Skip to main content
GamesRadar+ GamesRadar+ The Games, Movies, TV & Comics You Love
UK EditionUK US EditionUS CA EditionCanada AU EditionAustralia
Sign in
  • View Profile
  • Sign out
  • Games
    • Game Insights
      • Games News
      • Games Features
      • Games Reviews
      • Games Guides
      • The Big Preview
      • On The Radar
      • Indie Spotlight
      • Future Games Show
      • Golden Joystick Awards
    • Genres
      • Action Games
      • RPGs
      • Action RPGs
      • Adventure Games
      • Third Person Shooters
      • FPS Games
    • Platforms
      • PS5
      • Xbox Series X
      • PC
      • Nintendo Switch
      • Nintendo Switch 2
      • Tabletop Gaming
    • Franchises
      • Grand Theft Auto
      • Pokemon
      • Assassin's Creed
      • Monster Hunter
      • Fortnite
      • Cyberpunk
      • Red Dead
      • The Elder Scrolls
      • The Sims
  • Entertainment
    • TV Shows
      • TV News
      • TV Reviews
      • Anime Shows
      • Sci-Fi Shows
      • Superhero Shows
      • Animated Shows
      • Marvel TV Shows
      • Star Wars TV Shows
      • DC TV Shows
    • Movies
      • Movie News
      • Movie Reviews
      • Big Screen Spotlight
      • Superhero Movies
      • Action Movies
      • Anime Movies
      • Sci-Fi Movies
      • Horror Movies
      • Marvel Movies
      • DC Movies
    • Streaming
      • Apple TV Plus
      • Disney Plus
      • Netflix
      • HBO
      • Amazon Prime Video
      • Hulu
    • Comics
      • Marvel Comics
      • DC Comics
    • Toys & Collectibles
    • Lego
    • Dungeons and Dragons
    • Merch
  • Hardware
    • Insights
      • Hardware News
      • Hardware Reviews
      • Hardware Features
    • Computing
      • Desktop PCs
      • Laptops
      • Handhelds
    • Peripherals
      • Headsets & Headphones
      • TVs & Monitors
      • Gaming Mice
      • Gaming Keyboards
      • Gaming Chairs
      • Speakers & Audio
    • Accessories & Tech
      • Gaming Controllers
      • Tech
      • SSDs & Hard Drives
      • VR
      • Accessories
      • Retro
  • Deals
    • Game Deals
    • Tech Deals
    • TV Deals
    • Buying Guides
  • Video
  • Newsletters
    • Quizzes
    • About Us
    • How to pitch to us
    • How we score
    • Newsarama
    • Retro Gamer
    • Total Film
Total Film
  • home
  • Games
    • View Games
      • Games News
      • Games Features
      • Games Reviews
      • Games Guides
      • The Big Preview
      • On The Radar
      • Indie Spotlight
      • Future Games Show
      • Golden Joystick Awards
      • Action Games
      • RPGs
      • Action RPGs
      • Adventure Games
      • Third Person Shooters
      • FPS Games
    • Platforms
      • View Platforms
      • PS5
      • Xbox Series X
      • PC
      • Nintendo Switch
      • Nintendo Switch 2
      • Tabletop Gaming
      • Grand Theft Auto
      • Pokemon
      • Assassin's Creed
      • Monster Hunter
      • Fortnite
      • Cyberpunk
      • Red Dead
      • The Elder Scrolls
      • The Sims
  • Entertainment
    • View Entertainment
    • TV Shows
      • View TV Shows
      • TV News
      • TV Reviews
      • Anime Shows
      • Sci-Fi Shows
      • Superhero Shows
      • Animated Shows
      • Marvel TV Shows
      • Star Wars TV Shows
      • DC TV Shows
    • Movies
      • View Movies
      • Movie News
      • Movie Reviews
      • Big Screen Spotlight
      • Superhero Movies
      • Action Movies
      • Anime Movies
      • Sci-Fi Movies
      • Horror Movies
      • Marvel Movies
      • DC Movies
    • Streaming
      • View Streaming
      • Apple TV Plus
      • Disney Plus
      • Netflix
      • HBO
      • Amazon Prime Video
      • Hulu
    • Comics
      • View Comics
      • Marvel Comics
      • DC Comics
    • Toys & Collectibles
    • Lego
    • Dungeons and Dragons
    • Merch
  • Hardware
    • View Hardware
      • Hardware News
      • Hardware Reviews
      • Hardware Features
      • Desktop PCs
      • Laptops
      • Handhelds
    • Peripherals
      • View Peripherals
      • Headsets & Headphones
      • TVs & Monitors
      • Gaming Mice
      • Gaming Keyboards
      • Gaming Chairs
      • Speakers & Audio
