First off, this is really not an X-Com game and if you go in looking at it as a new IP then you will be a lot better off. The game is heavily streamlined/dumbed-down from its origins and rather than a turn-based strategy game like the original X-Com games, you are buying a turn-based ACTION game, like a turn-based Gears of War.

You are limited to 4 squad members to start, you cannot build or manage new bases, the maps are pre-done rather than random (and can repeat through a game), and virtually all of the strategic portions of the original X-Com have been deleted. I suspect this was done to "attract the CoD/GeoW audience" but it just makes the unsuitable for any true strategy gamer and its slow pace will certainly keep away the FPS fans. Now this is not specifically a "bad" game, and if you are the type of gamer who thought "wouldn't it be cool to command a Gears of War squadron (dressed in Mass Effect armor) in a turn-based game but without all those unnecessary strategic elements, new base building, and micro-managing" then this is the game for you. X-Com EU has loses the overall strategic gameplay, and is all turn-based action with Mass Effect armor and guns. Not for me, but who knows, there might be an big undiscovered market for this game type.… Expand

The best looking X-COM to date is also one of the most disappointing, with strategic gameplay so dumbed-down and shallow that it's barely worthy of the X-COM name.

This game should have a different title.Perhaps-Generic Alien Shooter Yielding Atrociously Stressful Strategy Elements Dumbed-down. That would then explain how the marketing team was able to pull off a top sales item in a pre-release sale.

"Well core principles from the original that we wanted to build on was basically everything" -Jake Solomon(Lead designer) I personally believe they removed just about every single good tactical piece from the original. If by build, you mean remove, then well done. In this game you are unable to interact with the ground, or move invetory of one soldier to another soldier. What a soldiers takes into battle is what they get, no more and no less(Unless they use the items they bring in, then it's used up and leaves them with nothing).

Only allowed one operations base, and to go with that only a single strike team can be deployed at a time. This causes a "choose your own ending book" style of play. Not a bad idea, but its not XCOM.

"Another big thing we did to the game was we added cover" I can only LOL. Just because you didn't recognize it in the older game, doesn't mean it was not there. Furthermore, I often have my soldiers throwing grenades through walls and objects that should cause the grenade to either detonate or change trajectory however passes directly through the obstacle.

While other times I may throw a grenade or line up a "seemingly" perfect clear flanking shot to have it be obstucted by off to the side objects. Major failure to utilize the Unreal engine's capabilities.

"We got these great dramatic scenes where you know your snipers can line up a super long shot and you'll see it[Camera] follow it right down the barrel" -Jake Solomon

I'm finding that my definition of "Super long" is quite different as even down a clear street in the game I cannot shoot very far at all. While my forward soldiers can see and identify the E.T. My sniper in the back when trying to shoot, is told no targets. Out of range? Unlike in the original game where you could shoot freely, this game requires that you take aim at a hostile, in sight target and also that it's within a certain range of the firing soldier. While having a completely destroyable map, what good was all that design work when you fail to allow the player to shoot at that map intentionally? Oh, I know the answer to why the game fails here in this aspect. The invetory system being removed along with the addition of unlimited munitions created a major catch 22.

"Mission control was really important because that's where the geoscape is, and that's the heart and soul of the game" -Greg Foertsch

The heart and soul of the old game was infact the geoscape. The geoscape in this new mess is nothing more than an interactive, push (X) to continue, movie.

The missions are linear and not randomly occuring which kills the replay value. Not only are the encounters not random, the maps are also not random, nor is the placement of the enemies within. Which is a formula for major dissapointment, not only in an XCOM game, but ANY tactical game. The enemies, no matter which difficulty, are just waiting for you to find them before they become "Active" The enemies do not make actions until you stumble upon them, sometimes you can make a lot of noise and maybe they will move. Generally not, it seems that the A.I. doesn't care how many explosions or windows are broken, until after you see them. More aptly called Artificial Downs instead of Artificial Intelligence.

"We wanted to introduce a new system over time units to allow a little more free space in the player's mind so they didn't have to keep track of how far they could move and what actions they could take" -Jake...

Dear Jake, I'm certain there is absolutely no shortage of [empty]space in your mind.
What's a worse scenario? Using 7 extra time units because you moved to the wrong space or using your entire turn and putting your solider one spot out of cover on account of the new lousy camera?

During my most recent mission, I had 4 squad members deployed, one on the roof of a two story building, two of them directly below looking out the windows and one member along the side of the building.
The member on the side of the building spots 3 hostiles, the member on the roof cannot take action against them. It is quite clear there are no obstructions preventing the roof top member from shooting with his sniper rifle yet cannot fire because "No targets", so I choose overwatch for that member and the aliens start to move. The very first action the alien takes is to shoot at my rooftop sniper with his plasma pistol causing a 9 damage critical hit. The alien did not move before or after firing. Too bad the game was released in it's current state. I find it nearly unplayable as a strategy tactical game. This game was at minimum 8 months of intelligent tuning away from being finished.… Expand

Another classic series goes down the toilet in an entirely depressing cashgrab for mainstream gaming dollars, brought to us by a bunch of greedy spoons who clearly know that what made the original series great doesn't hype as well as CG cutscenes and FXAA. This is more like Mass Effect than XCOM. There's almost no tactics involved, the game holds your hand, tells you what to do, and blocks you from doing anything that might resemble "player choice" at every stage. The actual 'choices' the game does present you are akin to 'do you want a red or blue plastic cup' -- they are utterly meaningless. UFO Defense and TFTD were games about tactical combat and strategic planning, not cutscene driven narrative. XCOM: Enemy Unknown is all about clicking 'attack' and 'move' hotspots and watching cut scenes. There's no strategy involved. Do you consider 'Paint by Numbers' and 'Connect the Dots' to require strategic thinking? The awful voice acting, prebuilt repeating maps, and inability to design your own bases really don't even factor into the final verdict because the core game is just so utterly, utterly pointless. The people that rate this game highly deserve to continue eating such dumbed down generic spew. I'm just sad that instead of getting another good XCOM game we got... this.… Expand

You probably wont like it if you played the original one.

Also, its not creepy. It has good graphics and animations, but IMHO it lacks the creepy sounds and music from the original. In the old one you even had to throw ligh rods to be able to see in some areas, that doesnt happen in the new. So, overall, the whole atmosphere of fear is out, still your soldiers keep dying a lot.

The original one also gave you a lot of more options, although I liked SOME of the solutions they used to accelerate the game´s pace. However, it could have been more tactical.

Its cool to customize your soldiers, but you should be able to choose the path for each of your soldiers to follow (to become a sniper for example) but you cant. The game does that automatically for you.

Some say it was dumbed down. It was, it doesnt matter how many people denied it. It was marketed as a remake but its a new (and simpler) game. I would have loved to see the old xcom reffited to allow for a faster pace (the old missions could take hours), but in the process too much flavor was left out.

Sorry, but in the end, old midi music was creepier than this Final Fantasy Tactics with aliens.… Expand

I heard their goal was to streamline the experience but I personally think they just dumbed it down. The geoscape is now nothing more than a button to "scan" for UFO activity which advances the story. My main complaint is the elimination of the soldier inventory, there's no more interacting with the ground or worrying about overloading your soldier; I liked that extra depth. Also squad size is now capped at 6, and the aliens aren't active on the field until you find them... If anyone is looking for a modern x-com rather than a x-com re-imagining, check out Xenonauts.… Expand

If you really enjoyed the complexity of the original two XCOM games this new version will be a let down. The game has been dumbed down for console players. The multiplayer options suck. You can't play the campaign with buddies. This game will be okay when it's $5 in six months on a Steam sale.

