XCOM: Enemy Within Reviews
The fantastic Exalt missions, gene mods, and MEC Troopers are an excellent reason to play more XCOM.
Like the soldiers in the game, XCOM: Enemy Within takes everything introduced in Enemy Unknown, polishes it, enhances it, and redeploys it into the field. It's stronger, it's meaner, and it's awesome. The new additions force your hand to make tactical decisions that can and will lead to the death of soldiers that you'll become attached to now more than ever.
Even if you don't pick up the expansion right now you should definitely pick it up as soon as it goes on Steam sale. After all, who can put a price tag on giant robot soldiers punching aliens in the face? It worked for Pacific Rim and it works here too.
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.
A worthy expansion that refreshes and improves XCOM: Enemy Unknown in just about every way that matters.
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.
At the end of the day, it was the gameplay that made last year's XCOM: Enemy Unknown a standout title and that remains intact, but XCOM: Enemy Within is the dessert package to go with the main course you just ate, adding that sweet delight on top of an already pleasing and tasty meal.
Enemy Within [is] not only an excellent expansion, but a more fully formed vision of the base game as well.
XCOM: Enemy Within should be an essential purchase for fans of XCOM: Enemy Unknown, or even those who have not experienced this brilliant remake. With its many additions and changes it provides fans with a revitalised campaign filled with clever nuances and potentially increasing the game's lifetime by several magnitudes. It is not without its blunders, however.
The bottom line is you'll never play 'XCOM: Enemy Unknown' for the first time ever again. It's okay that 'Enemy Within' doesn't give you that feeling. It doesn't recreate the dread we all felt in those first couple playthroughs. That's where ironman mode comes in. 'Enemy Within' is all about piling on the goods, throwing in some new ideas with Exalt and buffing up the sense of personalization and customization with your squaddies. There's a lot more to do, and with a game as good as 'XCOM,' that's never a bad thing.
Those tired of Enemy Unknown's formula will not find compelling improvements or changes here, though fans will find enough new content to merit another go at vanquishing the Alien invasion.
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 adds a ton of new maps, mission types, and soldier abilities without losing the balance and unrelenting tension that make it XCOM.
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.