XCOM: Enemy Within review: Earth is doomed and it feels so good

I need to admit something up-front: XCOM: Enemy Unknown is one of my favorite games from the last few years. In fact, it’s one of my favorite games of all time. I’ve got nearly 200 hours logged in the game on Steam (not counting the 20-plus hours I’ve spent with Enemy Within) and it’s something I play pretty regularly for fun. So I came into Enemy Within very excited about the expansion’s potential, but also a little nervous about the ways in which it could screw up my beloved XCOM.

As it turns out, I shouldn’t have worried.

Gameplay: let’s go deeper

XCOM: Enemy Unknown was a tactical turn-based action/strategy game, and Enemy Within doesn’t change up the basics at all. You’ll still control a squad of 4-6 elite soldiers by moving them and using their various abilities during missions, and you’ll still research and purchase gear to upgrade their capabilities between missions all while developing your base and trying to chase down the source of the alien threat that is terrorizing earth. What Enemy Within does is add more depth to virtually every facet of the game.

To begin with, there are several completely new mission types that go along with the Enemy Within storyline. Once you discover there is a human group called Exalt working in concert with the aliens, you’ll deploy one squad member as a covert operative to infiltrate Exalt cells and tease out information about the location of the main Exalt base. These covert deployments end with a full squad mission that sees your team heading in to either cover the operative while they hack several terminals to transfer the intel, or to defend terminals from waves of Exalt soldiers who are trying to stop you from getting away with the info. The defense missions are especially fun because the experience is so different from what you generally do in XCOM: instead of creeping from room to room clearing aliens, you set your squad up in the best position possible and play defense, hoping you can outlast the Exalt onslaught.

Exalt missions add some variety to the game.

There are also new council missions, some of which also shake up the formula. My favorite started with my squad investigating an abandoned northern village and ended with a terrifying rush to call in an airstrike and a pulse-pounding sprint back to the extraction point before being completely overrun by Chryssalids.

Hello darkness my old friend…

More rare but also new (though it’s actually a throwback to the original X-Com games from the 1990s) is the base defense mission, which sees you holding off waves of aliens as they attack XCOM headquarters. You’ll start with just a few of your squad members and some rookies, with new squad members breaking into the room and joining you if you can survive long enough to wait for them.

Defend the base!