XCOM: Enemy Unknown

Rating: 3 out of 3 Stars (why only 3 possible stars?)
Genre: Turn-based Strategy; Sub-genre: RPG
ESRB: M (cartoony gore)
Estimated hours of gameplay (thorough play/quick play): Infinite?/8
Developer: Firaxis Games
Wiki page

This was a real hard game to review. There's many reasons I should probably rate it lower since the rating represents a recommendation.  And I wouldn't recommend this game to a lot of people. It's different in enough ways that I'm not sure everyone will understand it. Also, it's kind of stressful at times: the game requires the player to accept loss. That's right, the player isn't an automatic badass who can never fail. Frequently, squad mates will die and you'll just have to replace them with rookies and move on. Also, countries will get angry if you don't pay attention to them and will abandon you. As far as I can tell, this is bound to happen eventually as I was forced to complete the game because more than one country was threatening to do so by the end of the month!

The strategy of "only giving a shit about America" caused me to lose quickly. What is this!?

The gameplay is remarkably simple for a strategy game as there's only 4 classes and they all have some key shared abilities (all use ranged attacks and can overwatch). There, of course, is added depth everywhere with items, talent point selection, different passives and penalties, etc. So it strangely makes the classes completely different while working the same. Whoa. It's that "easy to learn, tough to master" mentality that every game vies for. When you're not doing turn-based combat, you go through menus to buy upgrades and get research and read lore. Then it's back to combat, then menus, and back and forth. That's really all you do the whole time. But with the ability to save mid-mission, this gives it a "pick up and play" feel. I'm not going to penalize them here as not every game needs things like travel time and professions, but it is definitely noticeable.

Look! This is all one big menu! Click on stuff! Wooo!

The way I'd describe the story is "a better take on Call of Duty," or perhaps any military shooter out there. You are a faceless, nameless, voiceless protagonist who reports to three different people. They each have a face and personality and talk to you directly about what is going on in a professional and direct manner. This is because this is a military operation, obviously. Wow, though. So refreshing compared to watching a glitchy map flicker while some random voice tells you a name and to "take him out." Also much better than running around while helicopters explode out of the sky while people yell things like "Go go go!" It reminds me of Michael Crichton's "Sphere" or "Andromeda Strain", too, as the alien invasion is looked at from a scientific stand point. So this isn't the most investing story in the world since there's not a lot of humanization and personal struggles going on, but it's effective. XCOM gets a cookie!

This is what I imagine the player character looks like.

I tried the PvP only briefly, as it relies too heavily on scouting for me to become interested. You can just sit still and spam Overwatch until the enemy gets close and you get a free shot at them. I'm too impatient for a waiting game. But it is pretty interesting because you can piece together a small squad using any unit (including aliens but not the human unmanned drone, for some reason) so I can't help but wonder what people will piece together using the limited points allocated to spend on units.

Aliens versus aliens! Who needs humans?

So how did I decide on a lofty score of 3 stars? To be honest, I don't think I enjoyed it as much as I hoped I would. I wasn't entirely in to the stressful nature of worrying about losing things, and I found myself reloading old saves to avoid it (which you can disable by turning on Iron Man mode, if you're the type who plays things like Diablo 2's Hardcore mode). And going back and forth between menus and straight back to combat was streamlined and all, but I wanted a turn-based game to take me on a journey around the galaxy, man. But here's the thing: these were all conscious design decisions and they are work together. The game takes a lot of risks and it works perfectly at what it does. At the end of the day, those are two of the best things to reward in game-making. Also, turn-based combat is fucking awesome.

Conclusion:
Did you play turn-based (PC) games in the 90's? Then you'll love this! AND you can play it on modern consoles! Or maybe you didn't, but you want something very different from the usual shooters and action games that flood the markets today. If you're a big gamer and love numbers and tactics, this could tickle your Elmo just as well!

I forgot to name a member of my squad "Will Smith." Nuts!

Bonus notes!

It's fun to name your squad members. It's so odd that there's an instant attachment when you personally name something, so it certainly adds a lot of flavor to the game. Personally I found myself imagining the careers of these silent drones and how they perceived their life. Here's some of my crew and their stories:

Jeffu "KFC" Kriffhanga - Japanese male - world's greatest sniper. Promoted to Colonel before anyone else. Pretty nice of the aliens to let him shoot them in the head so he can retire as a colonel before 30, huh?

Tits "And Ass" O'Neil - Irish female - it's hard being female and being given the name "Tits." But she doesn't care. Her squad relies on her fast feet and medic skills to prevent them from dying in more than one way. You're welcome, boys.

Steve "AMERICA!" Rogers - American male - a brave soul. A proud motivator. A good friend. He can't shoot for shit, but he loves tearing up buildings with rockets. And in the end, he gave his life to save the entire human race. Good on you, soldier.

McAbraham "DJ" Rapmaster - Israeli male - the bravest mother fucker in the universe. Through sheer badassery (and rap skills?) he charges into EVERY battle. Most of the time he dodges bullets like he's from the damn Matrix, but he still gets shot up. And the tough son of a bitch made it in the end. The aliens are gone... get some rest, soldier. Psh. I doubt he will.

Boopity "Spumoni" Alfredo Sauce - Italian male - second greatest sniper. Between him and KFC, alien faces didn't stand a chance.

Adolf "I'm Belgian" Not-Hitler - Belgian male - so the Belgian flag and German flag use the same colors. Only one is vertical and the other is horizontal. This and wearing a Hitler 'stache will get people thinking you are Hitler. Good thing his name is "Not-Hitler!" Best buds with Rapmaster, so he can't be a Nazi leader, right?

Mustache Sanchez - Mexican male - the first officer to die in battle. You will be remembered, Mustache.

Børky "Sandvich" Flügenblügen - Norse female - bork bork! Vundi vundi vundi! Bork? Bork bork bork spaghetti bork bork! Bork bork vundi bork!

Fleuxfy "Frenchy" Fleuxiuss - French male - the first man to become a telepath. Whoa.