Getting the negative stuff out of the way first: I can’t say XCOM without having Tom Jones’s “Sexbomb” come to mind and, also, the game possibly outstays its welcome a little. That latter issue isn’t a major one, but I did find towards the end of the game, the general gameplay was starting to wear thin. There’s a few different mission types, but they’re mainly variations of the same thing and if you’re playing tactically, each one can take over an hour to complete.

With that out of the way, XCOM is probably one of the more unique games you’ll come across and a strategy game that actually plays well on console. It’s a game with lots of simple systems that all merge together to form a deep and complicated game. Not complicated to play, but complicated to master.

The main gameplay is a tactical turn based shooter where you control the movement and actions of a squad of soldiers. Each turn you can perform a couple of actions with each soldier. This could be moving, covering, reloading, firing at an enemy. Different soldier classes have different abilities and have different limitations. Firing a rocket, for example, takes both action points for that particular soldiers turn. Some actions have limits and others cooldowns. It’s an intuitive system with a decent interface.

The strategic turn based gameplay is the tip of the iceberg though. Between missions you’ll be trying to balance your quads, pick abilities, manage resources, focus research, develop your base and manage countries panic levels. You can’t do everything at once, so you have to plan carefully and you always seem to be slightly on the back foot. Each time you press the button to progress time it’s a roll of the dice; will your much needed interceptor complete or will the next event be a UFO attack? Will your wounded team mate recover before the next invasion, or will you be forced to take one of rookies? Tense “turns” off mission can be just as harrowing as those on mission.

The game has – what I’d describe as – a very Area 51 take on extra terrestrials. Little grey men with big heads, flying saucers and shadowy government agencies. The kind of Aliens that like to abduct people, carry laser guns and maybe do a bit of mind control. That’s not to say that it’s all little grey men, there’s actually a decent variety of enemies; it just that it has that kind of vibe about it. It’s a bit dark and dramatic in places, but at a fairly shallow level. It’s more Independence day than it is Alien.

I definitely enjoyed this one. There was enough meat on the bone to keep the game interesting, but without being overly complicated to play. Play well on console too, which is rare for this genre.