Vigilo Confid...Damnit, Missed the Target

I'm looking down the sights, the plasma-rifle wielding X-Ray at the other end. He's taken out half my team already (damn these Thin Men alien bastards), but I can still pull this one out and stop the abductions in Italy. I just need to take this guy down, then the other two members of my squad can bury the last two with explosives.

32% hit chance.

Never tell me the odds.

Squeeze the trigger.

Fuck.

Despite all my careful sequencing, that one miss screws up my entirely plan, causing the remaining aliens to quickly mop up the last three poor sods unfortunate enough to be sent on 'Operation Sinking Feeling'.

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'We can save this world'

Anyone who has played XCOM is probably familiar with this sort of experience. Playing the game is an oddly masochistic relationship - somewhat a characteristic of the roguelike experience (while I've only rarely heard XCOM described as a roguelike, it does share many of the same properties - encouraging repeat play, refinement of strategy and a willingness to fail and relearn).

If you don't know what XCOM is already, seriously, check it out. If you have any love of strategy games, roguelikes, or just videogames in general, it's worth a look. Heck, even if you like boardgames, the pacing and play style can feel very 'boardgamey'.

My usual MO with this game is to sink 10-20 hours into it over a week or weekend, before finally setting it down after an excess buildup of frustration and coming back to it a few weeks later.

The alien threat is consistently paced just ahead of your own soldiers and technology until at least the mid- to late-game. Then, if you have been playing right and have got just a little bit lucky, you can start to pull ahead.

Suffering breeds skill. Progress is fun and frustration is, well, frustrating. It falls into the niche of some games from the last few years (Demons' Souls and Dark Souls spring to mind) that make success all the sweeter for being hard won. No hand holding, no desperation to show off the story, just a good, consistent challenge.

I believe this is the point where I started singing 'Shittity-doo-dah'

Not that the game doesn't play on your emotions - in fact, it does so in a way that it shouldn't really be possible in such a story-light game. Part of it is the frustration factor, yes. Even the best-written story in a game struggles to compete with the sheer controller-throwing frustration of a properly challenging game (sidenote: we PC gamers really lose out on the 'throwing controller' front. Hurling a keyboard and mouse is a) expensive and b) challenging, what with all those cables. Any tilting tips?).

The face of XCOM pain

But XCOM kicks that up a notch - the ability to name all your soldiers can just make the pain of losing a soldier mid-mission so much worse. I like to name them after my friends and loved ones. That might be a little weird (it is), but it seems metaphoric self-flagellation is what I look for in my spare time.

Counting the losses on my current Classic Ironman playthrough

XCOM makes it personal; it makes it hurt. It's simple to pick up and play (and there are some not-so-insane difficulties), but has enough depth that, even having logged 70 or so hours, I'm still finding new techniques, tactics and making stupid, glorious mistakes. It encourages careful planning, meticulous execution, and risk-avoidance, while practically forcing you to take risks at the same time.

In case you hadn't figured it out by now, I really can't recommend XCOM enough. It's one of my favourite games released in the last few years, and I seem to only be able to go a few weeks without coming back to it. It's on sale a whole bunch these days and is available on pretty much every platform (including iOS). If you love strategy gaming and a bit of pain, check it out.