

Then came X-COM: Enforcer (2001), a Gaiden Game which ditched the strategy outright in favor of an FPS. Next was X-COM: First Alien Invasion, an e-mail game. The last days of MicroProse (and its acquisition by Hasbro Interactive) saw three Genre Shifted offerings: X-COM: Interceptor (1998), an interquel which kept the base management elements while swapping out the strategy missions for a space-bound flight sim. Apocalypse took place another 40 years later in an isolated city, and included the option to play in real-time. Despite its modest origins, the X-COM legacy was not a solo act: While Gollop's team set to work on a sequel called X-COM: Apocalypse, an in-house crew at MicroProse beat him to the punch in 1995 with a Mission-Pack Sequel: X-COM: Terror from the Deep, set 40 years after the First Alien War. The first title, UFO: Enemy Unknown (marketed as X-COM: UFO Defense in North America) was a watershed title for the genre. Although the games have a fair amount of randomness, the better player will tend to win. What follows is a mix of Turn-Based Tactics and resource management.

Players are put in charge of X-COM, a planetary defense agency, and tasked with maintaining X-COM's budget and catching flying saucers (either by storming their landing sites or shooting them down). Your combat now extends to the strange new worlds of the deep where superior alien technologies threaten the very survival of this planet - your planet - Earth.The brainchild of Julian Gollop and assorted MicroProse personnel, X-COM is a British series of games created in 1993. Slowly but surely, an army of hibernating alien sea creatures awakens.

In the dark depths of vast oceans, long sleeping forces are awakened by reanimation signals sent out across the galactic silence by their interstellar brothers and sisters. Seeking to take advantage of a weakened Earth, X-COM's deep space foes unexpectedly change strategy and launch a powerful second front against planet Earth. X-COM: Terror from the Deep brings the alien terror into a totally new dimension. X-COM: UFO Defense brought you to a galactic battlefield.
