XCOM: Enemy Unknown Complete Pack

As of now the Multiplayer Button is rendered functionless in the GOG release.

I got this originally on Steam, wish this had been out on GOG then. 1. The game is very tactical and strategic. Even on Normal you need to plan what missions to take to quell the Alien menace and exactly how you`re going to fight the tactical battles. Countries who are a part of the Xcom project will soon cease funding if you do too badly or ignore them as panic envelopes them. You find yourself in a race to develope more weaponry, more research and more facilities because the Aliens soon start to ramp up the pressure further. On Iron man rules (No reloading) it can be deflating to watch your perfect trained Squad, customised and named all bite the dust. You become attached to your crews and feel bad for them when even one die; just like the old game. We don`t like them dying, but that possibility must be there and the Devs have understood this. 2. Very atmospheric cutscenes. I`m not really a fan of cutscenes and flashiness, but the Xcom cutscenes do a good job of bringing Xcom to life. You see your assault plane takeoff and land with the soldiers running out. I`m disappointed with the Jet to UFO take downs, it`s just a very plain screen. Seeing the UFO take down from a guncam, for example. 3. The game does escalate the situation bit by bit. Graphics are good. Sounds are pretty decent and troops waffle on the situation. Customisation is not bad with the added pack, but voice options are weak. There are 5 voices... all American. Odd for an international force. Complaints: No ammo limit. Arbitrarily limited on what you can take. One grenade. You can`t pick up fallen stuff off wounded or dead friends. Control-wise, it was ok with the mouse, but I didn`t like how I always have to `double-ok` a command. Anyway, the game does suck you in and despite my whines, it`s actually very enjoyable. I just wish they had not gone so far in limiting the game down for the kiddies; a little more realistic depth would not have hurt it at all.

This is one of the best squad based / turn based strategy game released for PC. Despite the title, it's should not be treated as a direct sequel of an old (but gold) Microprose jewel from 1995; it's more like a spin-off. But being spin-off do not make this game bad. Quite contrary, it is giving it a fresh perspective, different feel and new challenges. When the game was released I - a well seasoned X-COM: Ufo Defense and Terror from the Deep veteran - was quite unconvinced with the new mechanics: there were no AP, cover and hit probability calculations feels wonky, RNG elements seems to be heavily present in everything and seems to be working in not exactly the fair way, free aiming were almost no existing. At first it seems like the game with great potential seriously crippled by design decisions. But after just few hours spend on spraying lead and lobbing grenades at these little alien buggers crawling around after I crashed their space craft with my fighters, I realised that all these parts formed an almost perfect mix, delivering a great experience and huge amount of fun and satisfaction. Classic example of "the whole is more than the sum of its parts". So, if you want to become a hero repelling, against all odds, an alien invasion on our home planet by fighting bloody battles, surviving ambushes, stealing tech, researching new devastating weapons and making though decisions who will have to sacrifice his/her life for a victory of mankind, you found a perfect game for you. Become a commander of XCOM forces, recruit your personel and leave no grey, green, blue or any other color or shape exterrestial scum alive! Earth is counting on you. NOTE: And when you think you master the art of alien fighting, install "The Long War" mod and prepare yourself for even bigger, louder, hotter and fiercer onslaught in the name of humanity survival.

I loved X-Com since I first played Terror from the Deep on floppy discs in the 90s. It posed a scenario of an alien invasion and how Earth would deal with the threat. It is turn-based tactical strategy gameplay, but you also have base management, squad management, character creation (for your members of your squads), and research. X-Com UFO Defense and Terror from the Deep were true classics, and I never really liked any type of turn-based game just to give you an idea how good they were. XCom: Enemy Unknown was released as a reboot of the series. The series died off about a decade or more prior with some unremarkable titles that tried to continue the formula, cross into the space sim genre, and one to cross into the action genre. The reboot stayed true to the original formula, but re-imagined the story and modernized the game. The first thing is the base management. Your facility is secret and underground, so you can only expand by excavating areas of your underground space. You build different areas such as an engineering area, scientific labs, satellite uplinks, power generators, and more. Different facilities have bonuses when they are adjacent to other facilities, which provides a layer of strategy in your base layout. You have to manage funds and resources (recovered alien technology, corpses, etc..) while building your base, equipping your soldiers, making and deploying satellites, buying defense aircraft, and more. The next layer is squad management. You have a squad of up to six soldiers of four different classes (heavy, assault, medic, and sniper). The soldiers start out at a recruit rank and increase in rank by gaining experience during missions. The class is randomly assigned, so you have to carefully assign soldiers to missions in case one is out for an extended time for an injury, or gets killed. For example, you need at least one medic. If your medic gets seriously injured and it's the only high-ranking medic, you're in trouble for a few missions and may lose other high-ranking soldiers. The soldiers have various equipment that you can upgrade through research throughout the game. You can also customize the look of their gear, the person, and the name. The only thing you can't change about the soldier is their nationality and gender, which is randomly assigned up recruiting them. The tactical turn-based portion of the game are the missions. There is a story to follow, but the missions you get are random. You also don't have to follow the story when you don't want to. You can put off story missions until you're ready for them, but as you advance, so do the invaders and story missions get more difficult as you delay them. You get missions by detecting a UFO via the satellites, sending an aircraft out to shoot it down, and exploring the wreckage, detecting abduction sites, dealing with an alien terrorist situation, or through story missions. Another layer to the strategy is the council that governs XCom. XCom is an international organization, funded by the participating countries. You will lose member nations by allowing the panic level to rise by failing, or passing on missions in their area. You can lower panic by completing missions, or by deploying a satellite over their nation. You have to carefully weigh the bonus of a successful mission with the possible panic increase and loss of a member nation. The graphics and sound are great and still hold up today. While they're not life-like or anything that will really blow you away, they are great for what this game is trying to accomplish and are perfect for keeping you immersed in the experience of running an international shadow agency, fighting against an alien invasion. The controls are perfect, with a keyboard shortcut for each of the control buttons on screen. Enemy Within adds so much new material that it is almost an entirely new game. I can't speak so much for Enemy Within because I played hundreds of hours in Enemy Unknown, but only a handful of hours on Enemy Within. Not because I didn't like it, but because I just moved on by then. I still go back and play it every couple of months, and when I do, it's usually Enemy Within. This is the complete package with each DLC and the expansion. It is all offered for the price of the original base game and DRM free! It is well worth it for any fan of strategy, science fiction, or just gamers that appreciate a high-quality experience built for the fans.