XCOM: Enemy Within First Impressions

The cover art of XCOM: Enemy Within.

For the next game to clear from my backlog this summer, I decided to try a game in a genre that I've not been able to get fully into, but still interests me in some way: Turn-Based Strategy. I've always been curious about it but ultimately it didn't fully click with me.

I have tried Civ VI but it didn't really gel with me, so I decided to try a different game this time, and I have to say I am kinda hooked! That being XCOM: Enemy Within, an expansion pack for XCOM: Enemy Unknown (I decided to play Enemy Within since I've heard that its additional content makes it slightly easier, but also more fun).

The reason I wanted to try this game specifically to try and get into turn-based strategy games is mostly due to a video from Yahtzee Croshaw, where he talks about the things that makes "strategy" games different from each other, and in it he explained that despite not liking most strategy games, he really likes XCOM because it's more closed and allows him to focus on one thing at a time.

This made me know that this could definitely be a game I could get into, as I also find it a bit overwhelming to have to think ahead a lot in games.

Anyways! As I mentioned earlier I ended up really liking the game, and it is definitely one that I can see myself continuing to play for a while. It has a pretty low barrier to entry! Its difficulty and specific game settings are very easy to change, and the mechanics themselves are very easy to understand!

Each soldier you control has a certain amount of things they can do per turn, they can move and/or use an ability (attack, defend, aid, etc.), however you are limited to how much you can do per turn. Sometimes you can move and then use an ability (or vice-versa), however if you move too far that will take up all your moves for the turn, and some individual attacks also take up an entire turn.

Fortunately, this isn't super hard to get around! And the game does a very good job at introducing everything. As I said there are some games that manage to overwhelm me even in their tutorials, usually things that just have way too many buttons and stuff. XCOM doesn't really have that though!

Everything you can do is very simple and there aren't that many options, and all of the possible things you can do are also bound to very simple key presses, which make them easy to remember!

A screenshot of some gameplay. The possible options for stuff to do are very intruitively laid out!

The other part of XCOM is a bit of base management, which is something I am slightly more familiar with, but not a whole lot. I also found this very enjoyable and relatively intuitive! Though not as much as the actual combat.

This is definitely the part that I have to get the most used to, however I am getting a good hang of it so far! Really, more than anything I just have to get used to some of the specific mechanics, but I'm sure that won't be too hard! And honestly I am a huge fan of the setting of the game, and I feel like it's helped a lot (Which is probably something I should've started with lol).

The game is about dealing with an alien invasion on Earth. What that means for the base management sections is that there's research you can do to find out what alien stuff does and is capable of, which leads to you being able to engineer technology which you can use for your troops!

I adore how this is laid out, this all takes place in an actual base, and each department is ran by somebody! They're characters who sometimes have some conflicts with each other due to what their departments are focusing on, but they still feel very professional which gives the sense of this being a high-end operation, which is what it is!

A screenshot of the base.

In the end, I ended up liking XCOM, and it's a game that I really wanna keep playing! Will it be the start of a new obsession with turn-based strategy games? It might be or it might now, who's to say. But regardless, this is a game that I am extremely happy clicked for me as much as it did! And I am really excited to see how it continues.