I love the new Xcom but...

As I've mentioned before on this site, I love Xcom. So when I heard about a remake from the strategy genius Fraxis, I could have shrieked in joy like a toddler who has just found two metal pans and a wooden spoon. It was pre-ordered the instant it became available, and preloaded the moment Steam let me. And as soon as the game was unlocked I booted it up, eight hours later I went for a piss.

[Insert own alpha male grunt of celebration here]

Fifteen years of waiting, dreaming, fiddling with Dosbox and old computers with windows 95 installed on them. It was all over, here was a remake, new shiny graphics and slick UIs but still bastard hard and merciless. Most importantly of all, a proper, faithful, strategy game. Up yours Xcom FPS Shooter, you can take your collection of shattered hopes and disappointment and use them to keep you warm in the bottom of the bargin bin. Finally the game of my dreams had arrived... ish.

Now I love the new Xcom, it is undeniably a great game. The ground combat is slick and tense. The UI is a dream. And it is hard - really hard - unforgiving and truly panic inducing. My soldiers, each lovingly named after friends and relatives, are the sharp edge of my honed Xcom sword. I have grown each of them from a terrified rookie who couldn't hit a barn if they were stood inside it, to precision killers who dispatch hordes of alien scum in a tidal wave of gruff, alpha male carnage. That is until they die, after which you will find me weeping like a child. The death of a veteran is heart breaking, and this is where Xcom: Enemy Unknown excels. It feeds your attachment to your soldiers slowly then wrenches them away from you one by one until you become an emotional mush congealing on an office chair. Every shot is a nerve jangling heart beat of terror. It is a truly special game, until the mission ends.

The ant farm is pretty much a glorified menu!

Xcom: Enemy Unkown is just missing... something. I watched hours of videos before it was released of Jake Soloman playing various missions throughout the game and wondered why I never saw much of the meta-strategy element. Now I know, it is because it is a simply a veneer  While giving a convincing impression of a true Xcom game, it is not quite the real thing. It is missing bits that, when collected together, for a big hole.

Let me explain. My favourite of the Xcom series is Apocalypse, but I have played, and beaten, them all. All the Xcom games give the impression of open ended strategy but in reality they are linear marches to the same goal. You research the same stuff, fight the same aliens and each play through mainly plays out the same story. What the previous Xcom games (I ignore all games post Apocalypse in this statement) do is create the illusion of open strategy. For example, where you put you bases, what you build there, which missions you choose to go on. We as Xcom players buy into that illusion, we know what to expect when we load up a new game, we play our own way, as developed over multiple sessions, and we tread a similar path to victory or defeat. What changes in each game is the surprises; a favourite soldier dying; an Alien base raid that wipes out all your scientists; a simple mission going horribly wrong. It is the randomness of those familiar situations that makes each play through interesting. But, for me, Xcom: Enemy Unknown has lost that somehow.

A glorious image of nostalgia.

In trying to simplify the systems, to make them 'challenging but fun' it has lost the special spark that made it feel like the Xcom I know and love. It is a great game, worthy I think of the Xcom name, but it is not the game of my dreams. I love building my bases obsessively so they are not only well placed, but easy to defend and incredibly productive. I love managing my vehicles, weapons and ammo, ensuring I am well stocked and ready for anything. I love deploying a whole squadron of troops, each bristling with the best weaponry combinations I can dream up.

For me Xcom: Enemy Unknown, is missing those micro management moments. There just isn't enough... admin. Not enough research paths, not enough weapon choices, not enough strategy management, not enough vehicles, not enough... well, Meta Game. Without it, the veneer has worn through and to reveal the MDF core, solid but lacking the finesse of real Oak. It has the best ground combat of the series in my opinion, and I love the game so incredibly much and I am so thankful it is here, but for me there is not enough Meta Strategy, and I love my Meta Strategy.

Having said all that though, I am just pleased they built a proper Xcom game and didn't think 'I know! Lets make an FPS Xcom game, that's what people want!' Wouldn't that be the dumbest fucking idea in the history of game development.