One of my all time favourite games is XCOM: UFO Defence on PC. When I was asked to preview the upcoming Enemy Within expansion for XCOM: Enemy Unknown I was giddy with excitement.
After only a few hours of playing with the new features, boy am I impressed. This expansion a whole lot more than just some extra missions. It adds new units, new abilities and even a new resource – Meld — into the mix. This makes it possible to customise your soldiers in greater detail than the standalone title.
Meld must be obtained in missions, adding an additional layer of gameplay rather than simply ‘kill all the bad guys.’ Meld serves two functions in Enemy Within. Firstly, you can transform your soldiers into cyborgs with the ability to mount them in mechanised suits. Secondly, Meld can be used to upgrade allies with genetic modifications to upgrade specific stats. Both new unit upgrades require the construction of a new building and the corresponding research.
To balance combat against your new and improved cyborg super soldiers are several new alien units featuring new abilities that will keep you on your toes. Most impressive is the new alien walker. This beast is a bigger, badder, alien version of your mechs. To take this sucker down, you’ll need to bring your ‘A’ game.
Aside from Meld, its ability to upgrade your soldiers and the new enemy units Enemy Within also features an engaging narrative. Shockingly, the main plot revolves around a potential Enemy Within the ranks.
The expansion features a suite of UI tweaks including highlighting objects within a grenade’s explosive radius and additional lighting and graphical upgrades. Overall Enemy Within feels more like a new game rather than a piece of additional content.
XCOM: Enemy Within features over 40 new maps and a new enemy faction named EXALT. EXALT agree with the alien’s goals for improving humanity, but want to remain separate. Their goal is to accelerate evolution using advanced technology. The EXALT story runs parallel to the XCOM story, so players are free to engage with them as they see fit. A new operation type has also been introduced in Enemy Within, dubbed Infiltration.
In Infiltration operations, players are only able to select one unit, armed with just one handgun and without wearing heavy armour. The risks are high, but the reward is a much boosted handgun stat, amongst others.
Look out for our full review of XCOM: Enemy Within soon.
XCOM: Enemy Within is a standalone expansion for XCOM: Enemy Unknown and will be available for PC and Mac 15 November. Enemy Within will only be available for PS3 and Xbox 360 by purchasing the XCOM: Enemy Unknown Commander’s Edition.
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