XCOM: Enemy Unknown for Xbox 360 Reviews by Gamers

Had a blast playing. Saw a lot of elements from the original game that transferred well in the update. On normal, the game was challenging, but not impossible. Unlike the original, there's a tutorial so the learning curve isn't 90 degrees.

But then I played on easy for my second play-though, to get all the things I missed on normal. I suspect "easy" was a practical joke, because it was harder by far than the normal setting. 10X as many soldier deaths, constant alien abductions, stronger enemies sooner. I don't know what was up with that, but it certainly not "easy". still a great game.

I'm ADHD and still get addicted to both the old XCOM: UFO Defense and this new XCOM: Enemy Unknown!

The old one is the more addictive of the two, I've even downloaded it from Gamefly to compare my memmories of the game with the new one and it was the best game of its time, pure magic.

This one feels a bit scripted, rather than open like the original, and it is ends so fast. The old one seemed like you could play it forever, but this one tries to instill a sense of urgency toward completion. I find myself skipping tons of research and equipment, simply because they are outdated so fast anyway.

Scanning the atmosphere for UFOs, intercepting them, and the generation scheme for possible missions all pale in comparison to the old game, but if you are not intimate with the differances, then nothing will be missed.

Battlescapes are still randomly generated, so you can save inside one to preserve it, or before launching the Skyranger transport ship if you want to load random; be warned though, the old game had truly random maps, the new game only has random starting locations and enemies on a finite list of maps.

The battles are where it is really at! Example: Landed in hot zone, both snipers threw light beacons in different directions to light up the fog of war. Coast clear, everyone advance to cover behind cars. Enemies in building, so shoot a rocket to destroy their cover and injure them, everyone mops up. Reload soldiers and use grapple hooks to get on rooftops. Then use them to fly over alleys to other roofs, being careful to stay in cover. Enemies spotted on street, an alien Berzerker (massive melee brute) climbs drainpipe and meets a soldier face to face, soldier on Overwatch fires, 8 of 20 health removed; Sniper fires across alley, blows alien off the roof... The olther soldiers shoot fish in a barrel, since there is no where to hide in the alley below due to cross-fire. Reload, dart between cover and continue the hunt. LOVE IT!!