X-Com

(Microprose, 1995)

Imagine the fun if FOX television's The X-Files created a spin-off like this! UFO's are invading Earth, and it is up to your special forces unit to defend humankind from this threat! In this strategy game, you must create your secret base, choose equipment (as much as you can, based on government funding), and hire your soldiers. Choose carefully, because the aliens are diverse, and quite ingenius in game design (one can use mind control on weaker soldiers, while another is a serpentlike salute to the movie Alien). Little by little, winning battles mean that you can bring home alien wreckage. Your lab techs can then improve your fighter ships, defenses, and weaponry, based on alien technolgy. Cool! Aliens also can be captured --dead or alive-- to help you discover what is going on here. All this is not an easy task, however, because you often have to protect small towns from alien attack, under very true-to-real-life situations. Too strong of a weapon means heavy destruction of the "good guys" as well as the bad; glass shatters, houses catch fire, gas stations explode into ashes, and, yes, innocent bystanders can be killed. Too many mistakes by your soldiers, means less government funding, so don't make any mistakes! This was one of the few strategy games to make it into Techtite's list of Top 50 Multimedia Classics. If only its sequels were as good...

Rating : Deep Impact.

For more on this site's ratings system, click here.