XCOM: Enemy Within

 PC
User Score
8.1

Generally favorable reviews- based on 820 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 655 out of 820
  2. Mixed: 90 out of 820
  3. Negative: 75 out of 820
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  1. jadereviewer
    Feb 25, 2014
    6
    XCOM: Enemy Unknown was my favorite game of 2012(or whenever it came out.) This expansion is pretty large, adds some nice variety and is a great reason to do another couple of play throughs- one focusing heavily on MEc's and one heavily one Gene mods, or a balance.
    This is, however. horrifically overpriced. Unless you are getting off a CDkey website, don't buy. Pay UP TO 20 dollars i say,    XCOM: Enemy Unknown was my favorite game of 2012(or whenever it came out.) This expansion is pretty large, adds some nice variety and is a great reason to do another couple of play throughs- one focusing heavily on MEc's and one heavily one Gene mods, or a balance.
    This is, however. horrifically overpriced. Unless you are getting off a CDkey website, don't buy. Pay UP TO 20 dollars i say, as you will get a solid amount of hours out of another play through.    … Expand
  2. GarrettH
    Nov 21, 2013
    7
    There was some really good additions to the game, but I would say it's fundamentally flawed. Before the expansion, the end game was pretty easy and the hardest are the first few months. With all the new toys they give you, they had to crank up the difficulty and add new enemies. This makes the earlier months even tougher, and the end game even easier :(

    They didn't even scale or change    There was some really good additions to the game, but I would say it's fundamentally flawed. Before the expansion, the end game was pretty easy and the hardest are the first few months. With all the new toys they give you, they had to crank up the difficulty and add new enemies. This makes the earlier months even tougher, and the end game even easier :(

    They didn't even scale or change the end mission to account for all of the enemy within changes!    … Expand
  3. Violett
    Jan 18, 2014
    7
    Very good game, nice addition to original. But ... this game should be the part of Enemy Unknown, basically 80% of the game - is you played it already in original, same beginning, same ending. Of course genetic and cybernetic elements adds much fun to it, especially when you play Terminator mode, but I already completed this game year ago. If you didnt play original game you gonna like it.Very good game, nice addition to original. But ... this game should be the part of Enemy Unknown, basically 80% of the game - is you played it already in original, same beginning, same ending. Of course genetic and cybernetic elements adds much fun to it, especially when you play Terminator mode, but I already completed this game year ago. If you didnt play original game you gonna like it.
    p.s. I hate way of modern game developers - to develop a game than divide it into several parts and sell as dlcs. Please instead of one 20 usd game and 3 10 usd dlcs make 50 usd game with all dlcs included.    … Expand
  4. Cailore
    Nov 13, 2013
    6
    Overpriced for what is essentially a double-sized DLC. Wait until it goes on deep discount.

    Do you think anyone from the design team reads these? I was excited about the medal feature when I was surprised by its inclusion, until I saw my 'soldier' dressed in a frumpy uniform saluting like she was a 4 year-old. For the love of Pete Firaxis, look at some military people when making    Overpriced for what is essentially a double-sized DLC. Wait until it goes on deep discount.

    Do you think anyone from the design team reads these?
    I was excited about the medal feature when I was surprised by its inclusion, until I saw my 'soldier' dressed in a frumpy uniform saluting like she was a 4 year-old. For the love of Pete Firaxis, look at some military people when making 'military' animations, not bad B-rated sci-movies.

    Also, I had hoped that the accuracy estimation would have gotten better, but I still seem to miss an 80% chance to about 66% of the time.    … Expand
  5. Awesumo
    Nov 16, 2013
    5
    It's a nice expansion, but there isn't really that much new content.
    Definitely not good value for money. I would recommend getting it when it inevitably gets it's 50+% discount in a month or so.
  6. Baronz
    Nov 24, 2013
    5
    Is it good Yes, it adds new powers and mech to your combad squad, adds some new maps and missions.
    Is it worth 30$ No, its just a big DLC, and they ask too much for it.
  7. Seryin
    Nov 18, 2013
    5
    Enemy Within takes an already amazing game (Enemy Unknown), and adds a new class, some new maps and new enemies. That is pretty much it. Literally. Same campaign, story, characters and everything else as the original.
    "Back in my day," we called this a PLUG-IN. It is certainly not a DLC or expansion by any modern use of the words.
    I had fun playing Enemy Within, just as much fun as I    Enemy Within takes an already amazing game (Enemy Unknown), and adds a new class, some new maps and new enemies. That is pretty much it. Literally. Same campaign, story, characters and everything else as the original.
    "Back in my day," we called this a PLUG-IN. It is certainly not a DLC or expansion by any modern use of the words.

