XCOM is a turn-based tactical shooter game with an overarching strategy game component. The highlight of the game is definitely the shooter aspect though. To be completely honest, until 3 weeks ago I was unfamiliar with the genre myself. I knew of other games like this one, such as Jagged Alliance, but had never played them. It encompasses a turn-based game where you have multiple units that you must strategically position and use their skills to destroy the opposing units. In XCOM you will control between 4-6 infantry units that can be of one of four roles. They can be of the following types:- Heavy - Tough units that use a LMG (Light machine gun) as well as a rocket launcher.
- Sniper - The name says it all. They are great at shooting enemies from a distance with sniper rifles. These units are critical in this game since taking damage, especially early in the game, is something you need to avoid. It is not uncommon to lose a unit with full health in one turn. This is definitely a game where mistakes have high cost.
- Assault - One of my favorite classes, they are the sturdiest units and the only class that allows you to chose a main weapon. You can use an assault rifle which gives you a little bit more range, or a shotgun which can be very useful in close range combat. As I mentioned, this is a game that rewards safe strategies, however a well timed move by an assault unit can be devastating to a team already crippled. I sometimes also use assaults to initiate a fight. Once my entire squad is in a safe firing squad position, you can send in the assault unit, obliterate one of their units right of the getgo and then pick off the others with your more ranged units.
- Support - Arguably the most versatile class in the game. They can be fairly mobile, they have abilities that make them strong healbots and just overall offer great utility as well due to their extra inventory spot. I tend to take 2 supports when I can with my team.
Overall, I highly recommend this game to anyone that enjoys a good strategy game. It's a 2K game, so there is an extra incentive to try it from Civilization fans. This game does seem to have some of the same appeals as Civ games does to me. Another cool aspect of this game and other games of this genre is the RPG element of building up your squad that develops as you use individual soldiers. You actually start to get pretty attached to your soldiers, which can make the permadeath from a mistake a fairly traumatic event to the player.
Lastly, here are some of my tips for this game from my first 30 hours of play:
- Don't focus on training up only a handful of soldiers. Expand your team and make sure you always have a backup. Soldiers can get hurt in a mission and be out of comission quite often. I've been in situation where I literaly had 10 soldiers hurt and only had 5 rookies to chose from, which is something you really want to avoid.
- In terms of the non-tactical part of the game, make sure to do your research and try to focus on building up your technologies. Especially the satelite/interceptor related ones.
- Don't overspend, only buy things you need now or soon.
- Try to get more satellites up as soon as you possibly can, I promise you will regret not doing that.
- In terms of research, research laser weapons early as well. They are much better than the standard weapons. Aside from that focusing on armor is also important. I try to get the skeleton armor early if possible since it has nice stats and allows for great mobility.
- Any research that tells you it's urgent or priority is only priority if you want the game to move forward. With only a few exceptions, not doing those things right away is actually a good way to slow down the pace of the game. This can make the game a bit easier since the aliens don't get too difficult too quickly and you have time to do more research and get more money before things get too tough. One exception for me so far was the skeleton key research to be able to invade the alien base. At that point in the game you will not have very many satellites up, so your fear levels will slowly get out of hand even if you are completing missions every time. So my advice is to basically do the research and build the skeleton key, but then hold off on actually going to their base until you have a country on the RED. Once you beat the alien base invasion you will get rid of a lot of the heat around the world. Of course, you need to beat that mission for this to work.
- Dig and build before you need them. While it's important to not overspend in this game, you also don't want to be waiting 20-30 days on something you need today. So plan ahead when you know you will need to dig deeper to expand or build another power plant.
- In terms of office training, I don't tend to bother with wet work until I have a lot of cashflow, it's not a big deal. Just try to get to 6 member squads and get the iron will quickly since those are very useful. Heaving the quicker turn around in terms of healing your units is also very nice.
- More engineers is always useful for progressing, more scientists is nice but I never need to build labs for that reason. So when it comes to chosing missions, I'll pick engineers first, unless I need the money. Sometimes you may want the soldier if it's a class you need.
- In terms of squad composition, I tend to use:
- Heavy (mainly focused on suppression skills and holo-targeting), he serves as my first move in a turn usually to weaken opponents or last move if I need to shut an enemy off a bit. (Fire Rocket -> Holo Target -> Suppression -> Heat Ammo -> Danger Zoone -> Will to survive -> Mayhen, although Rocketeer can be good if you like the granade launcher build better). This character will usually carry a granade or maybe a scope if I don't need the granade.
- Shotgun assault (Mobile and heavily armored, with the idea he will be deadly when enemies get close). My build usually is Run and Gun -> Tactical Sense -> Ligthning Reflexes -> Rapid Fire -> Close Combat Specialist -> Extra Conditioning -> Killer Instinct. I tend to wear a vest on this character for the extra hit points
- Sniper, always with a scope and a laser pistol once I get them. My built is Headshot -> Squad Sight -> Damn Good Ground -> Disabling Shot (i love this one in tough situations, works to prevent mind control even) -> Opportunist -> Low Profile -> Double Tap
- Support, I often carry the healing pads on this guy and maybe the stun gun if no one else has it. My build is Smoke Granade -> Sprinter (good for scouting)-> Field Medic -> Revive (although this is not necessarily the best) -> Combat Drugs -> Deep Pockets -> Savior
- Rifle Assault, this guys will be more of a ranged class which will carry either a granade, stun gun or scope. It's more of a flexible role I suppose, not a substitute for the other build unless you are playing on a big open map. Run and Gun -> Tactical Sense -> Ligthning Reflexes -> Flush (great for first moves) -> Close Combat Specialist -> Extra Conditioning -> Resilience
- The sixth position can either be for a rookie you want to take along, another sniper if the map is open and large or a support which can always be useful
- Another worthy mention is the alternative build for a sniper I use. This is for a mobile sniper, perhaps not as deadly as the other one, but useful in crash maps and maps with a lot of indoor fights. Headshot -> Snap shot -> Gunslinger -> Disabling Shot -> Executioner -> Low Profile ->In the zone
