XCOM: Welcome Back Commander

Two assault soldiers slowly creeped their way towards a crashed alien scout ship. Not an hour earlier, their interceptor took this ship down with three well placed missile hits, but not without being almost destroyed in the process. The alien ship itself was still mostly intact, but holes in it's hull showed where it had been punctured and damaged structures inside can be made out from their position. As the soldiers approached one of the breaches, they saw it - a being of pure energy coalescing into a solid, humanoid body. It spotted the approaching troops and hid next to the opening in the hull. With a clear view of the breach and the main door, the alien was in perfect position to ambush any who come in sight. Needing this fight to be over as swift as possible, one of the soldiers took a run towards the enemy, deftly outmaneuvering it's weapon fire, and dropped the alien with a shotgun shell to the chest. However, three more aliens appeared from nearby wreckage, one of which moved behind the soldier, ready to make the fatal shot, but was promptly taken out by the sniper that was laying in wait from afar.

That terrible bit of prose is one of many examples of why the turn-based strategy game XCOM: Enemy Unknown, and most of it's predecesors, great. As with the original games, the new XCOM is far from perfect, but what defines the franchise is atmosphere. There is a sense of urgency in the game and a final confrontation that you know is coming, and coming really soon. The combination of combat strategy, base and resource management, and troop deployment all adds to the immersion of running an organization that is the first and only defense against the alien invaders. The fact that you can also customize each of your soldiers' names and abilities tacks on an RPG element to the game as well. Renaming troops with your own name and those of good friends makes for great conversation in get-togethers.

XCOM is not a game for twitchy or impatient gamers. It is also not a game for those looking to just pop in for a bit and exit; unless "a bit" means "at least an hour". Rushing into a mission with poorly geared troops mid-game will likely lead to a disaster and that goes the same with rushing into a blind spot like our gung-ho soldier in the story above.

The learning curve is also a bit steep, especially if you skip the tutorial missions. The tutorial itself is quite lengthy and it is really designed to be played through once just to get the basics down (i.e. never leave your soldier outside cover). For those newer to strategy games, the many layers of gameplay can be a bit daunting, and can take a few playthroughs to get used to the important mechanics. Being a total noob myself, my first playthrough had me pitted against armoured shock troops while still using starter assault rifles. Fortunately, there are lower difficulty modes for those of us who needs the extra confidence that we are not total losers so that we can try at a more difficult setting.

Speaking of difficulty, there is also an ironman setting where you cannot save the game at all. Making every decision you make count, and every loss more painful.

The tactical mission is pretty straightforward, and much more intuitive than the original game. With only 2 actions you can take (move + shoot/item/move), and limited soldiers (4-6), you will need to make sure you don't do anything foolish. Cover is incredibly important as an unprotected soldier will almost certainly be lost if she ends her turn flanked by a newly revealed alien. At no point will your troops be invincible, and even weak aliens can pose a threat. What I miss from the old games are collapsable buildings. While the environment is mostly destructable in the new game, you can't bring down a building on the enemy; then again, they can't do it to you either.

There is a heavy reliance on randomness in the game. As frustrating as it can be, like missing a 100% chance shot, it is also what makes the game so exciting. It also adds to the game's replayability. Not every new game will play out as you expect and not every mission will turn out the way it was before, even when the map is the same or if it is the same mission from a previous saved game. Terror missions, UFO sightings, abduction missions are also randomly generated and it keeps you on your toes. Sure, you can plan out your progress as best you can, but chances are also just as good that only difficult missions appear but your best soldiers are recovering from being wounded.
The new game's graphical upgrade over the original from almost 20 years ago is very much welcome, but introduces a lot of odd glitches that range from laughable (shooting something behind a wall) to frustrating (the top of an enemy ship hinders sight for movement). Fortunately, the glitches do not occur often enough to detract from the game itself and I have yet to encounter graphical problems anywhere else in the game.

The game also forces you to make tough decisions. Do you blow all your money and resources to build the alien containment this month or use the money to make more laser rifles and armour for the troops? Do you send troops to a high panic location or one that will give you more engineers to allow you to make upgrades? Even troop deployment can be a challenge. Having 6-8 highly trained and experienced soldiers can be great, but unless they have decent replacements, any of them being lost will make later missions all that much harder.

Story cutscenes are well done and do add to the immersion of the game. As generic as characters are, they are well characterized generic characters. I do enjoy some of the dialogue they offer that looks into your support cast's personality. While praising the effectiveness of the head of the research team, I would keep a good distance from her as she has been labeled to be an "effective" interrogator. I'd probably make sure I keep my sidearm handy as well.

The story goes at your pace, but the difficulty ramp up is not dependent on that. Neither is it dependent on how advanced your XCOM team is. It is refreshing to know that aliens will not wait for you to develop laser weapons before deploying troops that will take 3 of your soldiers to take down.

XCOM: Enemy Unknown is very much a worthy successor to the classic games from two decades ago. It is certainly a huge feat for a game to bring back the immersiveness and atmostphere of the original games without actually WANTING those games to be back. It is also a great statement to make - who'd have thought turn based strategy still had a place in gaming for this generation?

