That's not to say that it isn't a fuckin' great game, because it is. I think it's fantastic. Why I don't like it is that I had forgotten how frustrating the original was, and this update leaves that devastation in tact while kicking up the graphics and stream-lining the user interface. The part that I hate to admit is that I hadn't grown any better at the whole tactical, turn-based, squad combat thing since I was like 14 years old.
When playing XCOM Enemy Unknown, you can adjust the difficulty down to "Easy" but at that difficulty, you start feeling bad for the invading alien forces for gravely under-estimating man-kind. But that's not how I think it should be played; at least on Normal and with this nifty function called "Ironman". Besides sharing the same name as my favorite alcoholic super-smart-hero, the Ironman feature auto-saves with only one save, so if your team keeps smeared across the map or burnt to a plasma-induced crisp, there is no way of getting those team members back. It's tough and unforgiving, and I under-estimated how much this game would try to hurt me in real life.
But I'm getting off track. XCOM has strong, stylized visuals and unique designs that me as a player could get behind. Though the armor does remind me of nearly every other space marine I have seen, the deversity on the teams and the even faintest sense of customization really helps make your squad your own...which makes the lose of the entire team just that much more of a gut-punch.
If you enjoy strategy, a good challenge, and a compelling sci-fi setting and story, than take a look at XCOM Enemy Unknown. And if you're like me and remember playing the old XCOM when you were younger and you're kinda sure you had fun, you might as well give it a shot, too! You never know if you're going to like something until you try.
Until next time,
-Dave
Hey, great review, i love strategy games like starcraft myself, i i'm really looking forward to playing XCOM a lot!
ReplyDelete