, but there is no way this deserves a 10. Way too little content in this game, with graphics relative simple it's seems a waste that there are so few locations. Overall the game feels rushed and buggy... On normal difficulty the game is also quite quick to complete even with everything researched and all environments played though several times. Fun but hardly AAA material.
  78. zeninsight
    Oct 14, 2012
    7
    playing this game is like drinking whiskey with too much ice cube... you know it is whiskey, its smell like whiskey, but the taste is dilluted by water.. played in classic difficulty and finish it in 2 days (around 20 game play) i've played original x-com back in the 90's..and of course i got high expectation on this version.. while graphic is good, the gameplay somewhat roughly similiar..playing this game is like drinking whiskey with too much ice cube... you know it is whiskey, its smell like whiskey, but the taste is dilluted by water.. played in classic difficulty and finish it in 2 days (around 20 game play) i've played original x-com back in the 90's..and of course i got high expectation on this version.. while graphic is good, the gameplay somewhat roughly similiar.. it less some of the features that make xcom is uniquely xcom such as : limited role for all item, aliens research material, no artwork for the alien image which i think they should have because its cool, ground combat became so linear basically just run ahead and shot whatever alien you encounter (compared the exploration of the old game), no research material regarding alien motive and purpose (the old xcom you will research UFO type, capture several alien commanders, to slowly reveal their movites and purpose of the atacks,) pace of game is to fast (dont think its logically possible to research all alien technology, reverse engineerd and kill the alien boss mereley under 1 year, human is not that genious!!).. to sum it up.. although the game still fun to play.. but its a simpler version of UFO and wouldnt be able to capture the original game greatness.. good effort but too bad.. they could make it much more better… Expand
  79. Cris
    Oct 16, 2012
    7
    Lost points for:
    1. Excessive bugs
    2. Over-simplification of key features 3. Purely arbitrary nonsense Unfortunately the game released with a slew of graphics bugs, and more importantly game altering/affecting bugs like randomly appearing aliens. The occasional glitch on release is fine, but in this case playing a mission without noticing a graphics glitch is almost impossible. The    Lost points for:
    1. Excessive bugs
    2. Over-simplification of key features 3. Purely arbitrary nonsense

    Unfortunately the game released with a slew of graphics bugs, and more importantly game altering/affecting bugs like randomly appearing aliens. The occasional glitch on release is fine, but in this case playing a mission without noticing a graphics glitch is almost impossible.

    The biggest problem for me comes from the over simplification of key aspects that made the original XCOM games interesting. Let me start off by saying that I fully agree that managing 20 soldiers per squad was tedious, and the game benefited from streamlining in that sense, BUT, and this a big but, they ended up taking way too much off the top. You're hard limited to a squad of 6 members and one squad only, these soldiers have zero inventory, they just simply have the items they can equip and nothing else.

    Ammo doesn't need to be managed, grenades and other usable items are an "X uses per combat" deal and skills are simply cooldown based. Pointless weapon restrictions also exist and for some reason my Sniper cannot equip an assault rifle even though they had no problem using one before they became a sniper, the heavy weapons class also has this pointless restriction but for some reason the other two classes do not. While you can swap people in and out of your squad before the start of a mission, you cannot create pre-set squads either. All soldiers can be fully customized and the only unique thing about them is the flag on their backs, all males share the same body type and females have the exact same problem, no variations exist in height and for that matter the voices all sound the same as well.

    Another big problem that ties into this is that it's not possible to have more than one squad or respond to more than one event at the same time, to me this is a huge issue, especially since the rewards are the exact same every single time, even near the end of the game, 200 currency, 4 scientists, or 4 engineers and sometimes a squad member. This results in being almost forced pick the region that's in most panic as the mission you handle because the rewards basically suck and there's no incentive to take 200 currency over the loss of a country's support on the council. So this begs the question of why the game was dumbed down so much that you can't build multiple dropships, have multiple squads and respond to multiple attack/abduction sites at once?

