XCOM: Ultimate Collection

XCOM: Ultimate Collection is a PC bundle that packs three complete titles under one roof: XCOM: Enemy Unknown (plus the Enemy Within expansion and its DLC), the full XCOM 2 Collection (base game, War of the Chosen expansion, and four DLC packs including Alien Hunters and Shen's Last Gift), and XCOM: Chimera Squad. That is a genuinely staggering amount of content, easily 150-plus hours before you even think about replaying on Ironman. At its core, each game is a turn-based tactical strategy hybrid that layers squad management on top of base-building on top of global resource planning. In XCOM: Enemy Unknown you are defending Earth, managing panic levels across multiple nations while intercepting alien ships and fielding small squads of customizable soldiers in grid-based combat. Cover mechanics, overwatch, and class synergies are the bread and butter. XCOM 2 flips the premise entirely: you lost the war, Earth is under alien occupation, and your squad now starts most missions in a stealth phase before the shooting begins. The five soldier classes (Ranger, Grenadier, Sharpshooter, Specialist, and the late-unlock Psi Operative) each carry their own skill trees, and the procedurally generated maps mean no two campaigns play identically. The notorious chance-to-hit system is, famously, not to be trusted, and missing an 80% shot at point-blank range against a Sectoid is as infuriating on your hundredth hour as it is on your first. War of the Chosen layers new Hero classes and the three Chosen antagonists on top of the base game in a way that substantially deepens both the strategic and tactical layers, to the point where most veterans recommend starting there rather than with vanilla XCOM 2. Chimera Squad, the odd sibling, shifts to a named-agent roster and interleaved initiative combat, making it the most approachable and mechanically distinct of the three. The build variety holds up well past hour 40, particularly in XCOM 2, where soldier bonds (a War of the Chosen feature) add shared perks between paired soldiers and introduce a soft emotional layer to a game that already punishes you hard for losing a veteran Ranger you named after your dog. The strategic layer, choosing which missions to run, which research to prioritize, and when to let a country fall to focus elsewhere, functions almost like a competitive single-player puzzle where a wrong priority at week three can collapse your campaign silently by week eight. That slow-burn consequence is where the series earns its reputation. The weaknesses are real and worth knowing. The chance-to-hit formula has attracted criticism for years and remains divisive. The base game's difficulty curve is steep enough that newcomers who skip tutorials may find themselves unrecoverably behind by mid-campaign with no meaningful warning. Chimera Squad, while enjoyable, is the lightest entry and some longtime fans treat it as an extended DLC rather than a full sequel. On PC specifically, XCOM 2 at launch had optimization problems that patches have largely addressed, though the game still benefits noticeably from mid-range hardware or better. For any RPG-adjacent strategy player who cares about build depth, permadeath stakes, and the satisfaction of pulling off an ambush your past self would have declared impossible, this collection delivers more hours of that feeling than almost anything else available. It rewards patience and punishes hubris, which, frankly, is exactly the right design philosophy.

Monika · Scout Team

RPGs

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