An abortion of a classic. (FYI -- beat the game on normal within 2 days, straight A's on monthly reports)
First off, all battles are pre-destined; no individual rolls per move. Example: 2012 Xcom: EU -- When the battle starts, the AI now knows and has determined (regardless of aim percentage) what will hit, and what will not hit. You can save a game during a battle and soldier one will always make a shot, move soldier 2 to a particular grid square, he will make a shot and soldier three will miss. Re-load the game, and the EXACT same chain of events will happen! Then, depending on "AI difficulty," the aliens will then move in for the kill and miss or hit. Keep in mind, it already knows exactly what can and can't kill you, so depending on the difficulty setting ... it either misses or hits you as it sees fit.
In the original, you could re-load the game, and have the same soldier shoot at an alien -- every time you re-loaded, it "re-rolled" the move, and depending on the shot percentage, you would either hit or miss. The same was true for the alien movement. If you had a 25% chance to hit, you actually hit your target once or twice out of four or five times.
Anyone who's played games developed or associated with Sid Meier knows the AI is a HUGE cheat. Who here has ever played any Civilization game and attacked an AI opponent, who was still in the Stone Age, with tanks; only to find out that upon attacking, that same AI opponent has miraculously teched to modern weapons and tanks, too.
So, regardless of how well you do with your tactics, it doesn't matter -- the AI "decides" when you win or lose, with the illusion you've somehow outsmarted it. Poor, poor AI design.
Now onto the other horrible changes -- You can no longer customize your soldiers as you see fit. In the original XCOM, you had approx. 50 slot to place items on each soldier and it required a significant amount of micro-manage. This though was not a chore, but a pure charm, considering that what, how and how much weapons/items your soldier was carrying, determined speed, stamina, shot percentage, reload speed, etc. Every choice had its pros and cons. In 2012 XCOM -- you have 4 slots per soldier, and each slot only holds a certain type of weapon/item, i.e. slot 1 main weapons (a rifle or machine gun), slot 2 sidearm (pistol) slot 3 class specific item (rocket launcher, smoke grenade) slot 4 misc (medkit, grenade, ext.) That's right! Each soldier can only carry ONE!!! grenade now (unless you waste an xp upgrade on them so they carry two) You get one rocket, one grenade, one medpack with only one use.
On top of that, you can only have four soldiers per mission (upgradable to 6), which makes the game unnecessarily hard in the beginning, considering there can be a dozen or so aliens (who NEVER miss, depending on difficulty), and your capped at 4. That's at least a dozen incoming alien grenades at a four-man squad, whose max aim parentage is capped at 25% (not that it matters) on higher difficulty.
Is an alien behind a wall or a tree? Want to shoot that obstacle out of the way so another squad-member can have a clear shot? Well guess what? That ability is gone now, too. Unless you can see the alien, you can no longer shoot freely at random objects, unlike the original -- that's a HUGE removal of tactics.
Remember, that means you… Collapse

A simplified but still fun version of the X-Com franchise. However, the game is currently plagued by MANY bugs both minor and campaign ending. I will more than happily change this score when/if these bugs are fixed. Until that time though, people need to know that both the single and multiplayer components may not be playable if they fork out for this full priced game.

If you want x-com then try UFO series as this game isn't at all a good successor. Customisation of units and arming is poor compared to other similar titles. You can only change one item in your backpack; cannot choose troop specialisation. But you can change hair cut and appearance, not sure of the tactical advantage there. Cannot knock them for trying to update x-com; but in interviews we constantly heard what big fans of the original they were - so why did they dum down so much? Console income? If you want a slow motion version of gears of war then this is your game. Definitely style over substance...… Expand

As a PC game I rate this rather low. As a PS3 game I would consider it a 7.
this game should not be brought out for the pc, as it has clearly been dumbed down for the console controller. Last game I will ever buy that comes out for pc and console. 5 hitpoints? no bleeding (as far as I could tell), no ammo or gun pickup, no crouching (except for forced crouch), 2 actions per turn (rather than action points you are free to spend).
the list goes on. the first disappointment this game offered me was when I switched out a grenade for a vest. it might make sense to have a medkit instead of a grenade, but a vest?
this might work in terms of game mechanics (1 accessory slot) but the original game had a backpack with space, belt with space. Additionally, you only had as much ammo as you could carry, which made for interesting situations. I'll cut the boring list of what this game is not short. In summary, it is not x-com enemy unknown.… Expand

My last review got pulled for some reason - probably because my initial reaction was so angry that I didn't pull any punches. But in a nutshell - if you really enjoyed the original XCOM games, do yourself a favour and avoid this like the plague. It's been dumbed down to the point where the game mechanics make it almost a completely different game to the original. I feel that Firaxis have tried to capitalise on the popularity of the original with the "older" gaming crowd, whilst simulateously simplifying the game to run on the limited user interface of a console (and indeed, to appeal to the more "casual" gamer) It's been a massive disappointment to me and a complete waste of money. At least, do yourself a favour and play the demo first but bear in mind that the game really does not get any better.… Expand

This game is stuck in the last century. Seriously, recreating a classic generally means improving on its faults as well. The evasion system in this game is completely retarded, and has no strategy or tactic at all. I watch a single Alien shotgunner walk through 5 "reaction" overwatch shots, not getting hit a single time, and instantly critting my Heavy in the face. **** It's a good game, but it's weighed down by similar ridiculous moments. Similar to how someone standing in full cover, BEHIND a solid wall, can be insta-killed with plasma without even scratching the wall. Another example is how an alien walses through the entire map in one turn and insta-crits my most valuable soldier. This game is based off nothing but luck.… Expand

Don't buy this game unless you are from the new generation of console players which don't want to make any real tactical decisions. Any one who has played the old XCOMs, Jagged Alliance 1 or Jagged Alliance 2 will hate this game.

As much as I have fallen for this game, I cannot ignore the big throbbing acne problems it which is the combat system. The devs were clearly not ready to transact this game into full-blown 3D seeing how most of the time, my characters are being shot through 25 tons of concrete, behind 3 walls of cover while sucking their thumbs. It has also started to get repetitive very quickly once you realize on how linear it really is, all the alien invasions being one long sticky script. Customization and loadouts are fantastic with tons of options for armors and guns while feeding you new enemies every now and then but as far as strategy and tactics goes, this game really drops the ball.… Expand

This remake takes all the freedom and open-ended, multi-faceted strategic gameplay out of x-com and replaces it with a squad simulator on rails. Suspenseful atmosphere of X-Com isn't there. UI is clunky. I'm overall offended that this game was titled X-Com Enemy Unknown, implying it would be a faithful remake of the original game. Perhaps if you never played the original game, you might be okay with this one. I seriously regret buying it though.… Expand

As below. Player who know only 'today' games, will be please. Player who remember 'old ones' will be displeased.
New Xcom is primitive. Far less tactics options, clearly stupid inventory (only one granade per person, OR medipack, OR balistic shirt... so stupid). Small 'tunel' maps. Classic difficutly level is rather simple, coz maps and options are veeeery limited. Go forward, click on 'wall' or smt, shoot. Thats all. In this case, simpliffying taking out a 2/3 tactical and strategic depths.

(sattelites cover only one country, no matter China or Rpa or France, Only ONE plane to use in action [Xcom is weird organization, they have only one combat pilot per world ;)])

Ufos also are veeery respecting for human borders. Gemrany ufo is germany and thats is.… Expand

Where to start...

1st of all this is not like the original game. Far from that. The game is now very simple and linear. You have the impression that the game force you to make some choice. You also have the impression that the game is holding your hand and tells you all the time what to do. Almost every feature of the OG has been remove. No more inventory, no more base defense/attack. You only have one base. The soldier management is bad. The tactical gameplay is also very simple. You have very few option.