    This, coupled with stupid and often times arbitrary things like the previously mentioned weapon restrictions, really hurt the games sense of freedom and depth of strategy. For example, if I am going to assault a landed UFO I know that most of the fighting will be close range, high mobility fighting with limited field of vision. I have two options, take a sniper who will be pretty useless, or swap the sniper out for another character. Neither of these is particularly appealing to me, instead I'd like to be able to just equip my sniper with an assault rifle or a shotgun and use them that way but I can't. Or better yet, why can't I have both? If I give up enough inventory space and other things there's no reason why I shouldn't be able to carry a sniper rifle with 10 bullets and an assault rifle with 90. Sure I wouldn't have grenades, a medkit, a pistol, a rocket launcher or infinite ammo, but I could customize the soldier to be what I want them to be. Unfortunately this extends further into combat, hit %s are very random and you honestly shouldn't base your decision to shoot on it, I've hit plenty of 25% shots and missed plenty of 90%s. The only way to be sure that you don't miss is to get 100% hit chance and this isn't realistically possible in most scenarios so missions boil down to finding cover and abusing the hell out of Overwatch which is essentially a guard/interrupt feature. On the same topic, cover itself is random in effectiveness and ranges from grossly overpowered to completely useless, I've had characters killed through full cover before and I'm not convinced that this was due to a bug but rather just how cover is intended to work, so the only surefire way to survive is to load up on hitpoints/medkits and kill the aliens before they kill you. That being said you WILL die in long drawn out battles regardless of how smart you play, the computer simply has higher damage/accuracy values than you can ever hope to see, moreso they're almost impossible to flank thanks to a stupid "introduction" mechanic that happens every single time an alien comes into view for the first time. This gives the aliens instant control of the game and lets them move to cover which is a complete joke.