      • Gaming Controllers
      • Tech
      • SSDs & Hard Drives
      • VR
      • Accessories
      • Retro
  • Deals
    • View Deals
    • Game Deals
    • Tech Deals
    • TV Deals
    • Buying Guides
  • Video
  • Newsletters
    • Quizzes
    • About Us
    • How to pitch to us
    • How we score
    • Newsarama
    • Retro Gamer
    • Total Film
Total Film
Gaming Magazines
Gaming Magazines
Why subscribe?
  • Subscribe from just £3
  • Takes you closer to the games, movies and TV you love
  • Try a single issue or save on a subscription
  • Issues delivered straight to your door or device
From$12
Subscribe now
Don't miss these
Best of 2025: Assassin's Creed Shadows
Assassin's Creed "We are hard to beat": 9 months since Assassin's Creed Shadows, its associate director looks back on what makes this RPG the best in series history
The Outer Worlds 2 screenshot showing companion Aza standing before a moon that hangs in the sky. GamesRadar+'s Best of 2025 logo sits in the top right-hand corner of the image
RPGs Obsidian hopes to stand alongside CD Projekt and Larian by making "best-in-class" reactive RPGs, says The Outer Worlds 2 director: "I don't know if we're there yet, but I'd love to get there"
Artwork of Total War: Warhammer 40,000 showing a Space Marine, Orc, and Aeldar fighting on top of a mound of corpses
Total War Total War: Warhammer 40,000 big preview: Inside Creative Assembly's ambition to develop "the seminal Warhammer 40K game"
Exodus
RPGs Mass Effect veteran's Mass Effect-style sci-fi RPG sure looks a lot like Mass Effect in its new trailer
An RPG party strolls through a whimsically colorful fantasy landscape.
RPGs Clair Obscur: Expedition 33's new DLC bosses and nerfs are forcing players to retool their months-old endgame builds
Upcoming Xbox Series X games header image featuring State of Decay 3, Fable 4, The Outer Worlds 2, and South of Midnight
FPS Games Upcoming Xbox Series X games for 2025 and beyond
Parallelmon in Digimon Story: Time Stranger
JRPGs Digimon Story: Time Stranger DLC features a deep cut from the manga's early years that fans have wanted to see for ages, and it arrives in just a few days
Avatar: Fire and Ash
Sci-Fi Movies Avatar: Fire and Ash producer seems to hint at unlikely alliance between Jake Sully and Quaritch, as Oona Chaplin's more villainous Varang takes on the Na'vi: "It's not as clear cut and dry for him"
Upcoming PC games 2025 header imagine featuring InZoi / Split Fiction / Elden Ring: Nightreign / Dune: Awakening
PC Gaming Upcoming PC games: New PC games for 2025 and beyond
Helldivers 2 Killzone Legendary Warbond helldiver in Helghast sniper armour
Third Person Shooters Helldivers 2 High Command thinks we suck on Magma Planets, but don't worry, at least the Killzone collab is returning
Schism fights monsters in Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era - with the GamesRadar+ Big Preview frame
Strategy Games I've been waiting 10 years for Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era, so here's the five biggest updates I'm already loving, and the development choices behind them
Warhammer 40K: Dark Heresy screenshot showing a group investigating a crime scene where a body lays on the ground and green lights shine on it
RPGs If Baldur's Gate 3 and Pentiment were blasted into space, you'd get Warhammer 40K: Dark Heresy – and after checking it out for an hour, I couldn't have plucked a better RPG from my dreams
Helldivers 2 soldier with an explosion reflecting in their visor
Third Person Shooters As if Hellmire wasn't fiery enough, Helldivers 2 just added magma planets so you can 'accidentally' push friends into lava pools: "Arrowhead spent so long cooking they overheated the planet"
Alien: Isolation
Horror Games Creative Assembly wanted to make Alien: Isolation 2 for years, but Disney buying Fox is what "made it a lot more possible," says former dev
Helldivers 2
Third Person Shooters Helldivers 2 patch brings balance changes and bug fixes, but fans are devastated that "Factory Striders will no longer be launched to sky erratically" now: "Worst change ever"
Trending
  • Best Games of 2025
  • Fallout Season 2
  • Gift Guides
  • New Games for 2025
  • The Forge codes
  1. Games
  2. Strategy