The only good about this game is graphic. They are very nice but that's it.… Expand

Really good tactical game, well designed, runs well.

Completly ruined by the strategy being a cobbled together hunk of junk, they expect you to make decisions in the first 10 minutes that will decide 5 hours later if you can win or not.

This game can be awesome if you console game and love gears of wars, halo, other similar games, but if you play original xcom, jagged alliance 1-2, you highly dissapointed what the hell is this.

It's a simple fact if you've played the original X-COM UFO Defense this game will be a disappointment. While not a bad game in its self, the visual effects and game play can be considered enticing it is in no way a faithful recreation. The main reason is that they have stream lined the game for the average gamer in today's age. For example, maps are no longer randomly generated and in comparison very small. Each town map will only consist of 1-3 enter-able buildings and there is no longer the heart-stopping event of walking down your own ships ramp. To compensate for this they have lowered the amount of enemies you will encounter, and the amount of troops you can field. Also the "LOS" system is completely different then the original game as well, its been reduced to a "gears of war" style based combat that will have your units being able to shoot through walls, trucks, and the occasional entire building to hit an enemy on the other side that is only 'visible' to 1 of your squad members. In tandem with this aliens them selves are no longer random as well, they are strategically placed in groups around the map and will not ACT in any way until one of your units spots the group, giving the aliens a free 'ACTION' move. Therefore if you come across a map you've already played you are able to take strategic positions against a group of aliens you haven't even discovered. Further limitations occur within the base, currency is never a problem even when they removed Construction times on items, and the ability to sell what you make. Only one base is available and it will never come under attack. Also the game is incredibly rushed the larger alien ships seem to appear almost instantly and can be shot down by normal-human aircraft. After you clear just a single of these vessels you get the ability to trace the UFO back to where they come from, and develop powers for your units. The only reason they say this game can provide "Hundreds of hours of game play" is because they Expect multiple play throughs, which again is a contradiction to the original where 100 hours may not finish even one.

The final result is, if you haven't played the originals in an extremely long time or at all you will have an extremely fun time as it is a successful game (even if it is extremely easy unless on the hardest difficulty). Although if like me, and you have the DOS version installed on your computer which you boot up now and then, this game will feel like a disappointment and I would not recommend the purchase at 50$… Expand

Aaaah yes..XCOM. So, are you seriously telling me Sid freaking Meier and Firaxis are redoing my favourite game ever? Wow, I thought at first, I'm in for a real treat. Not. To keep it simple, after more than 10 years(15?), I expected more. After civ5 one had to see this coming, since good old Sid seems to have a new philosophy: "streamlining". Oh you gotta learn to fear this word. It basically means they are taking a great game, stripping it of most of what today is apparently considered "complex" by the average gamer, and pumping it up with cool graphics. This new xcom is not a terrible game, to be honest. It is playable, it is also vaguely enjoyable for some time. But after you stop and think that the intro cutscene probably takes more space on your HD than the whole original game UFO defence, you start wondering. So, lets see. 1) No random maps. It does get old, fast. Aliens are placed in the exact same places. So, if you get the same map, it's a breeze to complete (and it's very boring). 2) more or less the same tech tree as in the original UFO. Now this was a letdown. So you have the usual laser techs, autopsies, some fighter techs. There are two more armors (which you will never use if you know whats good for planet earth) compared to the original, and that's as "modern" as it gets. Oh yeah and plasma, the mid-late game uber tech. I remember not developing plasma in the old Ufo just because I liked the idea of human soldiers in their blue personal armors and armed with mankind's best laser wapons, so yeah, I'm doing the same in this one. Game is easy anyway. 3) No inventory for soldiers. I'll pause a sec here. So now you may equip one main weapon, one secondary weapon, and ONE extra item. One. Extra. Item. Next time you have to decide if you want to bring ONE grenade OR wear a nanofiber vest under your armor, just remember the magic word: streamlining. It's not b******t, it's streamlined. See how easier it is to accept. Streamlined, I'm starting to like the sound of this. 4) No more Time Units. Now, this is sort of a meh. It's different from the original, not necessarily worst. It makes the game VERY boardgamish, like I don't know, bloodbowl, or necromunda. I like bloodbowl and necromunda. Actually, one of the games that comes to my mind A LOT while playing this XCOM is the pc version of bloodbowl. THe game also plays a lot like a blood bowl game, including the "hmm should I or should I not blitz that guy" feeling (if you played bloodbowl then you now what I mean. If not, well go play bloodbowl! Now!).
5) Only one base. Very streamlined. 6) max of 6 squad members at a time. Oh now this is SO streamlined! Old XCOM was like 14? 16? and NO, it was not tedious, it was damn fun. It's a war, you are saving earth from an alien invasion! and you get a plane that can carry only six men?? 7) overall tactical combat is faster and cooler (cooler, not better..),and, yes you guessed it, streamlined! no more crouching, aim or snap shots (or auto), you got cameras following your dudes all over the place, cutscenes when you get out of the skyranger, cutscenes when you first meet a group of aliens, cutscenes when you leave the mission, cutscenes when you RETURN TO BASE after the aforementioned mission..no, I'm not kidding, there is a cutscene for almost every tech, autopsy, live alien interrogation. Only cutscenes in this game probably take more space on my HD than all the games I played in the 1990-2000 period. 8) soldier promotion. A random class is awarded to your soldiers upon completing their first level. Cool, I though at first. So if my rookie kills his first alien from a distance, he'll become a sniper for having demonstrated his particular aptitude with long range etc etc.. no, not at all. It's random. So no more "this guy is a sniper because you decide his stats are good for a sniper class. No, he IS a sniper, he can only use a sniper rifle. Also, when soldiers level they increase their 4 stats (old ufo were like 8 but hey! streamlined!).
So bottom line, not an awful game, it has it's moments. As a successor of the greatest classic series of all times, it fails. Some would say miserably. Will be all but forgotten in a few months, while UFO and Terror from the deep will proudly sit in my pc forever, reminding me of how scary and hard and awesome saving earth in 640x480 may be. So tell you what Firaxis, I wanted to be wise and analyze and examine and think this out before voting. But then I decided to streamline my thoughts, so you get a 3 (because I played it a bit and it's not total crap)
When in a tactical simulation you may choose between 15 hairstyles for your soldiers but you can't crouch, something's terribly wrong. Or streamlined.

p.s. Firaxis is paying royalties to the Warhammer 40k brand I hope. ALL your soldiers and equipment look like space marine stuff. Even in their light beginner crappy armor and armed with a lousy assault gun, they look like uber cool Ultramarines with bolters blazing… Expand

I'm very disappointed on how this game crashes and becomes unplayable when multiple interceptors are sent to deal with an alien aircraft. Didn't anyone test it?

Quick summary (mostly for those who played original series):
The good:
- Interesting action and movement system.
- Four operatives classes (Heavy, Assault, Sniper and Medic) and their little perk systems.
- Money issues. Yes - that's good. Adds difficult choices into the game. New guns this month or new base facilities? In old UFO and XCOM you never had money problems (except first month maybe, but mainly because of facilities constructions).
- Everything that is researched gives some benefits.

