Features:

  • New Soldier Abilities: Research a new alien technology to advance the capabilities of your operatives: Gene Mods: Construct the Genetics Lab to physically enhance your operatives’ abilities including augmentations to the chest, brain, eyes, skin, and legs
  • New Weapons and Equipment: Give your operatives an extra tactical edge with new projects from your engineering team and the Foundry
  • New Enemy Threats: Adopt new tactics to counter the threats from two new alien types and a deadly new organization known as EXALT
  • New Strategic Resource: A valuable new alien resource, known as Meld, has been discovered. Secure it on the battlefield and use it carefully back at base to unlock new research and upgrades
  • New Tactical Challenges and Maps: Cloak-and-dagger and intelligence operations provide new tactical challenges on over 40 new battlefields
  • New Multiplayer maps, units, and abilities: Create your custom squad from a wider array of options and dominate your opponent in intense, one-on-one, turn-based matches
Expansion Enhances an Already Terrific Game, Making it One of the Greatest

** I rate games based off of many aspects, so I'll split up each category and address them individually for an easy read ** ** This rating is (in a sense) for Enemy Within and Enemy Unknown for comparison purposes, just something to note ** Summary: XCOM Enemy Unknown is one of those rare gems, not only does it have intricate gameplay/tech-tree but is also painfully difficult (in a good way) if you want it to be. Ironman Impossible is a setting that hurts to play on many occassions... but feel's that much more amazingly awesome when you finally conquer it! Games this difficult are usually those free to play/download rage inducing plat-formers, not a game like XCOM. Enemy Within takes the previous game and adds on to the story elements and gameplay to make it a perfect 5!! XCOM:EU Score XCOM:EW Score Story/Believable 3/5 --> 5/5 Game play 5/5 --> 5/5 Graphics/Map Design 4/5 --> 5/5 Sound/Music 5/5 --> 5/5 Replay ability 4/5 --> 5/5 Overall 4.2 / 5 --> !!Perfect 5!! Story / Believable: For XCOM:EU, this is the part of the game that was lacking. The general story of the game is an Alien invasion of Earth (humans vs. aliens) which is already quite cliche... However I do not give a bad score for a story that has been done many times, what I do criticize on XCOM:EU is the story delivery. There was very few points in the game where XCOM:EU made me feel like humanity was in any danger, or that the Earth was in total chaos (yes, even on Ironman Impossible). There was a little bit at the beginning when you have all the abductions happening and UFO's appearing + Council Missions, but it didn't feel like enough... I never felt overwhelmed (other than on the battlefield sometimes) during the base activity/scanning parts. Also XCOM HQ Never get's attack'd in anyway... you think with all the technologies at the aliens disposal they'd be able to find it at least once!! XCOM:EW changes this by adding in the new threat that can be damaging if Ignored. Now I know some people do not like the edition of the faction Exalt due to the idea of fighting humans. But in my opinion from a story stand-point, Exalt's edition makes total sense to me and although they're not much of a threat on the battlefield (more detail later), they fill a story gap that needed to be filled. In a alien invasion situation, I feel there would totally be a clandestine human attempt to exploit the aliens technology to control the world, so I love the edition. And the fact that they sort of attack XCOM Indirectly (slow down research, steal money etc.) makes you paranoid about this while you're in base!! I love it, Plus XCOM:EW has a base defense from aliens now! Need I say more... =D XCOM:EU Also had this moral dilemma issue come up between Dr. Shen & Dr. Vahlen (totally should be spelled Wahlen if she's meant to be German) about proceeding with the XCOM project, for fear of "treading the same path as the aliens." However, the only questionable (morally speaking) scientific advance in Enemy Unknown is the advances made through the Psionics Lab. But that doesn't happen til the last quarter of the game. The rest of the research is either weapons, armor and items, I don't see any issue there. XCOM:EW changes this moral dilemma question drastically with its most highly anticipated additions being the Genetics and Cybernetics Laboratories. Now I don't know about you, but I certainly feel that there is some moral issues with genetically modifying humans + the severing of limbs and replacing them with mechanical ones to make soldiers the perfect killing machines (literally). This aspect of the story was greatly enhanced Game play: XCOM:EU already had fantastic gameplay. the turn-based squad maneuvering style is simple yet effective. The cover system of the game is also simple, low and hard cover with flanking angles being adjacent is easy to learn, yet the movement in the game and the carefully designed maps make flanking an endeavor of its own, and having the RPG leveling style for soldiers unlocking abilities that can slightly alter the way these "turns" can be used is brilliantly utilized with the mechanics of the game. XCOM:EW doesn't change a whole lot to the battlefield gameplay, the obvious differences are the use of MEC's and Gene soldiers and the buff's they can utilize. Luckily, each of these additions does ruin the game but keeps it as fun and engaging as it ever was. Graphics / Map Design The graphics in this game aren't what I'd called realistic or even astonishing, but it works well for this style of game, the graphics are somewhat "comicy" looking but with some very nice shaders, and the effects look amazing!! I feel like the graphics resemble great games like gears of wars, same sort of cartoon like characters (people / aliens) and with some nice coloriing and amazing looking effects. The customization options for soldiers is far greater in XCOM:EW than in EU but that doesn't break the first game. The minus 1 point here for XCOM:EU is in the map design, not so much in design as in quantity but there are certainly some issues here. XCOM:EU UFO missions in particular didn't have very exciting maps, all forest / rural areas. Not only that but the quantity of maps on XCOM:EU are too few even for the other missions like abductions / Terror. This effected the replay ability of the game for you'd start to know all the maps pretty easily. XCOM:EW addresses this issue, adding in farms UFO crash sites as well as Urban crash sites as well as adding in more maps for all map types in general. Another wonderful thing about the map design is the addition of the Meld canisters!! This aspect takes away from the benefits of memorizing maps and using that to carefully maneuver, which to me is a good cause that keeps the difficulty from dropping to much and thus allows the game to be replayed multiple times. Enemy Within is a terrific expansion with map variety. Sound / Music: Love the music in this game, the starting a mission music always get's me pumped every time, I don't know why =D The in battle music helps intensify situations and the pre-battle music is ominous enough to remind you to stay cautious, but music is typically a matter of opinion, so I won't spend too much time here. The sounds are brilliant in this game, I love the use of sounds to identify enemies on the battlefield before you see them (during the alien activity turn, when you can't see any aliens), it can make you dread certain missions when you hear the hissing of the "ever so loved" (*cough*... so OP *cough*) thin man in the first few abduction missions or the moment when you hear the first "clanking sound" and realize you're about to fight your first sectopod of the campaign, which is even more terrifying in Enemy Within due to the buff! The Weapon sound effects are great, the aliens taunts are all right where it should be! Replay ability: XCOM:EU had a lot of multiple play-through's due to the difficulty of the game, that's the wonderful thing about games as punishing as XCOM is; that they're a challenge no matter how many times you play it due to the dice rolling play style. But even with this the limited maps did make this game slightly dull to go through it many times. XCOM:EW addresses this issue quite well with the maps and the addition of Meld. One of the reason why EU could seem repetitive is that there was no reason to rush yourself, but EW with the Meld mechanic makes the level's a little more tricky. Which in turn makes playing the game multiple times more interesting. Conclusion: Enemy Within surpasses its predecessor, making XCOM a perfect game with hours of replay ability. The most incredible thing is how just the simple joy of out strategizing Aliens followed by brutally murdering them can make for such a terrific game. Recommended for any strategy gamer/hardcore gamer looking for a challenge.

