XCOM: Enemy Unknown
2012
Audio: Spanish · Subtitles: Chinese
- role-playing (rpg)
- simulator
- strategy
- turn-based strategy (tbs)
- tactical
- action
- science fiction
- warfare
- single player
- multiplayer
The story
XCOM: Enemy Unknown is a turn-based tactics game with a strategic management layer, and a reimagining of the 1994 strategy title UFO: Enemy Unknown. Players lead a squad of soldiers through turn-based combat missions against alien forces, using cover, positioning, and class-based abilities, where fallen soldiers can be lost permanently. Between missions, players oversee a central base: researching recovered alien technology, building facilities, managing funds, and deciding which global threats to respond to as they try to keep member nations from abandoning the project.
What it’s like
Cool blue-grey and clinical white dominate the base, with stark fluorescent corridors, glowing holographic research displays, and the warm orange of burning cityscapes breaking through on mission maps. Combat unfolds on dim, rain-slicked streets, cramped farmhouses, and dark alien ship interiors, lit by muzzle flashes and eerie green bioluminescence, while the camera swings low and close to the soldiers. The score is a tense, pulsing electronic and orchestral mix that drops into near silence during the quiet tension of an approach, then erupts into percussive alarm when something moves in the dark. The pacing alternates between slow, deliberate turn-based planning and sudden, frightening reveals, with the strategic base phases offering a calmer, more contemplative rhythm. Violence is frequent and visceral, with bloody gunfire, alien carnage and soldiers dying in the field, and the permadeath means losses land hard and personal; fear comes from ambush and attrition more than gore. The emotional register is dread-tinged determination, a sustained sense of being outnumbered and making costly choices. It suits late-night strategy sessions, focused weekend play, and players who enjoy grim, high-stakes sci-fi and careful tactical planning under pressure.
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