Before tuning into this week’s new episode of Safe Room, please listen to last week’s episode celebrating 25 years of Fallout!

There is no greater example of risk/reward in games than XCOM. Every action could yield disastrous results for your squad. Or it could produce a thundering victory. 

While tough decision-making isn’t a new phenomenon within the strategy genre, the way XCOM: Enemy Unknown approaches consequences felt crushing while entirely fair. Even if losing a veteran soldier always feels like someone sticking their thumb in your eye, rarely could you trace back a move that wasn’t miscalculated on the player’s part. 

But no matter how crushing a defeat may be, there’s something about how XCOM handles loss that empowers the player to take what they’ve learned while providing the tools to reassess their strategy. 

Fair to say, this plays a role in why I have never been burnt out on XCOM. Sure, I may take week or month breaks from time to time. I’m not an XCOM addict, after all. But I have been playing XCOM off and on every year since Enemy Unknown was released back in 2012.

So why do I keep returning to the white-knuckle turn-based gameplay of XCOM? What separates the series from other strategy games I toiled away at over the years?

Neil and I unpack that very question with the help of returning friend of the show and regular Bloody Disgusting contributor Aaron Boehm as we chat about XCOM‘s anecdotal nature, strong series entries and uncover what it is about XCOM that we all just can’t entirely quit.  –Jay Krieger

Safe Room is a weekly horror video game discussion podcast with new episodes every Monday on iTunes/Apple, Sticher, Spotify, Google Podcasts, and Linktree for additional streaming services. 

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Safe Room | Neil | Jay