#Ufo alien invasion xcom how to#

#Ufo alien invasion xcom how to#

Reports of abductions and mysterious experiments circulate the globe, and the world’s leaders can’t agree on how to proceed. X-COM: UFO Defense begins in a futuristic 1999, roughly a year after alien spacecraft appeared in the skies.

It’s no wonder we’re still talking about UFO Defense twenty years later – and why we might still be studying it once we actually encounter alien life. But it’s hard to deny X-COM: UFO Defense got a lot right on the first try, or that modern developers are just catching up to it. And we’re no exception – in 2012, former Escapist editor Steve Butts argued X-COM: UFO Defense was the greatest video game of all time.ĭid Microprose really craft the perfect video game in 1994, and everything that’s come after is a pale imitation? Should Firaxis just remaster UFO Defense instead of bothering with sequels? Of course not – Enemy Unknown brilliantly improved upon the original in all kinds of ways. Many gaming websites still called X-COM: UFO Defense the world’s best PC game as recently as 2007.

UFO Defense was an impressively complex strategy title for 1994, boasting a tactical scope Enemy Unknown couldn’t match. Sure, many fans always prefer original games over reboots, but with X-COM they have a pretty strong case. But depending on who you ask, the best alien defense game was already released in 1994: UFO: Enemy Unknown, or as it was marketed in North America, XCOM: UFO Defense, This series set the bar for turn-based gameplay, permadeath, and harsh tactical decisions in modern games, and the sequel should improve on XCOM: Enemy Unknown in every way. XCOM 2 finally launches next week, and alien invasion strategists couldn’t be happier. Platforms: PC (reviewed), Amiga, PlayStation.