There are some games that I really like, but totally suck at. For instance, I think Red Orchestra 2/ Rising
Storm is great, yet I regularly get torn to pieces playing it. Another is XCOM: Enemy Unknown.
I’ve never played the old XCOM games, so I can’t compare EU
to the classic offers; all I know is that it’s terribly fun. Never before had I played a turn-based
tactical game, apart from a Warhammer 40K: Chaos Gate demo that game with a PC
Gamer disc years ago. Come to think of
it, though, I played that thing a few times, thought it was great. Maybe I’ve been missing out on an entire
genre all these years? Whoa.
Anyway, after I got home from my gig last night, I decided
to play some XCOM. I loaded up my last
save game, and I found myself with my squad facing off against the alien menace
at a gas station. Immediately, I positioned my sniper, a veteran of a number of
skirmishes, behind a pillar for full coverage.
I put my only rookie behind a car, with my support beside him. I positioned my heavy behind another car and
swung my assault soldier, the grizzled Avery Crane, herself my oldest surviving
soldier over to a flank on the left.
The battle actually proceeded well. Avery was suppressed for a time, forcing me
to pull her back, but my sniper, Hart, was able to easily wipe out the
aggressor. My heavy, Frank, tore a few
aliens to pieces with a well placed rocket.
Macree, my support however was gravely wounded, when a muton in a raised
position managed to destroy Macree’s cover and deliver a nearly fatal
blow. Luckily, I was able to eliminate
the threat before he bled out and get him to safety. My secondary heavy, Long, received a
promotion due to performance, though Macree and Avery were both heavily
wounded. They would both be out of the
duty pool for some time.
However, due to the successful completion of the mission, India ’s panic
was reduced by 3. Well worth it,
especially considering that I lost no soldiers.
Some time passed and an alien abduction was reported, so I assembled
a squad of available troops, including a rookie, a veteran of only a single
battle, and two snipers, to assault an alien craft.
We landed in a wooded area and moved towards the UFO. There was no full cover, so I put my snipers
on the wings and slowly moved my troops behind rocks and trees, setting them in
overwatch.
Contact.
A group of mutons and a cyberdisc poured out of the
craft. Hart fired on the cyberdisc, and
it retreated. Frank suppressed a muton,
and my other sniper, Parr, managed to kill the second muton with help from my
support. That left the one muton
left. I ordered the rookie, who carried
the stun weapon forward and incapacitated the alien. He was then pulled back.
Instantly, the cyberdisc returned with more mutons, a muton
elite, and drones. The cyberdisc felled
Parr immediately. The rookie panicked,
and fired wildly, which caused my other soldiers, apart from Hart to panic as
well. In the ensuing fracas I lost three
soldiers before I was able to neutralize the aliens. Having no choice but to push forward, I
entered the UFO with Hart, Long, and Frank.
The team survived three further assaults, narrowly evading death each
time.
Finally, I made it to the center of the craft. I positioned Hart in the rear,
overwatching. I had Long and Frank on
each side of a door. Frank activated it,
opening the force-field barrier. Without
warning, a new alien sent a psychic blast at Frank, killing him instantly. The alien’s comrade then mind controlled
Long.
Hart hunkered down for a bit, hoping the mind control would
wear off. No luck. With regret, knowing it would haunt her for
the rest of her life, I ordered Hart to put down Long. Grim-faced, Hart peered down the sight of her
laser rife, and squeezed the trigger.
Long dropped immediately, mercifully.
One of the aliens moved out of the adjoining room and
entered the main area. Hart, raging,
fired a wild round that went barely wide.
With a volcanic fury, she vengefully resighted the alien and drilled the
alien’s skull, and it collapsed in a broken heap.
One left.
Hart crouched down behind cover, reloading. The last alien swept out. Merciless, the bloodthirsty creature sent a
mind blast at my last soldier. Already weary
and hurting from the extended firefights and the trauma of seeing friends die,
and in one case, at her own hand, she could not survive the assault. Bloodied and broken, her body fell to the
ground, her last gasp being one of defiance.
The dropship returned to base empty.
What a great game.
