It's not so much about keeping tabs on what individual stat numbers are, and more about ensuring you've stacked matching things on relevant units in order to then turn them into the superhumans poor, besieged old Earth so desperately needs to protect it.Įssentially, this comprises a bunch of smaller or even under the hood additions, but put together in a pot with the more overt new stuff - the soldier augmentation - what we've got is an add-on which, so far, has absolutely made what's my fifth playthrough of XCOM feel fresh and different, gently forcing me to shed old habits and develop new strategies. Point is, there's a lot to juggle and it's really ramped up the emphasis on right and wrong builds. And energy fields from Mech units which confer. Even more so, if you decide to augment a given soldier's genes rather than slice their limbs off and stick them inside a Transformer: Deus Ex-style implants confer an array of bonuses to Aim, Crit and whatnot.Īdd to that the new Medals system, in which you can choose to bestow a limited pool of awards with their own Aim, Crit and whatnot bonuses to your best, brightest and bloodiest. Making an efficient soldier, one who can confidently thin the ranks of what's seemed on a few of the 'new' missions I've experienced so far to be a raised enemy headcount, means choosing and tracking many numbers. While that's a statement that would have seen 2011 me immediately take my seat in the Angry Tank, here's why 2013 me is absolutely convinced this accentuated divergence is only a good thing.ĭespite what I just said about Enemy Within taking XCOM on a magical mystery tour into over-the-top superheroics starring Mexicans with metal legs, what it also does it transform XCOM into something that's rather more clearly a Firaxis game. With Enemy Within, XCOM and X-COM almost entirely part company. He is, in short, about as far away as soldiers get from the mopey-looking, meandering dudes in overalls who characterised X-COM. He can seep healing gas from whatever's replaced his pores. My current squad, for instance, is led by a Mexican in a bright pink mech suit, wearing a matching tribly. With major expansion Enemy Within, it proudly rips open its shirt, throws its spectacles to the wind and brazenly displays the lurid spandex beneath. All this time it's been carrying on like it's a militaristic strategy game (albeit with aliens and robots and psychics), but really, really it's been a superhero game all along. I've been playing unfinished code for major XCOM expansion Enemy Within.Here are some early impressions for you.

Xcom enemy within tech tree