XCOM: Enemy Within
2013
Audio: English, French, Polish, Italian, Russian, Spanish, German · Subtitles: English, French, Polish, Chinese, Spanish, Korean, Japanese, Russian, Italian, German
- simulator
- strategy
- turn-based strategy (tbs)
- action
- science fiction
- single player
The story
XCOM: Enemy Within is a console standalone expansion pack for XCOM: Enemy Unknown, a turn-based tactical strategy game. The expansion adds the ability to gene mod soldiers to add to their powers as well as the ability to create MECs, powerful robotic soldiers. These new features are created by collecting a resource called Meld on the tactical battlefield. A number of new maps were also added to the tactical game, as well as multiplayer. The PC version of Enemy Within is an add-on that requires the base game Enemy Unknown.
What it’s like
Muted, dusk-blue palettes give way to sickly green glows whenever Meld is in play, and the tactical maps read as cramped city blocks, snowy outposts and dim industrial interiors seen from a high, slightly angled camera that keeps every squad member legible. Sound leans on a restrained orchestral score that swells during alien ambushes and drops to tense silence between moves, with the soft click of menus and the wet thud of mech servos providing most of the texture. Turn-based pacing gives the whole thing a deliberate, chess-like rhythm: long stretches of planning, then short bursts of panic when a flanking maneuver goes wrong. Its mood is cerebral and quietly bleak, a steady undercurrent of dread softened by the satisfaction of small, earned victories. Violence is present but stylised: soldiers fall with brief blood-free flashes, and alien attacks carry real menace without graphic gore or sexual content. The emotional register is one of gradual investment, as a squad of recruits slowly becomes a family of hardened veterans whose losses sting. It suits a quiet evening alone, a focused weekend session, or anyone who wants tactical depth with a mournful, sci-fi atmosphere and no gratuitous brutality.
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