XCOM: Enemy Unknown Complete Pack

It launches. It doesn't sit there "updating executable" over and over. Great game.

I like the story, the gameplay,and the graphics. The fact that you canstill miss with 100% chance to hit from 2 feet away just makes the game more difficult if you can keep from smashing your computer

I love X-Com to death (or to the deaths of thousands of unfortunate soldiers and aquanauts who have fallen under my command). I loaded this new iteration up with trepidation- the franchise hasn't all been hits; I had to force myself to finish Interceptor, The Bureau was mediocre outside of it's storytelling and Enforcer was a trash-pile that's remembered pretty much entirely on the basis of being attached to the franchise. 'New' XCOM finds its niche by distilling the experience of saving the world from an alien takeover down to the core business of shooting down UFOs, taking out squads of soldiers to kill and capture aliens and reverse-engineering their gear into equipment to be used to repeat the loop until finding the means to halt the invasion once and for all (or until you boot up XCOM 2 at least). Everything feels simpler than the classic game- no more micromanagement of soldier inventory, you no longer need to manually keep your interceptors and troops stocked with ammo and you're restricted to a single base. Purists may cry foul, and the restrictions do feel somewhat arbitrary- a soldier carrying a single grenade means they can't attach a rifle scope for example. Where the game really shines is in nailing the feel of XCOM- whereas the original strung together a story out of the text and pictures unlocked by research, here there are actual characters who do a fine job of making experience seem about more than blasting ET with ever more powerful ray-guns. The tactical missions capture the tension of sending a squad into combat against unknown horrors (at least until the late game when it's likely the aliens might as well be fighting the Justice League). When everything clicks and your pincer movement works it feels great, and when half your squad gets nuked by an alien grenade and the remnants start panicking and shooting at each other, it's just as visceral as ever. It's great to see the franchise back in good hands- Vigilo Confido Commander.

So I played this quite some time ago and it's one of those titles that just gets worse as you play and start to see how poorly made it is. Here is my list of serious issues 1) Enemies don't actually move or do anything unless they're in an activated state. This has a few problems: - If you move slowly enough you can see aliens without activating them and just pick them off without them fighting back - Since the aliens don't actually do anything, any civilian you do not have eyes on has a chance of death every turn even if there are no aliens anywhere near them. They just commit suicide I guess? 2) Cover doesn't actually do anything unless you're right behind it. Bullets will fly through everything like they're not there, but take one step forward and all of a sudden you get lots of cover.....but only from that one object directly touching you. The difference would really be minor in reality but the game is all or nothing. This forces you to play a certain way and makes it so taking a more covered path is pointless because to the game you're in a wide open field, though visually it's a forest 3) The removal of time units and other things reduces your tactical options even further. I would write more about this but really this game is a hollow shell and I can't be bothered anymore. The music in new X-com is good though, so there is that. Anyone interested in games like this should be looking out for xenonauts 2. It's pretty much guaranteed to be far better for anyone who wants some depth and choice.

Tremendous fun, especially the Long War mod. Not perfect, as it over-simplifies some bits I liked from the original game, but the quality of life improvements make this much preferable to the original one for me.