The game opens with an atmospheric tutorial, unfortunately, the same feel isn't kept once the game really starts but it still makes for a good opening. Four classes of soldiers are featured each with two abilities to choose from every time they get a promotion, giving you some options on what kind of character you want to create. Permanent death makes you really think about your actions so you don't lose your favourite characters, although if you want to make things a little easier them game does allow you to reload saves if you want to. A variety of upgrades are able to be researched giving you access to better weapons, armor, items, some with fun abilities to use on the field such as a cloak, jet pack, or a grappling hook. Grenades and rockets can be used to destroy walls and cover or to cause objects in the environment like cars to explode and damage nearby enemies. The game has a lot of poor design choices. You will run into frequent bugs relating to shooting through walls or grenades going through walls. Line of sight problems can prevent you from seeing things right next to you, and likely due to the way the game handles elevation it doesn't understand how ramps or stairs work since they don't just jump to the next preset levels often causing problems with line of sight when there is only slight elevation difference and without taking height into consideration. The game lacks useful information you would expect to have in a turn based game likely due to the console versions, things like how far your character can see, range indicators if moving to a different location would allow you to shoot at a known threat. The game is short and you end up upgrading equipment very quickly to the point where you will only be using regular guns for a short time, or you might just end up skipping laser weapons and moving straight to the final plasma weapons. You start to get some cool armor as the game goes on but might not have as long to play around with it as you would like. There is low map variety, horrible in UFO crash missions that have you frequently placed in the same forest area. Poor character customization options, but color choices improve with DLC. You have no choice when it comes to what class soldiers get once they get their first promotion, it can be very annoying to see a character with a high aim stat become a class where you would want them using a shotgun or heavy weapon or when you keep getting the same class when you want another one. The terrible country panic system where you might need to rely more on luck to keep countries safe because aliens somehow hit three different places at the same exact time all the time, and you are prevented from sending out multiple teams. Terror missions are badly done, both because of the poor civilian and Alien AI when civilians are involved and because of the random placement of civilians can make things extremely easy or nearly impossible, it also makes very little sense that you are capable of completely negating panic from spreading if you do well enough as an entire town was likely destroyed and civilians would still have been killed. Soldiers are limited to taking only one item with them forcing you to make strange trade offs where you are deciding between taking things like a scope, armor, grenades, or a medkit. The game also has an uninteresting story with characters that end up being kind of annoying. A lot of improvements were made and some of the problems were fixed in the Enemy Within expansion. Enemy Within and the DLC give you new missions that add a bit more variety to the game's maps, Enemy Within also adds new mission types, ways to customize your soldiers, and a new mech classes for you to use. If you are interested in playing the original XCOM now this is the version you should get.

This game is one of the hardest, most challenging, most rewarding, most rage-quit inducing games I have ever played. It is addicting, but not for the weak of will.

Command your troops, kill aliens, you think to yourself, it's a easy game, find an arachnid like robot, he kill all your major and best equiped soliders, rage quit, 10 minutes after and you're playing it again, 10/10 would rage quit once more

Simply put. The best defense strategy game out there. You play as a team of X-Com members defending earth from an alien invasion. But why are they invading, what do they want? This is your mission to discover why they are here and take them on head to head. With ever advancing technology your team must overcome the alien menace and win back earth. Be prepared though as the complete edition offers more challenge than ever with it's expansion Enemy Within and a few smaller cosmetic and mission DLC. New alien enemies and bigger challenge than ever before. It is on my must play list. With over 100 hours so far put into it so far I'd recommend it to anyone who is a fan of Sci-Fi and turn based strategy games. I gave this a score of %95 because well, once you play the game you'll understand the reference. Simply brilliant.

The game focuses mostly on turn based combat though you will also spend a substantial amount of time within your own base which you can customize as you sit fit but only if you have the necessary resources and research. You can also customize your team that you send out especially if you get the DLCs which add a bit more immersion to the game. All in all the game is one piece of gem if you like fighting aliens with cool weapons and agents that in my opinion are better the MIB.