The best games like XCOM to play right now

The XCOM franchise is fairly synonymous with turn-based ways video games. It’s a beloved franchise for good purpose, and has spawned many, many imitators. If imitation is the sincerest type of flattery, XCOM is an virtually overwhelmingly flattered sequence.

Listed below are our employees’s favourite XCOM-likes and the place to play them. Some had been straight impressed by XCOM; some weren’t. Some are additionally sci-fi humans-versus-aliens video games, whereas others take the construction and transfer it to a fantasy realm or a longtime IP setting. All of them are enjoyable, tactical instances, and we hope you discover one you’ll dig.

Invisible, Inc.

Picture: Klei Leisure

The place to play: iOS, Nintendo Swap, PlayStation 4, Home windows PC

Invisible, Inc. is a gloriously crisp 2015 tactical stealth sport from Klei Leisure, the Canadian indie studio behind Don’t Starve. It’s a dashing, cartoony cyberpunk heist caper wherein a group of augmented brokers fly across the globe, stealing issues from the high-security amenities of sinister companies with the help of a strong hacking AI. Procedurally generated ranges and an exquisitely designed community of interconnected guidelines work collectively to create dynamic sneaking eventualities that appear to exist on a everlasting knife fringe of pressure; in contrast to many video games within the ways style, Invisible, Inc. is unimaginable to overpower or be overpowered by, and rewards taking part in with simply the correct quantity of heart-in-mouth danger. On this sport, utilizing a gun is a final resort, and remembering to shut a door behind you possibly can imply the distinction between success and failure. A near-perfect hidden gem of a ways sport. —Oli Welsh

Into the Breach

Picture: Subset Video games

The place to play: Android, iOS, Mac, Nintendo Swap, Home windows PC

Into the Breach is principally Lo-Fi Beats to Ways To. Whereas video games like XCOM go massive with costly manufacturing values, Into the Breach is refreshingly minimalist. Your group of simply three mechs is tasked with preventing again kaiju-sized bugs. You may see the complete battlefield, in all its pixel-art glory, from an isometric view. Each degree is randomized, too — slightly bit roguelike — so that you by no means absolutely know what you’re moving into, however you’ll nonetheless have to lean on strategic experience and understanding of your group. Into the Breach is pure tactical bliss distilled to its essence. —Ari Notis

Xenonauts

Picture: Goldhawk Interactive

The place to play: Mac, Home windows PC

Whereas XCOM: Enemy Unknown and its sequel are definitely becoming successors to the unique 1994 X-COM: UFO Protection, they sacrificed a sure degree of complexity for the sake of accessibility. Xenonauts and its sequel (at the moment in early entry) carry the spirit of the unique X-COM into the trendy period, full with dense tactical methods and brutal issue.

Xenonauts reads like X-COM 1994 with a contemporary coat of paint and can really feel instantly acquainted to followers of the unique. Whereas most of the methods from the strategic and tactical layers have been untouched, Xenonauts does introduce some small enhancements and quality-of-life options, like a extra strong air fight system and a extra advanced funding system. —Alice Jovanée

Fights in Tight Areas

Picture: Floor Shatter/Mode 7

The place to play: Nintendo Swap, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Home windows PC, Xbox One, Xbox Sequence X

Whereas many XCOM-style video games concentrate on navy operations throughout huge battlefields, Fights in Tight Areas focuses fully on small-scale encounters. Fights in Tight Areas pits the participant towards goons, prisoners, brawlers, and assassins in small environments. I take up the position of Agent 11, and I’ve to kick ass by a sequence of bars, mess halls, and different contained areas. I play playing cards to duck, dodge, and brawl my manner out of every battle, and with every victory, I earn new playing cards. This turn-based deck-building sport excels at making these small conditions aggravating, and it takes a tactical thoughts to play your playing cards proper and John Wick your manner out of every scuffle. —Cass Marshall

Marvel’s Midnight Suns

Picture: Firaxis Video games/2K Video games

The place to play: PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Home windows PC, Xbox One, Xbox Sequence X

Marvel’s Midnight Suns may’ve simply simply been XCOM with a superhero paint job (Spandexcom, if you’ll). Nevertheless it’s a lot extra. Actually made by the individuals who made XCOM, Marvel’s Midnight Suns ostensibly options XCOM-style ways gameplay. That’s merely the car for a deck-building metagame that lets you additional customise your roster’s (superior) powers. And whereas an absence of permadeath minimizes the fight pressure you’d get in XCOM, it permits room for some of the compelling Marvel tales in years. Midnight Suns underperformed at launch, but when any ways sport deserves a second lease on life, it’s this one. —AN

Warhammer 40,000: Mechanicus

Picture: Bulwark Studios/Kasedo Video games

The place to play: Mac, Nintendo Swap, PlayStation 4, Home windows PC, Xbox One

My private favourite faction of the 40K universe lastly received its due with Warhammer 40K: Mechanicus. Centered across the tech-obsessed Adeptus Mechanicus, you’ll command a cadre of Tech-Clergymen outfitted with forgotten and sometimes heretical know-how, scouring Necron tombs for data and loot.

Whereas some components are borrowed from different standard turn-based technique titles, Mechanicus nonetheless manages to convey some attention-grabbing wrinkles to the style and will get excessive marks for its rating and sound design. It additionally has the additional advantage of being out there on a number of platforms. —AJ

Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Shadow Wars

The place to play: Nintendo 3DS

When looking for a great XCOM-like, why not go to the supply? Unique X-COM designer Julian Gollop produced this spinoff of the Ghost Recon tactical shooter sequence for Ubisoft, delivering a well designed isometric technique sport with the Tom Clancy model’s trendy navy styling.

