XCOM: Enemy Unknown
XCOM: Enemy Unknown will place you in control of a secret paramilitary organization called XCOM. As the XCOM commander, you will defend against a terrifying global alien invasion by managing resources, advancing technologies, and overseeing combat strategies and individual unit tactics.
The original XCOM is widely regarded as one of the best games ever made and has now been re-imagined by the strategy experts at Firaxis Games. XCOM: Enemy Unknown will expand on that legacy with an entirely new invasion story, enemies and technologies to fight aliens and defend Earth.
You will control the fate of the human race through researching alien technologies, creating and managing a fully operational base, planning combat missions and controlling soldier movement in battle.
Key Features
- Strategy Evolved: XCOM: Enemy Unknown couples tactical turn-based gameplay with incredible action sequences and on-the-ground combat.
- Strategic Base: Recruit, customize and grow unique soldiers and manage your personnel. Detect and intercept the alien threat as you build and expand your XCOM headquarters.
- Tactical Combat: Direct soldier squads in turn-based ground battles and deploy air units such as the Interceptor and Skyranger.
- Worldwide Threat: Combat spans the globe as the XCOM team engages in over 70 unique missions, interacting and negotiating with governments around the world.
Game Discussion
Steam User 19
Hot take incoming: I like this game WAYYYY more than XCOM 2. Like seriously, Enemy Within is the best XCOM experience and I'm tired of pretending it's not just because XCOM 2 exists
Steam User 19
Nothing more fun than missing an 98% shot and consequently getting a squad wipe, i still love the game to death tho
Steam User 17
I slept on this game for a LONG time. I bounced off when it first came out because all anyone would say was "it's hard, git gud", while the guys who 'solved' the game kept asking for ways to make it even MORE brutal. When the DLC got added, the people who stuck around enjoyed it and the guys who eat nails for fun seemed to get something out of it (despite claims that X or Y makes the game "too easy").
The thing I'd recommend to anyone picking this up on sale for the ~$3-5: play on the lowest difficulty setting. It is an Alien Invasion and it is NOT FAIR. That's not so much a criticism or condemnation, just a statement of fact. If you're feeling like you're losing, then everything is going how it's supposed to go. If you're ACTUALLY losing, then there's a problem. On a blind playthrough, you're not gonna know the "best" way to build The Base, equip your squad, which order to research everything in, and honestly I was still figuring out weird techs and mechanics all the way into the final mission. Do it on Easy, save at the very start of every mission, and just see how it goes. If your squad wipes, you just retry the mission. If you only lose the lowest-ranking member of your squad, or maybe someone made a heroic sacrifice in a mission that otherwise went extremely well (like you captured multiple Aliens alive but lost one or two guys doing it), you're kind of expected to lean into Consequences and just lock things in. No matter what you do, the beginning is BRUTAL and the end will be somewhere medium-to-easy depending on how efficient you are at figuring out "the meta" and min-maxing your guys. DO NOT be fair to The Aliens, because they will NEVER be fair to you. Hone your low-XP squads by punching down on EXALT cells, ALWAYS hit the Aliens with EVERYTHING you have.
It's a good game, I enjoyed it and I'm glad I finally got around to playing it. I DID technically finish the game; but unfortunately there's an ancient memory problem having something to do with the final cutscene(s). I watched the ending, then it hard-cut to a generic "Returning to base" scene, which then froze halfway through so I never made it to the Credits and didn't get credit for the Steam Achievement(s). I have a save at the START of the final mission, but I'd have to do it all over again. I think for now I'm chalking it up as a "Win", since I have XCOM 2 up next (and Star Wars Zero Company on the horizon at time of writing). The advisory for other players is just that it might hang/crash there (I did have one other crash during the Final Mission) and it's been a problem for well over a decade.
Steam User 13
Great game but playing it without a camera mod to freely move the camera around and changing zoom levels is torture. Download this mod (has 5 files, you need at least 3 of them) to not be fighting the camera more than the actual enemies You need this mod to install the camera one but it's very easy to do:
Camera mod:
Steam User 11
Renamed all my soldiers after my friends. They are all dead now.
The game looked me dead in the eyes, let me miss a 94% shot and then had a Sectoid one tap my best guy on the very next turn. Incredible stuff. XCOM is genuinely one of the best strategy games ever made: deep, tense and endlessly replayable. It respects your time just enough to make you waste all of it. Every mission feels like a heist plan that goes perfectly until it absolutely doesn't and somehow that just makes you want to go again. If you enjoy making careful tactical decisions only to watch them collapse in real time, this is peak gaming. Just don't get attached to your squad. Trust me on that one.
Steam User 14
It is 2026. I first played X-COM: UFO Defense when I was in high school. This game (XCOM: Enemy Unknown/Within) was released before my son was born. He is now in high school, and while educating him on tactical strategy games prior to the release of Zero Company, XCOM has sucked me in anew.
This game is a masterpiece and I'm losing hours to it again. The X-Com series has given me some of my fondest gaming memories. If for some reason you've never played this game, it's an absolute must buy.
Steam User 10
Why play in 2026?
- gameplay is timeless
- comic style graphics age well
- it scales perfectly to 4k graphics. yes, even the UI.