XCOM: Enemy Unknown

XCOM isn't "Sid Meier's XCOM," but he knows his game systems, and his involvement with the upcoming strategy reboot has been key. But Meier is not a one-man show, and indeed, he acknowledged during the tour that not all of his ideas were winners. Lead designer Jake Solomon and his erudite team seem pretty confident, however, that the ideas that have made it into Enemy Unknown are the right ones.

Of course, what matters most is the game itself, and we had plenty of time to play and chat about XCOM: Enemy Unknown during the visit. There's a great deal to report--aesthetics, strategy, interface, depth--but the most important takeaway from this visit is that you can play Enemy Unknown with friends and strangers over the Internet. Yes, indeed: XCOM is both a single-player and a multiplayer experience, and you can read our multiplayer breakdown right here. But it's offline where you discover most of the game's depth, and we got the most thorough look yet at Enemy Unknown's strategic flexibility.

The training school, where mere soldiers become so much more.

You might know of Enemy Unknown's tactical turn-based skirmishes, but that is only part of the alien equation. The strategy layer is the other keystone of this invasion story. Your strategizing occurs at XCOM headquarters, where you make global decisions and conduct research, choosing what to build and how to upgrade your base. You view the base from a cutaway view that might remind you of an ant farm--though here, the ants are scientists interrogating captured extraterrestrials, and combatants sweating off their excess weight on treadmills. From this view, you excavate downwards and outwards, making room for more facilities, and receiving bonuses when similar facilities are built next to each other.
What are these facilities? Well, some are for resource generation. For instance, building a thermal generator over a steam vent allows you to generate power. In another facility, you can grill captured aliens for information, which not only advances the narrative, but also confers technological bonuses. (You also get the evil satisfaction of knowing that the invading SOBs never live through the interrogation process.) There are other alien facilities to build, though Solomon didn't divulge too much where this subject was concerned, as he feels it's best that players discover the surprises on their own. But he did point out that the strategy layer wasn't initially meant to be as involved as it ultimately became. 


Installation
Typical installation (No-Steam):
1. Install the game by running setup.exe
2. Wait tablet
Set to Steam:
1. Install the game by running setup.exe
2. Copy the contents of the folder / Steam folder to your Steam client
3. Play

System requirements:
Operating System: Windows ® Vista SP2 / Windows ® 7 SP1
Processor: Intel Core2Duo@2.4Ghz
RAM: 2GB
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT / ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT or greater
Free hard drive space: 7 GB

DOWNLOAD :

XCOM: Enemy Unknown Part 1
XCOM: Enemy Unknown Part 2
XCOM: Enemy Unknown Part 3
XCOM: Enemy Unknown Part 4
XCOM: Enemy Unknown Part 5
XCOM: Enemy Unknown Part 6