Fight aliens and humans alike in XCOM: Enemy Within

Features
By Ryan Taljonick published 9 October 2013

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.

A new enemy approaches

A new enemy approaches

Some people manage to find the good in even the bleakest of scenarios. Take, for example, the members of the Exalt, a covert organization new to XCOM: Enemy Within. Where normal people might view the attempted genocide of the entire human race by hostile aliens as problematic, the Exalt looks at it as the perfect opportunity to perfect mankind's evolution using alien tech. Unfortunately, their devotion to human experimentation is sort of at odds with XCOM's mission of preserving human life--so it's up to you, Commander, to shut them down.

The Exalt operate from hidden cells around the globe, which you'll have to spend XCOM funds to track down--funds you could've spent on satellites, equipment upgrades, or other crucial resources. The more Exalt missions you complete, the closer you'll get to discovering their headquarters and stopping them for good. Choose to ignore them for long, though, and they'll send entire nations into panic, causing them to back out of the XCOM project.

What Exalt forces lack in firepower (which isn't much, truth be told), they make up for in numbers. You'll want to send your most experienced units to take them on, as they're quick about surrounding and overwhelming you. You'll have to use everything at your disposal, including new items like gas grenades, which poison enemies, and ghost grenades, which provide a few turns of stealth on whomever they're used on, if you hope to survive their onslaught. As if facing a relentless army of murderous aliens wasn't already hard enough.

Page 1 of 6
Page 1 of 6
Gas grenades, a new addition to Enemy Within, are an AOE poison that damage enemies each turn.

Gas grenades, a new addition to Enemy Within, are an AOE poison that damage enemies each turn.

Page 2 of 6
Page 2 of 6
Ghost grenades, on the other hand, will temporarily stealth your allies.

Ghost grenades, on the other hand, will temporarily stealth your allies.

Page 3 of 6
Page 3 of 6
You'll start each Exalt operation by sending in a covert operative. Some missions hinge on that soldier's survival.

You'll start each Exalt operation by sending in a covert operative. Some missions hinge on that soldier's survival.

Page 4 of 6
Page 4 of 6
Exalt troops tend to swarm in huge numbers and will overwhelm your squad if you're not careful.

Exalt troops tend to swarm in huge numbers and will overwhelm your squad if you're not careful.

Page 5 of 6
Page 5 of 6
You can hack these little comm towers to interrupt the Exalt's communications, thus paralyzing them for an entire turn.

You can hack these little comm towers to interrupt the Exalt's communications, thus paralyzing them for an entire turn.

Page 6 of 6
Page 6 of 6
CATEGORIES
PC Gaming PlayStation Xbox Platforms
PRODUCTS
XCOM: Enemy Unknown XCOM: Enemy Within
Ryan Taljonick
Ryan Taljonick
Social Links Navigation

Ryan was once the Executive Editor of GamesRadar, before moving into the world of games development. He worked as a Brand Manager at EA, and then at Bethesda Softworks, before moving to 2K. He briefly went back to EA and is now the Director of Global Marketing Strategy at 2K. 

Read more
Helldivers 2 screenshot of two soldiers cheering in the desert
Helldivers 2 ramps up the authoritarian satire as High Command takes action against civilians who make too much eye contact, and fans think a new rebel faction is on the way
 
 
Menace
I never really vibed with XCOM 2, but this Steam Next Fest demo is a turn-based strategy RPG I can finally get behind
 
 
Exodus
New sci-fi RPG from ex Mass Effect devs shares "some DNA" with BioWare's beloved series, but also Sony's Horizon and Nintendo's Metroid
 
 
Exodus
Mass Effect veteran's Mass Effect-style sci-fi RPG sure looks a lot like Mass Effect in its new trailer
 
 
Strange energy spilling from the roof of a dilapidated mansion in Project Spectrum
Remember Evolve? The studio behind Delta Force certainly does, because it's making an Escape From Tarkov-style shooter where one player is a very hungry monster
 
 
Halo Infinite Banished Honor
After Halo 5 had the iconic series on thin ice, Halo Infinite's big bad was created in Halo Wars 2 to "get back to" the FPS' "dark" past
 
 
Latest in Strategy
Artwork of Total War: Warhammer 40,000 showing a Space Marine, Orc, and Aeldar fighting on top of a mound of corpses
Total War: Warhammer 40,000 big preview: Inside Creative Assembly's ambition to develop "the seminal Warhammer 40K game"
 
