Let,s talk about both sides of that coin. First the bad side because, you the reader deserve to hear the bad news first. The first mistake they made, was not turning there back on all of the fateful fans of the original. No! I applaud trailblazers that want to carve out a piece of history for themselves... as long as they don't get greedy, squander or, crap on the history that came before it...
And when it came to style? this game was Oozing with it!. I admire the cold war, 1960's Era in where the game's story took place. And, even though the development of this game has changed guards more than once, I was hoping that we would still have a solid game at the end of the day. Oh... to dream a little dream, huh? Honestly, when you try to reinvent a franchise, the development team sometimes gets a little carried away and tries to reinvent the whole wheel. That's where they made a huge Boo-boo. Sometimes when you do that, you just highlight the fact that the original formula was much better. I'm afraid that this game falls victim to that fact.
Once again, I don't mind a fresh new take on an old series but, if you are going to take the path less traveled, you have got to make the path clear and easy for everyone to fallow. I thought the developers would of learned this from XCOM: Interceptor? This disappoints me so much because, it looks sooooooo cool. But Looks aren't everything... and if you didn't know, you will find that out quick, once you play this game... Some sort of a storyline is needed in games like this. However this game doesn't give you that until about 3/4 of the game. and, it isn't all that great or intriguing.
The First few hours of this 10 to 12 hour game was the most promising. the first couple of missions were great but after you realize that this is as good as it gets, it starts to fall flat. Mostly because the missions become more of the same. Land in a rural area, shoot some aliens, grab the package (human or otherwise) shoot some more aliens, Go back to base. Yep! That's it.... The Environments could have gave the game a fresh take but, after a while they all look the same too.
The combat? Wow... I'm almost ashamed to call it that. The cover system is below standards to say the least. it would have worked maybe back in 1999 or early 2000's but by today's standards? No. Any why must my sprint and cover button must both be the same? I've been killed many time because of that.
G.O.W is guilty of this crime too but, at least it the guys at Epic games polished and fine tuned the mechanics! The Same button that reloads a weapon picks up one too. So, you can guess how bad this has been for my game play experience. You have squad mates that you control mostly with a combat wheel that you can use to issue orders but, you will find that annoying to use as well.
Even if some abilities are more useful than others, it won't matter much if you are still getting flanked by enemy troops. The combat wheel slows time down but, does not stop it. Sometimes issuing orders don't do any good because the A.I will run into enemy fire.
Thank god for checkpoints! because you will need to reload them a lot unless, you want to carry on without your squamates. Sometimes you are often better off without them. No one likes to babysit grown up, Federal agents... The idea of permanent death makes you work harder but, in this case? It backfires, You really only work harder only because, you don't wanna play the same level again!
As a 3rd person shooter, It's weak As a XCOM game it's an Insult to the fans. 2K Games should have focused more on the strategic elements of the game or, just let this game stay classified....