XCOM: Enemy Unknown Review

Howdy all you XCOM operatives. I hope you have all been enjoying the awesome, strategic, turn based, alien extermination extravaganza known as XCOM: Enemy Unknown. If you haven't then you better have a good reason as to why you havn't enjoyed the experience. Here ladies and gents is my review of one of the best strategy experiences I have had in quite some time (ever since being in the End of Nations Beta). I hope today you can just sit back, relax and enjoy my review of XCOM: Enemy Unknown for PS3, Xbox 360 and PC (I have the PC version in case anyone is interested).

Graphics/Art Style
First off lets talk how the game looks. Before we get deep into the subject just know that personally I don't care whether the game looks realistic or looks like a series of blocked out squares, I enjoy a game for its game play (which I'll be sure to get onto in a different part of this review.
XCOM's art style is a little cartoon like however it is pulled off magnificently. Everything from the humans to the scaliest of the alien scum are made out to look both beautiful and intimidating. The armour sets make any soldier go from a standard squad mate into a captain of the masses. Weaponry looks quite delightful in both design and firing particles. I was originally worried there would be little difference between laser and plasma fire, however I was quickly proven wrong by being slapped in the face by green bolts of gelatinous energy in difference to zapping alien hide with precision laser blasts. One massive worry I thought I was going to have was the art style of some of the similar enemy types, such as the Elite Muton, Sectoid Commander, Berzerker and the Heavy Floaters. However there are distinct differences in each model, for example: the Sectoid Commander isn't just a blatant re-texture of the original sectoid model. Instead it has distinctive head designs that go with the commander's mind controlling powers, making him look more like a fully developed sectoid hive mind rather than a simple infantry variant. Everything has gone into consideration with the art style and one of the big art style changes is the XCOM base of operations, dubbed by the Dev's as the 'Ant Farm'. The layout is much different from the original XCOM: UFO Defence but it works. You can see how big your bas has gotten, have a look at the individual people working in the different areas, you can even see a live alien in the containment tank (if you've captured one). Overall the art style is immense and should be enjoyed by all.

Storyline
The narrative is pretty simple to sum up so here it goes: You are put into the position as head of the XCOM Project (referred to as the Commander) and with this assignment it is up to you to both stop the alien forces from overthrowing the earth and understand why they are doing this. The story is pretty damn solid where it relies mostly on immersion to do the work for it. Putting you in command of the project rather than 'insert name here' is a much better approach to main XCOM feel like a more personal experience instead of a role-playing experience. In a weird way you could look at this game as an Alien Defence Simulator, which isn't too far off of what the original was intending. The story progresses with little cut scenes that either occur at random increments in the game or during major moments such as successfully capturing an Overseer or researching the skeleton key. Eventually you learn of the heads of the Alien operation, the Etherials. Once these guys get involved you are on the brink of end game. The ending however is very.......slapped on. It feels as if the Dev's had a firm idea for how the story should end however It was poorly delivered. I'm not going to spoil this for those yet to see the ending but when you do get there you might see what I am on about. The entirety of the narrative is very well put together allowing you to take the major role and allowing the game to become a more personal affair.

