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Couldn't find a thread. which blows my mind. by far the best game i've played this year.
Synopsis: Aliens invading. You get picked to lead the earths defense through the secretive XCOM project. Two layers to the game: Tactical and Strategic. Tactical layer is a turn based combat game where you control 4-6 soldiers. They level up / research new gear / get classes etc. Here's the catch though: If they die, they die. so if you fuck up you can lose your entire squad of your best guys. I end up keeping a "bench" where I try to get crappier dudes in for some experience to cover any losses I might have. It's a tactical shooter, don't let the "turn based" part confuse you. if you've played Gears of War or especially Dawn of War 2 you can play this game.
Theres the Strategic layer where you have to build a base, then dispatch jets and teams to various nations requesting your aid. You put up satellites to detect alien activity and countries will come to you for help. For example, you'll get an abduction mission, so you have to decide if you're gonna go help china, america, or south america. china might be offering you scientists. America might be offering you cash. South America might be offering you engineers. Whichever one you pick will have their panic levels reduced and the others will get fucked up by Aliens and if they panic enough they will be overrun and stop offering you their bonuses. this is a losing war, and you have to pick your battles. There is sacrifice around every corner in XCOM.
As an added bonus, there is an Ironman mode, which allows you keep one save for the game you are on, and auto updated everytime something like a guy dies. You end up caring more for your high rank bazooka guy than you do your own fucking children. When you spend 20 minutes carefully customizing everything from name to the color of their armor and the kind of hat they wear, and especially when they save your ass in impossible situations across multiple missions, it's a feeling I can't even describe when you watch them slow motion die. Sometimes, I end up bailing on missions just to save my own ass. Get sent out to rescue 15 civilians, and aliens wax my high level sniper? fuck the civilians I can't lose my other guys too. or theres times where you have "fall on the grenade" moments where you have to sacrifice somebody just so the rest can survive.
This is an old school game, a throwback to when video games were hard, and XCOM is unapologetically brutal. It's also the most compelling game I've played in a very long time. Storylines create themselves, and the randomness gives it infinite replayability. There are scripted games with shittier stories than the ones you end up inventing. There are 4X games with less depth than this. There are RTS who don't do warfare this well. This is the kind of game that you can talk to people about who don't even game and they'd be entertained by your stories.
I can't recommend it enough. :D
Synopsis: Aliens invading. You get picked to lead the earths defense through the secretive XCOM project. Two layers to the game: Tactical and Strategic. Tactical layer is a turn based combat game where you control 4-6 soldiers. They level up / research new gear / get classes etc. Here's the catch though: If they die, they die. so if you fuck up you can lose your entire squad of your best guys. I end up keeping a "bench" where I try to get crappier dudes in for some experience to cover any losses I might have. It's a tactical shooter, don't let the "turn based" part confuse you. if you've played Gears of War or especially Dawn of War 2 you can play this game.
Theres the Strategic layer where you have to build a base, then dispatch jets and teams to various nations requesting your aid. You put up satellites to detect alien activity and countries will come to you for help. For example, you'll get an abduction mission, so you have to decide if you're gonna go help china, america, or south america. china might be offering you scientists. America might be offering you cash. South America might be offering you engineers. Whichever one you pick will have their panic levels reduced and the others will get fucked up by Aliens and if they panic enough they will be overrun and stop offering you their bonuses. this is a losing war, and you have to pick your battles. There is sacrifice around every corner in XCOM.
As an added bonus, there is an Ironman mode, which allows you keep one save for the game you are on, and auto updated everytime something like a guy dies. You end up caring more for your high rank bazooka guy than you do your own fucking children. When you spend 20 minutes carefully customizing everything from name to the color of their armor and the kind of hat they wear, and especially when they save your ass in impossible situations across multiple missions, it's a feeling I can't even describe when you watch them slow motion die. Sometimes, I end up bailing on missions just to save my own ass. Get sent out to rescue 15 civilians, and aliens wax my high level sniper? fuck the civilians I can't lose my other guys too. or theres times where you have "fall on the grenade" moments where you have to sacrifice somebody just so the rest can survive.
This is an old school game, a throwback to when video games were hard, and XCOM is unapologetically brutal. It's also the most compelling game I've played in a very long time. Storylines create themselves, and the randomness gives it infinite replayability. There are scripted games with shittier stories than the ones you end up inventing. There are 4X games with less depth than this. There are RTS who don't do warfare this well. This is the kind of game that you can talk to people about who don't even game and they'd be entertained by your stories.
I can't recommend it enough. :D
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