XCOM: Enemy Unknown - 9 reasons we’re excited to tactically frag some aliens

When those no-good aliens invade the entire planet, you’ve got to fight back with attrition. The lengthy single-player campaign lets you plot out your tactical advance around the globe, offering up the choice of mission selection with a wide variety of objectives and complexities. That means that the battleground settings, enemy types, and goals will constantly keep you on your toes. On top of the calculated reclamation of humanity's turf, you’ll be treated to various in- and out-of-match cutscenes, giving the ruthless alien aggression real context.

Tactical strategy games are at their best when you really care, from a self-invented narrative standpoint, whether your soldiers live or die. What better way to do that than having full control over their specialties, appearances, and names? The names part is key: Christening your squadmates after family and friends will have you screaming in agony over their untimely (and nigh inevitable) deaths, while keeping the labels within a theme will spice up each round with some unintentional humor, thanks to randomly generated nicknames. The best thing to come from our elite team of presidentially named warriors says it all: The valiant deeds of Thomas “Werewolf” Jefferson will forever be remembered in our hearts.

Multiplayer also opens up the floor to those extraterrestrial buggers, letting you combine humans and aliens into any configuration that the adjustable point tally will allow. Getting to play as the story mode’s sworn enemies is a hoot--you haven’t lived until you’ve battered in a Sectoid’s face with the mauling fists of a Muton, or zipped around the map as the unfortunately named, jetpack-toting Floater. The pièce de résistance: Impregnating a hapless, near-death soldier with Chryssalid larvae, then cringing in horrified delight as he bursts into a spiny, alien newborn.

Mind over matter, as they say--or in this case, psyche-severing brain powers over ordinary bullets. As previous XCOM: Enemy Unknown trailers have so gloriously demonstrated, psionic soldiers will be a huge boon to the human forces over the course of XCOM’s campaign (and multiplayer modes, at that). Hypnotizing an alien into stunned shock, taking over the feeble intellect of a Sectoid, or using mind control to force a high-ranking officer to idiotically drop a grenade at his feet--all of these wonderful, wonderful things are possible (and probable) when you’ve got psychic powers on your side.

We’ve said it before in our previous XCOM: Enemy Unknown hands-on preview, but it bears repeating: Overwatch stands to change tiled, turn-based strategy games as we now know them. If you’re unsure of what to do next, or you want to prepare for whatever comes your way without going on the complete defensive, simply activate Overwatch. This tells your soldier to sit tight; if they see any movement from their current position, they’ll automatically blast the enemy moving target with reduced accuracy. It’s the perfect way to hedge your strategic bets, and when you want to hunker down without wasting a turn, Overwatch will be your best friend.

It might’ve been before your time (and hey, some of us are right there with you)--but those that remember the original X-COM: UFO Defense hold it in incredibly high esteem. We can think of no better developer to helm a strategy revival than Firaxis Games, which worked wonders with the Civilization franchise. It turned this 1994 DOS franchise into an accessible (and sleek) sci-fi wargame, and that’s about as great a reboot as we can ask for.

One of the standout segments of the original UFO Defense actually took place outside of the battles, where alien autopsies and world travel enabled better weapons and enemy intelligence. That kind of tactical research is back in a big way for Enemy Unknown, which has you in command of an entire compound of soldiers and scientists ready to investigate whatever you so wish. Deciding whether we want to cut up an imprisoned alien specimen or upgrade our weaponry using extraterrestrial tech is truly the roleplaying spice of XCOM life.

Those are the reasons we’re pumped for the aliens’ arrival--but there’s plenty more to XCOM: Enemy Unknown that we’ve still to uncover. If you’re also excited for this tactical turn-based shooter, let us know in the comments what about it has you riled up--just don’t say you’re looking forward to getting probed.

To kick off this week-long parade of excitement for 2012 games, we humbly request that you read the the Top 7... most incredibly exciting games still coming out this holiday season and the Top 7... most badass game characters of the generation.