XCOM: Enemy Unknown

--Reviewed as a total package with 'Enemy Within' DLC/XPAC--

The game that started the "95% miss" meme and built the foundation for the GOATED XCOM2/War of the Chosen.

Originally played it off Steam (disgusting) and on a MAC (unforgiveable) almost a decade ago and didn't have acces to it anymore until the XCOM ultimate collection tempted me with everything for $6 (god I love the 'complete your bundle packs) lol.

If its your first foray into turn-based strategy, you're in for a treat and a total beating (and you should 95% start with XCOM enemy within before jumping into XCOM2) and I'm jealous.

Its as fun, tactical and unforgiving as I remember and a game that really put turn based tactical on the map and reset the quality expected for the genre when it released.

Yea, there are some frustrating parts and some missions can get out of control quickly, but learning (and possibly a few campaign restarts as you learn) are part of the charm of the franchise. (Pro tip, satellite rush for enemy within is the best route to lock up support/money).

XCOM2/WoTC basically improves (and retcons) almost everything in this one, but its incredibly rewarding to see how it started and the atmosphere is one of the biggest advantages EU/EW has over XCOM2. You really feel like you're fighting an invasion with little to no info and trying to make sense or it all as you go (and try to survive).

10/10 and the perfect gateway drug to Xcom2

Nothing more fun than missing an 98% shot and consequently getting a squad wipe, i still love the game to death tho

This is a PSA: Steam has finally updated their side and the game now works. You need a clean installation for it to work.
XCOM: Enemy Unknown is a great game, definitely recommend. Shame it took so long for Steam to update the game on their end to actually -work- without the Take2 Launcher.

The greatest part is
naming soldiers after friends
and watching them die

I never had the chance to play this game when it originally released — and wow, did I miss out. This is exactly the kind of game I’ve been searching for to scratch that strategic itch. From the moment I started playing, I found myself hooked, and it quickly became one of those rare games I just couldn’t put down.
I wasn’t sure if turn-based strategy games were for me, but this title sealed the deal — I genuinely enjoy the thoughtful, tactical style of gameplay it offers. It’s incredibly easy to pick up and get started, but don’t be fooled by the simple interface — there's a lot of depth here. Mistakes on your first playthrough are common, but instead of being frustrating, they make your next run even more rewarding as you apply what you’ve learned and explore new builds and strategies.
The replay value is excellent, encouraging experimentation with different approaches and playstyles. Since buying this game, I’ve been on a bit of a turn-based binge — even picking up Cyber Knights because of how closely it resembled the feel of this game.
If you see this on sale, you'd be doing yourself a disservice by passing it up. Even years after its original release, it holds up remarkably well and feels just as fresh and engaging as any modern title. It’s a must-play for anyone who loves strategy, or for those like me who are just discovering the genre.