    I had fun playing Enemy Within, just as much fun as I did Enemy Unknown, and that is the problem.

    I believe this entire DLC is very misleading and anyone who beat Unknown already is going to be as confused as me when they find themselves just playing the same exact game as before.
    I liked Enemy Unknown enormously and gave it a 10/10, but that did not give them the right to think they could resell me the exact same experience at a whopping 30 bucks.

    "Oh you want a Mech in your XCOM game? We will add it as a new class, and then resell you the entire game with a new subtitle." 100% Genuine Real Authentic Firaxis Employee Quote

    Its a great game and fun experience, but If you played Unknown, you have already played Within.    … Expand
  8. meediocre
    Nov 20, 2013
    7
    Talk about upping the difficulty! The first Exalt mission wiped out more than half my crew then suddenly in the next mission I'm up against some kind of mech-robot-monster with a shield and plasma weapons when I've literally only just managed to get some laser rifles. I tried it on Classic difficulty and was summarily annihilated after three missions, then I tried normal mode on IronmanTalk about upping the difficulty! The first Exalt mission wiped out more than half my crew then suddenly in the next mission I'm up against some kind of mech-robot-monster with a shield and plasma weapons when I've literally only just managed to get some laser rifles. I tried it on Classic difficulty and was summarily annihilated after three missions, then I tried normal mode on Ironman and could not get get my head round how even with scopes my team was missing 70+ percent shots and they were taking out my squad with one or two hits with carapace armour. Maybe I've had a bad role of the dice, but I relatively easily completed Unknown, so I'm not a tactical idiot. Basically, it's a nice add-on and I will try again, but the steep and rather unfairly harshness of the various challenges have proven to be a bit frustrating this time round. I also could not seem to find time, to get enough satellites and planes in the air to stop panic levels around various countries. I was investing in power and uplinks but the aliens were coming in too fast.

    Guess some of you who've completed this expansion in a day will be chuckling to yourself. Rarely do I mark a game down for its punishing difficulty level, so if it were a bit more balanced/fair from the start then it would get an 8. I hear it gets easier at the end-game stage when you have all the upgrades and veteran soldiers, but alas, those pesky new enemies might prevent me from saving the earth this time!    … Expand
  9. Procopper
    Nov 12, 2013
    5
    The XCOM franchise is excellent. Enemy Unknown is a very good game, and may have single-handedly brought back turn-based strategy games. Enemy Within is a respectable DLC addition, but will ultimately disappoint, as it does nothing to address significant annoyances from the first game.

    Firaxis has chosen to go with big-ticket, flashy upgrades, while leaving the core play mechanisms    The XCOM franchise is excellent. Enemy Unknown is a very good game, and may have single-handedly brought back turn-based strategy games. Enemy Within is a respectable DLC addition, but will ultimately disappoint, as it does nothing to address significant annoyances from the first game.

    Firaxis has chosen to go with big-ticket, flashy upgrades, while leaving the core play mechanisms alone. In fact, even the new gameplay mechanics boil down to reliance on tried and true XCOM formula.

    Remember bomb-disarmament missions? Well, they're back, except now when you click, your're collecting mind-goo, not disarming bombs. That's the crux of the DLC. Yes, it earns you cool, new stuff. The mind-effects and mech-suits look really good. Bad guys die really flashy, (though with a weird delay after you shoot them).

