You know the story already: Aliens invade Earth like a bunch of bulbous-headed jerks and start turning the population into monster slaves, helpers to aid in terraforming and subduing the planet. One year later, Firaxis has once again made a better game today than the one they made yesterday. While it reuses the story and scenarios of Enemy Unknown, its changes and additions to the rules of the game bring it close to full sequel status. That’s why the new expansion, XCOM: Enemy Within, is so impressive. Pushing story forward isn’t enough a sequel needs to reconsider the rules. Enemy Unknown took the essentials of the classic XCOM: UFO Defense – a game of tactics, simulation, and economics built around fighting aliens and managing of a global military force – and recast it as a thoroughly modern video game.Įasier to pick up and play than the original and adapted for three-dimensional environments, but every bit as strategically demanding and rich as the original, Firaxis’ creation answered perfectly the question of what a video game sequel should be. What they made today was ultimately better than what was made yesterday. “My prototype was basically the original game, so when we changed things we could look at it and ask: Is this better than it was yesterday?” Solomon and his team at Firaxis gave themselves an incredibly difficult goal in making Enemy Unknown, and they achieved it. “What I wanted to make was a game that was true to the original.” That’s what XCOM: Enemy Unknown designer Jake Solomon said just a few short months before the game came out in 2012. No ability to import squads from Enemy Unknown.
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