This is about as far as the construction elements go, but keeping your base of operations up to scratch isn’t a casual task you might like to plough all your cash into weapons development, but an ill-equipped headquarters will see you reach a sticky end very quickly. Your orbital monitoring system must be maintained and upgraded, but more so your XCOM HQ on the ground. Despite this being a global catastrophe in the making, you still only have limited resources. This opening taste of strategy expands and deepens as the game progresses. From there you can attempt to engage alien ships in the air, hopefully thin their numbers a little (if it’s a fleet) and bring them down where the battlefield is a little more even. Orbital defences can’t keep this unknown enemy at bay on their own, and one of your first tasks is to ensure that satellite monitoring is up to scratch so you get an early warning of a global perimeter breach. Farms are buzzed, or a lone ship accidentally crashes in some backwater hick town, and your task is to monitor for these small incursions, contain them, and prepare for the possibility of a widespread invasion. There’s a superb subtext here that gives a nod and a wink to classical sci-fi mythology, as the invasion begins very quietly. Certainly this isn’t a criticism, and the design ensures that old hands and newcomers alike are catered for, without sacrificing quality.Īs is always the case in an XCOM game, XCOM: Enemy Unknown begins with an alien invasion. Developer Firaxis Games is clearly passionate about the game’s origins, as it’s taken this opportunity not to create yet another sequel, but to reboot the game that started it all. Originally spawned way, way back in 1994, the XCOM franchise has gone through quite a lot of evolution, changes and tweaks, until it wasn’t especially recognisable anymore.
The game feels a lot more natural than most turn-based titles thanks to the landscape not being split up into an unrealistic grid
It’s a mash-up that – for once – actually works toward creating something coherent, instead of bombarding you with a cacophony of gaming randomness. It challenges the notion that a game should have a distinct style at its core, by offering close quarters turn-based combat, global strategy, resource gathering, a relatively open sandbox and a clear, progressive storyline. What’s perhaps most interesting about this schizophrenic behaviour is that it actually works. The highly-anticipated reboot of the classic XCOM franchise doesn’t seem to hold this principle particularly close to its heart, demanding that you embrace all manner of different types of gameplay. I’d be the first to insist that a game should make a solid decision on what it’s about, and what sort of action it provides.
0 kommentar(er)
