Load up yo𒅌ur last save from XCOM: Enemy Unknown and take a good, hard look at your memorial. Assuming you didn't cheat and reload every time one of your soldiers ate plasma (you did, didn't you?), there'꧒s a chance it's decorated with some achingly familiar names. Nathan "Sexy Man" Drake, dead after 38 missions. Thomas "Werewolf" Jefferson, smashed into bits by a Berserker. Mitt "Binders" Romney, cut down by the friendly fire of a panicked Paul Ryan (no, really!). That's XCOM, baby.

Enemy Unknown's first full-fledged expansion, Enemy Within, provides just enough incentive to re-experience the tough but rewarding thrill of saving humanity fꦫrom alien invaders thanks to its new enemies, missions, and additions to your squad's arsenal. And if you've never played the XCOM reboot before, this all-around upgrade is the best way to experience it.

Enemy Within doesn't start to feel like much of an expansion until a few hours into the campaign, and🅠 once its new additions start creeping in, they're more subtle than blatantly obvious. That means XCOM veterans and newcomers alike will quickly get into the swing of cursing their horrible luck, as Enemy Unknown's unforgiving structure is largely unchanged.

All of the grueling battles and in-between base management elements are just as fun as they were a year ago, even if the campaign is exactly the same save for a few (incredible) new story missions. To write about them in much detail would spoil their delightful surprises, but they consist of harrowing situations that are sure to strike fear in the hearts of even the most hardened XCOM Commanders. That said, a few more of these woul🥃d've gone a long way toward making the expansion feel a bit more substantial.