Mick Fraser: "I’ve never been much for tactics. My brain doesn’t work in straight lines, doesn’t allow me to analyse a situation as it is and deal with it. I’m governed by imagination, by whimsy and fancy and what-ifs. Had I been a soldier, I’d have likely been useless for anything but making up numbers and soaking up bullets.
As a result, I tend to avoid strategy games like a plague of locusts, preferring something less cerebral like your average bombastic shooter or kill-loot-level grindathon, maybe a low-brow brawler like Mortal Kombat now and then. Which is why I didn’t pay much attention to XCOM: Enemy Unknown when it was first announced. A game developed by Firaxis, they of Civilisation fame, it seemed far too clever for my liking, far too involved – and so I more or less ignored it.
It turns out that it was exactly all of those things, and yet also much, much more. A thinking man’s action game, Gears of War with a brain, Halo with a better tactical spin than Halo Wars – a game not about gung-hoism and high-fiving bro-heims, but about patience and planning as well as kicking the crap out of alien scum. I can honestly say that it’s the first strategy game I’ve ever played and truly enjoyed."
XCOM: Enemy Unknown rebooted the series back in 2012, and has since inspired numerous new strategy game series to be born.
If someone gets into this I'd recommend getting the enemy within version. It's got all the dlc included so it's the better version. Wish the author would've atleast mentioned it. I didn't see it.
Fantastic game though. Xcom 2 is top notch also. I've spent countless hours in these games.
Phoenix point if I remember was created by the original xcom developer or something to that affect. I did try gears tactics some months ago and I just couldn't get into it. It's probably just me
It was, but it was really closer to the newer XCOM than the older ones. Gears Tactics was okay but was hard to get into knowing there probably wont be a sequel.
There are few things more gratifying in gaming than skillfully turning the tide of a conflict. And few genres provide as many opportunities to abruptly reverse the odds via skill and forethought as tactical strategy. To be sure, we are more often than not talking about turn-based tactical mobile games, specifically titles in line with the iconic landmark series (XCOM and Jagged Alliance) that made the genre a genre.
Some games age better than others. When a game is getting on in years, mods can help give the game a little push and make it worth playing again.