    But at the end of the day, you're disarming bombs. Except now its collecting mind-juice.    … Expand
  10. Derythor
    Jul 2, 2014
    7
    The expansion is pretty decent. I love using the MEC's and augmenting my soldiers. I do regret that they didn't add an additional story arch to the game, however. While the addition of a rival organization was a nice touch, it was pretty well the only portion of the story that was added. What it boils down to is if you have beaten Enemy Unknown, you've beaten Enemy Within.
  11. shotcaller1
    Jan 20, 2014
    7
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I really wanted to give this game a 7.5 but it wouldn't let me. The real reasons for this are quite obvious, if you have played the game. First and foremost, the AI (alien invaders) always get in range long before the X-COM defenders can even take a clear shot. Which means, basically, you're a sitting duck for at least a turn before you can engage in combat. This feature is also exacerbated by the fact that the aliens can shoot through, around, over or beyond anything I've ever seen. They also get to move as soon as the X-COM team comes into contact with them, no sneaking up on the enemy and eliminating them like the Navy Seals do. That's something that the X-COM soldiers also cannot do, even wearing GHOST armor, The aliens almost never miss, at long range, which is frustrating, because if you go after them aggressively, they will get shots on your guys without them being able to respond or at a huge shot penalty disadvantage. This continues until, and even when the X-COM forces have advanced through the ranks to Major or Colonel. Even at that stage the aliens have longer range and better targeting than the X-COM forces. There is an awful lot of X-COM forces missing 94% shots at close range, leaving men exposed to one last hit by the alien enemies. One example was where I had played to the end of an alien ship landing and barely escaped disaster from an attacking Monstrous Sectopod and 3 heavy floaters, only to be suddenly ambushed by a muton, 2 muton elite, a muton berserker and a psi-commander before I had the opportunity to reload or use medkits for a couple of hits I took. Needless to say, I thought I had everything under control but 3 of my best guys missed 85% to 94% shots consecutively and one of my best guys got killed. How does that happen and why? These are supposed to be Elite X-COM super soldiers that have been genetically modified. What's up with that?
    Anyway, I happen to like turn based games but this one seems to be a little chaotic when it comes to being player friendly, so to speak. I don't think anyone likes getting killed just before they get across the finish line. One last desperate shot killed my X-COM Colonel. Dammit!!!!!!
    The game is good and entertaining but paying for genetic modifications (great idea) and MEC's (which I don't like) along with a couple of new aliens and a few extra missions , doesn't really seem like it's that much better for the money. Don't misunderstand me, I like what they did, aside from the MEC thing, which I think could have been turned into a different game altogether, but it could have been much better at the same price. I also think that basically having just one team of X-COM soldiers is a little short sighted and perhaps future DLC can adjust the narrow focus of this game.
    I also think that having a few more levels with a few more perks for the soldiers would have been good for the game, (like not missing shots above 80% perhaps) and adding a few more psi powers and maybe being able to choose rank upgrades from the start and more than just 2 per rank, would be a somewhat major improvement.. More customized abilities for each character/soldier and maybe a little higher attribute scores every once in a while. It's a huge waste of time and resources to buy and train soldiers to get attribute scores like 34 will and 55 aim. That is just not going to cut it in X-COM. And perhaps, a way of obtaining a bit more funding in the early game so it doesn't stagger the progression so much until there isn't anything left to research or build.
    Nevertheless, the alien attack on X-COM headquarters was a purely brilliant idea and a handful of creative ideas like that would have made this addition a blockbuster. I also think that the Exalt faction is a huge step in the right direction but could have been better and perhaps a little better explanation of what the icons were there for and why. But, alas it wasn't to be.
    Hope there is another DLC to this game from 2K soon.    … Expand
  12. JimCorbett
    Nov 20, 2014
    7
    A decent expansion for XCOM. It adds a good amount of content, but i can't say it's worth $30. You get new maps, missions, allies and enemies. It's all good fun but it really doesn't feel like it reinvents the game. Still worth it for any XCOM fan.
  13. GoneTomrrow
    Dec 22, 2013
    6
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I actually really liked the base game, Enemy Unknown, despite its flaws. And this is coming from someone who played the original series at launch. Yet I have to admit that all the negative comments about how little content the $30 Enemy Within expansion adds are true I'm afraid. Admittedly this expansion does have some genuinely fun new features, such as the MECs and new maps, but the game still ends at the Temple Ship. Still no Mars, No Cydonia. No continuation of the story line. I'm sure Mars is coming in a future expansion, but not until the publishers can nickel and dime their customers relentlessly. Enemy Within represents such a tactic; $30 for not much at all. Imagine how much the Mars expansion will be? And the "Enemy Within" part is nothing more than a single XCOM base invasion by the aliens. Indeed it's a fun map, but base invasions were common in UFO Defense; it was one of the risks that occured regularly. It was a fun part of the game, always having to worry about the aliens finding your base. The Exalt forces part felt very halfhearted; not much depth to that part of the game at all. And I really dislike the sleeveless armor look that gene-modded soldiers get. Your forced to use it, and eventually I just stopped gene modding to avoid it. And to address some reviews griping about the difficulty, I didn't find it any more difficult than the original, especially with the MECs. I beat Classic much faster using them. To conclude, I felt like I was just playing through the original EU again when I played with this expansion. The new features, which are fun in and of themselves (save for the EXALT part), don't stand out at all considering the $30 price tag. And if you're like me and you lament features from the old game, they will come eventually, but at a cost. After you've invested $100+ in future expansions, you might have something resembling the original UFO Defense.… Expand
  14. Spgsamuel
    Dec 17, 2013
    6
    hmm. I enjoyed the game again.