Single Player
The single player experience was something I was looking forward to. From everything I had saw previously from Dev walkthroughs and live streams, the single player looked to be a pretty solid remade experience. When I was able to play the campaign I can gladly say that I was not disappointed with what was delivered  The strategic precision and everything that came with it where all there and with more in store than ever before.
Now first lets talk base building, the behind the scenes action if you will. The building of your own personal Ant Farm is a really cool experience. Giving yourself the ability to mine downward into the Earth's crust, excavate building sites and build a variety of buildings from laboratories and workshops to power generators and satellite uplinks. Again this gives you the ability to make this game your own and to mix and match different build orders and combinations to get some really cool designs and profits.
Along with base building there are the three major areas of creation within your base: Engineering  Researching and Recruiting. Engineering allows you to create the high tech weaponry and super armour for going into battle as well as give you the opportunity to look into improving current equipment to make them more potent when out in the field or more efficient within the base. Researching allows you to do just that, research! You'll be able to learn of the aliens motives as well as their biological manifestation and be able to look into making more high tech weaponry and more potent armours for your troops.
Finally we have recruiting. This entails with your squadron of XCOM veterans. You'll be able to kit them all out with the best armour and weapons through out the game as well as send them off for Psi training to see if they are gifted with the ways of the inner mind. Not just do you get the chance to customise your current troops but you also get the chance to hire new troops into your squad if numbers are wearing a bit thin. These three additions do nothing but add to the true feel and attachment of your game play experience, just be sure to keep up with your money allowance.
Now lets get down to the business of the battles. One does not simply go into fights with aliens in XCOM, oh no. There are a few variants on mission types that can randomly happen. These include: VIP extractions, Terror missions, abduction missions, landed space craft, crashed space craft and even alien base infiltration. But the battle are only as good as the men that fight in them so allow me to inform you on the fights themselves. In the battles every trooper in your squad get two turns: a move and an action. This makes it so that the missions can be shorter and you can fit more in. You can however choose to use both of your turns to 'Dash' so that you can cover more ground quickly rather than have to wait after every alien phase to make your next move. Every soldier will eventually gain their own profession and their own ability set to go with it. For example with the heavy you can concentrate on suppression and heavy pinning attacks or you can look into making your heavy the ultimate explosives expert by kitting him out with different sets of rockets and variants of fire power. The negative side to this is that you cannot decide what class you want your soldier to be but it's like as if your soldier has realised his/her passion and so has taken the initiative to become a support, assault or even a sniper.
The battles can go from pretty simple to really hard within a matter of moments. Let me give you one of my scenarios for example. I had a sniper nicknamed 'Odd Job' since the very beginning of the game. He had been in many missions and never had any problems when it came to dealing with sectoids or floaters. However as soon as Mutons came into the mix, 'Odd Job' soon saw himself lying in a pool of his own blood after being assaulted by two flanking mutons with some serious grudges against snipers. With this in mind the game does slap you in the face when it comes to difficulty but you can counter this by being very precise and cautious with your moves. Its not called a strategy game for nothing so use your brain power and you will win!
The overall single player experience was pretty damn good and still is. Im currently on my next play through whilst writing this as I'm slowly gaining the experience and courage to go onto Impossible difficulty with Iron man mode on (Iron man mode make it so that you cannot go back to a previous save since the game will auto save after every major choice made).

Multi player
Multi player in XCOM was something I was not willing to experience at first, mainly due to the original not having any multi player capabilities what so ever. I was under the impression that the dev's would attempt to make a cooperative multi player experience rather than a competitive one since there is room to have a campaign mode or even a skirmish style of mode where its a matter of you teaming up with your friends in order to take out the alien menace, maybe involving the players to take up different regions of the world and then combat different or similar threats. However I was both shocked and awed by the competitive nature that was given to me in the XCOM multi player. The experience gives the player the ability to make an army out of Humans, Aliens or mixed so that you can combat against another team commanded by another player. Choose your troops well however as you have a limited amount of resource points available that allow you to kit out your troops with the armour and weapons of your choosing. The multi player for me was surprisingly a good addition to the game, it posses a different challenge to that of the single player as your kind of playing a game of alien killing chess with your opponent. The only down side to the mode is that there is really no reward for it. No rankings or leader boards show up when you go in or out of the mode and there's not even a variation of game types, there is just the standard mode of going into battle, facing your opponent and killing his squad. This could have been developed further by maybe adding a co-operative mode as well as a competitive mode but for what was on the disc, I truly cannot complain in all honesty.

In conclusion I have to say that XCOM: Enemy Unknown is one great strategic experience to behold. If you have the chance to play it whether that's at a friends house or buying the game then I hope you truly enjoy the experience as much as I have. There are a few clipping errors and bugs here and there with the game but in all honesty non of them take away from the fun you will be having. I look forward to what Firaxis Games do with the franchise in the future whether it is a DLC expansion or a sequel.

XCOM: Enemy Unknown gets from me a 9/10, along with the badge of awesomeness! This is a definite game to get for all you strategists out there and a considerable addition to your collection if your not as much of a strategist as others.

I hope you all have enjoyed the read. This is That Guy With The Trilby..........signing off!