XCOM: Enemy Unknown

Introduction

Okay, this is just going to be a rant. This is my third or fourth attempt at getting into XCOM. It's kind of the standard for sci-fi, turn-based, strategy games. I've always put it down and felt like I would come back to it and enjoy it someday. I've always known the game is really well-liked and felt that it was on me for not getting into it. As of this most recent playthrough attempt I think I'm flipping my opinion. This isn't on me; the game just isn't that good actually. Here's my criticisms:

Uninformed, Boring Combat

The combat is not fun, it's poorly paced, there's a serious lack of information, and the enemy's behavior is annoying. Combat seems to boil down to carefully spawning in enemy groups. Enemies always get the jump on you even though you're the one finding them. You'll carefully scout an area, see some enemies, and then they'll instantly see you and get free actions to reposition. I hate this. It's the same every time and disincentivizes stealthy exploration. Next thing about combat relates to the lack of information given. Yes, you're given a chance to hit/crit, but where's all the other variables that influence this? The cover system, weapons, distance, soldiers, line of sight, all might matter to some degree but it's very unclear. This makes it hard for me to make meaningful choices in combat. Lastly, the Overwatch ability is just boring I hate using it, I hate when the enemy uses it, it makes movement grind to a halt, it's very unclear when it will trigger, it just sucks.

Now here's one other aspect that may seem like a nitpick, but to me this stuff matters, and that's the physical nature of the game environment. What do I mean by that? Well, the combat areas have this fakeness to them because they lack integrity. Examples of this would be your units being able to shoot through anything as long as the red enemy indicator appears, despite how many walls, friendly units, non-targeted enemy units are in the way. There's these little 'cinematic' cutscenes that play when you trigger an action, and they can look stupid as hell when your sniper lines up a shot, clipping into another friendly unit, and then the actual shot passes through a wall on its way to the target. I don't know, this kind of stuff bothers me... Another example would be in regard to triggering other enemy groups. You can be engaged with one group trading shots, tossing grenades and the unspawned group on the other side of the ravine is none the wiser, but if you try and flank, sneaking one of you units behind cover anywhere in that undiscovered group's vicinity, BOOM, they appear...

Bland Art Style

Another big turn off for me is the art style. It's really bland. I realize the game is over a decade old, but it's already aged poorly. The texture quality is low, and the style is just not that memorable or enduring. I'm not a stickler for realistic graphics either, FTL which came out around that same time is probably my all-time favorite game and has one of the best sci-fi aesthetics ever. Aesthetics, even for strategy games, matter and XCOM flat out fails in this department with its generic, blocky, low-detail, action figure-like character models, uninspired alien designs, and hollow feeling maps.

Lackluster Base Management

Lastly, the base management stuff all sucks and is outright boring. Who in the world thought the fighter-jet minigame, and calling it a minigame is a stretch, was a good idea? Send out a jet and watch it ambiguously dice roll shots towards a UFO for 30 seconds... what the hell! So much boring tedium. Also, the soldier progression is so uninspired and again lacks in any meaningful decision making... No stat upgrades to choose from, classes are chosen automatically, the perk selection is super limited, and the gear options are again generic and boring.

Verdict

★★

Avoid this snoozefest, play Battle Brothers.