    with new stuff that should have been in the original release. the game progression is more or less the same with all the new content, so that means it takes about 3 hours to finish. it does add some nice new strategic moments for you to relish. its still to short. its pretty. has some nice elements, With little replay value, it is still a dissapointing    hmm. I enjoyed the game again.

    with new stuff that should have been in the original release. the game progression is more or less the same with all the new content, so that means it takes about 3 hours to finish. it does add some nice new strategic moments for you to relish.

    its still to short. its pretty. has some nice elements, With little replay value, it is still a dissapointing title due to its campaign length.

    dont get me wrong you will enjoy it, its really fun, interesting and imersive. but its aimed at making money, releasing a game and then adding content and charging people to have it added is like doing the smallest amount of work possible to make money.

    This is a bad business model and may be profitable in the short term but damages the integrity of any games releases which were built with great pride and attention to detail in the future. when will companies see that making a quick buck and fobbing people off, will acctually damage their chance at making record breaking releases of significant status that can easily out gross a quick fix, fly by night ideas sometimes up to x20 times.

    Well my point is if you do it, even it it works and people love it, youve still done it and now you think its a good business strategy.    … Expand
  15. happy-argentine
    Dec 28, 2013
    6
    EDIT: I dropped a point down to 6, because even almost 2 moths there has been very little patching to the game, and some bugs still completely break the experience.

    -*-*-*- 1) Bugs Bugs Bugs, some game-breaking, some just annoying. Overall feel like the game lacks polish and/or time. The original already had some bugs, but the expansion added new ones to the mix (I'm looking at you    EDIT: I dropped a point down to 6, because even almost 2 moths there has been very little patching to the game, and some bugs still completely break the experience.

    -*-*-*-

    1) Bugs Bugs Bugs, some game-breaking, some just annoying. Overall feel like the game lacks polish and/or time. The original already had some bugs, but the expansion added new ones to the mix (I'm looking at you double mission freeze crash).

    2) As others have said, game is not exactly good value for the amount of new content. I personally found it lacking in many areas, especially enemy variety (EXALT doesn't really count, they are just humans), more aliens would have been nice.

    I think it's worth a buy if you want an excuse to return to XCOM, some new features are nice.

    My suggestion: wait until it goes on sale, in the meantime you can download some excellent mods off the Nexus (long war is brutal but very well done) for free!    … Expand
  16. GregdSmith
    Dec 30, 2013
    5
    Enemy Within is a great add on to the series adding new challenges, depth and longevity to the game.

