XCOM Enemy Within

XCOM: Enemy Within (XEW) it’s the only worthwhile expansion for X-com Enemy Unknown. Story-wise it doesn’t really add much to the experience, but mechanically-wise is where the content of this DLC shines. If you want to play XEW you will have to create a new save file because it’s basically a whole new game with its own executable. XEW adds 3 major things to the base game formula: The MECs, the mutants and the EXALT. Each one of these adds some extra story bits and context to the game but it’s nothing worth mentioning. ! The MECs and the mutants ! Early on in the new campaign you can gather some resources that let you improve your soldiers with robotic parts or mutations that give you abilities similar to the ones that the aliens use against you. The MECs are units that can’t use cover but have huge defense bonus and they are deadly at close range. It’s amazing when a mech soldier solos enemies that usually one-shots your other units. The mutants are soldiers that you genetically modify to jump higher, heal themself or move faster. This is the part of the expansion that I enjoyed more from XEW. The skills that you can unlock really help you to make certain classes good and the good classes from the base game become god-like! ! The EXALT ! This is a group of humans that sympathize with the aliens that actively work to sabotage your efforts to win the war against the aliens. These humans are powerful mutants with alien abilities that use human tactics. The EXALT adds some missions where you have to send a spy to infiltrate them in order to mitigate the negative effects that they have in your operation. This part of the DLC adds the biggest chunk of content that you are going to experience. You have new missions, new weapons and new maps related to the EXALT and they are really hard but also really fun. ! Other things ! XEW adds some re-balancing of the main game and some extra mechanics. I don’t want to spoil them for you but a couple of changes that you can find early in the game are: Firstly, you can only select from 3 out the starting regions to set up your base (you can unlock the rest later on). The other mechanic that I wanted to mention are the “medals” after doing well in missions, you can award medals to your soldiers. Each medal comes with some nice bonuses that really are worth pursuing. These changes will force you to rethink your strategies from the base game and help to make XCOM feel fresh and exciting. There are a couple of new...