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<title>Andrew Croftcheck</title>
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<h1 class="heading">Andrew Croftcheck</h1>
<h3>Technical Writer. Storyteller. Wordsmith.</h3>
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<h2>Sample Two: Review of <span class="underline">XCOM: Enemy Within</span></h2>
<p><span class="underline">XCOM: Enemy Within</span> is an expansion pack for <span class="underline">XCOM: Enemy Unknown</span>, both developed by Firaxis. <span class="underline">Enemy Within</span > has been released as a standalone game for consoles, and a downloadable expansion for PC.</p>
<p><span class="underline">Enemy Within</span> introduces a host of new upgrades to the base game, <span class="underline">Enemy Unknown</span>. The story, alas, was not one of the upgrades. The general framework has remained the same: aliens have invaded, and the player is in control of XCOM, the global military organization responsible for responding to the alien threat. There are some small additions to the basic story, such as EXALT (see below) and a string of missions that gives some more grounding to the psionic humans being a target of the aliens, but on the whole the story is fundamentally the same as it was in <span class="underline">Enemy Unknown</span>. As someone who very much enjoys a strong narrative in a game, this was disappointing to me, but frankly, XCOM isn't known for its story. Its turn-based tactical gameplay has always been its strong point, and in this, <span class="underline">Enemy Within</span> does not disappoint.</p>
<p>The EXALT storyline is an interesting one that I wish Firaxis would have explored further. Basically, EXALT is a bunch of bankers and white-collar folks that sympathize with the aliens and would rather ally with them than fight them off. As such, they're not on terribly good terms with XCOM. They'll sabotage your research projects, and steal funds from you, setting back the timelines. Yet, the most fun and challenging part of EXALT is that they have access to the same classes you do. Being hit from two different rockets on one turn isn't out of the question on the EXALT missions. Said missions will require you to send an Operative in—basically, any soldier except for a Heavy or a MEC. They have no armor, a pistol, and an item (or two, if you've got Tactical Rigging from the Foundry). After a week or two, they will have completed their mission, and need an extraction from you. You can either ignore it, and lose the operative, or send in a team to get them out. This mission could be just a simple "extract, while activating a couple of items" or a "defend this area against all of the reinforcements EXALT throws at you." Losing the operative in these missions results in a failure, so linking up with them is crucial, as they won't have any armor and EXALT will soon get laser weaponry and genetic modifications to match you, though I've thankfully yet to see an EXALT MEC.</p>
<p>The addition of Meld, a new resource that funds genetic modifications and MEC creation, mixes up the gameplay in a vastly satisfying manner. Where in <span class="underline">Enemy Unknown</span> a standard operation would be "move up to full cover, Overwatch" for the entire squad, doing so in <span class="underline">Enemy Within</span> will leave you with a vast scarcity of Meld. On most missions after Meld is introduced, there will be two canisters of it on any given map. Each of these canisters will have its own self-destruct timer. If you don't reach the canister and activate it before that timer runs out, the Meld is lost. This push to acquire the new resource—and thus MECs or genetically modified soldiers—forces you to play more aggressively, and court more danger from activating more pods of enemies. The price of many of the more useful applications of Meld makes it such that you won't want to waste any opportunities to collect the resource. Later on, some enemies will give you Meld upon their defeat, but it isn't enough to rely on. </p>
<p>MECs, or Mechanized Exoskeleton Cybersuits, are just what they sound like: Mechs. Slightly taller than a Muton Berserker (and able to punch harder than one), a MEC requires a MEC Trooper. A MEC Trooper is a new class in <span class="underline">Enemy Within</span>, with the distinct difference that you choose which soldiers become MEC Troopers. It will replace their old class (giving the soldier a class-specific passive instead), and provide them with a new skill tree designed for MECs. Each MEC can also be upgraded with its own loadout, such as choosing between a flamethrower or a fist, or healing spray or a grenade launcher. The MEC will also be able to upgraded, alongside the research for your smaller troops. This includes both weaponry and armor. They're a major asset to a good Commander.</p>
<p>The new tactical possibilities opened up by MECs and genetic modifications are also great mixers to the familiar <span class="underline">Enemy Unknown</span> formula. MECs are early game tanks, having significantly more health than any of your other soldiers, and having the ability to destroy most cover (at the expense of most of their ammo). Getting a MEC requires a substantial amount of Meld, and a soldier of at least Squaddie rank. This soldier will go into surgery for a few days and have his or her limbs replaced with a robotic body. MECs cannot be genetically modified or psionic, but when you can use a railgun or a particle cannon, do you really need to be psionic?</p>