 
Total War: Warhammer 40,000
Total War: Warhammer 40,000 revealed at The Game Awards, and it looks spectacular with or without David Harbour
 
 
A medieval town with a cathedral and thatched houses in Total War: Medieval 3 concept art
Total War's new engine will power Medieval 3, put the series on console, and let mods thrive: "We're playing long-term"
 
 
A screenshot of a marine without an helmet in the Total War: Warhammer 40K trailer
Everything we know about Total War: Warhammer 40,000
 
 
Emperor Karl Franz from Total War: Warhammer 3's Immortal Empires campaign, staring head-on in full armor
Total War: Warhammer 3 devs sell you on their favorite faction and explain why Karl Franz is Immortal Empires' Doomguy
 
 
An army attacks a fortified wall with a smoking breach in Total War: Three Kingdoms
The most influential Total War games, as chosen by 8 of its developers: "The team is incredibly introspective about our successes and failures"
 
 
Latest in Features
Deku powered up in My Hero Academia season 8
My Hero Academia's final episode cements the Shōnen anime as one of the all-time great superhero stories
 
 
Shelley Duvall as Wendy Torrance in The Shining
The Shining may be Stephen King's least favorite adaptation of his work, but it's my favorite
 
 
Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic screenshot showing the silhouette of a Jedi wearing a cape
Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic needs to put being an RPG before being a Star Wars game
 
 
Year in Review: The Best of 2025 main listing image for Best Movies of 2025 featuring images from Weapons, Superman, Sinners, and The Long Walk
The 25 Best Movies of 2025
 
 
Divinity
Larian's new Divinity game might mean a pivot back to classic RPGs and I can't wait to see it
 
 
The title card for Forest 3 shown during The Game Awards
Forest 3: Everything we know so far about the upcoming survival horror game
 
 
  1. Key art for Skate Story showing the glass skater boarding through a dark underworld filled with spikes towards a door of light
    1
    Skate Story review: "A beautiful and unique skateboarding game with great, stylized visuals set in a grungy underworld"
  2. 2
    Octopath Traveler 0 review: "The strongest entry in this retro-styled JRPG series yet, I love the greater focus on tactical battles"
  3. 3
    Sleep Awake review: "An all-timer horror premise is let down by tired stealth that I feel like I'm sleepwalking through"
  4. 4
    Metroid Prime 4: Beyond review: "The series' atmosphere has never been better, while being dragged down by a boring overworld and clunky psychic powers"
  5. 5
    Routine review: "This imperfect but wonderfully atmospheric moon-based horror leaves a strong impression"
  1. Freddy Fazbear in Five Nights at Freddy's 2
    1
    Five Nights at Freddy's 2 review: "We have waited two years for a Five Nights at Freddy's 1.5"
  2. 2
    Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery review: "Brings Knives Out back to its roots for a sequel that's almost on a par with the original"
  3. 3
    Wicked: For Good review: "Builds to an incredibly cathartic conclusion, but isn't quite as captivating as Part 1"
  4. 4
    The Running Man review: "Some fun action and Glen Powell's star power aren't enough to energize this disappointing Stephen King adaptation"
  5. 5
    Predator: Badlands review: "Die-hard fans may be disappointed, but as a blockbuster action-adventure, Badlands kills it"
  1. Noah Schnapp as Will Byers and Jamie Campbell Bower as Vecna in Stranger Things season 5
    1
    Stranger Things season 5 volume 1 review: “Can the Duffer brothers stick the landing? It’s sure looking like they will”
  2. 2
    Pluribus season 1 review: "Easily one of the year's best dramas"
  3. 3
    The Witcher season 4 review: "The Henry Cavill-less fourth season is the best yet"
  4. 4
    IT: Welcome to Derry review: "A supremely confident step back into the history of Stephen King's cursed town and killer clown"
  5. 5
    Splinter Cell: Deathwatch review: "A pale imitation of the long-dormant stealth franchise"

GamesRadar+ is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site.

Add as a preferred source on Google
  • About Us
  • Contact Future's experts
  • Terms and conditions
  • Privacy policy
  • Cookies policy
  • Advertise with us
  • Review guidelines
  • Write for us
  • Accessibility Statement
  • Careers

© Future US, Inc. Full 7th Floor, 130 West 42nd Street, New York, NY 10036.

Please login or signup to comment

Please wait...