PC_Powerplay-Iss_275_2019

FEATURE W

VENI, VIDI, VICI

Command & Conquer

defined a generation of

RTS games, but after

Westwood was closed

EA in 2003, the series

arted to lose its shine.

A Los Angeles started

ong with the rather

ferent Command &

nquer: Generals, but

ickly returned to the

berium and Red Alert

ries. The sequels were

ll received, but they

ayed it safe at a time

when other RTS titles,

ones without Command

& Conquer’s legacy,

were innovating and

experimenting. 2010’s

Tiberian Twilight veered

in the other direction,

putting all of its eggs in

the multiplayer basket. It

proved to be a bit of a

misstep, and since then

the series has been

relegated to browser

and mobile games.

COMPANY OF HEROES OFTEN

SEEMED MORE LIKE A SQUAD-

LEVEL WARGAME THAN AN RTS

BOTTOM: XCOM:

Enemy Unknown

reignited the fight

against aliens

and RNG.

Developed by Firaxis, XCOM rebooted the 90s
tactical titan, UFO: Enemy Unknown. It had been
a whopping 15 years since X-COM: Apocalypse, the
last successful X-COM, with the proceeding years
only seeing a mixed bag of spin-offs, culminating in
2001’s completely forgettable third-person shooter,
X-COM: Enforcer. Though it was designed without
series creator Julian Gollop, XCOM nonetheless felt
like a return to form. More than just a modern update
to the original game, it was a slick reimagining. The
large, loose teams were switched out for specialised

squads full of soldiers who could be obsessively
customised, while randomly generated maps were
replaced with hand-crafted environments. There was
streamlining, but there was also plenty of expansion
XCOM didn’t just appeal to the diehards who had
been keeping the flame alive for over a decade, or
even just the general strategy crowd; its accessibility
and flashy presentation opened the doors wider,
but not at the expense of the challenge. XCOM
proved to be a demanding game at times, forcing
players to make hard choices and sacrifices, but it
usually stopped short of being overwhelming —
unless you were playing in Ironman mode. That
forced commanders to live with their mistakes and
decisions, including the loss of a soldier or even

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