December 2023

Lessons Learned from an XCOM First-Timer

When I look back at my gaming’s past, I don’t see many tactics games. While my earliest memories consist of sitting on a step-stool next to the family’s computer to watch my dad play Commandos on a CRT monitor, I was swept up into Maplestory and Halo and never turned back. At some point I began to associate tactics games, like XCOM, with a specific “type” of gamer. Those that reveled in the nitty-gritty of dice rolls and strict adherence to DnD protocol. It seemed to suck the fun out of turn-based combat. They also looked annoyingly difficult and niche. So, I poured another thousand hours into Diablo II. In late 2023 as I took on The Video Game Backlog (TM), I decided to boot-up XCOM: Enemy Unknown fully expecting to shut it off in frustration and move onto a more familiar genre.

Instead, I spent three days consecutively playing this game 8 hours a day.

My review of the game is here. In short, the gameplay loop is as addicting as a mobile game and the combat has the depth of a game much deeper. Base-building feels immediately impactful and aspirational. For how light the RPG elements are for your soldiers, it’s easy to get attached and invested. The story is ancillary (honestly, off-brand Mass Effect). But, the *gameplay.* It’s magic.

Unfortunately, this game is *difficult.* It doesn’t matter the difficulty, if you are new to tactics then it’s going to take an adjustment. So, let me unpack ~45 hours of experience.

Failure was (always) an option. This game isn’t meant to be beaten on the first run. Honestly, I personally don’t think you need to roll credits to have a fantastic experience playing it. A few hours into my first run I was struggling with losing council countries, so I turned to Reddit. Instead of clear strategic advice about management, the best advice I got was to experiment and try again. And again. So, I did. On my fourth game, Normal now feels trivial. None of my soldiers died and all of the council countries are intact. I adored the feeling of starting over. Every mistake crystal clear as I deftly avoid them. Only to make it a few hours further to encounter more of the unknown. It makes me giddy just thinking about optimizing a new run!

Use difficulty to find the space where you are pushed to use the mechanics and grow, but not too hard where you are confused and frustrated. I personally recommend vanilla Normal and then when you have enough experience, then Normal, Hardcore or higher difficulty without Hardcore and ideal play setups!

Mysterious as the dark side of the moon. What isn’t clear early on is… well everything. How to reduce panic, make money, which research to invest in, and how to setup your base. You will feel rushed, behind, and low on funds for the early game. Two major pieces of advice: satellites will take care of all of your problems and pay attention to the in-game date. Satellites simultaneously reduce panic and provide new income streams from council countries. The latter stacks with new bonuses when you have full region coverage. However, XCOM works in monthly increments. This is when you meet with the council and countries can potentially leave. So, you should always time your developments. Know how long it takes to excavate, make sure to build the new satellite nexus adjacent to another for the bonus, the time to build the nexus, and the time to manufacture the max number of satellites for your capacity. Lastly, time the *deployment* of the satellites to the last day of the month. Why? You never know when a mission will appear on a high panic country. So, you could waste a satellite for the panic reduction rather than using a mission to do so. Once you hit the mid-game you will be flush with cash, so being resource poor early is all worth it!

Go (use a guide) girl. This may be controversial advice, but I don’t think consulting forum posts or formal guides ruins the experience. There is enough randomness given your difficulty, starting region, and encounters. I personally used a guide on research and then tweaked it for my preferences. It helped me find who *I* was as player. Then, I watched a hardcore, insane run in XCOM: Enemy Within. What did I learn? The number one determining factor for success (and fun) in this game is your skill as a battle commander. If it’s possible to play hardcore, insane (the highest difficulty with perma-death) and exit every encounter with no or little injury, then you can beat Normal soundly. You can have zero panic across the board and optimized research and engineering development, but it doesn’t matter if you aren’t thinking tactically. So, learn from the videos and guides and put their thought-processes into action.

Also, in the past decade players are still undecided (or unanimous) that many facets of this game are balanced. Where to start and which perks to pick for your builds. There are counteless guides saying “They are all good. It all depends on your play style.” Which is so rare!

Adapt, adapt, adapt = Save scum heroine. Once you have a handle on how to deal with a particular enemy type, you will then encounter something that seems impossible to manage. You will be kept on your toes and forced to play differently. The key is to embrace the new mechanics. What do your new skills let you do? What about new armor or weapons? Experimenting will force you to grow as a strategist. Also, if you aren’t playing Ironman, then just save before a difficult encounter and play it over and over until you figure out how to beat it. To me, save scumming (the process of reloading saves instead of failing) is made for these types of games. The foundational logic that makes this game fun is getting better. Outsmarting your opponent and finishing an encounter unscathed. Learning new techniques and feeling intelligent. If you choose to use save scumming to just beat the game, then it isn’t fun. There isn’t a point. It’s like looking up the answers to a puzzle game. What’s the point? I hope that this balance will naturally place guides and replaying as a teaching tool rather than a way to beat the game without thinking. Who cares if you beat the game? Did you have fun?

Making my way downtown, walking *slow*. There is no time penalty for taking time during the mission or your turn, so use it. Go to the bathroom, get a snack. Or, turn off the game. As a tactics game, you do have to think through your moves. Also, because you aren’t punished for taking your time, then you can move slowly down the map. Ideally, you want to engage one pod at a time and minimize damage to your squad. You want to setup the right moment to capture aliens and keep UFOs intact. If it’s helpful, think of this game less as a tactics and more like puzzles. What are the right tiles to move to achieve my goal?