Losing too many soldiers and resources might very well mean that you won’t stand a chance of beating the game, even though you narrowly escaped with a win in the last three missions. That’s because you’re not just playing individual missions and levels – there’s also a bigger game to play here, and that revolves around the world map and the management of your base. Fighting back from a position of defeat is a great angle, and slowly turning the tide of war in your favor is immensely satisfying, though there’s more to it than the battle tactics just mentioned. The ability to catch them by surprise and deal a devastating first blow is an exciting – and often crucial – one. Many of your missions will also start with your squad in hiding, and the opponents being unaware of your presence.
You’ll be using guerilla tactics, because you’ll often find yourself heavily outnumbered. This means that you’re taking on the role of the resistance, which brings a number of exciting changes with it. Of course the latter is still true in XCOM 2, but here you’ve already lost the war for our planet and now you have to fight back to reclaim what was once ours. In Enemy Unknown, the human and alien sides would face off and fight for control of our planet, creating the appearance of an evenly matched fight where the right decisions make all the difference. In many ways, XCOM 2 is a true sequel to Enemy Unknown (and the expanded version, Enemy Within), but it’s a vastly different game with a different tone to it – which also brings a new approach to the gameplay. We met with Firaxis over the summer and learned that their ambitions for the game were best met using a PC version, so console gamers will have to do without a new XCOM for the time being.
We’ve since seen a spin-off in the shape of ‘the bureau’, a so-so third person shooter – but XCOM 2 returns the series to what it does best: highly strategical warfare with an alien race. When the XCOM series returned with Enemy Unknown and Enemy Within, it was a triumphant return to the strategic roots of the series.