The rest of the team has fanned out and covered the area around the store. Two of the alien "mutons" - heavy assault units - lay dead behind the cash counter but they know there are more. An eye up top is needed to provide cover for the rest of the block. The sniper deploys the grappling hook to the roof and lands deftly up on top; only to find 3 more mutons waiting. They fan out with two dropping to ground level while the remaining muton takes aim and fires. The squad takes defensive positions as the signal from the sniper turns to static after a brief yell of pain.

Diablo 3 Review: Pure. Mindless. Fun

Basically, I can end this review right there at the title. As a TLDR statement, that's as concise as it can get. But then again, that might just be an excuse to stop typing and play more. To be completely honest, this review is weeks overdue simply because I've been playing. It's that much fun. 


At a glance though, it's hard to see what makes the game fun. It's a point and click hack and slasher game with really not that much complexity to gameplay and only one point of view and two zoom modes. You point the mouse and left click an area, your character moves there. If a monster happens to be where you clicked, you bash it on the head. Or zap/shoot it.  There are also so few abilities - seven including the health potion - that it is entirely possible to just play with just the mouse, leaving your other hand free to do other things...like....eating chips. 


The Diablo franchise has also always been a game of grinds. You are encouraged to keep fighting through the same areas over and over to improve your character. Can't beat the next boss in the next area? Kill the one you just beat over and over and hope for some better gear to drop. The process will get you enough gear or levels so that the next stage will be easier and you can move on. Yes, many games tend to fail because of how grindy it is, but Diablo seems to be a game that thrives on it. I really hate grinds in games, but I just ended my most recent farming run so I can type up this post. 


What makes the Diablo grind so tolerable is a combination of small things. For starters, there are monsters to fight almost everywhere. In a given map, you can count on a group of them waiting just around the next corner. There will always be the threat of your character dying if you are not careful as long as you play through an appropriately challenging area. 


The randomness in the game also keeps everything fresh. Maps have some parts that are randomly generated and monsters are also randomly placed in there. That room of that dungeon you just farmed may no longer be there and may suddenly contain elite monsters hell bent to farm you for loot. Yes, this is also probably one of the more frustrating things in the game. The random monster generator can give you four that each shoots lasers, leaves fire trails, spits fire, and shields itself and there's nothing you can do but scream and whine while you reload your game.


But with the randomness comes the desire to try to beat whatever the game throws at you and the ability system of Diablo 3 allows you to costumize how you play. As I mentioned earlier, there are only 7 ability buttons in the game, one of which is reserved for the health potion, but there are a LOT of abilities for each character. And each ability comes with several runes that will add some effect or change how that ability works. By the time you hit level 60, you will have several options on how to play the game. Experimenting with builds and gear sets is also part of what makes the grind fun because now you are benchmarking yourself. Does the build work or feel better than the last one? No? Then switch up a few things to see if you can make it work. 


Co-op games also make the grind bearable by being able to share the misery with others. People in your friends list can join your games at any time and it makes the encounters have they difficulty increased appropriately. Yes, this means that people will need to work together to beat some fights. As expected, joining a public game with strangers is far less satisfying than working with friends that have access to voice communications like Ventrilo or Skype or cans tied with really long string. 


The last thing that makes the grind fun is the game's simplicity. Every action you do has some reaction. Be it moving from one place to another or hitting a monster so hard, pieces start flying off screen. There is that instant gratification factor in the game of just signing on and beating on monsters or finishing quests that, ironically, may make you forget the time of day. Even more ironically, Diablo may not be a game for you if you only have an hour or so of play time. 


The auction house adds yet another level of instant gratification where you can help alleviate  the game's random loot system. With gold relatively easy to make, and millions of people in the game, its not too difficult to find some bargains. Whether that will be true when the Real Money Auction House hits, that will be left to be seen. 


One of the biggest flaws of the game is partly one of it's strengths in that Diablo 3 is a purely online game. If you do not have a BattleNet account, you cannot play. If the BattleNet servers go down, you cannot play. There's no offline mode for those who don't really care too much about the online aspects of the game. This could not have been more apparent than launch day where literally millions of people were trying to log on at the same time. And no, I waited it out and everything has been working well since then. But I would have love to have some kind of way I can play offline even if it means that gear and characters don't carry over. 


With all that said, Diablo 3 is still not a game for everybody. As enjoyable as it is, the game is still a grind and not many really care for that. The difficulty levels can also discourage some players. Normal and Nightmare modes can be done through some brute force, but Hell and Inferno mode are deadly. I've personally hit a wall with Inferno mode and my time has been spent trying to find a way I can beat encounters. It is a wall that has had me thinking that perhaps the game has beaten me. Maybe I just need a few more hours to work out my build. Or a few days. 


Time for more Diablo 3 to find out then. 


Highlights

• The graphics are simply amazing! There is quite a lot of detail in the game world and it's a shame that the isometric view zoom level does not do it too much justice. 
• Whimsyville. Google or Bing it. I suppose Yahoo works too. 
• Co-op. It really is the best way to play. 
• Auction house has revealed me to be a closet bargain shopper. Nothing like digging through the dollar box to find a good deal on an armour set. 
• Inferno mode makes me want to kick a kitten. But it is very, VERY satisfying when progress is being made. I meant Inferno mode and not kicking kittens.