There's one particular mission that delivers plenty of it

Nov 27, 2013 01:36 GMT  ·  By

XCOM: Enemy Unknown was one of the few titles, especially in the strategy genre, that were able to make me sad because I lost a squad member, a unique and capable individual that I knew I was unable to ever directly replace.

The Enemy Within expansion takes that feeling even further because it gives players even more ways to customize their characters both cosmetically and in terms of abilities, with gene mods, MEC suits and medals.

And the development team at Firaxis is very clever about the kinds of moments where it basically forces players to choose who they can sacrifice (minor spoilers for the best mission in the game follow).

A little past the half point of the campaign, out of the blue, with half of my team undergoing gene enhancement theory, I got a message that the XCOM base was under attack and I only had limited resources to defend it.

This means just a few of my high level squad mates were ready to fight and, even worse, they lacked the equipment they needed to perform at their best.

Enemy Within did give me plenty of rookies, which are only useful as cannon fodder.

The first time around, I quit the base assault mission in frustration because even as I got close to victory, I lost too many of my beloved soldiers.

I then played it again, dealing with loss and managed to enjoy the rest of the game even more, mourning my losses and swearing to avenge them.

The interesting thing is that frustration is not a negative feeling in XCOM: Enemy Within and I am currently considering starting yet another playthrough that will use Ironman, meaning that only one save is used, and more of the Second Wave options that increase the difficulty.

I am actually looking forward to more heartbreak, more character losses and to the moment when I overcome them to once more defeat the alien assault.