    The Exalt missions are definite added challenge and some of the new aliens also mean a big change of tactics to experienced players, although alien encounters still have a by the numbers feel to them, it is a minor set back. The management section has a number of new options including    Enemy Within is a great add on to the series adding new challenges, depth and longevity to the game.

    The Exalt missions are definite added challenge and some of the new aliens also mean a big change of tactics to experienced players, although alien encounters still have a by the numbers feel to them, it is a minor set back.

    The management section has a number of new options including mechanical and genetic augmentation, for further research upgrades to your soldiers, the choices with these alone are
    a lot of fun as is finding what to research to trigger the upgrades.

    Now here is the big but, Currently on Steam this game has so many stability issues as to make it near unplayable, you can not save enough times, especially during the missions to actually counter the number of crashes.

    As an add on it deserves a high score for bringing more to an already great game. But I can only give it a
    5 while feeling generous doing so. If this is fixed in the new year you may have picked up a bargain in the Steam sale, if not you are left with wistful thoughts of what could have been.    … Expand
  17. IceBlood
    Dec 31, 2013
    5
    Overpriced and very limited expansion pack for already streamlined XCOM game. There isn't actually much to mention about. Few new maps, couple of new enemies and few useless weapons. The tech tree is still very short and soldiers are lacking the attributes that takes out all the fun for training your soldiers.
  18. Hack
    Dec 3, 2017
    7
    I'm generally not a fan of the genre but my friend insisted I try XCOM: EW so i did and I was pleasantly surprised, I ended up putting 40 hours into and finishing it on normal difficulty and I'm definitely interested in jumping into XCOM 2 now.

    I enjoyed the mix of combat and base building, this is the first game I've played that melds these genres together and they do it really well.    I'm generally not a fan of the genre but my friend insisted I try XCOM: EW so i did and I was pleasantly surprised, I ended up putting 40 hours into and finishing it on normal difficulty and I'm definitely interested in jumping into XCOM 2 now.

    I enjoyed the mix of combat and base building, this is the first game I've played that melds these genres together and they do it really well.

    Other than a few of technical issues like the cut-scenes being hard locked to 30fps, your character customisation being reset randomly and the Berserker causing frame rate drops whenever he moves I can't fault the game too much. It runs, plays, sounds and looks really good.

    Overall an enjoyable experience that I can recommend to even those who aren't a big fan of the genre like myself.    … Expand
  19. steddye
    Aug 10, 2015
    5
    This game is a copy paste of it's predecessor, yes they put some new feature but honestly IT'S the same game. I hope not begin to do as EA with fifa, that every year they get out the exact same game with some minor changes. To make a game as it should be a software company need al least four years, so, to finance themselves they foisted a heated soup.
  20. smilzoboboz
    Nov 10, 2014
    7
    The game is still XCOM: Enemy unknown (this one is a DLC) and so it can't be bad, but I have to say this expansion doesn't add much depth to game mechanics, it just adds stuff.

    The additions make the game a little bit harder at start (because of additional attacks and sabotages) but quite too much easy toward the end of the game, mainly because of genetics. The whole "fusion" idea is    The game is still XCOM: Enemy unknown (this one is a DLC) and so it can't be bad, but I have to say this expansion doesn't add much depth to game mechanics, it just adds stuff.

    The additions make the game a little bit harder at start (because of additional attacks and sabotages) but quite too much easy toward the end of the game, mainly because of genetics.
    The whole "fusion" idea is interesting though.

