Years ago, I made a review for the Original X-com; Enemy unknown from 1994, when we all thought that X-com game was the only one that would exist...and then 2K & Firaxis teamed up to bring us this Masterpiece.
Set in the year 2015, assuming the year is still 2012, Aliens from outer space have invaded earth, and have begun killing, capturing & consuming humans. in the midst of this, the world's governments have come together and formed X-com, a project that has sworn to eliminate the alien threat, by any means necessary. But, if the project doesn't do as well as the nations of the world hope, they might just back out of the project, taking valuable funding with them. As the commander at X-com, it's your job to guide soldiers in battle, build a base and arm interceptors to shoot down UFOs around the planet. And the council will grade you on it. They'll be in touch, Commander.
This is the granddaddy of Strategy games, Games like Starcraft, Age of empires, and Master of Orion exist solely because of the original X-com. the 2012 remake is also a fun game, and it also tones down the difficulty and makes the battles a bit simpler for gamers of this decade. The gameplay is very similar, although battle-mode has been made a lot more simple. Time-units are replaced by lines that say how far your soldier can go before he's dashing, and it seems you get more hits in battle. The biggest and most disappointing difference is the number of soldiers you can send into the field, starting at 4 and capping at 6. Why would a government-funded program designed to fight 20-30 aliens on one field, only send out 6 soldiers?
The music has been totally changed from the original. Personally, I loved John Broomhall's score from the original game a lot more, but there are pieces from the 2012 game that are worth their weight, like "To the fallen" and "Depths of the hive mind" both composed by Michael McCann. The music lacks an eerie/creepy vibe and has a more movie-epic sound to it.
At times, this game feels like it's setting you up to fail, and at times, you'll have to retreat from a battle, or, you'll have to ignore a UFO over a foreign country, because the cost to replace a battle-hardened Colonel or an interceptor ship is not worth the risk of charging them to their death. It's hard to accept, but sometimes you have to pull out from the battlefield, and take the verbal beating from the council.
Overall, I totally recommend anyone to play this game while they're still available at EB & Gamestop.
9/10
