.: March 21, 2016.: March 21, 2016.: March 22, 2016,Mode(s),XCOM: Enemy Unknown is a 2012 developed by and published. The game is a 'reimagined' of the 1994 cult classic strategy game (also known as X-COM: UFO Defense) and a of 's 1990s series.XCOM: Enemy Unknown was released for, and in North America on October 9, 2012, and in Europe and Australia on October 12, 2012. An 'Elite Edition', containing all previously released, was released as a exclusive by in April 2013.

A port for was released in June 2013 and an conversion was released in May 2014. An expansion pack, titled, was released in November 2013. In June 2014, Feral released both XCOM: Enemy Unknown and its expansion pack for.

XCOM: Enemy Unknown Plus – few will last till the final battle. One of the best strategy games of all-time makes an unexpected appearance on PS Vita, but does it work as well on a portable?

A bundle containing both Enemy Unknown and Enemy Within was launched on the for in March 2016 under the title XCOM: Enemy Unknown Plus.Set in an of year 2015, during an of Earth, the game puts the player in control of an elite multinational paramilitary organization called XCOM and is tasked with defending the Earth. The player commands troops in the field in a series of turn-based tactical missions; between missions, the player directs the research and development of new technologies from recovered alien technology and captured prisoners, expands XCOM's base of operations, manages XCOM's finances, and monitors and responds to alien activity.XCOM: Enemy Unknown was critically acclaimed, with several reviewers commenting on the game's difficulty, replayability, and addictiveness. A number of publications, including, and, named it. A sequel to the game, titled, was released on February 5, 2016 for,.

The combat view (see the file description page for an extensive explanation of the elements shown).Much like its predecessor, XCOM: Enemy Unknown casts the player as the commander of an elite military organization. As commander, the player directs their soldiers in combat missions against alien enemies.

Between missions, the player directs the organization's research and engineering divisions in creating new technologies and improving XCOM's base of operations, and manages the organization's finances.The ground combat uses a perspective. The player controls a squad of between one and six human soldiers or robotic units as they hunt the aliens on the map and attempt to complete other objectives dependent on the mission. Map layouts are not randomly generated, but enemy placement is. Hides the aliens and their actions from view until the player's soldiers are in range and have on them, and enemies normally do not act at all until the squad initially comes within line of sight. Soldiers can carry items and perform special abilities; use of these items and abilities is controlled through a on the (HUD). A few examples of abilities include firing on enemies automatically after they emerge, launching explosives, and healing allies.Soldiers can take cover behind walls and objects in the environment to gain a measure of protection.

Units can use to disadvantage enemies, and use to maneuver around opponents. And dynamic camera movements emphasise particularly exciting gameplay moments, such as kill sequences and use of special abilities. The game includes some elements, whereby the player's soldiers can gain new abilities as they survive more battles.The game's element occurs between missions. XCOM's underground headquarters is presented in a view dubbed the '. From this view, the player manages construction, manufacturing and research projects underway, and directs how the scientists and engineers use resources recovered from missions and received from XCOM's sponsors. A holographic view of the Earth called the 'Geoscape' allows the player to keep track of the situation around the world, ordering aircraft to intercept UFOs and dispatching soldiers to engage aliens on the ground.

The 'ant farm' view of the XCOM base in the strategy mode.This also influences the panic level of XCOM's member nations. Responding to situations in certain areas decreases panic, and ignoring them results in a rise in panic and potential for the nation to pull out of XCOM. The 'ant farm' also allows the player to observe the team of soldiers or exercising at the base's gym. A to soldiers killed in action is also viewable. Passive bonuses are provided depending on which continent the player chooses for a base location. The player can better detect alien activity by launching and positioning them over territories of interest.The game can be played on higher difficulty levels: Classic (in a reference to the original game) and Impossible, each with the option to enable the 'Ironman' option (which limits players to a single save file) separately for each.

