The XCOM franchise is fairly synonymous with turn-based techniques 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 here are our employees’s favourite XCOM-likes and the place to play them. Some had been instantly 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 occasions, 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 by which a staff of augmented brokers fly across the globe, stealing issues from the high-security services of sinister firms with the help of a robust hacking AI. Procedurally generated ranges and an exquisitely designed community of interconnected guidelines work collectively to create dynamic sneaking situations that appear to exist on a everlasting knife fringe of rigidity; in contrast to many video games within the techniques style, Invisible, Inc. is unattainable to overpower or be overpowered by, and rewards taking part in with simply the correct amount of heart-in-mouth danger. On this sport, utilizing a gun is a final resort, and remembering to shut a door behind you may imply the distinction between success and failure. A near-perfect hidden gem of a techniques sport. —Oli Welsh
Into the Breach
![An eight-by-eight grid where Into the Breach’s battles play out will include flat tiles, cities and water features as well as mountains](https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/-kvrUQoqFwWwPTCssIg0IK-E_k0=/0x0:1280x720/1200x0/filters:focal(0x0:1280x720):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/10300469/itb_1.jpg)
Picture: Subset Video games
The place to play: Android, iOS, Mac, Nintendo Swap, Windows PC
Into the Breach is principally Lo-Fi Beats to Techniques To. Whereas video games like XCOM go massive with costly manufacturing values, Into the Breach is refreshingly minimalist. Your staff of simply three mechs is tasked with combating again kaiju-sized bugs. You’ll be able to see all the battlefield, in all its pixel-art glory, from an isometric view. Each stage is randomized, too — somewhat bit roguelike — so that you by no means absolutely know what you’re stepping into, however you’ll nonetheless have to lean on strategic experience and understanding of your staff. Into the Breach is pure tactical bliss distilled to its essence. —Ari Notis
Xenonauts
![In an image from Xenonauts, a squad gets into position against an alien threat in an urban area](https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/LJ7MHCEyo4dAAKvrK2gRDWIvr40=/0x0:1920x1080/1200x0/filters:focal(0x0:1920x1080):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25477456/ss_e74b74f49e31274eead970dfee55508b7e551723.jpg)
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 stage of complexity for the sake of accessibility. Xenonauts and its sequel (at present 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 recent 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
![Fights In Tight Spaces gameplay, as the protagonist suplexes an opponent](https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/T27EhS9CM8V0T_Bp8w8C1Q3_bpk=/0x0:1920x1080/1200x0/filters:focal(0x0:1920x1080):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23070657/ss_23c651aa212855dea58d6b5b3bfb9d4ff62cc10c.1920x1080.jpg)
Picture: Floor Shatter/Mode 7
The place to play: Nintendo Swap, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Home windows PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X
Whereas many XCOM-style video games give attention to army operations throughout huge battlefields, Fights in Tight Areas focuses solely on small-scale encounters. Fights in Tight Areas pits the participant in opposition to goons, prisoners, brawlers, and assassins in small environments. I take up the function of Agent 11, and I’ve to kick ass via a sequence of bars, mess halls, and different contained areas. I play playing cards to duck, dodge, and brawl my means out of every combat, and with every victory, I earn new playing cards. This turn-based deck-building sport excels at making these small conditions traumatic, and it takes a tactical thoughts to play your playing cards proper and John Wick your means out of every scuffle. —Cass Marshall
Marvel’s Midnight Suns
![An in-game screenshot of Marvel’s midnight suns, showing four heroes on the game’s battlefield — a downtown New York intersection with damaged vehicles and debris blocking the road](https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/K3W3FK4nHicoruZbUEv3KG_xezU=/0x0:1920x1080/1200x0/filters:focal(0x0:1920x1080):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24205275/ss_0221de76207668cc07a2e70fe41f669cf8cc7f3e.jpg)
Picture: Firaxis Video games/2K Video games
The place to play: PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Home windows PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X
Marvel’s Midnight Suns may’ve simply simply been XCOM with a superhero paint job (Spandexcom, if you’ll). However it’s a lot extra. Actually made by the individuals who made XCOM, Marvel’s Midnight Suns ostensibly options XCOM-style techniques gameplay. That’s merely the automobile for a deck-building metagame that means that you can additional customise your roster’s (superior) powers. And whereas an absence of permadeath minimizes the fight rigidity you’d get in XCOM, it permits room for one of the crucial compelling Marvel tales in years. Midnight Suns underperformed at launch, but when any techniques sport deserves a second lease on life, it’s this one. —AN
Warhammer 40,000: Mechanicus
![A shot from Warhammer 40,000: Mechanicus 2, showing the active war map over a Necron tomb war, with battles playing out between Necrons and Adeptus Mechanicus.](https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/r7gQjAqpWa7cZ6uThPOovi1EwLM=/0x0:3840x2160/1200x0/filters:focal(0x0:3840x2160):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25460560/Warmap_Screenshot.jpg)
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 acquired 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 accessible on a number of platforms. —AJ
Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Shadow Wars
The place to play: Nintendo 3DS
When trying to find a great XCOM-like, why not go to the supply? Authentic X-COM designer Julian Gollop produced this spinoff of the Ghost Recon tactical shooter sequence for Ubisoft, delivering a neatly designed isometric technique sport with the Tom Clancy model’s trendy army styling.