    Overall not a bad game, but if you're looking for an authentic XCOM or TBS feel, it might be better to skip it, there is no way this game 10/10 like the fanboy reviews claim but it's certainly not 4/10 either.    … Expand
  80. EddyHan
    Oct 30, 2012
    7
    Back in the day, I was a huge XCOM fan! I played UFO, Terror from the Deep, Apocalypse and even Interceptor. And now I've played XCOM: Enemy Unknown which I must say, was what I hoped for, but what I really wanted was for this game to blow me out of the water! First off, the graphics are sweet and the level of destruction in this game is immense. The music and sound effects works with theBack in the day, I was a huge XCOM fan! I played UFO, Terror from the Deep, Apocalypse and even Interceptor. And now I've played XCOM: Enemy Unknown which I must say, was what I hoped for, but what I really wanted was for this game to blow me out of the water! First off, the graphics are sweet and the level of destruction in this game is immense. The music and sound effects works with the eerie environment and visually hearing alien movement can help a lot especially when breaching a room. The only downfall in this game is that being a turn based strategy game, there isn't a lot of strategy! XCOM: EU has been dubbed down a lot. It's all move to cover, move to higher ground and even then your rookies get hit even in full cover! The major problem I find is that the shooting is all predicted whether it hits or misses when it clearly hits it's target. Another problem is that the overall accuracy is not improved if you move closer to your target, in fact snipers on high ground can still miss a lot which seems wrong. A tactical advantage SHOULD be an advantage. This game is still quite fun to play, but it is nowhere near as good as the original games. If this game was made with PC gamers in mind, then we would be looking at a 9/10 or even a 10/10. Let's pray that there will be mods that will turn XCOM: EU into a real strategy game rather than a watered down roulette game.… Expand
  81. shotcaller1
    Dec 2, 2012
    5
    I purchased this game because I thought it would be FUN! I have now played this game for only approx. 60 -70 hours but I am getting the distinct impression that it is way to difficult to be simply a game. It isn't something that will keep the kids occupied . The AI has far too many advantages and the soldiers die way too easily even on the easy setting. The graphics and visuals are veryI purchased this game because I thought it would be FUN! I have now played this game for only approx. 60 -70 hours but I am getting the distinct impression that it is way to difficult to be simply a game. It isn't something that will keep the kids occupied . The AI has far too many advantages and the soldiers die way too easily even on the easy setting. The graphics and visuals are very well done and the game itself was well conceived, and it is playable except for the fact that the "easy" level means "expert". Obviously I am not a professional gamer and I think that is what the creators were targeting this game for. It's simply not that enjoyable as a "simple" gamer. I really like the tactical aspect but the enemy has too much firepower and the xcom soldiers are forced too move into untenable positions in order target the aliens even at low percentages. Its either take a bad shot and get killed or press overwatch and get killed. That's not very fun.… Expand
  82. Waclaw
    Aug 1, 2013
    7
    To make the story as short as possible: this game could have been great, but came out average. You get the impression that the game has been downsized in terms of complexity to fit as many people as you possibly can. So the agents modifications in terms of equipment is a laugh now, vehicle modifications are almost non existant, the amount of structures you can build in your base is aTo make the story as short as possible: this game could have been great, but came out average. You get the impression that the game has been downsized in terms of complexity to fit as many people as you possibly can. So the agents modifications in terms of equipment is a laugh now, vehicle modifications are almost non existant, the amount of structures you can build in your base is a shadow of what we saw in prevoius X-Coms, even the number of aliens ingame is reduced... Don't get me wrong, it's not a bad game and I do admit I enjoyed it, but it's still not what we were told we'd get and notr what was expected. Plus you have the feeling that the game overlay was made for touchscreen apps and the PC version is just a poor pott. I don't really understand why the game receives such high scores a decent piece of work, but nothing brilliant for both veterans of X-Coms and newcomers. 7/10 from me.… Expand
  83. Roeratt
    Dec 29, 2013
    5
    I never played the originals, so I was able to go into this game with no expectations. It could have been solid and entertaining, and was to a point, but it was crippled by RNG. Never apply RNG to accuracy in games. Never do it.
  84. spampsz
    Mar 26, 2013
    7
    Unfortunately game is less complicated then it's precursor. It's also shorter, with less aircraft models and so on.... game play is the same with is big plus.
  85. rantingwaj
    Mar 23, 2013
    5
    I personally found this game to be very average. Though I did like the whole concept of the game, I was also very disappointed with this game for several reasons and I am not someone who has played the original xcom games!! I had played the demo for this game before preordering and because in the demo mission everything is scripted, I thought the cover system and flanking mechanics demoedI personally found this game to be very average. Though I did like the whole concept of the game, I was also very disappointed with this game for several reasons and I am not someone who has played the original xcom games!! I had played the demo for this game before preordering and because in the demo mission everything is scripted, I thought the cover system and flanking mechanics demoed in the demo will actually work like they showed. But it was a great disappointment when I came across situations where I had like 30% chance to hit at almost close to point blank range or at other times 75% or there abouts from a huge distance away. The flanking system is equally broken, several times, I got behind the the line of the enemies facing and with no cover between him and me but the game still wont understand that he's been flanked and I got like 55% chance to hit. It seems the devs thought that people who like challenging games will be pleased if they made the game artificially difficult by giving the enemies better aim and by making all that your guys do completely random!! On hard difficulty game felt very unplayable because of the broken cover/flanking system, essentially your skill doesn't really count for much in battles, getting good dice rolls however does. Now I know combat like this can be fun like it was in older rpgs like say fallout but there, as your character leveled up, you could give him perks to improve his aim and raise the skills you thought mattered. Here, not only is the weapon class being decided for you but also, all of the stats for each of your guys. Theres other things that is wrong with this game which relate to the story and the base building aspect of the game which are equally dissapointing and I dont need go into but as I said, even as someone who hasn't played the previous xcom games, I can see what all the 'hardcore' fans of the series are complaining about and I completely agree with them! Sadly once again the need (or the greedy desire) for companies to port games on to consoles has resulted in a very average dumbed down game which is pretty to look at!! (not that pretty mind you) and sadly that's pretty much all that this game really has… Expand
  86. zanz
    Apr 20, 2013
    7
    Simple, repetitive and boring... A lot less content than comparable turn based RPGs... Can be challenging on highest difficulty and it does have multiplayer, although there are much better and more fun multiplayer games around. I haven't played the old XCOM titles, but this game struck me as average at best...
  87. da040926
    Sep 24, 2013
    7
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I spent a lot of happy time with XCOM:EU but truth is, most of it was due to learning how to mod the game without any modding support from the developer.
    This is one of those games you enjoy despite being annoyed by so many bugs or simply things which could have been done so better.
    I played all my games on Ironman being unable to reload wrong decisions or even bad luck situations created great suspension and emotional involvement for me. I recommend trying it for everyone as in my opinion it itself adds 1-2 point to my score.