XCOM: Enemy Unknown - The Streamlined Revival Of A Cult Classic Strategy Behemoth
EU is the revival of a long thought-dead franchise that started all the way back in the mid-90s and was the stroke of genius by Julian Gollop and his team of talented developers at MicroProse. A studio that is now long-since been closed but was responsible for hit games such as Sid Meier's Civilization 1 & 2, Gunship, Master of Orion and many other classic hit games that all aim to bring strategy to the home computer of the time, one of which was also XCOM: Ufo Defense and later games such as XCOM: Terror From The Deep and Apocalypse (There are no other XCOM games, trust me, don't google it).
The original games were always known for being absolutely hardcore. Full of micromanagement in its GeoScape parts and an unforgiving slaughter in the BattleScape, where your soldiers have a chance to be eviscerated the very first turn as they all step off their VTOL aircraft. And because of its unforgiving but rewarding nature, the game has a dedicated and passionate cult following to this very day, with fans still actively banding together to develop a Source Port to make sure the game continues running as best as it can on modern operating systems.
To say that EU had big shoes to fill would be an understatement.
While modern gamers weren't really aware that XCOM was a thing before EU, many people who have fond memories of the original were cautiously optimistic as EU was revealed alongside a supplementary game that ended up being a Third-Person Shooter. But that game has no direct ties to EU and can safely be enjoyed on its own or outright ignored, as it seems largely forgotten with middling reviews.
EU wanted to be nothing more than a more modern, sleek and streamlined revival of a long-dormant series, trimming off the fat where necessary to give a conscise and focused new iteration of the series, one that would have an easy skill floor where many things are explained to you quite intuitively, but with enough depth to still stand out in a videogame market that was, at the time, oversaturated with mostly effortless first- and third-person cover shooters that didn't require much involvement other than pointing and shooting your rifle.
So what is this game about? Well, you are the Commander of the XCOM Unit, an organization collectively funded by the big world powers as a way to combat the threat of Extraterrestrials, also colloquially known as Aliens to the common man.
Your job is to be the Commander of this unit and stop the Alien Invasion of Earth, figure out what their goals are, learn about them, co-opt their tactics, gear, and other advancements to gain an edge in an arms race that spans the entire campaign from start to end.
Throughout the game, you are assisted by a cast of outstanding characters such as Central, the man who will give you the intel for all your missions. Dr. Vahlen, a scientist who is deeply fascinated by the advancements of the Aliens and wishes to pursue ways of enhancing the human body, and Shen, the Chief Engineer, who is responsible for the building of most weaponry and utilities, and also the construction and expansion of the XCOM Headquarters.
And not to forget: Your soldiers. Who will form the frontline and backbone of all your efforts in taking down the Aliens. They will fight for you, bleed for you, and some may even die for you, and will forever be remembered for their efforts, because once somebody dies, they are gone forever.
Permadeath is a constant in this game; your choices in the BattleScape matter. Sometimes you will make a mistake, and you will pay harshly for it.
Sometimes you can plan for all the possibilities and make all the correct moves, but simply be messed up by bad RNG, which causes your 95% chance hit to suddenly miss the enemy, who will then go on to massacre your Squadmate.
Between battles, your time is wisely spent in the GeoScape, a menu encompassing your XCOM Headquarters and all the things you can do there; From recruiting, upgrading, and outfitting Soldiers with their gear all the way to Research, Development, and Production of new Gear, Tactics, Technologies, etc.
You will also have to contend with a rising Panic System that each country in the XCOM program has: Let the Panic Meter get too high, and a country will leave the program, depriving you of precious monthly funds that you now lack and are now permanently without.
To counteract this, you need to make sure to put up satellites to monitor the countries in the program for Alien Activity, stop the abduction/massacring of civilians, and other things.
It's a punishing but deeply rewarding gameplay loop. Preparing for a mission and seeing all the things you've worked on come to play in the Battles you fight.
When everything clicks into place, you will feel invincible, and it is so rewarding to pull off a perfect mission or to see the credits roll after a long campaign, knowing that you made it happen despite all the odds.
XCOM also got a few DLC, most of which I would consider part of the base experience; There is no real reason NOT to have the DLC enabled, especially "Enemy Within", which fundamentally adds things to the game such as a new faction to fight against, extra bits of story and lore, new mechanics such as Mechs and Gene Therapy etc.
It is all integrated into the base game well, and Enemy Within is considered part of the base experience when Enemy Unknown is mentioned by name.
And as a modern iteration? I think EU perfectly succeeds. It deserves all the praise it gets where it is due, and the only thing that brings the experience down is a bit of jank here and there. Sometimes you get shot from weird angles that count as flanks, sometimes you enter the line of sight of an enemy despite them clearly being behind the wall, and sometimes the game just freezes up after an action for a few seconds as the Enemy CPU seems to not know what to do for a moment.
Other than that, this is a phenomenal Reboot and a great entry for people new to the series, and I absolutely suggest that you play this game BEFORE XCOM 2 just to see how they refined the gameplay and what direction they chose to take it in.