Ghost Recon: Shadow Wars’ marketing campaign sends gamers to Japanese Europe and Russia, the place they need to survey battlefields, fastidiously transfer and place their six-person squad, and interact in turn-based skirmishes the place one improper transfer can spell catastrophe. You recognize, actual XCOM stuff. Shadow Wars is difficult and generally grueling — missions can take upward of 45 minutes every — however the sport includes a clean studying curve and issue choices for gamers preferring to not wrestle.
Initially launched in 2011 as a Nintendo 3DS launch title, the best choice for securing a replica of Ghost Recon: Shadow Wars is secondhand (now that the 3DS eShop is closed) on locations like eBay the place unfastened cartridges go for $10 or much less. —Michael McWhertor
The Banner Saga
![Warriors on tiles in The Banner Saga](https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/am7fDVVRoOTsRqoWphe7OR76RJ0=/0x0:950x534/1200x0/filters:focal(0x0:950x534):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/assets/2202665/banner-saga-combat_950.jpg)
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 in opposition to a backdrop of Norse mythology, The Banner Saga has you main a band of warriors and refugees trying to outlive Armageddon, forcing you to often select between empathy or pragmatism. The trilogy is stuffed with significant tactical and narrative decisions that carry over from one sport to the subsequent and may have a profound influence in your characters or how story beats progress.
The Banner Saga options superbly hand-drawn characters, animations, and environments that spotlight the outstanding stage of ardour that went into this title. The sport additionally features a rating by the incomparable Austin Wintory, the composer accountable for the soundtracks to Journey, Abzu, and different glorious works. —AJ
Capes
![Combat from the game Capes, showing a character using Chain Lightning on a bunch of opponents](https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/pRCgqdKGc8s4wgwBxjpiMJ7IYLo=/0x0:1920x1080/1200x0/filters:focal(0x0:1920x1080):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25477349/10.png)
Picture: Spitfire Interactive/Daedalic Leisure
The place to play: Mac, Nintendo Swap, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Home windows PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X
A superhero variant on the XCOM formulation, Capes is a comparatively new launch (Could 2024) and places you answerable for a staff 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 phases lack the tactical depth of most of the different video games on this record, generally missing a number of options and forcing you to retry the identical stage till you determine the best path. However I’ve nonetheless had a enjoyable time. If, like me, you could have fond recollections of Freedom Power however want it performed like a extra trendy techniques sport, this one’s for you. —Pete Volk
Fallout Techniques
![Combat in Fallout Tactics, as one character yells “Would someone please kill this waste of flesh!”](https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/PpWSSiV4pw95XSuj_WfWXljqhfI=/0x0:1024x768/1200x0/filters:focal(0x0:1024x768):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25477353/ss_34da0fe3e8510e03e9baa5f47f42e607358eb19f.jpg)
Picture: Micro Forté, 14° East/Bethesda Softworks
The place to play: Home windows PC
Revealed in 2001, Fallout Techniques is the one sport of its type 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 function by the late R. Lee Ermey (Full Steel 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 notably keen on. However probably the most genuine strategy to play, referred to as Particular person Flip-Primarily based, is probably the most harking back 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’ll be able to even transfer and combat from inside autos.
Fallout Techniques polishes off lots of the tough edges discovered within the fight from the primary two video games, whereas additionally introducing just a few extra of its personal devising. Line of sight, specifically, is usually a bit exhausting to suss out at occasions. I truly favor its fight to later interpretations of the formulation, together with Wasteland 2. However the true purpose that it’s on my private all-time-favorites record 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 Techniques play in Peoria? You guess your ass it does. Simply be careful for the radscorpions. —Charlie Corridor
Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle
![In this screenshot from Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle, Mario is aiming an arm cannon gun and shooting at a nearby rabbid with face paint. Both Mario and the Rabbid are standing next to waist-high blocks that they’re using as cover. An objective in the up](https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/SGEYIwzESci6Kb-6MTJmEgbgn_g=/0x0:1920x1080/1200x0/filters:focal(0x0:1920x1080):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/9126605/mario_rabbids_review_4.jpg)
Picture: Ubisoft Paris, Ubisoft Milan/Ubisoft
The place to play: Nintendo Swap
Should you’re on the lookout for a cutesier, easier, simpler XCOM-like, Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle is a good place to begin. Gamers use a wide range of Mario and Rabbids characters as pawns on preset phases full of enemies and obstacles.
Every flip, you may enhance up your pawns with particular powers that heal, damage, or transfer your personal pawn and others close by. The pawns additionally transfer a set variety of areas in a set sample every flip, similar to chess (or XCOM) — meaning it’s simply as satisfying while you verify 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 stage of XCOM, however that’s to not say they aren’t difficult at occasions. I’ve gotten effectively caught on just a few completely different ranges, which is humbling contemplating these video games are technically for youths — which brings me to perhaps the most effective a part of these video games, which is how lovely 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 participating, and the sounds are simply as pleasant. It’s virtually designed for folks to play with their youngsters (I say, childless). The phases are harking back 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 glorious, with just a few tweaks that make the gameplay much more participating. —Zoë Hannah