The bad:
- World of Warcraft style aliens packs with "aggro" behaviour. For those who don't understand. Aliens stand in group and do nothing unless you (or civilians) are close enough to "activate" them. Even worse is that when you aggro them they have they own activation movement. It's most annoying on terror missions, when aliens are aggroed on civilians then they discover you and activate again to move closer or hide better.
- Simplified old game. Only one base. Can send only one fighter at a time to intercept alien crafts. Only 4-6 agents during mission. Very little variety in fighters and fighter equipment.
- Research goes to fast and easy (at least on Classic difficulty). I didn't even have to build a single research laboratory yet everything was going way to fast. I never had money to introduce most of my discoveries. Especially with certain alien interrogations.
- Cover system is somewhat odd. Sometimes a soldier just hiding behind a wall is considered a target, because he can lean out of it to be a target o_O. Sometimes it is possible to hit someone through a solid wall. Sometimes (on destroyed packs of lorries, hiding behind driver's cabin for example) you can't shoot out of a cover, because game doesn't recognize destroyed walls.
- Hit or miss shooting system. You either hit or you miss. Bullets that don't hit disappear and do no damage at all. Compare to old UFO and X-COM where astray bullets destroyed random stuff, sometimes hit further aliens/civilians/x-com operatives.
- Awful voice acting. Especially the council... "Remember. We will be watching". Boo hoo.
- Chrysalids are now laughable enemies.… Expand

XCOM is a tactical turn based shooter that prides itself on customization. The only problem is that if you didn't pre-order the game before hand they dumb down the customization aspect majorly. Without pre-ordering the game you have no way to customize your character's armor nor can you equip his helmet. These two things seem huge to leave out and they have no right to put it into a DLC later on.

For today standards this game is very neat. Of course, PC version is bugged as hell - but I've managed to get through the game even with the glitches (2 interceptors stuck screen, ufo roof, bad controls for walking inside ufo, impossible targeting with rocket launcher/grenades, over 100 saves etc.).

Old version is still better for me. The new one lacks:
- equipment managing (picking up, leaving behind etc)
- free shooting (clearing walls for sniper etc)
- action points instead of two movements
- UFOPEDIA! - the Archive provided in Lab is a JOKE! There should be UFOPEDIA with nice drawings
- realism - have You seen lock on Sniper rifle? Is this a cartoon or action strategy?
- UFO ranks: medic, navigator etc.
- random missions
- random number generator
- more things to research
- more base management
- chance to sell produced items
etc.

After playing it on normal. I want to launch my old laptop and run a whole night of old xcom on DOS. I paid 40… Expand

Whatever this game is it's not X-Com the tactical lvl of the entire game is lacking to say the least if you ever played any of the old X-Com game such as Ufo: Enemy Unkown, X-Com Terror from the Deep or even X-Com Apocalypse you'd realise just how terrible streamlined and dummed down this game is.

To even call it X-Com is quite insulting.

This is not an X-com game at all - It is some strange table top wargame poorly translated to a video game.
PC version is awful. Looks like the devs never even launched it on PC with a mouse+keyboard as a controller.

The XCOM: Enemy Unknown devs must love them some Gears of War. The combat is a carbon copy of GoW expanded to squad level. Find cover, engage, do an acrobatic vault over the cover, and repeat. Thankfully the cut scenes accompanying some of these moves can be disabled through the options. It became annoying very quickly being forced to watch a mini movie of my squaddies doing something mundane. Oh hey look at me! My squaddie would shout as he back flipped through the window next to the door I told him to go through.
The copying of GoW combat is not what ruined this game for me though. What ruined it is the linearity and lack of player control. All the events and encounters feel scripted. Despite having max satellite coverage alien vessel detection seems to only occur when the story requires it. On the control front nothing is more frustrating than having 20 soldiers and being able to only deploy 6 at any given time. 3 terror attacks! Don… Expand

This game says XCOM on the cover art and the basic story is sort of there with a few new twists but it's missing a lot of what gave X-COM of the 90's depth. It's a fun game on its own merits but in terms of gameplay can't really be compared to the original. Don't be fooled by the Firaxis Youtube vids saying they want to stay true to the original because nothing could be further from the truth. They took the original concepts and oversimplified them beyond what most original fans can tolerate (myself included). If you play it and pretend it's not XCOM then you might like it but it says XCOM and was hyped as XCOM so I have to take that into consideration as I write this review. Any other game company people that might be reading this need to remember that customers do not like being mislead so don't do it mmmkay?… Expand

They turned the franchise into a boring action-only game for consoles. No more strategic decision, game is dumbed down. If you liked the two predecessors do not even give it a try, you would be disappointed.

XCom can be summed up with one word. Stupid. Each of the games mechanics is incredibly stupid, satellites relays only let you use 2 satellites (so Viking Era computers), you units despite being the best of the best could be out gunned by the average gun owner, the aliens tactics are practically none existent and the only challenge the game poses is when it blatantly cheats by having you soldiers miss or have aliens pull off shots that you could only hope to pull off at the end of the game with the best equipment and in your dreams.

Some of the mechanics actually do work like research and engineering but both leave you with few options and the only real challenge you will run into is running out of alloy or money which won't be awarded to you unless you have a satellite over a country.

Strangely though I don't hate the game and have garnered much enjoyment from the title but the game ultimately leaves you feeling underwhelmed and disappointing and left me wanting to play the 50s remake as that looked more intelligent and enjoyable.… Expand

Graphics:Console ...Tactics:None ... Strategy:None ... Excess Blood/Gore:Plenty ... Swearing/Cursing:Some ...Gameplay:Meh ... FUN:Nope ... I listened to all you people praising this 'reimagining'; there is NO imagination here. Buy at your own risk. Pros:XCOM in the title ... Cons:Everything else.

This is a butchery of the original x-com, at first glance the game seems really good. Hell it even hooked me, but the further you get it seems like you just further enter a cave filled with **** What an epic failure, if you liked the original this will spit in your face and say **** you i got money you didn't"
However on its own admittedly this game is a decent Turn based strategy game. But since it has the name x-com on it, it simply blows donkey balls.… Expand

Funny thing this game. I've loved most of the franchise so far.. but thing is, this game feels updated in some ways (nice graphics), but the distinctly no-choice approach to many things makes it a bit difficult to feel engaged in and certainly feels like a step back from some of the previous outings.
To pin down my gripes:
1. The "hidden council" made me feel distinctly disassociated from events.
2. from my play throughs the plot is liner - it doesn't matter what you research or what order the end game is either win or lose. and your choices to that point make no difference.. moreover no 'prologue' endings.. what a missed opportunity to give you the illusion of having had choice and giving you replay incentive.
3. the game chooses your characters classes for you! :(
4.equipment and even research choices feel very limited.

So to sum, whilst I don't want to say 'too simple'... that's what I was left feeling.. A good game in here if only they'd added a bit of plot, personality and detail of choice to it.… Expand

Just finished the game and my thoughts were ... it was ok.

The tactical battles were pretty well handled and the skills generally well balanced but the camera was a nightmare. And although I didnt particularly miss the Time Units system, I dont think the run and gun system worked THAT well. A soldier standing still should be able to fire more than one taking a move. I did also miss the different kinds of shot you could use (Rapid, free fire and aim). But for the most part they were generally engaging.

Everything else though ... well it was just so cut down.

The base was boring as sin. The only buildings (Other than quest buildings) I built were the satelites and power.

There were only two kinds of ship, three types of gun per class (Excluding support), two types of grenades and the rocket launcher was a bit bland as well (Though it made a great tactical choice in battles)

Having said that, the different classes were all really useful and different enough from each other that I fielded a fairly decent variety of soldiers on the battlefield. I still would have prefferred to choose what guns and equipment my soldiers had rather than having them forced onto me bya a class system.

So IMO the research, although fairly accurately taken from the original, was very dull. The only surprises were when something wasnt in the research tree. I understand this is mainly due to the cut down inventory system but half way through the game I found myself not caring about what I researched anymore.

Talking of the inventory system. I would say this was my least favourite part of it. 4 items (5 if a skill is unlocked for Support) of kit which i found noticably limiting throughout the whole game, right from the start.

