Elf Blood

Hullo all, hope you’re doing well! Ah, it’s the weekend again, and everything is groovy; I’m picking up pace with Lemon Candies again, and I’ve finally managed to get down a start to my novel that I’m happy with. Only took me eight friggin tries! Now all I need to do is conquer this chronic singleness and everything will be sunshine and rainbows! That’s what happens when you get in a relationship, right?

*cough* Anyhoo, when I’ve not been exploring Pandora in the new DLC scenario for Borderlands 2 (which is well worth a look), I’ve been playing UFO: Enemy Unknown. Words cannot express how freakin awesome (and, at times, INTENSELY FRUSTRATING) this game is.

Now, I have only vague memories of the original XCOM games, but I have played a lot of UFO: Afterlight, often touted as the Spiritual Successor to the XCOM series and it’s one of my favourite games ever. Turn-based tactics is a genre I particularly enjoy, so you can imagine my excitement when I learned that Firaxis, the people behind Civilisation, were developing the series reboot.

I must say, the execution has been incredibly enjoyable, though not without its flaws. The gameplay is everything I’d hoped it would be, with enough variation in enemy units, tactical response, and terrain to keep each encounter interesting and exciting. A huge selling point is the intense atmosphere of the combat, which is incredibly creepy and befitting of an alien invasion. Sure, you might get a bit cocky and blasé with the weaker enemies, but you’ll always be on the edge of your seat as you push forward into the darkness… And hear weird groaning and grumbling noises in the distance. That’s not flavour: That’s definitely something waiting to shoot you… Or eat you.

Of course, there’s a couple of niggles. First off being the classic Firaxis Cheating Bastard AI. Okay, so my grasp on probability tells me that in the space of three attempts, a 67% chance event does not have to go off. But it certainly FEELS like chances are being misrepresented. Whether or not this is an actual problem, however, is up for debate. My second, and admittedly final gripe, concerns the somewhat wobbly mouse controls. It gets intensely frustrating trying to target a grenade when it repeatedly snaps between two locations that aren’t the tile you want to hit.

The game more than makes up for these minor complaints, however. If you’re looking for an effective way to waste your time in an incredibly fun manner, I can highly recommend XCOM: Enemy Unknown! There’s nothing better than the feeling you get from executing a perfect distraction and flanking pincer attack. WITH LASERS!

M.