![]() ![]() ![]() Each soldier is fully customizable, and as they gain experience they move up the promotion ladder, unlocking various perks and stat improvements as they go. It’s the way the game creates little stories like this that makes it so compelling, and the stories are all the more rewarding because of the attachment you build up with your troops. Hang in there Shadow! Second shot: it’s lining up on my plucky rookie – a direct hit and she’s done for… But it’s a miss, phew! Now what’s my next move? Do I dash both of them towards the ship and hope that they’re out of range on the next turn? Or do I move them to a strategic firing position and try to take out the Sectopod? Or perhaps I should send in my Support troop with a smoke grenade to cover their retreat? First shot: my ace sniper ‘Shadow’ Navarro is cut down to just two health points. The aliens were surprisingly canny though, and at one point a Sectopod attempted to cut off my retreat path, leading to some heart-in-mouth moments as it targeted my beleagured troops. ![]() I attempted to struggle on to the end, but my men began dropping like flies, so my only option was to reload a previous save and hot-foot it back to the Skyranger in a Dunkirk-style all-out retreat. I remember at one point I led an assault on a Battleship-class UFO only to find myself running out of health packs halfway through and quickly being overwhelmed after underestimating the strength of the enemy forces. Intriguingly, the points where it all goes horribly wrong are often some of the most memorable moments of the game. The enormous level of control you have provides a sense of responsibility that’s rarely seen in video games, and it leads to some exhilariting moments as your risky decisions pay off – or lead to disaster. You’re constantly under pressure to make game-changing decisions, such as whether to invest money in research or in buying new equipment, or whether to gamble your men’s lives on supressing a particularly difficult but politically sensitive terror attack. ![]() However, perhaps the game’s finest achievement is in its pacing – the tension gradually builds as more and more UFOs start attacking, and your resources become more and more stretched as you do your best to fight off the alien invasion. The controls are spot on too, and at no point did I find myself wishing for a mouse and keyboard instead of a gamepad (in fact, one journalist found he preferred to play the PC version with an Xbox pad). The game does a wonderful job of easing you into its world: I never felt confused or unsure what to do next, which is an impressive feat when you consider how complicated the game can get. Shadow Wars‘ only failing was in its relative simplicity, and although this perfectly suited a game designed to be played on the go, I was raring to get my teeth into the splendid complexity of the XCOM reboot. More importantly though, I completely adored Ghost Recon: Shadow Wars (still my favourite 3DS game), which came from the mind of XCOM‘s original creator, Julian Gollop. I never actually played the original game ( UFO: Enemy Unknown, or X-COM: UFO Defense as it was monikered in the States), but I remember my old games blogger chum Ian spent hours playing it at university, so I was intrigued to play the reboot and see what all the fuss is about. At least I can take solace from the fact that XCOM: Enemy Unknown is a remake of a game from 1994, so in that sense we’re still happily behind-the-times. The last thing I want people to think is that we’re on trend, or some other such ghastly neologism. It feels a bit weird to be reviewing a game that’s only just come out – it seems to go against the whole ethos of A Most Agreeable Pastime, which has stoically remained somewhat off the gaming pulse since its inception. I can’t remember the last time I paid full whack for a game on its actual release date, but I suspect it was sometime back in the dim and distant days of the Dreamcast, so this should indicate just how eager I was to get my hands on the XCOM reboot. Here’s a revelation for you: I actually bought XCOM: Enemy Unknown on the day it came out. ![]()
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