<p>Genetic modifications are a much more subtle change to your soldiers, albeit a creepier one. The modifications range from being able to automatically retaliate against psionic attacks to going invisible when entering full cover from a position the enemy didn't have line of sight to, and most of them are rather useful. It takes a few days and some Meld (the amount is dependent on the modification), and then the soldier in question is ready to go, with the only outward difference being that their armor is now sleeveless. These modifications are typically more subtle than having a massive robot soldier stomp about punching aliens, but that doesn't mean they're less useful. Each non-MEC soldier can have one modification each for their brain, eyes, chest, skin, and legs. These can be switched for the other option at a cost. Modifications are unlocked by autopsying and interrogating aliens.</p>
<p>Before you start to thinking that these new additions will make the game easier—which late-game XCOM already suffered from—I should mention that I encountered many, many more missions in <span class="underline">Enemy Within</span> than in <span class="underline">Enemy Unknown</span>. It wasn't uncommon for me to have three or four missions in the span of a single in-game week. You'll get more resources, but you'll also end up straining your reserves if you don't play very well. Suddenly a soldier being injured for 10 days means that he's likely to miss two or three missions, at least. It also makes getting a promoted soldier as a reward much more enticing now, as the added firepower could mean the difference between a squad of mostly rookies going out and a squad mostly experienced troops. Unfortunately, rushing Engineers is still the way to go to manage panic effectively.</p>
<p>Of course, all of these new additions wouldn't mean much without new enemies. In addition to EXALT, the aliens get a Mechtoid—a Sectoid put into an alien MEC—and Seekers: flying, invisible enemies that will appear next to a soldier and strangle them. The Mechtoids are dangerous for obvious reasons: they've got a lot of health and a lot of firepower. They can also have a Sectoid Mind Merge with them to grant a Psi Shield, which gives some bonus health and halves damage. Killing the Mind Merging Sectoid will eliminate the shield, but not the Mechtoid (good try, though!).They'll usually start to appear around the time Cyberdiscs do.</p>
<p>Seekers are a bit more subtle. A Seeker strangling your sniper suddenly means that not only do you not have that sniper for that turn, but said sniper is also losing two health per turn, and will be next to useless on the turn you free her. They travel in pairs, and typically go invisible upon being activated. Later in the game, when your Aim is good enough that Overwatch hits regularly, and you've got items and armor that stop strangulation from being an issue, Seekers are less dangerous than they are annoying. Hunting a single invisible Seeker down to end a mission is a tedious chore, and they appear fairly early in the game.</p>
<p>There were also other balance tweaks, with some abilities being changed in what they do or where they're located, about a dozen total new items and Foundry projects, and some under the hood things. Soldiers can now speak in their native tongues, and the player can turn off the voiceovers from Dr. Vahlen and Dr. Shen. Firaxis also added in some new Second Wave features, such as allowing some aliens a chance to fire at your soldiers upon being activated, or making soldiers' training trees (except MECs) random. Medals have also been added, with five different medals available for awarding to soldiers, each giving small bonuses. Perhaps most importantly, there have also been a host of new maps added to the rotation, which helps immensely in keeping combat fresh, including two unique maps for special missions: Site Recon and Base Defense.</p>
<p>The XCOM Base Defense mission puts you in control of a random squad of your soldiers, equipped with whatever they've got on in the barracks at the time, and makes you hold off waves of enemies alongside XCOM Base Security (rookies with Assault Rifles, Frag Grenades, and basic armor). The player gets reinforcements periodically, with more base security and a squad member or two coming through each time. You'll have aliens coming at you from all directions, and potentially missing the squad member you need most. I found the mission to be very fun and a good challenge. It also made a good deal of sense that the aliens would, at some point, assault the single base of the organization beating them up around the world. </p>
<p>Where the Base Defense mission was a frantic gun battle to protect home, Site Recon is a slow-maturing mission that builds to a frenzied crescendo by the end. In order to avoid spoiling it—as I believe that it's the most fun if you don't know exactly what to expect—I'll just say that you should have troops that can either move very quickly, or can shoot from very far away. Firaxis nailed it for tension on this mission. At the start, you can't quite find an alien to kill, and so you're creeping along, just waiting for the other shoe to drop. Once the enemies have appeared, the terror of the mission becomes apparent… and then ratcheted up a few notches once the core of the mission is laid bare. I barely managed to get out with two survivors on my first try of it, and that was with aliens attacking me from all directions as I rushed madly for the extraction. I would absolutely love for Firaxis to make more of these missions.</p>
<p>As a wrap-up, <span class="underline">XCOM: Enemy Within</span> is a brilliant expansion to an already great game. After pouring a couple hundred hours into <span class="underline">Enemy Unknown</span>, I thought I'd be ready for anything the expansion had to throw at me. I am glad to say, 60 hours of <span class="underline">Enemy Within</span> later, that there are still new things to learn and tricks to master. If you liked <span class="underline">Enemy Unknown</span>, get <span class="underline">Enemy Within</span>. If you like turn-based tactical games, get <span class="underline">Enemy Within</span>. Quite frankly, get <span class="underline">Enemy Within</span>. Period.</p>
<p>9.0/10</p>
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