The other part i really didnt like was the complete opposites of quality between the tactical battles and the openworld map. I realise this is even more subjective than the rest of my thoughts but, it felt to me like there were few choices or meaningful paths to go. Your herded into a choice of three abduction missions and then, seeminly at random, other missions come to play. At certain points in the game you are told to do something to continue the plot. It kind of felt to me like there was no point to that part of the game at all. It wouldnt have played much different if they had just given you 100 similar missions and allowed you to level up your men inbetween each mission. Which, IMO, goes completely against what UFO: Enemy unknown was about.

I only played on Classic, but the original felt like a far more personalised struggle.

In UFO: Enemy Unknown, I felt like it was my game. My world under attack and my plans, that failed or succeeded. In XCOM, it really wasnt. There was just a very slim line of paint telling me it was, which was easily washed off after a few missions.

Having said that there were some parts which were far better. The squaddie customization, although not great, was certainly far far better than any other game of its type. It was really refreshing to have all my soldiers looking different on the battlefield. The graphics were also pretty good and the battles did come alive. An impressive feat for a turn based game.

I also didnt mind the cutscenes or hero cam which were quite subtly done.

The pace was too fast, not really allowing me to enjoy any of the (Too few) research breakthroughs I had.

Lastly I feel they should get an award for managing to make the worst part of UFO: Enemy Unknown EVEN worse. The interceptor fights were atrocious. Laughably so. With just two ships, and your bog standard weapons. There were no tactical choices, battle variety or anything else.

So to finish. I will say the game was fun, I dont feel like I was ripped off for buying it at full price, and I had fun playing. The game was too short, too stream lined and the strategic battles were really the only part which I think had a lot of thought put into it. I dont think this game will ever win any awards but it certainly wasnt terrible either.… Expand

It is good game (as good any game in almost forgotten genre), but... it is not a "true" XCom. Another failed remake. Its more like xcom themed tactical jrpg. Simplified and shallowed. Size of squad is too small for serious tactical decisions. Flanking is pure rubbish in end-game: you cann't 1-shot most of enemies and it is a great risk to loss your own man. Grenades, combat drugs are pretty useless in end-game too, its boost is not enough for wasting single slot. Multi leveled combat now in past: there is only 2 floor "earth" and 1 level above earth, between them is clear air. RIP, our last hope for resurrection of turn-based tactic games. It is was vain hope.… Expand

Firaxis really dropped the ball, even more than they did on Civ V. The NPC dialog is like a bad 80's cartoon, the game is unbelievably limited - I've played free games that had more options, more realism and more depth. The alien designs are either stolen from other games or are just plain stupid. Seriously, wait till you see the ravagers...you'll think you're back in Dranei land! And you'll learn to hate those f*#kers because until you develop the most powerful armor there is no defense against their TWO instant kill attacks. Oh and did I mention that its impossible to get the jump on enemies because they dont roam around..they just wait like land mines till you find them. Then they just keep flanking you, and if they cant they hide and wait for you. There's no stealth abilities. Hell you can't even carry multiple grenades until you've gottten 3 or 4 promotions!! This game is beyond stupid, its NOTHING like XCOM. The graphics look like something from 2003, the controls are flaky and the camera will make you wanna kill yourself. And if by some miracle you can actually win against the uber-cheating AI, you'll get the weakest ending since ME3. DO NOT BUY.… Expand

At the time of submitting this review there was 629 positive reviews and 87 negative reviews, this will be the 88th negative review, I dont know how 629 positive reviews made it in here, probably newcomers that never experienced the pioneer legend that is the original XCOM. the xcom remake from Firaxis released in 2012 is an insult, it is a cash grab, it does not honor the original game, is is a husk of the former game. In several interviews, dev blogs and news updates the devs clearly stated they were going to improve on the initial game, that they were fans of the original, they knew what fans wanted and had been listening to them for years etc, and bla bla bla their life was changed because of that XCOM original ALL LIES, all hype built to increase sales. Talk about apples, apples apples apples and more apples, and on the day of release they effin release an ORANGE. They exploited the XCOM name to make themselves rich, they simplified everything and took customization away from the original, this game was rushed to the market, and is not worth it, do not buy this game, replay value is nil, streamlined storyline, linear to the max, very very dissapointed, damn you greedy cash grabs STOP ruining legendary masterpieces, 629 positive reviews ? are you guys on crack ?… Expand

A dumbed down console version of one of the greatest games ever. And it fails to even come close to matching the original design with its shallow strategic layer, gimmicky and repetitive tacticals, and missing critical content that was a hallmark of the success of the original. How the developers could have missed the clue boat when the original was there to be studied is beyond me. I would be ashamed to have my name associated with this piece of fluff.… Expand

I was looking pretty much forward into playing this game as it woke memories from the past. I pre-purchased from Steam and went on to play as soon as it was launched.

The game has really nice graphics, only it has so many bugs I am currently stuck at the base after playing the tutorial. Reading 2k games forums, I am not alone. Its a big bummer to pay 50 EUR for a game and not get past the tutorial.

I have emailed steam, notified 2k games and never got a reply. Well my friendly suggestion to anyone is wait until price drops to 5.99 or the game is fixed because if you are unlucky enough to run into a bug your game is over.… Expand

A decent game in it's own right, and it works well as a tribute to the 1993 original as it contained enough of the original themes to make me nostalgic. That being said, it's way too dumbed-down to be considered the same caliber as it's predecessors were.

Almost everything is generic and automated, from how the organization itself is administered to how the soldiers interact with the environment when on tactical missions. It leaves you very little choice, and even less room for variation. The soldiers lack any distinguishable traits whatsoever, except for appearance and nationality at least; as they've removed evolvable stats in favor of a primitive class-system with very limited perks as they rank up. Inventory has also been standardized, and you can't even pick up equipment from fallen friends or foes on the field. The option to construct new bases is gone, as is the option to properly control air missions. The tactical missions lack interactivity, as you can no longer free-aim to destroy obstacles (or just for fun) and all bullets fly in a straight line only to disappear into thin air if they miss their target, effectively removing the joy of unintentional collateral damage and the unpredictability which follows it. Aliens just stand around in groups awaiting activation rather than roaming the field and positioning themselves favorably from start, and you can only deploy a maximum of six soldiers to a mission (four at the start - you have to research in order to reach the maximum six). Maps are small and very predictable too, usually you just move forward in one direction jumping from cover to cover massacring one alien group at the time until you're done.

Multiplayer could have been awesome, but it's way too unimaginative to even be considered "ok". Here too, they've stripped your options down to a minimum. Only mode is 1vs1 squad elimination, even though single-player mode offers various settings which could have been extremely fun in multiplayer; and you use a simple "buy-for-points" system when building your squad rather than something more sophisticated (and rewarding). Also there's no progression whatsoever besides a place on the very primitive win/loss ratio-based ladder. Perhaps a system like the one they've implemented in Shogun 2: Total War would be better? At least it gives the player a feeling of achievement, something the present system doesn't provide at all.

All-in-all... This is a game that offers very little variation, very little choice and a downright backwards level of interactivity. It makes most the decisions for you by limiting your options to the extreme. It works well enough as turn-based action, but as a strategy-and-tactics-game it fails miserable. Especially considering how successful the originals were in that aspect.

If you avoid comparing it to the original franchise, which is actually way more complex and rewarding than this game is despite the fact that it's been almost twenty years since their release; you'll enjoy playing through it once. The replay-value however, is almost non-existent due to the previously mentioned lack of choices, variation and interactivity.

The only real strength to this game is the fact that it contains just enough of the original games to reimburse your enjoyment of those. At least that's what it did for me: Made me reinstall the oldies and play them instead.