    I would give it 6 for vanilla game, 8 with existing mods, so I make it 7.

    - absence of modding Support despite early promises
    This is really sad potential for modding improvements, tweaking and fixes is huge!

    - friendly panic fire is way over the board
    While a great idea, their implementation is terrible. The only thing deciding if you can beat high difficulties is if you can survive massive friendly fire during early missions.

    - research unbalanced
    Since one third (maybe one half) of the game, my scientists were just playing games 90% of time (and I even had no research lab built)

    - base management trivial and boring
    I never found reason to build expensive advanced buildings as basic ones were much cheaper and did the trick just as well and I never had issue with lack of space.

    - clumsy UI shameless and poorly done console port
    Equipping soldiers before mission disturbingly annoying as there was no un-equip all function and you need to select specific soldier, check his current equipment and change it one by one.

    - itemization trivial
    No need to think here as lasers are clear upgrade over default weaponry in all parameters and plasma is clear upgrade over lasers. Situation with armors is a little better as there are some choices to be made.

    - bag restriction to a single item
    Highly annoying artificial cover for bad game design instead of design proper balance for items, cost, power and consequences, they rather force us to use only single thing. Yes, I understand it is much easier for them but it is also dumbing the game down and if you look around reviews, it is highly resented.    … Expand
  88. MR67
    Apr 2, 2015
    6
    OK, I haven't played the original XCOM, so you at least won't get to read about me harping on and on about how great it was by comparison with this version. XCOM Enemy Unknown is a fairly enjoyable strategy game where you are in charge of an organization tasked with defending Earth from mysterious alien attacks. You'll be spending most of the game controlling a squad of hand-pickedOK, I haven't played the original XCOM, so you at least won't get to read about me harping on and on about how great it was by comparison with this version. XCOM Enemy Unknown is a fairly enjoyable strategy game where you are in charge of an organization tasked with defending Earth from mysterious alien attacks. You'll be spending most of the game controlling a squad of hand-picked soldiers in various missions where you respond to alien incursions, and amidst all of this, you'll also be trying to manage your HQ and building up your resources while trying to keep your member countries happy by keeping their panic levels from getting too high, as well as trying to find out the ultimate reasons for the alien invasion.

    Pros:
    - Game plays smoothly and has been entirely bug-free for me over about 40 combined hours of gameplay or so. Not a single crash that I can remember.
    - Fun building up and developing a squad of soldiers with specific skills to suit your strategy. Fancy playing with two support soldiers, one a dedicated medic and the other a rifle jockey? Or a tank type assault soldier with 3 long range snipers backing him up? Go ahead!
    - Ironman mode is a nice extra challenge for people like me who don't believe in reloading from a previous save when a mission fails. This allows you only 1 saved game slot which automatically updates during the game and only allows you to save when exiting the game.

