XCOM: Enemy Unknown is a brilliant strategy game that hits all the right notes for its genre. 5yylmao/5

"Ant farm" mode is surprisingly absorbing, rather than feeling like the downtime between missions. Managing the base adds to the sensation of being a military commander. You get to decide the direction XCOM will go in and make decisions to adjust your combat style past just moving your soldiers from tile to tile. Speaking of combat, I'm a big fan of the percentage chance for hitting/missing shots. Rather than weapons dealing less damage in improper conditions or only working in a certain range, you have the chance to miss entirely. This encourages strategic play (i.e. moving your assault with a shotgun into a flanking postion rather than trying to snipe from the minimum distance). Moreover, it adds to the sensation of real combat; despite all your planning, things can and will go wrong. Difficulty is high enough so that you have to at least be trying and have some idea of what you're doing but not to the point where it's frustrating to progress. Finally, despite the non-procedurally generated maps and exact same story every playthrough, the randomness of UFO encounters and diversity of combat options adds a lot of replay value. That, and the Long War mod (but that's a whole seperate beast).

Despite what you'd expect, the game gets progressively easier as time goes on. Once you get the hang of combat and stop doing stupid stuff like ignoring council missions (give me a break, it was my first playthrough) it's just a matter of when the technology comes along and your soldiers level. Challenge is lost when your squad consists of six colonels with plasma weapons. The only thing that can really make the game suddenly harder is losing part of your team. Which is another problem; it is exceptionally easy to screw up your game. One mistake in combat can cost you all your soldiers and council nations without much you can do to fix it. I love a challenge, but save scumming often seems unavoidable with XCOM.

Overall, I'd still suggest XCOM: Enemy Unknown to almost all gamers. It's fun, addictive, immersive, and provides some of the best victories to be had in gaming.

EDIT: Changed from a 10 point rating system to 5 point system. Minor formatting changes.

XCOM: Enemy Unknown is a brilliant strategy game that hits all the right notes for its genre. [b]5yylmao/5[/b] [h1]Pros[/h1] "Ant farm" mode is surprisingly absorbing, rather than feeling like the downtime between missions. Managing the base adds to the sensation of being a military commander. You get to decide the direction XCOM will go in and make decisions to adjust your combat style past just moving your soldiers from tile to tile. Speaking of combat, I'm a big fan of the percentage chance for hitting/missing shots. Rather than weapons dealing less damage in improper conditions or only working in a certain range, you have the chance to miss entirely. This encourages strategic play (i.e. moving your assault with a shotgun into a flanking postion rather than trying to snipe from the minimum distance). Moreover, it adds to the sensation of real combat; despite all your planning, things can and will go wrong. Difficulty is high enough so that you have to at least be trying and have some idea of what you're doing but not to the point where it's frustrating to progress. Finally, despite the non-procedurally generated maps and exact same story every playthrough, the randomness of UFO encounters and diversity of combat options adds a lot of replay value. That, and the Long War mod (but that's a whole seperate beast). [h1]Cons[/h1] Despite what you'd expect, the game gets progressively easier as time goes on. Once you get the hang of combat and stop doing stupid stuff like ignoring council missions (give me a break, it was my first playthrough) it's just a matter of when the technology comes along and your soldiers level. Challenge is lost when your squad consists of six colonels with plasma weapons. The only thing that can really make the game suddenly harder is losing part of your team. Which is another problem; it is exceptionally easy to screw up your game. One mistake in combat can cost you all your soldiers and council nations without much you can do to fix it. I love a challenge, but save scumming often seems unavoidable with XCOM. [h1]Final thoughts[/h1] Overall, I'd still suggest XCOM: Enemy Unknown to almost all gamers. It's fun, addictive, immersive, and provides some of the best victories to be had in gaming. EDIT: Changed from a 10 point rating system to 5 point system. Minor formatting changes.