I'd advice anyone to do the same ;)… Expand

There are good things and bad things in this game but bad things overwhelm the good ones:

-the choice of reducing the party to 4 members at start is too much restrictive, this also aggravates another problem with the randomness of the game, losing a man is too easy in the early game with a lucky alien hit and with so few men, losing 1 is much much important

-the choice of having so few hp on your men is very bad and makes the game less strategic and tactical since every situation is basically dead or alive, they should have implemented more partial hits, injuries to legs and arms and stuff like that, and less criticals and coma and instant death

-maps are too small and linear and once you understand them you lose a lot of feeling of the old xcom, it seems all much scripted

-the strategy and managerial part of the game is basically absent, once you figure out the 2 3 best moves to do the replayabilty is nearly 0, you have to manage your base in the same boring way, and also so many structures are useless

-research is very boring and linear, and since its not balanced you basically can research everything without putting any effort into it

So in the end the tactical combats are decent, and fun for a while but the lack of strategic elements makes the game fall down soon and there are really not many reason to play again like there were in the original xcom, it feels like it is a one time adventure.… Expand

No, no, no, no, NO! This game is terrible. 'Requires some brains and patience?!' said the USA Today. Hahaha This game is a very limp, vapid and pale imitation of the original. There is not depth, nor emotional connection to the characters and limited control akin to painting by numbers. This is a very real and very sad representation of what the games industry is all about today. Very similar to Hollywood. REBOOT! 'Hey what happened to the character development of the original?' 'Charawhat kid? Look at the explosions!!'
'Yeah but the original had depth and a story line to it'
'Depth? Look at the boobs on that generic female co-star' Pathetic.… Expand

The game looks good. But that´s it. This is not a X-Com game at all. You can clearly see, that its made for console. Nearly every strategic element was erased. And to make it worst. The maps are not randomly generated. So you have to play the same maps again and again and again and again.... and again and again and again ... zzz ZZZ zzz ... and again and again and again and again... zzz ZZZ zzz ZZZ zzz ... and again and again .... zzz ZZZ zzz ZZZ zzz ZZZ zzz ZZZ zzz .... and again .... zzz ZZZ zzz ZZZ zzz ZZZ zzz ZZZzzz ZZZ zzz ZZZ zzz ZZZ zzz ZZZzzz ZZZ zzz ZZZ zzz ZZZ zzz ZZZzzz ZZZ zzz ZZZ zzz ZZZ zzz ZZZzzz ZZZ zzz ZZZ zzz ZZZ zzz ZZZzzz ZZZ zzz ZZZ zzz ZZZ zzz ZZZ...… Expand

Go in knowing that this game is designed to make you feel as much pain as they can, as a result the difficulty curve is nuts. You will go from all silly easy missions where you take almost no damage at all to an endless series of losing your whole team forcing you to reload saves over and over until you work out some way to beat the mission.

If you are attracted to games that require replaying the same level 10 times in a row, then this is your game. If however you do not like being hit in the face with a hammer this is not your game.… Expand

A terrible remake of the original. The 2012 remake took everything that made the original great and unique and screwed up, on every, single, point. Destructible environments? Cool, it's be nice if I could actually shoot at them. Inventory system? NOPE. Micromanagement? NOPE. Oh come on Firaxis, I can only construct a single base, and only a single alien base appears in the game? Yep. Okay, wow, this game really captured the spirit of the original (heavy sarcasm). If you enjoyed the original you will be greatly disappointed with this game. While not a "horrible" game in itself, as a remake, It's not worth $49.99. At all.

There were so many possibilities in the original, but X:COM Enemy Unknown (Not to be confused with the good one) is extremely linear. The game holds you back and doesn't allow you to proceed until you've done what it wants. You cannot hire scientists and or engineers, The game basically comes to a halt until you complete a certain objective, you are unable to sell anything you manufacture, or the majority of alien tech for that matter. That was a major source of income in the original, with the monthly council funding being necessary in the long term, you could stay alive if you were low on cash by selling corpses and plasma weaponry. Here you can still sell alien corpses, but at a ridiculously low price. You'll sometimes get ship components, damaged ones have little value and intact components are necessary for high-level manufacturing and are hard to come by, so it'd be pointless to sell something you need.

I know I'm just nit-picking, but there are just so many things wrong with this game that could have easily been worked out. Take the chance-to-hit rolls for example. Wait, did I say rolls? lolno, X:COM decides who lives and who dies before the mission even starts. "The sequence of hit and misses will be, 1 hit, 2 misses, 2 hits, 1 miss, 3 hits, 4 misses, 1 hit, 1 miss, 2 hits, 1 miss, 1 hit..." It's fate. There is no rolling system. 5% chance to hit? 95% Chance to hit? 40% chance to hit? They're all the same. If you re-load a save it will still be the same. An alien will move to the exact same square, fire the same shots, and hit you the same number of shots. At least in the original There was a short algorithm for calculating shot hits and damage, not here. Not worth your time, you can get the original for 4.99 USD retail price and it's vastly superior. Who cares if the graphics aren't current generation? That's the only downside. If you like strategy/micromanagement, it's the perfect game for you.

/rant… Expand

Terrible game, full of glitches and annoying AI tactics. The main flaw being the "2 turn" system in battles. Because making any movement takes a full action, scouting is almost impossible without alerting whole squads of enemies unless you move forward 1 tile at a time. This means you do not get a chance to react to any enemies you encounter, in fact the enemies get a free turn when they enter your vision resulting in unfair situations were they'll move TWICE as far as they should be able to, while you sit there unable to take shots until the aliens have spread out and disappeared. Worse yet is when the aliens scout for you, if they come across you on their own turn THEY GET TO GO AGAIN. This results in many ambush situations you could never predict. When a melee character can kill you in 1 or 2 hits, you'll be screaming as you watch him clear the entire map to walk right up and kill your men that are hiding behind useless cover. Speaking of cover, it's almost 90% destructible as well meaning even in well placed areas all they'll have to do is attack you once to destroy your protection and another for guaranteed hits leaving your only option to never use any area you think might break apart. This is an issue because the aliens have you greatly outnumbered and you can't have yourself wasting turns attacking walls while they can. The camera system is garbage too, walls are only see through while your mouse is over them and good luck grappling onto roof tops, the camera only elevates 3 levels so climbing inside ships results in the game being unable to tell where you want to go usually pointing you towards the floor below you (this isn't a problem in more open maps but very frustrating for snipers). All in all, this game would be so much better if the battle system wasn't so grossly in the enemies favor, even playing on normal mode expect to constantly lose men or be forced to quicksave every turn. (Speaking of saves, autosave doesn't save at mission start AND saves every time someone dies or takes damage. So when you want to avoid mistakes, you must make sure to reload IMMEDIATELY before it overwrites your auto save in 1 or 2 turns).… Expand

This is quite a good movie... what? its a game? No strategy element - You just click buttons and it tells you what to do. This game is so dumbed down. Players nowadays don't want to think longer than 3 seconds. Firaxis, First you ruined Civ and now you ruined X-COM. Im never going to buy another product from you again, although you probably don't care now that you sold your soul. If you smoke weed and live in your parents basement, this game is for you.… Expand

In the near future when aliens invade earth and start destroying everything they find you get put in charge of earths last stand; an organisation called Xcom. You get given a secret underground base which you are constantly expanding in order to combat the aliens from here you can send out satellites (which will track down enemy UFOs), build facilities, launch fighter planes (to take out UFOs) and send out troops to different parts of the world. As you progress further through the game you will find out more about the aliens and eventually travel to their mother ship and take out their leader.
Xcom is a turn based strategy game in which you use guns to combat an alien threat which also includes blood so 12 is a pretty accurate rating for this game. The game can get very addictive when you play it and can leave you playing for hours but it can also be extremely frustrating at times for example if all your best troops get shot or if the games physics make no sense what so ever (unfortunately this happens quite a lot). Xcom can make you very angry at times but it can also improve your knowledge in strategic thinking over time.
The gameplay of Xcom is a turn based strategy with simple movement and shooting based on chance the problem with the game is that there is so many glitches to do with the animations and objects in the world for example I have shot through solid objects way to many times to be just a glitch that they forgot about and the chances of shooting aliens make no sense whatsoever for example if you shoot at an alien behind heavy cover while standing right next to him you will not have as much chance as if you where shooting at him from behind while standing miles away
My verdict on this is that it is a good game to play if you want to play for a long while if you don… Expand

This game makes a point of everything that is wrong in the current game industry today. You create game and for maximum revenue the game is created for multiple platforms, thus the game are limited to the limitations of the poorest platform. Yes the beloved Xbox or Playstation. XCOM deserves so much more that XBOX and Playstation.