    Cons:
    - Limited number of maps for missions. There are a couple of forest areas, city areas, spaceship areas, factory areas, and that is about it. Maybe about a dozen different maps in total. No map randomization. Gameplay tends to get quite repetitive after a while, primarily for this reason.
    - Tedious movement in some areas. Some maps, like the inside of large alien spacecraft, have long empty corridors which can be an absolute pain in the butt to move all 6 of your soldiers along turn by turn. Some areas also have multiple levels which mean your soldiers are obscured by the floor from the level above until you scroll the mouse down to their map level to view them properly. When your soldiers get their next turn, the display has reset itself, meaning you have to scroll your mouse to view the level your soldiers are on again. Aarrrghhh!
    - Little freedom to play as you choose, as you have to advance the current date in the game and wait for events to happen first before responding to them. Panic levels high in the UK and you need to do something to reduce them? Tough. You can do squat about that unless you happen to get a specific mission there, such as an alien abduction to respond to. The game also forces you to follow the main storyline as soon as possible as the missions start to get more difficult (and repetitive) fairly quickly, so you are often left feeling a bit rushed throughout the game.
    - Limited soldier development and loadout options. Apart from cosmetic appearances where you can change the colour of their outfits and their haircuts etc, there is little to distinguish one Colonel-ranked sniper from another. Soldiers can be from a number of different countries yet all speak perfect English with a nice American accent (I believe this was addressed in the DLC XCOM Enemy Within though).There are only 2 skills you can generally choose each rank (sometimes just 1) and inventory is ridiculously limited to just a few slots, mostly for weapons and 1 extra slot for the backpack, which will typically be for a grenade, medkit or protective vest. A couple of the soldier classes grant an extra backpack slot at higher levels but that's about it. What makes it more frustrating is that the game mechanics do not allow you to retrieve gear from any fallen soldiers during a mission. Urgently need an extra grenade or medkit and your dead buddy just happened to have both in his backpack? Tough.
    - Unbalanced difficulty levels. The game has 4 difficulty levels - easy, normal, classic and impossible. Most people will play on normal or classic. The problem is that normal gets too easy after playing for a little while and classic is too difficult. All the aliens get bonuses to their aim and critical hit chances in classic mode and tend to one-shot your soldiers, especially in the early part of the game.    … Expand
  89. Backslider
    Oct 14, 2012
    6
    As a turn-based game, it's an enjoyable if simple title. As an installment in the XCOM series, it's a dumbed-down disappointment that tries too hard to be action-packed and cinematic over offering a deep and rewarding tactical experience with much replay value. If you' don't know what XCOM is, or can forget you know what XCOM is, you stand a decent chance of having fun during at leastAs a turn-based game, it's an enjoyable if simple title. As an installment in the XCOM series, it's a dumbed-down disappointment that tries too hard to be action-packed and cinematic over offering a deep and rewarding tactical experience with much replay value. If you' don't know what XCOM is, or can forget you know what XCOM is, you stand a decent chance of having fun during at least your first playthrough. If you're an oldschool XCOM fan that can't forget this is supposed to be an XCOM game, you're going to be disappointed unless you're really good at lying to yourself. Things like the Inventory are a joke (go ahead and choose between a scope on your rifle or ONE grenade) as is the aircraft "inventory" system, which consists of picking which gun a jet flies with, and then using silly 1-shot consumables during an engagement to give the aircraft buffs. The game plays like it's on rails as well, limiting what you can do like no XCOM game before and putting more emphasis on the storyline and cutscenes, which lowers the replay value. Would you like to sell your outdated weaponry when you're done with it? You can't. Would you like to put in the time, effort and resources to field another skyranger so you can respond to TWO threats in a reasonable amount of time instead of one? Can't. Would you like to tell your heavy to bring a plasma rifle instead of his crummy default LMG? Can't.
    Despite neutering your options and creativity, the game can be enjoyable, just don't go in expecting it to be XCOM, no matter what the title says. Go in with zero expectations, and you can only be pleasantly surprised.    … Expand
  90. Cailore
    Jul 17, 2013
    6
    It's not XCom, but it's pretty fun in its own right.

    Too dumbed down to live up to its potential and I still cringe every time the characters grab the carrying handle to fire the LMG. And don't get me started on the "international" team voice actors who all sound like the come from the same two block radius somewhere in middle America. Really, so many things in this game could have    It's not XCom, but it's pretty fun in its own right.