Jake Solomon, lead developer, stated on numerous occasions that he believes that the 'truest XCOM experience' is playing without the ability to reload saved games. On the higher difficulty levels, the random nature of battles, where soldiers under the player's command can permanently die from one enemy attack, the against-all-odds nature of combat against the unknown and technologically superior enemy, and the requirement to sacrifice some resources – including soldiers and even entire countries – for the greater good combine to create a bleak atmosphere where the player feels the weight of command.The game also features a mode for one-on-one tactical battles. Players spend a predefined points budget on assembling a squad of up to six humans, aliens, or a mixture of both. Human units are customizable in terms of weaponry, armor and gadgets.

A simplified version of the single-player system is also present. Alien units may not be customized but possess the abilities of corresponding aliens types in the single-player mode of the game.combat from the original 1994 game is retained, but some gameplay features of the original have been removed or adapted. The time units system, the always-visible grid map and the inventory system of the original have been removed. The initial mission phase of disembarking from the transport has also been removed – missions now begin with troops deployed outside the craft. Unlike in the 1994 game, only one XCOM base exists, the location of which is chosen at the beginning of the game.Although there are some differences in the interface between platforms, unlike other games such as Firaxis', the content is not simplified for the console versions.

The PC version features a mouse-driven. Plot Setting The game's campaign begins in the spring of 2015, as a global begins.

Prior to the start of the game, a group of countries called the Council of Nations has banded together to create XCOM (short for E xtraterrestrial Combat Unit), the most elite military and scientific organization in human history, tasked with defending them from the alien attack. The player assumes the role of the commander of XCOM, and proceeds to engage in a war against an extraterrestrial enemy with overwhelming technological superiority.

Story After success with shooting down alien scout ships and securing the crash sites from surviving alien crews, as well as interdicting alien attempts to abduct human civilians for unknown purposes, XCOM manages to also obtain the corpses of various different alien troops. Autopsies reveal that all these types have been genetically and/or cybernetically altered, which seems to indicate they are merely foot-soldiers for unseen leaders. XCOM's head of research, Dr.

Vahlen, requests that a live alien be captured for interrogation. This also involves developing a specialized weapon capable of capturing a live alien, and constructing a facility in XCOM's subterranean base capable of safely holding a live alien prisoner.Capturing one of the alien troops and conducting the interrogation reveals vague information about another type of alien called the Outsiders, artificially-created crystalline beings encountered aboard, that appear to serve as pilots and navigators. Vahlen then requests that XCOM capture an Outsider for study.

Upon capturing one of these, the examination reveals that the Outsiders' exotic crystalline structures behave in a manner similar to antennas, receiving a signal broadcast from a location buried underground on Earth. XCOM dispatches a team to investigate the signal; it is found to be coming from a base that the aliens have secretly established on Earth, where experiments are performed on.XCOM develops a method for gaining entry to the alien base and assaults it. During the mission, the alien serving as the base commander is discovered to have psychic abilities, but is nevertheless defeated by the soldiers. The commander's psychic communication device is recovered. Tapping into the aliens' communications reveals a previously hidden, stealth 'Overseer' UFO making rounds across the Earth. When the UFO is shot down, it is found to hold an alien species that had not been previously encountered, as well as a strange artifact. The newly discovered species, called Ethereals, possess powerful psionic abilities.Once the Overseer ship is shot down and the psionic artifact recovered, the massive enemy 'Temple Ship' reveals itself in low Earth orbit over Brazil, and starts causing earthquakes even as far away as XCOM HQ.

The reverse-engineering efforts enable XCOM to unlock and develop latent psionic powers that are present in certain human beings, thus enhancing their human soldiers. Out of these psychic human soldiers, the most powerful becomes the Volunteer, using the psionic artifact recovered from the Overseer UFO to tap into the aliens' psychic communication 'hive', an experience that also increases his or her psionic strength.

This allows them to attack and board the Temple Ship to seek out the Uber Ethereal, the leader of the alien invasion.During the final battle aboard the ship, the Uber Ethereal reveals that, because of their own failure to improve their own race further, they have been testing and experimenting on other species throughout the universe in an attempt to identify a race worthy of being ', searching for a race that is strong in both mind and body; the various species of alien troops that the player has encountered have all been failures in the Ethereals' experiments. By allowing humans to obtain their technology a few steps at a time, the Ethereals allowed humans to evolve to a fuller potential, and believe that humanity may be the culmination of their search, to find the perfect species to move on and prepare for 'what lies ahead', a vaguely worded destiny that they do not describe further.After slaying the Uber Ethereal, the Temple Ship begins to collapse into itself, creating a black hole, which would destroy the Earth due to its close proximity.