Yes the name is almost the same, graphics are nice, sound is nice but the nice things stop there. The rest of the game is poor at best, but utter **** is a more suiting word for it. Back in the good old days, a company name MicroProse released a tactical strategy game that was challenging on every department. The game play was way before it's time, and like Doom it was responsible countless clones that never actually could compete. There was only one Xcom, the rest of the clones, although some were quite enjoyable, none of the could ever compete with XCOM: UFO Defense.

This "new" XCOM lacks everything the old game had. From tactical movement, to base building, to interactions. In short almost everything XCOM was, except for the name is lacking in this release. My recommendation, if you enjoyed XCOM: UFO Defense and spent countless hours replaying the game stay away. If you haven't played XCOM: UFO Defense before, don't even bother. This game is nerfed down to the limitations of the XBOX and Playstation. In short, this game rates as close to zero as one can get.

Nerefed down review: STAY AWAY! Firaxis and 2k games don't deserve our hard earned cash for this crap.… Expand

A well polished turd.

Just like Fallout 3, just like Civ V, XCom Enemy Unknown looks great with smooth gameplay, and is boring as hell. If you know the original , this lame copy of the truly great original Xcom is not worth a jewel case purchase next year. The scenarios are way too easy, the multiplayer system is a joke, there is just non of the startling surprises and sneaky tactics that made the original such a fun game. If this is what major game review sites rank in the upper 90%, I'm only buying used games from this point forwards.forwards.… Expand

After about 3 hours of my life into this game I cannot go on with it. The art, ridiculous. Who throws grenades the size of a mango? That's not practical. Who holds guns half the size of their body? These guys, apparently. I feel like I'm playing a child's game but filled with gore and guts. Perhaps they're only targeting child-like adults with this game, Even the dialogue was terrible and made me want to vomit. I really did not like this game and I never really played the old XCOM series either so I'm not running any sort of comparison between them. I don't understand what other people see in this game. It may have been good for them, but I definitely don't plan on hanging around wasting my time... Perhaps I am too logical a person and have "been there" and "done that" far too much to enjoy this game.… Expand

Huge disappointment. I played the original when I was a kid, and it was amazing. So much depth and strategy was removed from this game, I don't even think you can call it X-COM. Major letdown. The multiplayer is fun, but so buggy I can't even be bothered to keep this game installed on my computer. Developers seem to have cashed out and left the game to rot. I will be careful before I buy another title from 2K Games.… Expand

Picking up weapons/medkits from fallen comrades, throwing weapons to eachother, psi abilities, crouching, different types of firing (scatter shot/aimed shot/burst fire), an inventory system for every player...

These are just a few of the things XCOM EU has left out of their game, and it seriously suffers from replayability for that. I about uninstalled the game when I found out I couldn't take a medkit from my critically wounded medic to heal him.

While the original was difficult and hard to get into, Enemy Unknown suffers from the opposite end of the spectrum endlessly 'streamlined' gameplay with very few paths or strategies to win the game… Expand

I have all UFO games and had to get this, but i have to say Im going to delete this and never play it again.

I played through x.com the original about 12 years ago. it was hard, exciting and full of interesting stuff, that was 12 years ago. The new release fails in having not learned from afterlight aftermath and aftershock that added soo many levels of gameplay to the game such as customizing weapons and armor specilized training programs, imersive factions and allies and an immersive story line. the new release contains exactly the same items as the original plus about 10 or more useless items, the story line seems to be made for children, its very easy to finish the game. The aliens are always muddled up in a mishmash and you have to fight one of every kind in each mission, its little immersion breaking moments like this that make the game pretty well unplayable.

The game looks very pretty and the cut scences are sort of fun, mostly. but its just badly made, really short, suffers from lack of content and somehow takes up 12gigs of hd space. Buy aftershock and afterlight they are the front runners in the UFO franchise. If you want to kill 2 afternoons its a nice time waster but suffers from replay value.… Expand

The game is boring. It adds nothing but new graphics. Its had all the strategy tactics and choices ripped out. Leaving just shallow game play. 10 hours in and the game became a chore to play.

A beautiful game, in which you're of no use: the dice are loaded and whatever you do, the game will take you wherever it wants to. Strategy? Useless. Tactics? Don't think about it. Enjoy the wonderful graphics, the repetitive animations and the slow turns. Worth $20, not $40.

Dear Sirs programmers if you're creating, excuse the expression, "a piece of **** please do not call it a cult name.Thanks for the time wasted.From Russia with Love.

Thank god for demos!! Make sure you try the free demo on Steam before handing over the cash. As a hardcore strategy geek, I have been considering this one for a while, and have to say, I'm siding with the naysayers. Too much time spent on lame cut scenes, 'story', and other visual effects and way, way too little time spent on strategic depth. This is not a bingo. I had more fun playing Orcs Must Die than this tripe. Seriously lamenting the old school at this point.… Expand

I had high hopes for this remake of this classic. Unfortunately this is yet another wasted opportunity, Firaxis has struck out again (I also disliked Civ 5, Civ 4 was much better).
I don't mind the dumbing down of gameplay if what was left in was well designed. But the game is a disaster horrible interface, average graphics and a really bad AI that cheats in frustrating ways. Civ 5 had an overly complex interface that looked pretty but wasn't very functional, the XCOM interface doesn't even manage to look nice. I would have preferred a single screen for each soldier that shows everything about the soldier their equipment, stats, abilities etc. Instead, in different parts of the game I see different information, and some is always missing or hard to access. So much button clicking, so many ugly game screens.
I wish Firaxis would just sell the rights to these classics to a developer that has some talented designers/programmers. They obviously have none themselves and it's a shame to waste these licenses.… Expand

It's pretty, but it's not much of a game. They stripped the original gameplay down to bare bones, then tacked on a ton of Hollywood glitz.

It seemed like they would have preferred to make a movie. XCOM:EU is great when it comes to voice acting, swooshy camera movements, and scary hissing aliens. There's not much plot and the characters are paper-thin, but it has excellent low-level production values such as animation, art, and sound effects. The gameplay is merely a way to make you sit still so that you can appreciate how much work they put into the visuals.… Expand

Game AI cheats like mad, overall game is too difficult to be fun. I played it on Normal difficulty, and it was beatable. I had hoped to share this with my son, who is 9 but even easy is far, far too difficult for a true noob. Needs to have a casual mode for kids.

