XCOM: Enemy Unknown Special Edition - PC (Includes: Game, DLC, Artbook, Poster & Soundtrack)

I'm still playing the game, even after having beaten in twice.If you've ever played any of the original X-Com games (UFO Defense, Terror from the Deep, or Apocalypse), you should already be familiar with the style and fun of the X-Com series. Squad-based turn-based strategy at its finest, the original X-Com games had you split between a strategic world-view, where you intercepted UFOs, controlled your base resources, and performed research and development to help beat back the alien foe, and a tactical mode, where you controlled squads of soldiers on the ground to combat the alien menace. In the new iteration of X-Com, you get still get both of those--just severely simplified versions of them.Don't get me wrong--the game is great, the graphics are gorgeous, and the mechanics accessible. But if you're looking for a polished version of the original series, you won't find it here--not yet, anyway.The Strategic view is over-simplified. You no longer have control over time. You can't skip ahead by days, or let it crawl along at five seconds. You only get one base, which is clever in its design, but remarkably limiting. The Geoscape (The name originally given to the Strategic side of X-Com) consists of research, engineering, and alien scanning. You have your barracks where you can outfit your soldiers, but it's mostly unnecessary as you'll have the option to outfit them before you launch on a tactical mission.This over-simplification is obvious: It's all aimed at the console versions. The less you have to do, the easier it is to control with 8 buttons instead of 108. This is more "arcade" than "strategy." Firaxis at least keeps some elements of the original, like having to perform research and build new technology, but the mechanics of those are so simple. You no longer have "resources," like number of usable engineers, or laboratory space, or even time limits.As you progress through the game, you simple recruit more and more engineers and scientists like a bizarre human genius collector, pinned to wall in neat rows. You don't hire or fire individuals anymore. You just buy more soldiers, and they show up a few days later with names.Adding more labs or workshops doesn't have any reasonable benefit. You get a small reduction in time to research or amount of materials used to manufacture, but without the "space" resource these facilities originally had, they can largely be left to the wayside.Your tactical missions are limited to six soldiers as well, who gain experience by (obviously) killing aliens and completing missions. However, the experience and ranks are somewhat superficial, as all they do is allow you to pick from one of two perks that the soldier gets (and defines them a class you get no control over). All of your soldiers can become a master-super-elite-dojo squad of the best the world has to offer--and it almost feels like cheating. The original had hard limits on the number of Sergeants you could have to the number of squaddies and rookies. This game just lets everyone be Mr. Badass.I pick on these seemingly minor details because they are one of the reasons that made the game such a classical great in the first place. The sheer amount of strategy--before you even get to combat--made the game the a geeks wet-dream. Now, the strategy is mostly superfluous. There isn't that much technology to research, that much to manufacture, or reason to do half the projects in the first place.When it comes to the tactical screen, this is where most people are going to have their fun, and yet even here--it's a little less tactical than the original. The Original X-Com series' had time-units, a resource for every soldier--that had to be expended with care. It required X amount to move, X amount to shoot, X amount to run away like a sissy so your Captain doesn't get shot and killed. Now, you get 2 time units. 2. TWO. You can move twice, move once and shoot, or shoot once. The Heavy class as a perk that lets you shoot twice, or shoot then move. But for the most part, shooting ends that characters' turn.Again, overly simplified. They did make up for it with some nice touches. Units now have a cover system, and being behind a corner of a wall, for example, grants cover which makes it harder for enemy units to hit you. However, the system is based on dice-rolls, and errant shots don't do any damage to other characters. Back to the original, if you walked into a room and saw two aliens standing side by side, you'd let rip with your auto-fire in the hopes that some stray shots would hit other aliens and kill them (and it was fun to see that happen). In this X-Com, no such tactical options exist. You pick a target--you shoot at the target--and a dice roll determines if you hit it. If you don't the shot doesn't do any damage (even if it *hits* the target in the visual sense!) It's definitely a detraction from the tactical gameplay.But for the most part, the tactical game can be fun--albeit cautious and slow, because you have to manage only two time units, you spend a lot of time not moving your units when you otherwise should and could. And, perhaps the most annoying aspects of the game is how some of the numbers are actually calculated. There are enemies in the game who have perks which no matter what, instill a negative 30% chance of hitting them merely because they're big and scary or similar. You can be standing point-blank to one of these characters, and not hit them because they have an automatic +30 defense.Not to mention, there are a lot of complaints about how the PRNG (Pseudo-random number generator) per-calculates the game per round. Essentially, if you move one of your guys to a spot and try to shoot an alien with an 80% chance to hit, and you miss, reloading your game and doing the exact same action will always yield in a miss. The game saves the PRNG seed every time. So if you tried that move with another soldier also with an 80% chance to hit, he'd miss too. It uses the next number in a series, essentially. So whatever action that needs this PRNG value, will draw that value. It's annoying the say the least, and one of my favorite all-time TBS games, Silent Storm, did not do this. Outcomes were always random.And the computer cheats. Notably in classic and impossible mode, it gets a major buff to its stats. But even on "easy," the alien enemies get a _free move_ anytime you spot them, or they spot you. They automatically get to disperse and move into cover--or as is all too common, in the case of melee units, sprint directly at you--and then take their turn to slaughter half your squad.The game is good. I enjoyed it. I look forward to when it's modded by the community, however, to be what it should have been. It's far from a faithful remake and more of a simplified (console-centric) re-imagining.The Tactical game is actually the only reason I keep playing the game. It's waaaay to short in my opinion, but the tactical game offers a simple TBS fun for short sprints of time. Here is hoping modders bring this game a little closer to history.