Incredible. Perfect Fun.

This is not like any mere DLC pack. This is an expansion that adds incredible depth to the game. New maps, new aliens (very scary), new customization options, a new human terrorist group to deal with, a new alien resource that complicates mission objectives, genetic upgrades, cybernetic upgrades, and so on. Both the new aliens and Meld resource makes strategic play way more interesting. Will you take risks to get the Meld? Can you risk separating soldiers when there are stealth mode stranglers out there? Soldiers can now speak Italian, Spanish, French, German, Russian, or English while on missions. Very cool. Not sure why there are no Asian languages. But there are also new soldier responses and reactions that are pretty cool and even funny. Soldiers can earn medals. You customize in medal titles and determine the effects granted to recipients. Enemy Within is truly a sequel in many ways. New story twists and tons of options make gameplay totally different each time you play. Now you truly must weigh the importance of genetic advantages versus armor upgrades, let's say. Will you make mechs and put off researching weaponry? Should your soldiers be made superhuman even though you risk them getting killed and losing all that improvement? Should you spread out medals or award them (and their perks) to only a few soldiers? I've also noticed that gameplay has improved in a few ways. It is easier to throw grenades just about anywhere. The aiming of projectiles is much smoother and easy to control. Your movement options are very clearly marked out when you select a soldier, including climbing pathways. You can turn off the annoying and game-halting speeches of your head scientist and engineer. There are a ton of details to cover here, so I will just say BUY IT NOW. It is well worth the price. If you love XCOM or science fiction in general, this game is an incredible experience. I hope they make a new expansion every year, because Firaxis knows how to make an excellent strategy game. Just AWESOME.

An Amazing Expansion to an Amazing Game

XCOM:Enemy Unknown was not just a great game, but a great homage to the original 1990's game (which I played repeatedly in college). Enemy Within adds nothing but gravy to this already great game. Pardon me while I gush a bit here, but this is a really quality expansion that deserves its 5 stars. The additions of cybernetics and genetic engineering fill in the only pieces that were missing and give the game a "total sci-fi" feel. The additional maps and missions add a layer of unpredictability, even for the players like myself who have memorized the Enemy Unknown maps as well as giving the game an expanded, full-world feeling. There's even a surprise mission that will wow fans of the original and thrill newcomers alike! You can't go wrong with this expansion. Buy it now!

