Xcom Enemies Within is Still Hare on Easy

Gaming & Culture —

XCOM: Enemy Within should be taken with a heavy dose of original XCOM

Review: It's the same game but costs half a game? Hmm...

Urban warfare in a bombed-out apartment complex.

Enemy Within is a great excuse to play XCOM again—or to play for the first time. If you, like me, thought XCOM was one of the best games of 2012 despite being a little too repetitive to start entirely new campaigns, that's marvelous news. But this is still essentially the same game as it was—just with a host of tweaks and improvements.

That's not faint praise: the original XCOM campaign was a well-balanced marvel. The strategic mode fed into the tactical mode, every piece of progress by the player was countered by an imposing new enemy, and every choice that had to be made was an interesting one. Enemy Within maintains that balance while adding several new dimensions to both the tactical and strategic phases of the game.

But the most important thing to know about Enemy Within is that it consists of several major additions to the main XCOM campaign instead of being an entirely new entity. There has always been a tension in XCOM concerning how it should be considered and played: is it like an RPG, with characters and a single story that you should be able to finish at some point after you start? Or is it like a strategy game, where you start, learn, start over, learn more, and maybe finally win? Personally, I've always found the latter idea more satisfying. It deprioritizes the cookie-cutter story, allows for letting go of squaddies who get killed, and makes restarting an uncontroversial idea. By adding new components to the existing XCOM game, Enemy Within aligns itself with other strategy games, like Civilization V or Crusader Kings II, that have expansions that enhance things for the next playthrough.

The battle shifts

The updates in Enemy Within are generally good enough to support that concept. The most critical new pieces are changes to the average mission that alter tactical considerations. In the original Enemy Unknown, playing it safe was almost always the best idea—there was rarely any problem with taking as many turns as you needed to flush out every enemy and kill them safely. Enemy Within offers bonuses for fast movement in the form of "Meld" containers, which contain new resources and self-destruct after a set amount of turns. These tactical considerations tie directly in to the strategic choices more than most anything from the original. Meld is no throwaway prize; it's used to create powerful genetically modified and mechanized soldiers.

Another critical enhancement to the tactical side of the game is that certain new missions put your squad on the defensive instead of the otherwise constant search-and-destroy mode. Most of those are battles against a new human faction, called EXALT, apparently using alien/XCOM technology for its own gain. EXALT sends waves of enemies; you defend. It's a refreshing change of pace, although it's a bit too dependent on creating difficulty from spawning enemies on all sides.

Enemy Within also includes an alien assault on the XCOM base, something that got lost from the original X-COM. Although heavily scripted, this mission is just random and difficult enough to create a magnificent set piece that was lacking from the original. Waves of enemies and waves of XCOM soldiers collide. The battle finished with only two of my squaddies standing, but I was still happy—it was very nearly none.

Time for a good ol'-fashioned base attack.

The war intensifies

The biggest change at the strategic level is what Meld makes possible. As soon as you research it as one of the very first choices, you'll have the option to build new facilities—one to create "MEC" troopers with giant cyborg bodies, the other to modify squaddies' genes. Playing on Classic, I only had enough funds to construct one of these, making for an immediately interesting, asymmetrical choice. The MEC troopers are more expensive and rarer, but they come with more initial power—more hit points, more devastating attacks. However, they can't take cover. A single MEC can kill five enemies per mission, making it riskier to lose. MECs even have a melee attack that's ridiculously useful (and fun). At one point, I punched through a wall to hit an alien who'd been in full cover. The attack sent it several meters back onto the hood of a car, which promptly exploded. And when you kill certain large enemies, like the Sectoid equivalent (called the Mectoid, heh heh), with the MEC trooper's punch, a special kill animation shows the two fighting.

Alternately, the Gene Mods include things like a "Second Heart" so that the soldier never dies outright when he or she loses hit points. And there are "Adrenal Glands" that release attack-enhancing pheromones after each kill. These are cheaper and can be spread out across an entire squad, but they're rarely dominant forces like the MEC troopers can be. In general, I found the MECs more important early in the game and the Genes better later on, but they both make interesting additions. (On the other hand, because the enhancements cost precious cash in addition to Meld, I didn't get a great feeling for how much Meld was a good amount to acquire and possess.)

EXALT missions add a slight strategic layer of sending soldiers on covert operations in order to prevent them from disrupting your research or stealing your money while finding the enemy base. These decisions are fairly light, but I did like that they offered a hundred extra credits once or twice per month (especially useful early in the game). There are also a few new scripted Council missions, but those are generally as annoying—or eventually as easy—as the Council missions from the original.

The hairstyles grow more complex

Enemy Within introduces several general upgrades of various importance. First, there are a bunch of much-needed new maps, including downed UFOs in urban areas and beautiful red deserts. There are also a few new hairstyles for each squaddie's gender, plus a bunch of new hats and helmets, like fedoras and baseball caps. Perhaps even more exciting, you can select different languages for the troopers to speak. Oddly, the languages are all European (French, German, Russian, Polish, Spanish), which makes the lack of Chinese or Swahili or Hindi seem rather odd. The English voices are also still all American, and it would be nice to have British or Australian or other accents (one new character for a quest string called Operation: Progeny does have a French accent). But if you're a fan of customizing the characters, the improvements are pretty excellent.

Finally, there are a few new choices available when starting games that seem to counter a few of the conceptual criticisms of the original game. You can now choose whether to "save scum," where reloading will give different random numbers. Another option prioritizes "aiming angles," where getting closer to flanking an enemy increases hit chances. I recall seeing several people who played the original XCOM being confused or annoyed by how these things worked or didn't work in the game. Adding them as options seems like a good idea—and adding the aiming angles is good for the game overall.

• Gene Mods—creepy but useful.

• Finally, the Frenchman in a fedora you've always dreamed of in XCOM.

• With Enemy Within, the series accents the creepy trans-human theme of the original without really adding anything new to the story.

The endgame... Well, that's the same

Unfortunately, almost all of the changes made by Enemy Within affect the first two-thirds of the XCOM campaign. The last third remains something of a slog—the massive UFOs you assault take up the entire map, so the new maps aren't relevant. Those damnable Sectopods will still take out half your squad in two turns if you're not careful or lucky, regardless of MECs or Mods. Sadly, EXALT also should be taken care of by then, so the mission variety is lacking.

I normally dislike judging games by their "worth," as I prefer not to make assumptions about what people can or can't pay. But in the case of Enemy Within, it's impossible to avoid. This expansion is built around tweaks or additions, and while they're all good, or at least not bad, it's difficult to say that they add up to half a game. This is what the initial $30 price tag (PC expansion pack)—or $40 for the "Commander Edition" on consoles—implies. That's why describing Enemy Within as an excuse to replay a classic, or finally try it, is the best way to approach it: whenever you're ready to get back into XCOM, Enemy Within will be there. And then it'll be great to have.

The Good:

• Meld mechanics reward aggressive play
• MEC suits punch real good
• Defensive missions are a nice change of pace
• New maps! Hallelujah, new maps!

The Bad:

• Maybe not quite enough content for the price tag
• Endgame still a bit of a slog

The Ugly:

• Discovering that those new enemy Mectoids shoot twice in a turn

Verdict: Buy it, preferably if you're looking to play (or replay)XCOMsoon.

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Source: https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2013/11/xcom-enemy-within-should-be-taken-with-a-heavy-dose-of-original-xcom/

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