    To make things short I mean exactly this: if you happen to find this at discounted prices like €5 or less, buy it, you will enjoy it, otherwise wait, because you will regret it.    … Expand
  21. condythug
    Nov 17, 2015
    7
    good successor to the legendary xcom series and it looks like the series will be in good hands going forward since 2k is pretty good with strategy games (except for the beyond earth trash).

    game graphics and music are top class, with the chilling music really sucking u into the game and making u jump when a sneaky alien jumps out from a corner. gameplay is solid with some thought    good successor to the legendary xcom series and it looks like the series will be in good hands going forward since 2k is pretty good with strategy games (except for the beyond earth trash).

    game graphics and music are top class, with the chilling music really sucking u into the game and making u jump when a sneaky alien jumps out from a corner. gameplay is solid with some thought required if u don't want your squad to be killed and turned into zombies; however it is still a little on the easy side as alien movements are predictable and they appear to be unable to shoot straight even when u are standing in front of them. AI clearly needs more work. the story itself is good with unpredictable twists along the way to make gameplay fresh.

    a nice recommended game if u are keen on sci-fi strategy games or an old fan of the xcom series.    … Expand
  22. primalsmash
    Feb 22, 2020
    7
    This game is overrated. Every mission is same essentially. You have to inch your way forward, Otherwise you run into enemy and lose soldier, which is very bad. Most of the time, you meet no one But than one time, if your soldier is even little bit in front and you don't have everyone on overwatch and covering each other you instantly lose. Just because i order one guy to reload. Hits areThis game is overrated. Every mission is same essentially. You have to inch your way forward, Otherwise you run into enemy and lose soldier, which is very bad. Most of the time, you meet no one But than one time, if your soldier is even little bit in front and you don't have everyone on overwatch and covering each other you instantly lose. Just because i order one guy to reload. Hits are complete rng, even if you have 85% chance you miss sometimes and whole mission is over, so you have to replay 30 minute mission again. Also there are bugs and qol issues in the game...

    Also it is one of these games, which are unplayable without wiki, a lot of things is missing specific description and it is unclear. You have to find tech trees and how stuff works, Othewise you will play inefficiently. It is not that hard, but you have to know how things are, so game is unplayable without wiki, which is not fun to google every 5 second something ! These things should be in game specified, so you can easily learn them on the go. Cmon devs it is not that hard... There is in game wiki, but that is just basic info...

    These things are so obvious from player viewpoint. But devs don't play their own games. So they have no idea about frustrations player face, or other problem in the game. Also it is strategy game, yet a lot of things are rng and some decisions are completely random, because you don't have information: like how hard mission will be, because you want to exp more soldiers, if some die, or become injured. You have no idea what you will face...    … Expand
  23. Tilt1k
    Jan 15, 2020
    7
    Really interesting game on release date which takes strategical izometric games on different level. The story and writing is very weak and if fails in making any relationship with your soldiers, they are all generic and pretty much the same.
  24. Histori4n
    Feb 22, 2020
    7
    The early game of this game in much difficulties, could result as a headache thats result of the unbalanced enemies and the only early strategy, meanwhile you advance on the game, is everytime more balanced and with good path is even easy on impossible.

    But, the game contains a lot of bugs and errors that wasn´t fixed, and can ruin potencially a challenge like the i/i, much like    The early game of this game in much difficulties, could result as a headache thats result of the unbalanced enemies and the only early strategy, meanwhile you advance on the game, is everytime more balanced and with good path is even easy on impossible.

    But, the game contains a lot of bugs and errors that wasn´t fixed, and can ruin potencially a challenge like the i/i, much like invisibles shots, teletransportation of the enemie, or the horrible aiming system deployed on the game.

    The good thing, is an amazing story about supervivence, and action with custom cutscenes that make the game more interesting, also the varity of enemies such as ablitys to our heroes.    … Expand

Awards & Rankings

19
#19 Best PC Game of 2013
61
#61 Most Discussed PC Game of 2013
59
#59 Most Shared PC Game of 2013

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
86

Generally favorable reviews - based on 54 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 52 out of 54
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 54
  3. Negative: 0 out of 54
  1. Pelit (Finland)
    Mar 11, 2014
    90
    Augmented XCOM is better, although it does not fix some basic flaws. Great the first time you play it. [Dec 2013]
  2. GameCritics
    Jan 16, 2014
    65
    Xcom: Enemy Within is a decent expansion to a slightly flawed original.
    Read full review
  3. PC PowerPlay
    Dec 30, 2013
    80
    It doesn't fix larger flaws, but it's still a solid expansion. [Jan 2014, p.80]
See all critic reviews »