XCOM: Enemy Unknown

XCOM: Enemy Unknown is an expertly crafted strategy game that improves on the original in every way. It's a cinematic treat that is accessible enough for gamers of all experience. Best of all, it's not a bore. With more than 70 missions and a competitive two-player mode, XCOM is a high water mark for 2012!

Defending against XCOM's mysterious alien invasion is one of the most challenging, intense gaming experiences of this generation.

Thinking, planning, failing and dying is back in fashion: XCOM is a phenomenal reimagining of a classic title and an instant classic in its own right. The love poured into it and the sheer depth of the experience has created something truly special.

With losing the United States, we also lost our biggest source of incoming funds. And no funding equals no means to combat the enemy. XCOM is all about long term planning, which we found out the hard way. [November 2012, p.58]

XCOM has more meaningful decisions and consequences than Mass Effect and more scares than Resident Evil. Turn-based strategy games are cool again. [Dec 2012, p.98]

A relentlessly addictive, almost endlessly replayable experience. [Dec 2012, p.78]

The other key element in increasing that tension is the fact that each death is a real problem for the XCOM initiative that you're in control of.

Despite this, and despite so much else, X-COM: Enemy Unknown feels like the revival of not just a brand, but a genre. If you told me six years ago that I'd be playing a full $60 turn-based strategy game, I probably would have zapped you with a plasma rifle.

It's also a concept that is incredibly well executed.

With every element of Xcom's complex yet utterly accessible systems – from meaningful combat tactics, to budget balancing, to life-or-death diplomatic decisions – feeding directly into every other aspect of the game, this is as compelling a world as any in recent memory.

It was a really good idea to get some developers from the original-game. They did a pretty good job in bringing the great pc game X-COM: Enemy Unknown into the year 2012. The views and the optics are not high end but they are perfect for this genre, while the speakers, the loading-times and the multiplayer mode are weak points. The gameplay is deep and tactical and the good old XCOM-setting is omnipresent. Enemy Unknown is the remake of the year.

XCOM: Enemy Unknown is a triumph of inspired strategy creation. The critical will focus on the minor shortcomings, perhaps because it's not exactly like the first XCOM, but the polish, relative depth, and overall intensity is absolutely unquestionable.

A well-developed game and a nice continuation of the XCOM franchise. There are some problems though: the graphics aren't what they could (and should) be and the game gets repetitive rather fast.

With each turn, the newest entry in this beloved strategy series heightens the sense of tension, and each defeat of a hovering alien craft thus becomes cause for celebration.

XCOM: Enemy Unknown is a great game that is a refreshing change of pace from the constant barrage of first-person-shooters and third-person action games that seem to have plagued the industry for the last few years.

XCOM is a great addition to the strategy genre, complete with an engaging campaign full of tension and challenges. The characters grow in satisfying ways, but the tactical game doesn't ever quite give players enough room to make the most of their abilities.

XCOM: Enemy Unknown is a real sleeper hit. Save for repetitive level design, a basic online component, and some questionable voice acting, the game is magnificent. It may take longer than most to appreciate, but it never fails to deliver.

Majorly annoying, heartbreaking, game stopper of a bug aside, XCOM was worth the money I spent to pick it up. I can easily see myself playing through this multiple times, growing as attached to each group of awesome, yet often spectacularly inept soldiers, as I did to the first. There a fair amount of replay with different starting countries, different base layouts, and procedurally generated combat.