XCOM: Enemy Unknown Review – A Masterclass of Modern Game Design That Stands The Test of Time
I think I have made abundantly clear that I consider XCOM: Enemy Unknown to be one of the best strategy games of all time. When it was released in 2012, it single-handedly revitalized the turn-based strategy genre, brought a whole host of new players, and showed the industry that strategy gaming still had a lot to offer. Now, in 2025, I want to ask the question: Is XCOM: Enemy Unknown worth playing in 2025? The short answer is yes. If you want the long answer, keep reading.
- Genre: Turn-Based Strategy | Turn-Based Tactics | Sci-fi
- Developer: Firaxis Games, Feral Interactive (Linux)
- Publisher: 2K, Feral Interactive (Linux)
- Price: $34.99 | 32,99€ | £25.99
- Release Date: 12 October, 2012
- Reviewer: Nuno Marques (PC)
- Target Audience: Turn-Based Strategy Players, Everyone Who Enjoys Awesome Strategy Games
- Final Score: 10/10
XCOM Series Retrospective
If you’re reading this review in 2025 or 2026, I’m assuming you’re either one of two types of people: the first one is those looking for confirmation bias that yes, their favorite turn-based strategy game is still worth playing all these years later, and that the wider internet world agrees with them. The second type of people, are the ones that I think will find this review most interesting and useful: the people that have bought the game but got scared away by its apparent complexity, those who have the game in their Steam Library because the whole collection frequently goes on sale for a couple of dollars, and people who are probably looking at it because some Steam Sale is going on. Let me set the stage for you.
The year is 1994, and after a troublesome development cycle (the game was supposed to be canned twice), Julian Gollop, alongside MicroProse, just launched UFO: Enemy Unknown (or X-COM: UFO Defense) for the DOS and Amiga Computers, as well as the PlayStation 1. The game instantly received widespread critical praise and became a commercial success. IGN gave it a 9.4/10, GameSpot a 9.0, and Computer Gaming World netted it a 5-star review, calling it the number one sleeper hit of all time in 1996, with the game selling over 600.000 units on PC alone. Before we go on, let me make a parenthetical here: if you want to play the first XCOM, you can (and should), and the best way to play it is using Open XCOM.
During a time when game development cycles could be measured in months, instead of years, several sequels and spin-offs were sure to follow. X-COM: Terror from the Deep arrived in 1995 and took the fight against the alien menace to the Earth’s oceans. And while it didn’t meet the same critical reception as its predecessor, it sold over 1 million copies. X-COM: Apocalypse followed in 1997, X-COM: Interceptor (a space-sim) came out in 1998, X-COM: First Alien Invasion saw the light of day in 1999, and X-COM: Enforcer, a first-person shooter set in a different timeline, came out in 2001. After that, the series, like its alien threats, went silent for a decade.
In 2005, Take-Two Interactive bought out the XCOM IP from Infogrames (later Atari) and acquired Firaxis Games. In 2008, development of the new XCOM game began, led by designer Jake Solomon, and the game took 4 years to put together. Initially, the game was going to be an exact remake of the 1994 game, but remaking older mechanics just didn’t feel right for a modern game. The design philosophy then changed to simplify the mechanics, cut out the fat, and make a more accessible strategy game (there was a growing trend during that would last until the mid-2010s to simplify strategy games) that wouldn’t require players to spend hours and hours doing busy work. What came out of the development was, in my opinion, a kind of “greatest hits” of simplified mechanics that created a faster-paced experience without sacrificing the depth of the tactical battles. While this approach initially raised some eyebrows amongst fans of the series, the positive sentiment for a new XCOM massively overshadowed any possible criticism. Even Julian Gollop said in an interview that some parts of the previous games he worked on were overly complicated, and the maps were way too large, and went on to praise Firaxis for the “terrific job” done with XCOM.
XCOM: Enemy Unknown saw the light of day in October 2012, and the rest, as they say, is History. With its innovate and simplified action system, streamlined base-building and management mechanics, high-production value and replayability capacity, it remains undeniable that X-COM alone is the game that revitalized a genre and went on to open several opportunities for other titles like Xenonauts and Xenonauts 2, Phoenix Point, Phantom Brigade, Jagged Alliance 3, and the up and coming Star Wars Zero Company, amongst several hundred others. This impact wasn’t limited to turn-based strategy, as after the success of XCOM: Enemy Unknown, the genre of strategy grew tremendously, with new games arriving at a pace never seen before. But what made it so special?
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