I first heard about XCOM: Enemy Unknown when reading a coworker's Game Informer; upon first glance, my interest was piqued. I then avidly followed its updates in his magazines with bated breath, my sweaty hands gripping the shiny paper, with glossed-over eyes. And when the release date was set, I anxiously preordered a copy to be delivered on that very date. I haven't been the same since.The cartoony, G.I. Joe look of the troops and the aliens is a fresh breath from the stale "realistic" graphics used in too many newer games. And the top-down view is a blast from the past: try it without the 3rd person and action cams for an anachronistic feel and smoother game. And XCOM is accessible for those with older Dual Core CPUs as well as consoles, so the joy can be had by all.Nearly 230 hours of tense, suspenseful, and gratifying enjoyment have passed in the XCOM world, and the Earth has been saved. XCOM has great replay value, not only in the combat missions but in the strategic layer (i.e. base) as well. Which path of tech, equipment, and buildings one chooses makes that single game unique. Not to mention Ironman mode, which is like Diablo's save system - Save & Exit only - with autosave. Unlike games of late, XCOM doesn't hold your hand; and when your guys die, they die.The game's few faults are loss of control when using the grenade/rocket free-aim cam, excessive clipping - plunging the gun into the wall and shooting the critters on the other side - , and unrealistic shots in the 3rd Person and Action cams - he turned east and shot a guy to the north. Also, when I'm focused on a lit square on a higher/lower level and click, the guy often runs to some other square on a lower level; this is exacerbated by entering a large UFO or being near a wall, where I'm forced to rotate the camera to access certain squares.XCOM is a "time vampire" and I have heard the term "XCOM FEVER"; it will have you hooked like a junkie. From squad customisation to the base layout to satellite placement, not to mention the brutal combat missions, XCOM always forces you to make hard-line decisions. The cosmetic glitches and bugs are acceptable when a game is this fun; besides, they're being worked out in patches as we speak. XCOM: Enemy Unknown is definitely Game of the Year material and deserves nomination in The Best Game of the Decade Awards, if it exists.

ADSL回線などはダウンロードにかなりの時間がかかるので値段は高いですがディスク版を選ぶのもありかもしれません。ゲームとしては非常に良くできる。しかし初代XCOMと比べれば綺麗な映像でこじんまりに纏めたなというのが感想。決してつまらないわけではないが、砲手と弾薬運搬手で納屋の３階に陣取り農地を焼夷弾で火の海にして炙り出したり焼き殺したり、大破させて穴の開いた墜落した宇宙船を取り囲み煙幕を投げ込んで出てきたら射殺、篭ったら捕縛不時着船に爆弾片手に突入して死んでも神風特攻、運よく生き延びれば投げて逃げる。意味もなく日本に基地を沢山作ってみたり、製造専用基地を作成したりそういった工夫や遊びがなくなってしまった。輸送機から降りた瞬間からどこから撃たれるか解らない、撃たれて死ねば場所すらわからない大事に大事に育てた兵士が精神をやられてパニックになりその場で自爆、仲間を巻き込み大虐殺＆敗走開始の地獄絵図積載重量ギリギリまでミサイルを持ち建物を破壊して隠れた敵を探していく、理不尽なエイリアンの視野、固まっていれば死角からグレネードが飛んでくる、夜戦は更に視界が悪く不利。何より残念なのがそんな恐怖感がない強すぎる個人スキルとシンボルエンカウントの様な方式なので背後を取られる事もなく対策が立てやすい＆必勝パターンがあり行動がいつも同じになりがち、強力な人類が大量のエイリアンを駆逐していく。簡単に潰れる戦車、数は多いがすぐ死ぬ兵士、質では劣るが数で勝る今作もそんな エイリアン＞＞＞人類であってほしかった。

ゲーム自体のレビューはスタート直後のチュートリアルミッション？しかプレイしていないのでレビューサイトなどを参照してください。　必要HDD容量については購入してから気づいたのだが、パッケージを開けるとDVDが2枚とクイックマニュアル以下ではあるが薄っぺらいマニュアルが入っている。思わずパッケージ裏のスペック表を見るとHDD 20GB freeと書いてあるし。ちなみに1枚目は約7GB、2枚目は約5GBである。マニュアルは実質的に製品シリアルしか使い道はない上に、1ページ目に書かれているマニュアルダウンロードについてはサイトが消失しているようで繋がらなかった。Steamでマニュアルを参照できるが、こちらもページは少なく、日本語クイックマニュアル程度にしか使えない。それ以前に6MBくらいのPDFファイルなのに300KB位でダウンロードが止まるので苦労する。そのためセーブ方法やメニューから終了が一瞬わからなかった。普通にESCキーでメニューが出るのだが。　Steam必須のゲームなのでインストール時に勝手にインストールする。すでにインストールしていても細かいバージョンチェックなどしないようで、そのため自分の環境ではゲーム本編のインストール直前にSteamをオンライン起動できなかったというメッセージとともにインストール失敗である。とりあえず単体でSteamを起動、オンライン起動かどうかをチェックして終了し、再インストールをすると今度はすぐに製品シリアル入力画面になり、後は普通にインストールできました。もしかしたら最初からSteamを起動しておいてからインストールを開始することで問題なくインストールできるかもしれない。　他の日本語版の存在するゲームと同じくインストール時に言語選択で日本語を選べるので起動させると日本語版として起動できます。　ゲーム自体の容量が大きいのでダウンロードも時間がかかりそうというか、ADSL回線で1GBのダウンロードに1時間ちょっとかかる環境なので13GBのダウンロードは遠慮したい。まあ、クレジットカードもないし、Vプリカも購入時と支払時に手数料がかかるようなので手っ取り早く輸入版という選択をしてみたのだが。パソコン変更時のデータの移動なども13GBはちょっと面倒なので輸入版の購入という選択肢もあるのではないか。