I had high hopes for this game based on the older XCOM that I liked a lot, but most of the time is just an exercise of frustration when I play it. Probabilities of hitting a target seem to be consistently misused by the game's engine. I understand that even when there is a high 80% probability to hit a target, there is still a 1 in 5 change to miss, however when 3 or 4 troopers that have between 50 and 80% probabilities shoot and miss the same target in a row something is wrong. That is a scenario that I encounter quite often and just defies basic math. Another annoying aspect is the friendly fire when shooting rockets. Sometimes it seems there is a clear line of fire that should miss a nearby trooper but the rocket still takes him down rather than the target. Such a dumb friendly fire should anyway not even be allowed by the engine. I also agree with the dumbed-down strategy the others are talking about...… Expand

15/01/2013 Review - Patch 3 - PC/Steam version. Patch 3 has rendered the Game unplayable for me otherwise I would give a much higher Metascore as this game has promise.. AI Teleports it's units anywhere in the game, generally right where my units are.. Which gives the AI God Mode like advantage over you. Takes away the enjoyment of the game; The 'AI Teleport' Bug wasn't even much of a problem for me, it was rare through Pre-Patch 3 Updates.. Now they're the norm.

Apart from that, the game is sound, an old school X-Com fan, I have mixed feelings about the simplified changes.. Less micro-management but acceptable.
I disagree that the tactics have been dumbed down, the tactics on the battlefield are greatly enhanced from the old version.
Most of the gripe from the 'traditionalists' of the X-Com franchise is down to micro-management being replaced with a more simpler streamlined model. Example: You no longer manage the weapons/items sales to manage space in your Base(s)
You win Scientist and Engineers as a reward, you no longer purchase them and living quarters for them to stay.
But the new X-Com, you have to be clever with your decisions, do you opt for more Scientists or invest in the Officers Club? More Engineers to cheapen production or Scientists to speed up research of Alien Artifacts.
Firaxis simply changed the strategy side of the game of the story.

My only gripes about the game is everyone speaks with an American accent, except Dr Vahlan, this is supposed to be about Countries of the World uniting against a common foe, yet all the Soldiers/Civilians/VIPS are American, and if I have to hear Anna Sing talk in that annoying Fry Tone one more time I swear I'm going to punch a hole through my screen.
Not only the voices but the Battle Grounds get repetitive and some don't even make any sense, a Liquor store in Egypt which are very strict on the sale/consumption of alcohol.. It's too Americanized!
And of course the bloody bugs are a headache.… Expand

Its a good thing that a got this game for free when I pre ordered Bioshock Infinite through steam cause if I had spent any amount of money on this crap I would have felt extremely cheated. Now this is the first Xcom game I've played and its probably gonna be the last unless 2k Marin come up with something brilliant with their tactical fps interpretation of the franchise. Im a huge fan of Firaxis Games and their Civilization IP but they seriously dropped the ball, lost the plot, went off their heads bonkers and screwed up when they decided to unleash and curse us with this poor excuse of a game..… Expand

Needs develop. Its a less than a the idea of a close combat turn based game was cool but I do belive they didnt have the time to test it enouht,, the multiplayer is horrible, worst that the Single Player. But was a nice idea.

"Hey, Meier, LEAVE THE GAME ALONE !!!
All in all we just want, a better graphis X-Com..." (to be singed with pink floyds music) X-Com Enemy Unknow its the long waited sequel from one of the best games in the history: X-Com UFO Defence. In this strategic game, you command the last hope of human race: an elite force, fighting an alien invasion. Your succes depends on construction and administration of a military base; Research on alien technologies; and Tactical Combat. Developoers only need to copy the original game, get new graphics, a better interface, better physics, and the game would be great. Instead, the developers managed to make the right decisions to ruin the game

History: The glorious X-Com legacy born in 1994, with C-Com: Ufo Defence. And continued with Terror from the Depth, and Apocalypse. Interceptor was a space-fighter game, but still a nice game. Forget about Enforcer, it was a complete failiure. UFO Defence was 18 years old. as a long waited sequel, Enemy Unknown must be compared with the original game. UFO Defence was a great game, with a "fair" interface, to deal with lot of micro management. EU have simplified many things... but they take the wrong way. The most relevant aspect of the game, the tactical combat, has bein ruined in the old x-com games, you have total freedom to move soldiers in big random maps. up to 24 human soldiers fight bloody combats, facing a dozen of aliens Now the old tactical combat was replaced by linear "tactical" gaming the real action is governed by scripted triggers, unleashing "cinematic moments"... Now, action take place in narrow maps, and your tactical decisions are cutt down Now you may hide behind a car in the left... behind a wall in the center... or behind a crate in the right... The combat have lost the tatctical freedom... you are not really free to take decisions. (reminds me when Clancy ruined the Rainbow Six franchise) Now you can comand 4 to 6 soldiers. Thats a ridiculous uninprovement. I used to comand 24 men in 1995s UFO Defence. the game now gets smaller, simplier and cheaper. The artwork suffer the Sid Meiers course: nothing looks realistic: everything must look like a "disney cartoon". some of the aliens are cool... like the "aracnid" cyberdisk but others looks grotesque, like the muton and some others looks childish and ridiculous, like the "floaters". they look like the evil robots from Phineas and Ferb. even the humans dont looke like humans So. why do you have to re-invent the wheel???
I guess Mr. Sid Meier had a plan. He is destroying every games franchise, I played some Enemy Unknow. and after that, I start playing UFO Defence again I f you never played the original games, you may be surprised by the ufo universe. if you are a console player... if you dont care about tactical combat... and if you like the cartoonish artwork, then, you may like this game But, not me, as a fan of the series, X-Com: EU was one of the greatest disapointments in pc gaming. as many say, the game also suffer visual glitches, ad camera bugs. sorry, but you cant take my money so easy keep releasing free packs. you need to release a lot of them. now you may sing my song: "Hey, Meier, Leave the game alone All in all we just want, a better graphics x-com"… Expand

OK so, I never played any of the xcom games in the past...but I have played similar games such as fall out tactics, FF tactics, etc. I got this game thinking it might have the same concept as games I have played in the past, but more modern and better. Boy was I wrong. I realized this game was a complete mess when the percentage to hit was over 95% and missed...TWICE. Then I decided to write down the times I missed overall in a given mission....75% was the result. arg!

2nd gripe with the game: why is it that I cannot sneak up on the enemy? The minute I spot them...they run and hide. Even after I put everyone on "overwatch" they all still miss only to have the alien close in on their turn and instant head shot my guys. Overall this game was a HUGE let down.… Expand

Game seems like great fun have played for a couple of hours so far. Gameplay is similar enough to the old series, but with a nice modern interface. Maps seem smaller which means less time spent hunting around. The missions also make use of scripted events now, so new problems can be thrown in part way through. It seems like a worthy successor.

My low rating is because of the game crashes. I haven't been able to play any longer than a minute since that two hour stretch. It even crashes just sitting at the main menu screen. This was on Windows 8 though.… Expand

Well if you are 10 yrs old and can't remember the original, this game will be awesome to play. However, if you know anything about the original, please leave your expectations in the empty box after you purchase this or you will be disappointed. How a 20 yr old game with graphics that seem older than that can still be more fun today than this game was is beyond me, but it is true. As other reviewers have pointed out the one glaring thing that disappointed me was the lame fog of war. In the original if you walked around a corner you could get blasted in the back of the head and not even know what happened, just like real combat. In this you walk around the corner see the alien behind you then watch it go and hide so you get a chance to get your bearings and attack, super lame. In the original I actually felt technically inferior to the aliens as I watched them dismantle my squad in a matter of minutes even late in the game. In this if you make it past the first few months forget about it, you are on cruise control from there. It's as if you switched place with the aliens and now you are the technically superior force, watching aliens cower from you. What a joke. I wish this let's make our game so the biggest simpleton moron can play it in the name of making money tradition would end, SOON.… Expand