EXTR A LIFE
CONTINUED ADVENTURES IN GAMING
Having a chill time watching the occasional noob die in XCOM: ENEMY WITHIN
The Firaxis formula has been copied but never bettered. It’s the little things, like the way the camera swoops in when you’re aiming or the last squaddie hustles into cover at the end of a turn. I feel more connected to my guys if the sensation of being an invisible giant playing soldiers gets broken every now and then.
Instead of replaying XCOM 2 for the Nth time, maybe with a mod that makes everyone look like Sisters of Battle, I decided to go back to the previous XCOM. I wanted to remind myself what had changed. XCOM 2 can be overwhelming, it’s a flood of mission types and mechanics, so I thought hopping back a few years would be a return to some kind of purity – just me and my four-to-six knock-off GI Joes with pockets so small they can only carry one grenade apiece. But add-on DLC had already jam-packed XCOM with extras. You’re turning soldiers into MEC troopers or upgrading their DNA while also building a Foundry to construct a different flavour of robots and upgrades, and then adding psychic powers on top. There’s a messy redundancy in the way you can research a suit of armour that comes with a grappling hook to help your snipers get on rooftops, but can also upgrade their legs so they can just jump up there.
I don’t mind, though. It may not have the mythical purity I remember, but it’s still a lot of fun to turn a squad of rank amateurs into the A-Team. XCOM is basically a big funnel: you pour rookies in one end and badasses emerge from the other. I’ll never stop enjoying that.
WE WILL BE WATCHING
YOU’RE TURNING SOLDIERS INTO MEC TROOPERS OR UPGRADING THEIR DNA
These days I’m dropping the difficulty to Normal, which is like removing