XCOM 1 is still a fantastic strategy game, maybe even a masterpiece. There are a few minor mechanical issues, but overall the game holds up surprisingly well (Classic difficulty).
I'll add comparison thoughts below after replaying XCOM 2, but I think it's interesting to evaluate this on its own, with only faint memories of the sequel.
(this review contains only slight spoilers in the beginning but more and more further down, though I've tried to reduce them as much as possible)
Research is still fun, offering many simultaneous options with different rewards. Strategically it's a bit sad you don't know the exact effects beforehand, though as an experienced player you do, and this also delivers more curiosity and excitement.
Base management is also great and strategic, with so many different options for various dimensions (like soldier strength and country satisfaction/monetary support). The biggest resource management factor, besides time, is of course money, and it works very well. You always just barely have enough for 1 or 2 exciting improvements that you need to weigh against often equally promising other ones, and sometimes you have to sell items you don't want to to get an important improvement.
Having also replayed the original X-COM (UFO Defense / Enemy Unknown), which I love, it's amazing how many mechanics they managed to keep/update, while streamlining/simplifying the mechanics in general (which is not always a strict improvement, more on that later):
* terror events where you need to save as many civilians as possible
* the aircraft-UFO dogfights are surprisingly close to the original
* alien base attacks
* XCOM base attack (only in the DLC Enemy Within I think, which seems like a strict improvement)
* Selling loot from missions, but only if you e.g. don't destroy the ship parts in the mission
* having to cover multiple continents (with satellites, aircraft, missions, etc)
* laser and plasma research/upgrade paths
and many more, probably. You can really see they looked at the original X-COM hard and tried to translate as much as possible to a modern feel.
The streamlining works well in general and still offers a great deal of complexity, there were many small and fiddly details in the original X-COM like managing ammo or multiple bases that maybe didn't offer enough depth and reward for the tedium.
I do miss a few of the freedoms in X-COM that gave it immersive sim qualities, like being able to time grenades to explode only after x turns, soldier inventory instead of only 2 fixed item slots allowing you to e.g. exchange medikits or stunners between soldiers, the flexibility of the point action system where you can e.g. move a little bit and shoot once or twice or just stand and shoot three times, and especially free aiming shots to shoot away cover or house walls (in XCOM you can only shoot main weapons at aliens directly). Or being able to assign an exact number of researchers and engineers to projects, though that again has a rather small benefit. But it does feel more like a choice and degree of freedom.
At least they did keep free aiming for grenades and rockets, which leads to some of the most creative and fun plays.
Reloading was also a bit more strategic in X-COM, as you had limited ammo magazines and had to balance reloading to not have an empty magazine with not running out of magazines, as the remaining ammo in the magazine is wasted when reloading.
Reloading even becomes a chore in the late game in XCOM, as you have unlimited ammo, and strategically it's optimal to reload even after shooting once, if no enemies interrupt you.
(the original X-COM did have some weapons that didn't require magazines iirc, like lasers)
Soldier talent paths are a good idea, but maybe a bit too simple, and often between the 2 talent choices there is a rather clearly better choice, like being able to shoot twice in a turn (if you haven't moved) instead of suppressing an enemy, which just gives you a reaction shot if they move and slightly reduces their aim or something.
There are still a few interesting choices here (like more smoke grenades vs more medikit usages), and there is still some strategy in choosing which soldiers to take on a mission to get a critical new talent for them.
Here it gets a bit more spoilery strategically:
One class is probably slightly OP compared to others, namely snipers, but mostly only when they have their last talent and the elevation bonus, sometimes giving you 2 100% high crit shots over 3 screens distance in a single turn. But they do have low HP, especially with the movement armors, and they don't work well in labyrinthine, sight-blocking areas, obviously better in open areas.
And other classes with full talents are also very strong, like the assault run and gun + double shot, reaction shot for enemies getting within 4 tiles, and the free first shot within 4 tiles (these are 4 separate good talents).
Or the heavy's double shot, shredder rocket (which increases dmg to the target), and expanded range rockets, which can also blow up things like cars, adding extra damage.
Mechanically there are some minor annoyances especially in the late game. The biggest is that it sometimes takes a lot of time to find the remaining aliens, and while you can move multiple soldiers simultaneously which is great QOL, it doesn't help that you have to wait for each soldier's movement to finish before you can do actions like overwatch. This costs you a few seconds every turn where you're just waiting for animations to finish. It would have been great to have a skip animations option like in the original X-COM.
But as I said, if this is the biggest nuisance, the game has aged very well and is very solid overall.
(this is probably something XCOM 2 fixes with the concealment system, which is about the only relevant comparison I could remember for this review before replaying 2)
Balance wise besides snipers one thing I'd change is enemies being able to move freely while mind controlling your soldier. They can just run away to max range, and if there are other enemies between you, you can't just chase them, so you basically have no other choice than to kill (or I guess stun if you're lucky) your own soldier. I'd say they shouldn't be able to move at all, or maybe only a few tiles.
(you can also get a soldier upgrade to make them immune to mind control, but this is late and a bit of a cheap move)
The game does start to be a slight slog toward the end game and is slightly easy at that point on Classic difficulty (one above normal, one below max "insane" difficulty), but until then it offers great challenge and many epic moments like a tense base defense or a turn where you just barely manage to eliminate all visible enemies with your last few actions.
I could have probably tried to finish the game a bit more quickly (around 40 hours for this playthrough, first was around 50), as I ended with pretty much full research and the best equipment, then it would have been more challenging for the endgame.
But still, the conclusion is satisfying, and it's fun to finally use the enemy's greatest weapon (psi moves) against them. Though I've avoided them until the very end as they're likely OP, just part of psi tech is mandatory to progress story-wise.
Now I'm looking forward to replaying XCOM 2 to compare, I haven't even really played the DLC for that yet, I'm afraid to say (War of the Chosen).
Ideally I'd also love to play the Long War mod which I've heard great things about and is supposed to make the game more balanced and strategic, but also longer. Not sure I have the time for that unfortunately. But first, XCOM 2 DLC is waiting anyways.
Noteworthy Long War quotes from the game's designer Jake Solomon:
"Takes XCOM to a new level." - via Twitter
"We're basically a 20-hour tutorial for Long War, and that's okay." - via IGN