Love the additional content

When starting the game, it asks if you want to play the original or the expansion. From what I can tell, the expansion has all the original missions, PLUS the added content and side-missions. Thus you could jump right into this, tutorial included. Tons of new maps. New equipment. New aliens. When my teen plays PvP many of the players are using the new units. Yes, you can fight with the original game units and win (it's all in the player), but some of the new units (i.e. MEC and Seeker) are dangerous and you need to be prepared to handle them even if you choose not to play them. OVERALL: An expansion that gives a good amount of actual additional content. Love it!

XCOM Advanced

Ok let me start off by saying I love XCOM, as I find the game very well done. It is immensly immersive with all the choices you need to make, giving you options on how to build your base, what skills to assign your troops, where to launch satellites etc. The game play on the base is basically an ant farm view with you able to click on different areas within it, worth noting for new players - the deeper you dig down the more it costs to build so choose wisely. The game is sqaud based, with an initial squad of 4 troops and culminating in 6 troops. The game takes an overhead view of the battlefield with the fog of war limiting what you can see. Now when you attack the view switches to a 3rd person, basically over the shoulder view so you can see what you attack. Now let me say that I have played this on both the PC and the X Box and both formats play fine. The PC format I think has slightly better graphics, but that is my opinion, though if you like the feel of a controller in your hand go with the console version - either way you won't be dissapointed. You can manage your money by selling surpluss weapons and alien corpses and alien tech so that you research and buy new tech. Be warned however that the expansion really does add some extra strategy to the game as well as some new aliens. Basically you now have a group of human sympathizers, called Exalt, working with the Aliens that you need to combat also. You send an operative in and 3 days later you try to get the operative out and complete the operative mission. You can accuse a country of housing Exalt HQ, but if you are wrong that country leaves the XCOM project which basically means less money for you. The more missions you do the more you narrow down where EXALT is located, but this takes a lot of missions. The game DOES stay close to the original - so far - as I have not beat it yet. So far I have not met the Alien resistance but this is my first play through still on this game.The game also offers you gene mods once you research certain aliens the mods become automatically available. This enables you to modify your soldiers with things like stronger legs so they can jump onto roofs instead of climbing or heal faster. Each gene upgrade will cost you cash and meld - which is basically a gel you can capture on certain missions. The more gene mods you do to a soldier the longer it takes for the soldier to be modified. I usually bring one soldier modified on certain missions as the mods can be very handy. The other major addition to the game is the ability to build your own Mec soldiers - basically your soldier becomes a living mec - kind of cool and very awsome in my opinion. I usually have 2 of these troops on any given mission as they as very durable including immunity to the Chrysalids which I love (sorry that is the alien I love to hate), though upgrades to your Mec troops get real expensive real quick so be careful with which upgrades you choose. On the UFO side they have some nasty battleships which I have to shoot down. All in all a good game which is very involving. If you like the original you will love the additions to this game. The game has a lot of playabiltiy due to the immense number of choices the game offers. The only downside for some may be that this game is addicting in that this is the only game you are likely to play until you beat it, so don't plan on playing this game plus 2 others as it is unlikely to happen. As I said at the begining I love this game - 32 hours of game play in 2 weeks. Enjoy

I love XCOM games and this one is great

I love XCOM games and this one is great. I do wish they'd fix the fact that you can't kill an alien that you've mind controlled. Outside of that anyone who loves turn based strategy games will enjoy this one.

love this game

played it on the playstation alot and enjoy it even better on the pc

It game was so fun. I have to uninstall it so I can ...

It game was so fun. I have to uninstall it so I can get back to life and serious study time. I love turn based strategy; few games have that and this one does it so well. I am glad I played and finished the base XCOM enemy unknown before I added this one. Enemy within does change the game play and feel.

Love It!!!

Always great games from these folks. Xcom is a great remake of one of my old favorite games. I played the original on my first 8-bit PC, and was disappointed when it wouldn't play on my 32/64-bit systems. I have it on my Playstation 3 and play it endlessly. I have Xcom: Enemy Unknown for the PC on order, and am looking forward to playing it. My thanks to Firaxis for their excellent games.

For anyone who loves XCOM: Enemy Unknown

If you love playing XCOM: Enemy Unknown or strategy games in general you will love this expansion. The game increases the already amazing experience of Enemy Unknown by adding handfuls of new and interesting content. The expansion add genetic modification and mech upgrades for you soldiers, new enemy types and levels, cosmetic customization for your soldier to make them extra personal, and new game balancing that makes the aliens even tougher to take down. A great game and an almost necessary expansion if you loved enemy unknown, but want the game in a new flavor. Just make sure to cover your flank and watch for x-rays, good luck commander. ;)

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