As someone who did not play any of the XCOM games in their childhood, only finding X-COM on Dosbox a few years ago after having heard stories about it, I feel that I am in a uniquely un-nostalgia-biased position to say that this new XCOM is awful.

Well, let me rephrase that; It is a decent, if unremarkable, Tactical-RPG that is in no way deserving of the X-COM name.

Enough of my personal disappointment, on to the review:

Presentation: The story, an aspect that the first X-COM was unashamedly lacking in, comes across as ham-fisted and forced in the form of unskippable voice-acted cutscenes that linearly direct you from objective to objective, always telling you exactly what you need to do next. I won't pretend that UI design hasn't advanced in the nearly two decades since the original X-COM; as would be expected of a modern game, it is considerably better in both usability and accessability. Unfortunately this is marred by a range of bugs, ranging from misunderstanding orders to the game hanging or crashing entirely.

Gameplay: The designers seem to have gone to great lengths to eliminate as many 'bad choices' from the game as possible. In the original X-COM, you might choose to send a soldier into battle with nothing but a rocket launcher and 5 rockets to fire; such a configuration could be very effective in certain situations, though it would be folly to equip all of your soldiers as such. In this new XCOM, there is no inventory system at all, so it's completely impossible to screw yourself over with poor outfitting choices. It's also impossible to shoot your own soldiers in battle; your bullets always all hit the target alien, or go flying off into space, even if there was someone else blocking the line of sight between you and your target. Action points had been dumbed-down to the point of all of your soldiers able to take two 'actions' per turn, regardless of what those actions are. Cover is generally more resilient as well; offering better protection for your soldiers. Though combined with the fact that you can't even manually target cover to open up lines of sight for your soldiers means the aliens will be better protected as well. Unlike in the original, where the aliens would often actively hunt you down, or at least shoot at you if they saw you, in this X-COM all the aliens obligingly wait for you to spot them before playing an unskippable 'surprise!' animation and taking a free move to run for cover. Whereas the original had randomly generated maps, this new XCOM has static maps that will quickly have you saying ‘Oh, here again’ even in your very first playthrough. I could go on and on but I'll wrap this section up; All of the many, many gameplay changes render this game all-but unrecognizable compared to the original X-COM; and result in an experience that is bland and dumbed-down all around. A thin veneer of randomness to make the game feel 'difficult' while ultimately offering no challenge what-so-ever to the player.

Visuals: The graphics are good, if not exceptional. Generally the sort of thing I would expect from a modern X-COM game. There are numerous graphical glitches where the animation will not match the results the games decides: The bullets visually missing the target when the game rolls a hit, or a character pointing his gun in entirely the wrong direction when firing.

Sound: The audio is okay. I found the constant, repetitive voice-overs a bit grating, though some may like the guidance they offer. Some cutscenes don't obey the audio settings of the rest of the game, and will play at whatever volume they feel like, even if you've turned down the volume for the rest of the game. The music is much more forgettable that the original X-COM.

You may have noticed that many of the issues I presented as negatives in this review are the result of unfavorable comparisons to a games that came out nearly two decades ago. Let me just repeat this, for emphasis: Nearly two decades ago, the original X-COM simulated the flight trajectory of each bullet path in 3D to determine if it hit anything along the way, or shot through an open window without breaking any glass. Both things that a modern game bearing the same name nearly two decades later was apparently unable to replicate.

If this did not have the X-COM name, I would say it was a bog-standard average Tactical-RPG. As things are, I have to give it an F for effort and wasted potential.

That said though, I can't really in good faith recommend you go and play the original, it really is showing its age after all these years, so I'll leave you with this as a conclusion: If you really liked the original years ago, don't bother with this, you'll just be disappointed; enjoy the memories you have, or play X-COM again on dosbox. If you've never played X-COM before, you might enjoy it, but I can't really recommend it.

As someone who did not play any of the XCOM games in their childhood, only finding X-COM on Dosbox a few years ago after having heard stories about it, I feel that I am in a uniquely un-nostalgia-biased position to say that this new XCOM is awful. Well, let me rephrase that; It is a decent, if unremarkable, Tactical-RPG that is in no way deserving of the X-COM name. Enough of my personal disappointment, on to the review: Presentation: The story, an aspect that the first X-COM was unashamedly lacking in, comes across as ham-fisted and forced in the form of unskippable voice-acted cutscenes that linearly direct you from objective to objective, always telling you exactly what you need to do next. I won't pretend that UI design hasn't advanced in the nearly two decades since the original X-COM; as would be expected of a modern game, it is considerably better in both usability and accessability. Unfortunately this is marred by a range of bugs, ranging from misunderstanding orders to the game hanging or crashing entirely. Gameplay: The designers seem to have gone to great lengths to eliminate as many 'bad choices' from the game as possible. In the original X-COM, you might choose to send a soldier into battle with nothing but a rocket launcher and 5 rockets to fire; such a configuration could be very effective in certain situations, though it would be folly to equip all of your soldiers as such. In this new XCOM, there is no inventory system at all, so it's completely impossible to screw yourself over with poor outfitting choices. It's also impossible to shoot your own soldiers in battle; your bullets always all hit the target alien, or go flying off into space, even if there was someone else blocking the line of sight between you and your target. Action points had been dumbed-down to the point of all of your soldiers able to take two 'actions' per turn, regardless of what those actions are. Cover is generally more resilient as well; offering better protection for your soldiers. Though combined with the fact that you can't even manually target cover to open up lines of sight for your soldiers means the aliens will be better protected as well. Unlike in the original, where the aliens would often actively hunt you down, or at least shoot at you if they saw you, in this X-COM all the aliens obligingly wait for you to spot them before playing an unskippable 'surprise!' animation and taking a free move to run for cover. Whereas the original had randomly generated maps, this new XCOM has static maps that will quickly have you saying ‘Oh, here again’ even in your very first playthrough. I could go on and on but I'll wrap this section up; All of the many, many gameplay changes render this game all-but unrecognizable compared to the original X-COM; and result in an experience that is bland and dumbed-down all around. A thin veneer of randomness to make the game feel 'difficult' while ultimately offering no challenge what-so-ever to the player. Visuals: The graphics are good, if not exceptional. Generally the sort of thing I would expect from a modern X-COM game. There are numerous graphical glitches where the animation will not match the results the games decides: The bullets visually missing the target when the game rolls a hit, or a character pointing his gun in entirely the wrong direction when firing. Sound: The audio is okay. I found the constant, repetitive voice-overs a bit grating, though some may like the guidance they offer. Some cutscenes don't obey the audio settings of the rest of the game, and will play at whatever volume they feel like, even if you've turned down the volume for the rest of the game. The music is much more forgettable that the original X-COM. You may have noticed that many of the issues I presented as negatives in this review are the result of unfavorable comparisons to a games that came out nearly two decades ago. Let me just repeat this, for emphasis: Nearly two decades ago, the original X-COM simulated the flight trajectory of each bullet path in 3D to determine if it hit anything along the way, or shot through an open window without breaking any glass. Both things that a modern game bearing the same name nearly two decades later was apparently unable to replicate. If this did not have the X-COM name, I would say it was a bog-standard average Tactical-RPG. As things are, I have to give it an F for effort and wasted potential. That said though, I can't really in good faith recommend you go and play the original, it really is showing its age after all these years, so I'll leave you with this as a conclusion: If you really liked the original years ago, don't bother with this, you'll just be disappointed; enjoy the memories you have, or play X-COM again on dosbox. If you've never played X-COM before, you might enjoy it, but I can't really recommend it.