The Top 10 Games of 2K Games

07. XCOM: Enemy Unknown (Firaxis)

October 2012 - PC, OSX, Linux, PS3, X360, Android, iOS, Steam OS

The long and well-established history of the XCOM series meant that each new title released already had a built-in following of veteran gamers, and despite the troubled history of the development for this game (it was much delayed).

Once it was released, the old-school charm of its game mechanics, combined with a tried and true back-story and crisp game play mechanic helped it to attract a new following right out of the starter blocks.

One of the more interesting sides to the game is its equal emphasis on deep strategy and intense tactical combat, giving XCOM: Enemy Unknown the ability to satisfy a fairly wide array of gaming styles.

That alone made it worth a go, but its use of established canon combined with a team-focused sort of play results in rewarding Turn-Based Strategy and combat romp in which the player successes are a very meaningful element in the game.

At the start of the campaign the player is faced with a dire situation; the forces of humanity are already in retreat globally, as alien invaders seek to crush every sort of organized resistance, from the military to police, and even targeting fire departments!

Working from a hidden underground base, the player begins the game by creating a new military team broken out in semi-organized squad form, but fluid enough to permit the careful grooming of individual team members so as to create an officer core with the right skills and abilities to allow for the eventual creation of purposeful squads to counter specific alien attack types and threats.

In addition to defending against a terrifying global alien invasion through the management of finite resources, tech, and kit as well as forces, the player is able to slowly but gradually improve the tactical situation by collecting alien tech and turning it over to the scientists and engineers who man the secret underground base.

By spending funds and time improving their capabilities, the scientists and engineers are able to not only create new and much more effective weapons and kit, but also reveal critical information about the aliens, including their key weaknesses.

Eventually and with careful management of resources in this fusion of city-builder, resource-management, and Turn-Based Strategy Shooter, the alien threat is both understood and defeated. Really!

XCOM: Enemy Unknown was generally well received by players, while reviewers typically gave it 4/5 and 8/10 ratings. Though a generally conservative rating source, Metacritic actually awarded it 90/100 - and that is saying something.

One of the more unique elements - and one that players found to be particularly desirable - was the trend towards meritocracy that develops in each game.

There is a natural divide between Scientists and Engineers, each vying with the other for more and more resources, while seeking to direct the strategic focus of the player.

Thanks to a combination of luck, draw of the cards (so to speak as there are no cards actually), and the effectiveness of either in giving the player what they need, one side will end up dominating the other as a natural consequence of the story and game play mechanics.

In the end it is all good - but then in the end what we have here is one of the most addictive and hard to stop playing Turn-Based Strategy games in recent memory.