While the psionically gifted Volunteer urges the other XCOM soldiers to rush back to their transport and escape the doomed ship, the Volunteer stays behind, using the psychic gift to take control of the ship and fly it further away from the planet, finally causing it to self-destruct and save Earth, though at cost of what was thought to be the Volunteer's own life. Development The game went into development in early 2008 as a 'very, very big budget' project with about 50–60 team members led by Jake Solomon. Its prototype was a straightforward remake of the original 1994 game with all the classic gameplay features.

The game subsequently went through many revisions, and features were added, tested or removed to create the final result.XCOM: Enemy Unknown was developed independently of 's XCOM (later rebranded as ), and although the two games are set in entirely different universes, the developers of both games were in contact with one another. Enemy Unknown was also the first title developed by Firaxis Games not to feature the name of, who served as the director of creative development but was not directly involved in the game's development day to day.

The designers also made an internal board game to help get the 'feel' of the game right.The interface team was split into halves to develop separate GUIs for the PC and console releases. All members of the development team played and finished the original Enemy Unknown game – they were required to do so if they had not already when they joined the team. Roland Rizzo, who has been working with the X-COM series since the beginning, became the audio lead for the game and was tasked with reimagining and updating 's famous original music score., composer for, was also involved in creating the game's musical score. The series' art director Greg Foertsch was given the task of reimagining the look of X-COM, including redesigning the classic alien species. The aim was to have the characters resemble, and the result was a stylized, bright, flat-textured look. Release XCOM: Enemy Unknown was first revealed on January 5, 2012.

A playable demo of the game was available at (E3) in June 2012. Bonuses included the 'Classic X-COM Soldier' (a haircut for the player's male soldier based on the model for troops in the original 1994 X-COM) and the option to customize the aesthetic design of soldiers' armor. Those pre-ordering the PC version on Steam also received bonus items for Valve's and a free copy of Firaxis' 2010 strategy game. The game's playable version was released on September 24, 2012 for, on October 9 for the (available for the Gold subscribers of the ) and on October 10 for the.Eight custom promotional XCOM: Enemy Unknown were produced in August 2011 by 2K Games. The machines were used to run tournaments of the game at various exhibitions including i47, Play Expo and with the machines being awarded as prizes.XCOM: Enemy Unknown was released in stores on October 9, 2012 for North American consumers and on October 12, 2012 for Australian and European consumers. The game was released for via Steam on October 9, 2012. On PC, two editions were released: a normal edition and a special edition which includes a variety of unique items, including an art book, a fold-out poster of the XCOM headquarters, an XCOM insignia patch, and a collection of digital bonus assets such as desktop wallpapers, soundtrack and more.An 'Elite Edition', containing all previously released DLC, was announced as a exclusive by on February 26, 2013 and was released on April 25, 2013.

An, scheduled to be released in the summer of 2013, was announced during a panel on March 23, 2013. The game was released on June 20, 2013 at the for $19.99, at the time one of the most expensive iOS games ever released.The game was available digitally between June 16 and 30, 2016 on the Xbox 360 as part of Xbox Live's Games with Gold.XCOM: Enemy Within. Main article:An expansion pack, XCOM: Enemy Within was released worldwide on Steam and in retail stores on November 15, 2013.

The pack retains the core storyline but adds a broad variety of content, including new weapons, special missions and the ability to enhance soldiers via genetic engineering or cybernetic implants. Main article:A sequel to XCOM: Enemy Unknown, was released on February 5, 2016. It was developed by and was released on,. At release it was a PC only game.

The game takes place 20 years after the events of Enemy Unknown, in an alternate scenario where XCOM failed to stop the alien invasion and humanity surrenders. The player controls a small resistance movement fighting against the alien conquerors. See also.

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