Most realistic strategy game of defending Earth from Alien invasion. In X-Com series you started as a commander of fledging forces a base, with a special team of elite soldiers that deal with most dangerous missions and a small specialized air defense fleet, which culiminates with few more bases and double the size of units you work with. Contributions depend on "global panic" levels, research is more "field discovery", and that is that. This game goes one step above it, now that said X-Com commander is possibly just one of the organization's faces (most probably a commander with skills in investigation and combat) at your disposal who perform various tasks on bi-weekly basis. The ORGANIZATION is the player's scope, as individual bases are invisible and irrelevant and nations are field to be conquered by yours or others organizations. Now you command multiple faces of an organization (some skilled in combat, other in resarch, interdiction, diplomacy...etc) who you hire/turn/kill/capture/sack. You command nations you manage to win over (which can now you struggle for, try to control them, to rid of enemy influence within it), few nation armies but only those most elite with ability to maneuver across the globe, hunt alien agents across the globe who try to spread panic, poison planet and turn ppl one against others... all this constitutes 1st part of gameplay. But it slowly evolves into commanding new Earth space fleets, sending probes, interdicting enemy fleets, boarding stations, exploring and conqering Solar System with small bases that extract the sorely needed materials but all the best places are taken by endlessly superior aliens... which constitutes 2nd part of the gameplay! Definitely a great gamplay concept to be expanded and refined more, looking forward in seeing it mimicked and expanded.
I have played games from Commodore 64 till today and still ongoing. I have played trough all categories, hypes and ups and downs of the game industry. I can say, with utmost certainty this is one of the best immerse story to date. With tweaked Bioware's trusted engine, dedicated team, dedicated artists and actors, and most importantly drawing story from a famous "fantasy" writer, which work echoes realism and historical max of beliefs, based itself on slavic (suppressed by forced only-nordic) culture, this game even overshadows famous Gothic saga... Keep in mind, Witcher 2 (2nd part of this game) is rather disappointing unless you look at it as a glue story between this part, and part that is about to come. May I say I own both collector's editions (with about 2 copies on the side that i'm showing my friends), and I haven't regretted spending all that money! Amazing.
