Difficulty:

Just Right

Time Spent:

10 to 20 Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Ambitious"

I'm a die hard fan of the original Xcom UFO Enemy Unknown and have never tiered of it. I've avoided many of the wannabe successors except Xcom Apocalypse which I also enjoyed. I'm very please with Firaxis version.

I feel most of the negative comments by others are of those who want to go in guns-a-blazing FPS style or do a swarmed rush RTS style. This is not that type of game. Think more about strategic games like Chess or Risk and you will get a better understanding. I strongly suggest new comers to this genre start on easy mode. It's no shame as this game is as faithfully brutal as the original.

Having said all that, I'm not quite happy with the random generator where my trooper misses at nearly point blank range with 98% chance of hit (well ok she had a sniper rifle which is better for distance head shots but...). Anyway this still doesn't detract from the overall game and I love many of the enhancements such as new troop skills on advancements. Don't always send only your best troopers on missions but have a mixed team so all your troopers have a chance to advance. If the mission is classified as easy send mostly rookies, if moderate send a mixed team, if hard then send your best.

The atmosphere is still creepy but would like to have seen more environments that are randomly arranged like the original. Also I for one miss the base raids; fighting off aliens within my own base has a sense of desperate urgency. Though this would only work if we were given more than one base like the original. As a suggestion (for DLC or Xcom 2) the aliens only attack a certain level of our single base with other levels safely locked down "just in time". Therefore the base is not completely lost but there is a repair bill to fix the level the aliens hit-and-run commandos have infiltrated and damaged before leaving.

This leads me to funding management. They had made micromanagement a lot easier than the original but funding feels more stringent. A lot of alien items I would of sold off now have to be carefully horded for engineering new technologies therefore not all your troopers will have the best armor or weapons. And why can't I sell items I manufacture onto the grey market like the original? This definitely requires new level of strategic fund management not in the original.

Also UFO's don't appear as frequently as the original; this can be both a good thing and a bad thing. UFO's are important source of alien materials for many upgrades and weapons. However if you fail to take down a UFO, the country that it flew over goes negative towards you. Also moping up the aliens after a UFO landing can be difficult with new recruits in your team.