XCOM: Enemy Unknown

XCOM: Enemy Unknown is the 2012 remake of X-COM by Firaxis Games, the studio best known for Civilization. Aliens attack Earth, and a secret organisation funded by a council of nations has to stop them. As in the original, the game has two layers. In the base you research alien technology, build facilities, launch satellites and keep the funding nations from panicking. On the ground you lead a small squad in turn-based battles.

The rules of the battles were rebuilt rather than copied. Time units are replaced by two actions per soldier per turn, usually a move and a shot. Cover is shown as half or full shields. Soldiers belong to classes such as Assault, Heavy, Support and Sniper, and earn ranks and abilities. The squad starts at four and grows to six. The Enemy Within expansion in 2013 added genetic modifications, soldiers in mechanical suits, and a human faction working for the aliens.

It brought the genre back to a large audience and is still the easiest place to start. The two-action system is quick to learn and hard to master, and the game's mood, the camera cutting in close when a shot is taken, makes every turn feel like a scene. A soldier you named after a friend dying to a lucky shot is the reason people still talk about it.

The criticisms are mostly about what was simplified. Percentages that seem to lie are part of its legend, the maps are smaller than the original's, and the strategic layer is narrower. The Long War mod, released in 2013, answered many of these complaints with a longer, harder campaign.

Enemy Unknown keeps both of X-COM's layers and slims down each. The turn-based fight is faster and more readable, the base is a single side-on cutaway instead of several bases on a globe. It is the version most people know, and the one that made X-COM's name into the name of a genre.