I didn't plan on buying this, but many people said it was
fantastic and I happened to spy a copy for just £20, so buy it I did.
Even more surprisingly, it had the colour pack, or whatever
it's called, in, which enables greater customisation of soldiers. Because of a
wonky internet connection I played initially without that DLC, and can report
that it's as DLC should be: it adds a little, but only superficially. To be
honest, the colour and styles of hair don't add much, although it'd nice being
able to colour co-ordinate snipers, heavies and so on.
So, in the four hours or so I've played XCOM, has it met
those lofty expectations?
Yes, in a word.
Unlike some strategy games there is actual
strategy as well as a tactical level of gameplay. XCOM is split between the
base and the various battlefields you visit. Both aspects of the game are
great, in very different ways.
Story
The story is about as old school as they come. Aliens are
invading, the swine, and the world has united to kill them. They've found a
handsome devil (the player) to lead the charge and… that's about it as far as
story goes. However, this isn't an RPG and the premise of the game works very
well.
Gameplay - Base
The base is underground, and features a range of basic
starting facilities (a lab, barracks etc). The base operates on a grid basis,
with excavation and access lifts required to free up more space for brand new
facilities or copies of existing ones (to speed up research or provide
sufficient power for the base).
The base is the strategic part of the game. There's never
quite enough resources to get everything you want, whether it's making new
weapons, buying new fighters for the hangar or expanding the base itself.
In addition, the base is where you get given missions, when
they crop up. Each country has a certain threat/panic level, and when this
reaches the maximum they pull out of the XCOM project and stop supplying funds.
So, when you have a choice of missions, as often happens, and can only attend
one you need to consider the difficulty, the potential reward and the threat
level of the country in question. Rewards vary, including scientist/engineers,
a veteran soldier or money.
The base is extremely well-balanced. Almost every facility
seems useful in and of itself and it can be very hard to decide just what
should be bought. Keeping all the plates spinning regarding the threat level of
the various countries is challenging too.
Gameplay - Battlefield
This is the tactical part of the game. A squad of 4
(initially) soldiers go on a mission to a specific battlefield. Most of the
time the mission is basically kill everything alien, but occasionally you have
to rescue civilians or a VIP, stop a bomb going off, or find an alien craft
your fighters shot down.
The battlefields are quite small but this works well.
Difficulty, on normal, is higher than might be expected and presents a challenge (although I must admit I had to replay one mission after my best
soldiers got absolutely slaughtered).
Initially the aliens are pretty soft, but before long they
start unleashing rather more fearsome units and the difficulty rises as the
game progresses. I'm playing on normal and it's a nice challenge.
Units begin as rookies, but after their first promotion they
get a specialisation (sniper, heavy etc). After each promotion, of which there
are several, they get a new perk (most of the time you get to choose from two
options) most of which seem useful and some of which are great. A small
downside is that the specialisation is random, so if you've got a dozen heavies
and would love a sniper, you might end up with heavy number 13.
The differing unit types seem well-balanced, and each
soldier can be individually outfitted with four varying items (armour, main
weapon, sidearm and an auxiliary item such as a grenade or medical kit). It's a
very simple but very good way of making soldiers slightly different.
The tactical gameplay works brilliantly. The only minor
downside is that if your best soldiers get obliterated bouncing back with
rookies would seem to be very hard, as the difficulty of missions can often be
Difficult, Difficult and Very Difficult.
Graphics
Not the core of a game like this, but the graphics are
mostly good and occasionally very good. The globe/hologlobe in Mission Control
looks great and all the items, soldiers, aliens and characters (whilst not
rivalling a Final Fantasy cutscene) look distinctive and good.
Textures can sometimes take a while to load, but I think
that's the only graphical issue.
Sound
There are a handful of characters in the base (engineer,
scientist and military chap) who are well-acted, but the range of voices
elsewhere is limited to American accents. It seems a bit odd that the game goes
out of its way to include countries from every inhabited continent as members
of XCOM but then has just US accents. However, the soldiers' voices tend to be
good or at least passable. Sound effects are very good, and it's always fun
listening to a laser beam terminate an alien.
Bugs and Other Issues
Sometimes on the battlefield the game can run a little
slowly. There's also a persistent issue with soldiers/aliens being able to
shoot through walls, which is a little weird.
I've read reviews of the game freezing (either for a short
term or permanently) but this never happened to me (for reference, I'm using a
40GB fat PS3) and it seems to be a minority issue.
Rebuilding a squad if your A team get slaughtered is perhaps
harder than it should be. Apart from that, the game seems extremely
well-balanced.
The only way to get resources is when aliens attack, which
makes proactively getting alien alloys and other stuff impossible. It'd be nice
if there were an alternative way to get resources or lure aliens down somehow.
Conclusion (after a few days)
In a world swimming in shooters and games so easy a health
and safety executive could've designed them to ensure nobody failed and suffers
hurt feelings XCOM: Enemy Unknown is both a welcome change and a cracking game
in its own right. I'm really looking forward to see how the rest of the game
goes and then playing it a second time without making so many schoolboy errors.
I'll write a proper review after I've completed my first
playthrough.
Thaddeus
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