If I had to sum up in one word what this game throws at you, it would be "odds." The odds of your survival are ridiculously slim, and the game truly brings out the feeling that the Earth colonists were sent to Mars woefully unprepared. It has all the makings of a truly epic game, including the fact that combat can be truly unforgiving at times. While you can usually win any given mission by killing all the opposition, many times that just isn't feasible. Case and point, one one map, my soldiers were literally outnumbered 5 to 1 (yes... there were 35 enemies to my 7 troops) and all I needed to do to win was kill their leader to succeed. My team narrowly managed to escape, spacesuits hemorraging air, chased all the way back to the extraction point under heavy fire - truly an exhilarating experience that not many games I've found today still deliver. The best part - I didn't HAVE to leave; it was simply the wiser of two possible choices, either of which could lead to success. The game graciously allows you to save at any point, compensating for the extreme brutality that you will be subject to during your ill-fated attempts to terraform Mars. While the game has only a few good, solid plot hooks and twists, they're involved enough to grab your attention and make you wonder how you didn't see that coming in the first place. The game mechanics are fantastic, the tactical gameplay is astounding, and the options for customization - both in armament and in characters - is impressive. Whether you're a die-hard X-Com fan, a follower of the UFO series, or just someone who enjoys a good strategy/rpg, this game is a must-have.