Ghost Recon: Shadow Wars’ marketing campaign sends gamers to Japanese Europe and Russia, the place they have to survey battlefields, fastidiously transfer and place their six-person squad, and interact in turn-based skirmishes the place one flawed transfer can spell catastrophe. You already know, actual XCOM stuff. Shadow Wars is difficult and typically grueling — missions can take upward of 45 minutes every — however the sport contains a clean studying curve and issue choices for gamers preferring to not battle.

Initially launched in 2011 as a Nintendo 3DS launch title, the best choice for securing a duplicate of Ghost Recon: Shadow Wars is secondhand (now that the 3DS eShop is closed) on locations like eBay the place free cartridges go for $10 or much less. —Michael McWhertor

The Banner Saga

Picture: Stoic/Versus Evil

The place to play: Android, iOS, Mac, Nintendo Swap, PlayStation 4, Home windows PC, Xbox One

The Banner Saga is a trilogy of titles that performs like a mixture of XCOM and Oregon Path with the narrative type of the Mass Impact trilogy. Set towards a backdrop of Norse mythology, The Banner Saga has you main a band of warriors and refugees trying to outlive Armageddon, forcing you to continuously select between empathy or pragmatism. The trilogy is filled with significant tactical and narrative decisions that carry over from one sport to the following and might have a profound impression in your characters or how story beats progress.

The Banner Saga options superbly hand-drawn characters, animations, and environments that spotlight the outstanding degree of ardour that went into this title. The sport additionally features a rating by the incomparable Austin Wintory, the composer liable for the soundtracks to Journey, Abzu, and different wonderful works. —AJ

Capes

Picture: Spitfire Interactive/Daedalic Leisure

The place to play: Mac, Nintendo Swap, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Home windows PC, Xbox One, Xbox Sequence X

A superhero variant on the XCOM method, Capes is a comparatively new launch (Could 2024) and places you accountable for a group of superpower crime fighters trying to tackle the nefarious Firm, which is imprisoning superpowered people and experimenting on them. It has enjoyable character design and mechanics that encourage repeated use of powers in fight and distinctive play patterns for every of the heroes.

Some caveats: The writing is deliberately hokey, which I really feel matches the expressive artwork type, however may be a turnoff to some gamers. And the levels lack the tactical depth of most of the different video games on this listing, typically missing a number of options and forcing you to retry the identical stage till you determine the precise path. However I’ve nonetheless had a enjoyable time. If, like me, you’ve got fond reminiscences of Freedom Drive however want it performed like a extra trendy ways sport, this one’s for you. —Pete Volk

Fallout Ways

Picture: Micro Forté, 14° East/Bethesda Softworks

The place to play: Home windows PC

Revealed in 2001, Fallout Ways is the one sport of its variety within the historical past of the franchise. It’s a combat-focused title, however with a surprisingly meaty narrative that performs out over 22 distinct missions that may be skilled in a variable order. It additionally options full voice-over, together with a considerable position by the late R. Lee Ermey (Full Metallic Jacket).

Rendered from the traditional isometric perspective, it options three completely different sport modes, together with an odd hybrid real-time setting that I’m not significantly keen on. However probably the most genuine technique to play, referred to as Particular person Flip-Primarily based, is probably the most paying homage to the unique Fallout video games, Fallout (1997) and Fallout 2 (1998). Mainly, it takes the gritty fight of the unique CRPGs and blows it out into its personal model of XCOM. You may even transfer and battle from inside autos.

Fallout Ways polishes off lots of the tough edges discovered within the fight from the primary two video games, whereas additionally introducing a couple of extra of its personal devising. Line of sight, particularly, is usually a bit exhausting to suss out at instances. I really favor its fight to later interpretations of the method, together with Wasteland 2. However the actual purpose that it’s on my private all-time-favorites listing is that it’s the one entry within the sequence that takes place within the Midwest, permitting you to blaze a path from Springfield, Illinois, to Kansas Metropolis, Missouri, and past to the West Coast.

Does Fallout Ways play in Peoria? You wager your ass it does. Simply be careful for the radscorpions. —Charlie Corridor

Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle

Picture: Ubisoft Paris, Ubisoft Milan/Ubisoft

The place to play: Nintendo Swap

In case you’re searching for a cutesier, easier, simpler XCOM-like, Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle is a superb place to start out. Gamers use a wide range of Mario and Rabbids characters as pawns on preset levels crammed with enemies and obstacles.

Every flip, you possibly can enhance up your pawns with particular powers that heal, harm, or transfer your individual pawn and others close by. The pawns additionally transfer a set variety of areas in a set sample every flip, identical to chess (or XCOM) — meaning it’s simply as satisfying if you examine an enemy off the stage, bounce off your different pawns to traverse the board in a single transfer, or make it to the goalposts on the opposite aspect safely.

Mario + Rabbids video games are definitely simpler than your common degree of XCOM, however that’s to not say they aren’t difficult at instances. I’ve gotten effectively caught on a couple of completely different ranges, which is humbling contemplating these video games are technically for youths — which brings me to possibly the very best a part of these video games, which is how cute and enjoyable the cinematics are.

Watching a Rabbid model of Luigi fly throughout the board and cartoonishly bonk your enemy on the pinnacle is massively partaking, and the sounds are simply as pleasing. It’s virtually designed for fogeys to play with their children (I say, childless). The levels are paying homage to 3D Tremendous Mario ranges, piquing my nostalgia, however with loads of new components that make it thrilling to see every stage unveiled.

Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope, the sequel to Kingdom Battle, is reportedly simply as wonderful, with a couple of tweaks that make the gameplay much more partaking. —Zoë Hannah