You have to know going in that I LOVE the original on PC. That being said...

This game captures the feel of the original series and is a worthy successor. Much better than others who tried, like UFO: Aftermath.

You are the Commander. You know this because EVERYONE calls you Commander and you are responsible for everything. The entire planet! You have to balance your missions with the panic level around the globe. If a countries panic level gets too high, they stop funding you. They will leave the council and if too many go, game over Man! Funding is a major source of income and because of this mechanic, you can never get complacent.

Fortunately, you have mostly competent staff to help you out. Scientist/Engineers are great at what they do, but must be told to do it. You can unlock/build new equipment/facilities at your bade to give you a leading edge in some battles, but you will face better enemies as you progress.

There is a bit of a narrative that is played out through cutscenes and you have key objectives so you know what needs to focused on at all times to progress the story.


the battles are very smooth. The destructible environments force you to move around as most things are easily destroyed. Your guys duck behind what cover they can and flanking is very important and can make life (and survival) easier Your soldiers all have different classes and different abilities that you level up as the game progresses. You can hire new soldiers at any time, which is good because when they die....they die. (You can visit them at the memorial wall). You can edit most things on your soldier: head, hair, armor type, armor color. I made the guys from Red vs Blue....

The boards all have different heights, different forms of cover, and different routes to take. There are a variety of missions, from VIP rescue to clearing downed Spacecraft. They have different objectives, but all can be finished by killing all hostiles.
The game is immensely fun and I highly recommend it.