The combat is what makes this game very horrific in a good way. Imagine the scene, a UFO has been shot down by XCOM interceptors and has crash landed in the forests of Germany. A squad of expert soldiers have been deployed to secure the crash site and ensure that any hostile life has been snuffed out whilst trying to ensure that no more damage is taken by the space craft in hope of it being salvageable.
You control this squad, as you slowly advance towards this UFO all you hear is the wind whistling through the trees. An almost silent musical score starts to play in the back of your mind and you start to get a little tense. Then suddenly, little grey men burst out of the darkness. They are intimidating and armed to the teeth with sci-fi-esque plasma weaponry. The music gets incredibly tense as you try to deal with this threat. Once you deal with one of the two little grey men, you think that you can take the other with ease. However, one of your four elite soldiers get's annihilated by the remaining extra terrestrial.One of your men panic and tries to take a shot at the little grey man, however he misses and hunkers down behind cover. Once you finally take down the last of the aliens, you continue progressing towards the ship slowly. You see what looks to be two humans, couching down near the UFO. One of your soldiers advance towards these 'civilians' but she is taken aback by the grotesque nature of this creature's face. It is a lanky, genetically engineered mess of part alien part human. The soldier freaks out and she starts to fire wildly at the two creatures, missing with every shot.
The 'thin man' takes a shot at the soldier with plasma weaponry and literally melts her face. With two of your elite soldiers dead, you send one of the remaining soldiers up to the two 'thin men' to take a shot with a shotgun. One of the 'thin men' falls but a cloud spurts forward out of it's chest. The soldier than took the shot breathes in this strange gas. Suddenly, this soldier is convulsing horribly and dies from what looks like poisoning.
Your last remaining soldier starts to fall back to the helicopter that is waiting back in the distance. The helicopter looks like it has faded into obscurity and seems a million miles away. This last man runs as fast as he can towards the helicopter, whilst taking shots at the 'thin man' when another strange alien creature bursts out of the darkness with a trail of fire following in it's wake. This creature is a strange spliced creature of machinery and flesh, with jet boosters instead of legs.
This creature bursts through the air and slaughters your last soldier with advance weaponry. This mission was a complete and utter failure. Back at base, Germany starts to panic after the terrible handling of this situation and withdraws all funding from your project. This means that a country has given up hope on mankind's survival against this alien threat and has accepted that fact. Earth is lost to these invaders.
Yeah... with that scenario in mind, you can see why this game is scary as all hell.
Come back next time folks.
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