XCOM: Enemy Within Reviews
Enemy Within makes for an incredible, and fresh, journey as you fight to save the world one more time, and it's definitely worth picking up eventually. We would totally understand though, if you wanted to wait for a steam sale or something.
XCOM: Enemy Within takes an already excellent game and makes it bigger and better. The addition of Meld, Gene Mods, Cybersuits, and the EXALT faction creates a wholly new experience -- a must-have for fans of the core title.
It would be hard to recommend a player try the expansion without playing the original first, but fortunately running the game on Steam requires ownership of Enemy Unknown and the console release will include both old and new versions. Enemy Within isn't the definitive version of XCOM, but it's a smart and satisfying extension of a game ideal for enticing players back for a second, third, or fourth playthrough.
Enemy Within isn't easy, but its complex strategy and clever enemy AI provide a highly rewarding experience
New abilities, tough enemies and more maps make XCOM: Enemy Within a superb expansion, but the ending needs an upgrade.
This time around, the repeat journey was absolutely worth it, and I'm glad if surprised to end 2013 finding that XCOM was my greatest timesink for a second year running. It won't, naturally, change the minds of anyone who felt XCOM was a betrayal of X-COM, but if like me you're contented by the Gollop and Firaxis efforts co-existing and doing their own thing rather than replacing each other, this really is an excellent add-on despite a few pulled punches.
If you haven't played the newest XCOM yet, now is a perfect time to do so with the Enemy Within package. For all the XCOM veterans out there, you'll find a solid amount of new activities to engage in, as well as an unprecedented amount of squad customization. In other words, this is now the definitive Enemy experience.
Enemy Within adds a ton of new maps, mission types, and soldier abilities without losing the balance and unrelenting tension that make it XCOM.
Enemy Within is a worthwhile expansion to both XCOM vets and newcomers. All of its new additions bring a great deal of extra challenge and strategy to one of 2012's best games.
Enemy Within is a solid expansion to an excellent game, with options like MECs, medals and gene mods that make you want to stomp aliens all over again in exciting new ways. The first two thirds of the campaign are definitely improved, but EW doesn't solve the problem of slogging through the endgame.
Like most expansion packs, Enemy Within is targeted towards the experienced. But Firaxis once again manages to balance XCOM's disparate elements, resulting in a challenging and satisfying experience.
Enemy Within is an improvement on an already excellent game. For every decision that must be made there are several factors to consider, rarely enough money to pay for everything, and uncomfortable consequences to be faced for failure. All of this is exacerbated still further when playing on Classic difficulty or with Ironman mode enabled, where you're constantly worrying about what to do next or second guessing the action that you've just taken. Much like the genetic modifications that it champions, XCOM: Enemy Within is an experience that gets under your skin.
XCOM: Enemy Within is a feature-packed expansion that makes a great game even greater.
Enemy Within doesn't fundamentally change the XCOM experience, but it does add a number of new challenges and strategies for veterans of Enemy Unknown. This expansion may be a little too much to handle for newcomers, but the XCOM faithful will find a whole new series of important decisions to obsess over.
One of the best games of 2012 is back, and it might be the best game of 2013.