Xcom Enemy Unknown

So this week we're going to move onto one of my favorite games. The game I think is also deserving of the Game of the Year award but will probably end up snubbed in favor of standing franchises like Halo, Mass Effect or Call of Duty. Xcom Enemy Unknown.

    Character- Ehh ok there are three in the base game but frankly that's not really a strength here. I wouldn't call it a weakness but I always feel a need to put this piece in here.

    Story- The story is decent but it is fairly pulled back from what you as the player are doing. It is deep enough to be serviceable but not so deep as to be hard to discern. Its a simple story, in a lot of ways the best kind. I understood the story here better than the train wreck that was the Black Ops 2 story. Alien invasion of the planet now you must fight back.

    Gameplay- Its good. Not for everyone though. Its based on a random hit chance based on a trooper's aim skill. Cover is extremely important to keeping your guys alive. They divided it into two parts. The missions where a selection of your available troops are sent in to kill all aliens and the base segment where you build and research new gear to use on the aliens. In some ways it is based on the concept of trial and error because it'll take some tries to get through a game. There are four classes available for your people and each one feels distinct and has its own strengths and weaknesses. My only real problem with the classes is that you cannot pick a units class. You have to hope an individual is assigned the class you want. You'll also often end up with a large amount of one given class or a dearth of another. The game is unforgiving in its difficulty, a dead trooper is dead and they won't come back. This combined with the aliens constantly running in new and harder units makes it hard to simply pick one unit and run with them. Speaking of the difficulty increase. I prefer that. So it doesn't matter if you got the laser rifles they will still be dropping more and more difficult units on top of you. Again on that same note you don't find out what an alien can do before it actually does it. While this can be a painful experience it does give many oooo moments.

    Graphics- Passable. Its a top down interface so there isn't much to really show. I think its on the now fairly old unreal engine. But each alien is easy to identify and know exactly what they are at the outset.

    Odds and Sods- The ability to customize your squad is a big thing to me. Being able to go into battle with a squad made up of my friends is a fun thing. A problem with the game I think is that it can be buggy. Every now and then a soldier on overwatch can see through walls and some times enemies will seem to spawn behind your forces. These can be fun and annoying but its always balanced out by that moment a pair of snipers in the right place take down an enemy walker in two shots.

Good Gaming everyone
Hambone out