    Too dumbed down to live up to its potential and I still cringe every time the characters grab the carrying handle to fire the LMG. And don't get me started on the "international" team voice actors who all sound like the come from the same two block radius somewhere in middle America. Really, so many things in this game could have been better with just a little bit of thought or effort if only the developer gave a damn.    … Expand
  91. ejikvkaske
    Mar 20, 2013
    6
    EU is a simplified remake of the original X-Com with dumbed down features across the board. Replay value is severely limited by the heavily scripted nature of the campaign and a limited supply of hand-crafted(as opposed to randomly generated) battle maps. Console-inspired UI is a constant source of annoyance. However, EU's biggest fault lies in the combat. Enemies pose no danger to yourEU is a simplified remake of the original X-Com with dumbed down features across the board. Replay value is severely limited by the heavily scripted nature of the campaign and a limited supply of hand-crafted(as opposed to randomly generated) battle maps. Console-inspired UI is a constant source of annoyance. However, EU's biggest fault lies in the combat. Enemies pose no danger to your troops until they've been revealed. This reduces battle strategy to basically not revealing additional enemies. The multiplayer component seems like an afterthought. It could have been fun had there been more than 5 maps. Still, those of you willing to leave your sky high expectations for this remake at the door and don't mind a simplified X-Com game with shiny new graphics will probably enjoy EU.… Expand
  92. bocephvs
    Jan 7, 2014
    6
    Three words..... frustration, frustration, frustration..... going to have to go to easy mode to see if I can just enjoy this after a long day at work or if it still wants me to delete the game from my steam account and chalk up the time spent as lost time and find something else. For the masochist, have at it. I'll gift you my copy, you'll have to provide your own Tums. For thoseThree words..... frustration, frustration, frustration..... going to have to go to easy mode to see if I can just enjoy this after a long day at work or if it still wants me to delete the game from my steam account and chalk up the time spent as lost time and find something else. For the masochist, have at it. I'll gift you my copy, you'll have to provide your own Tums. For those looking for a relaxing but fairly challenging game, stay with the last version of XCOM.… Expand
  93. ultravincent
    Jul 9, 2013
    7
    It is a good game, with good structure and mechanics.
    The biggest issue: the level designers were LAZY.
    The levels start looking similar and being repetitive pretty soon. Too bad, it could have been a 9 game with decent storyline and creative levels. Hopefully that'll happen in an expansion.
  94. DesertEgoal
    Oct 27, 2012
    7
    Makes the turn based game genre seem bad-ass. The different units and abilities/weapons keeps you coming back for more to try to master all the interesting combinations. It is a good break from other competitive games that require you to be fully focused in unable to move your fingers from the controls for a second.. XCOM has the same competitive feel but challenges you more in theMakes the turn based game genre seem bad-ass. The different units and abilities/weapons keeps you coming back for more to try to master all the interesting combinations. It is a good break from other competitive games that require you to be fully focused in unable to move your fingers from the controls for a second.. XCOM has the same competitive feel but challenges you more in the customization factor and how you use your selected squad to their fullest.… Expand
  95. Seaburn
    Mar 19, 2013
    6
    Everyone who has given this game a good score has clearly never played the real xcom from the 90!!!!!!!!!

    I am not saying this is a bad game i am just SO disappointing how they could take a master peace like the old one and turn it in to this. **** weapons -Childish looking aliens (the old game was so creapy) actually everything looks that childish way the game has no mature    Everyone who has given this game a good score has clearly never played the real xcom from the 90!!!!!!!!!

    I am not saying this is a bad game i am just SO disappointing how they could take a master peace like the old one and turn it in to this.

    **** weapons
    -Childish looking aliens (the old game was so creapy) actually everything looks that childish way the game has no mature feeling!
    -Story to simple and short.
    etc.

    And where are the awesome base battles every map just looks the same the old game had much much variety when it comes to game play and everything else.

