XCOM: Enemy Within Reviews

XCOM: Enemy Within is ranked in the 96th percentile of games scored on OpenCritic.
NZGamer
Top Critic
9.4 / 10.0
Nov 25, 2013

If you have the first game, you must get this DLC. If you have not played the first game yet, you are missing the best tactical game on the market today (or your mind could already be under Alien control.)

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9.3 / 10.0
Nov 11, 2013

Enemy Within isn't easy, but its complex strategy and clever enemy AI provide a highly rewarding experience

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9 / 10
Nov 10, 2013

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.

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Dan Stapleton
Top Critic
9 / 10.0
Nov 10, 2013

New abilities, tough enemies and more maps make XCOM: Enemy Within a superb expansion, but the ending needs an upgrade.

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Nov 10, 2013

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.

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9 / 10.0
Nov 10, 2013

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.

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Nov 18, 2013

It's more of what you love for a very reasonable asking price.

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Erik Kain
Top Critic
9 / 10.0
Nov 13, 2013

Ultimately, Enemy Within is a clever, well-designed expansion that gives the original game much more than simply new missions or a shiny new veneer. The game feels and plays just like the vanilla, but with myriad new choices, challenges, customization options, and other additions that make an already very good game much, much better and more fun. For anyone who found themselves hopelessly addicted to Enemy Unknown last year, Enemy Within should give you plenty of reasons to return.

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VideoGamer
Top Critic
9 / 10
Nov 10, 2013

One of the best games of 2012 is back, and it might be the best game of 2013.

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Nov 17, 2013

For a game which already hinges its entertainment on balancing the gameplay, Firaxis has done a great job in making numerous changes but keeping that edge-of-the-seat philosophy the same. The gameplay is fresh, the content is numerous and the new challenges should entice both veterans of Enemy Unknown and rookie strategy gamers as well.

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Drew Leachman
Top Critic
9 / 10.0
Nov 25, 2013

Firaxis has done it again, and when I thought after losing an entire squad of my best soldiers was enough to make me quit the game forever, I realized I still had enough Meld to make another mech trooper. Yeah, I had to keep playing. If you're looking to get back into XCOM, you just found the one reason to.

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Dec 16, 2013

XCOM: Enemy Within is the definitive XCOM experience. There's enough here to keep veterans of the series engaged for another playthrough and it's a perfect launching point for newcomers to experience what may be the best turn-based strategy game on the market right now.

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9 / 10.0
Nov 13, 2013

By adding more content, more depth, and more choice, Enemy Within enhances rather than alters the core XCOM experience, and in doing so makes a great game even greater. A must-have.

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9 / 10.0
Nov 11, 2013

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.

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9 / 10.0
Nov 18, 2013

Over all I love the new flavor, am happy to be playing XCOM again, and love the challenge. Like I said, if you have any love for XCOM in your heart, pick this expansion up.

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9 / 10.0
Nov 11, 2013

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.

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Nov 13, 2013

Enemy Within is an improvement on an already outstanding game. It takes familiar systems, builds on top of them and challenges us in new ways, once again wearing our fingernails down to the bone and frazzling our nerves by making us second-guess each and every decision we make on and off the battlefield. It's bigger, deeper, and more challenging than ever before, forcing players to rethinktheir approaches, and expanding massively on replayability once more. Prepare to lose weeks to this game...AGAIN!

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9 / 10.0
Dec 15, 2013

Enemy Within is how XCOM was meant to be played. It takes all the great things from the original and refurbishes them with all sorts of cool new additions to the gameplay. If you haven't been introduced to the XCOM universe yet, this would be the right time to start.

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9 / 10.0
Nov 29, 2013

This is what DLC should be. Masses of content. New options, new maps, new missions, new soldiers, new enemies, balances and optimisations; hours and hours of brand new gameplay. It's all here. It's all good. It's the best that XCOM has ever been.

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8.7 / 10.0
Nov 11, 2013

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.

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