E3 2011 announced the resumption of one of the most beloved game series in history. Starting with UFO: Enemy Unknown, the X-COM series have created a tactical strategy gaming legend. Beginning in 1994, the amazingly original turn-based strategy saga by Mythos Games was renewed by MicroProse in 1995 with X-COM: Terror From the Deep while 1997 Mythos Games brought a much better improvement as X-COM: Apocalypse proved a great success. After that, hell broke loose as MicroProse stuck the X-COM label on X-COM: Interceptor, a poor space combat simulator that proved a major flop.

Looking back, X-COM’s success as a strategy game looks natural. What was it about? Just you and a group of nerdy researchers looking into the alarmingly increasing UFO sightings. You know that they can mean only one thing: the aliens plan an invasion. Convincing some governments that you are right, you get funding for a base but after this initial setup, it’s up to you to prove that you deserve more. You do that by tracking alien ships and, technology permitting, engage them in combat and grounding them.

Then, the fun part begins in the form of awesome turn-based combat rounds. You send your ground squads in to eliminate aliens and retrieve their technology. The atmosphere of the combat mode is terrifyingly gritty. You only see the aliens as they come into your visual range, but in the meantime you only hear their creepy wailing and the screams of any unfortunate civilians in the area. You must kill the aliens and protect civilians and you must do that before the aliens escape the crash site (if they do that, they will start infiltrating the population). This will result in the country becoming upset with you and giving you less money, but will also mean that the country will get more infiltrated and run the risk that eventually it will stop backing your project completely. Killing civilians also tends to make governments nervous, while using powerful explosives to raze a crash site results in the loss of precious technology.

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