    Still i enjoyed the game but sometimes i wish programmers would program like they used to in the 90 using the stat of the art tools they have to day games are becoming so simple these days.    … Expand
  96. Kelemvor
    Oct 21, 2012
    6
    As i understand, XCOM:EU is a reimagining od the old game, but can this "excuse" everything? They left out quite a bit. This is more of a tactical game with a little something else, than a fully fledged invasion-simulator like the original. The research is to simple, to straight forward, there is no inventory, you only have 2 actions per round, most alien groups on the map have to beAs i understand, XCOM:EU is a reimagining od the old game, but can this "excuse" everything? They left out quite a bit. This is more of a tactical game with a little something else, than a fully fledged invasion-simulator like the original. The research is to simple, to straight forward, there is no inventory, you only have 2 actions per round, most alien groups on the map have to be triggered to do something, there are no attacks on your base, you have to make artificial decisions, because the XCOM who has been assigned to save the world, can only afford one skyranger transport. The list goes on about things that are of questionable design, don't make a lot of sense or are just plain missing. Despite these flaws and shortcomings, XCOM can be an enjoyable experience, just not the game i expected. I expected a modernisation, an increase in possibilities, more micromanagement etc. The new XCOM game is a streamlined version of the first, with a lackluster storyline, small tactical maps, lack of options and possibilities. In my opinion the replay value is very small, because the game follows a hardwired chain of events. If you like to concentration on tactical combat, and don't like micromanagement, then this XCOM is for you, If you liked the old one, liked the richness of its gameplay, the possibilities and options, to do what every you like, than this game will most likely disappoint you. After 20 to 30 hours of fun tactical combat, unsatisfying strategic gameplay, and totally unnecessary und illogical decisions forced down your throat, the game is over.… Expand
  97. spydercanopus
    Mar 27, 2013
    6
    If you can get past the tutorial stages despite all the glitched keyboard/mouse setting, you will have fun. This game had so much potential but fell short consistently, but that doesn't mean it's boring. The game is fascinating. Just not meant to be played with a PC.
  98. Renan
    May 26, 2013
    7
    This is a great, enjoyable turn-base tactical strategy game that's so fun to play, everybody who likes the genre should have it in their collection.

    So why just a seven? Because of the previous games of the series. No, I'm not hurt inside because of the changes in the mechanics. Far from it. I absolutely loved some of the new things, like the way the soldiers take cover and how    This is a great, enjoyable turn-base tactical strategy game that's so fun to play, everybody who likes the genre should have it in their collection.

    So why just a seven? Because of the previous games of the series.

    No, I'm not hurt inside because of the changes in the mechanics. Far from it. I absolutely loved some of the new things, like the way the soldiers take cover and how orders are given. Every thing's fluid and the pace of the action is more pleasant than ever.

    It's just that if a game such as Terror From the Deep (my favorite in the series) or X-Com: Apocalypse was released today even if in another setting, with a whole different story, by another company and going by another name, but keeping the mechanics it would make this iteration of Enemy Unknown stupid by comparison. It would be a more interesting game if the direction a soldier faces made a difference (in this new game, everybody has 360º vision and can turn around at the speed of light). It would also be way better if you could order a soldier to kneel down or to lay low, balancing the need for mobility with the need for accuracy.

    Still, it is a good game, and one that any tactics, turn-based strategy fan will enjoy playing for hours.    … Expand
  99. SlubbertKing
    Nov 26, 2012
    7
    This game is a form Chess with aliens, robots and psychic humans. I really enjoyed kicking alien ass in the single player. And the fact that you kinda get a bond between you and your soldiers is cool too. Cause when you realise you've lost one on the battlefield you sit there in front of your screen uttering a real agnoizing movie scream. If you like strategy games its a must have.
  100. AgentPothead
    Jul 28, 2013
    6
    The best xcom game you will get. Doesn't mean it's good, doesn't mean it's not consolized to high hell, doesn't mean the developers actually can do math and know what 93% chance to hit actually means. Honestly I'd rather play UFO: Extraterrestrials.
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Awards & Rankings

7
#7 Best PC Game of 2012
11
#11 Most Discussed PC Game of 2012
8
#8 Most Shared PC Game of 2012

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
89

Generally favorable reviews - based on 57 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 56 out of 57
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 57
  3. Negative: 0 out of 57
  1. PC Master (Greece)
    Feb 6, 2013
    88
    Is it better than the original? No. One can’t imagine X-Com 2012 being an all-time-classic and people still playing with it, months from now (let alone, years). Is it a ‘true’ X-Com game, however? Definitely. Remorseless geeks are in for shivers and swoons when they meet their beloved foes: mind-controlling sectoids, zombifying Chrysalids, Cyberdisks, Ethereals… [December 2012]
  2. Armchair Empire
    Dec 18, 2012
    95
    XCOM: Enemy Unknown is a worthy tribute to its progenitor and hopefully the start of something brand new for players who've been dying to get a good squad-based strategy game that lets them not only think, but feel as well.
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  3. Hyper Magazine
    Nov 14, 2012
    90
    Amazing tactical complexity, satisfying strategic depth; slightly dodgy ending, but your own stories are more important anyway. A modern classic.
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