A recap of...
Xcom Enemy Unknown
The game's campaign begins in early 2015 as a global alien invasion begins. Prior to the start of the game, a group of countries called the Council of Nations has banded together to create Extraterrestrial Combat Unit (XCOM), the most elite military and scientific organization in human history that is tasked with defending the nations from alien attack. The player assumes the role of the commander of XCOM and engages in a war against an extraterrestrial enemy with overwhelming technological superiority.
In March 2015, a series of extraterrestrial objects land in a major German city. A squad of four soldiers is sent to investigate the incident. Upon entering a warehouse, the squad finds a small, alien creature mind-controlling German soldiers. The squad is ambushed; all-but-one of the soldiers are killed before the area is secured. Alien attacks begin all over the globe.
After shooting down alien scout ships and securing the crash sites from surviving alien crews, as well as interdicting alien attempts to abduct human civilians for unknown purposes, XCOM obtains the corpses of various alien troops. Autopsies reveal all of these alien types have been genetically or cybernetically altered, which seems to indicate they are foot-soldiers for unseen leaders. XCOM's head of research Dr. Vahlen requests the capture of a live alien for interrogation, which involves the development of a weapon that can capture a live alien and the construction of a facility in XCOM's subterranean base to safely hold a live alien prisoner.
XCOM captures one of the alien troops and interrogates it, revealing vague information about another type of alien called the Outsiders, which are artificially-created, crystalline beings that are encountered aboard unidentified flying objects (UFOs) and appear to serve as pilots and navigators. Dr. Vahlen then requests XCOM capture an Outsider for study. An Outsider is captured and examined, revealing their exotic, crystalline structures behave in a manner similar to antennas, receiving a signal broadcast from an underground location on Earth. XCOM dispatches a team to investigate the signal, which is found to be coming from a secret alien base where experiments are performed on abducted humans.
XCOM develops a method for gaining entry to the alien base and assaults it. During the mission, the alien base commander is discovered to have psychic abilities but the soldiers defeat it. The commander's psychic communication device is recovered and reverse engineered. Tapping into the aliens' communications reveals a stealth Overseer spacecraft is patrolling above Earth. The craft is shot down and is found to hold an alien species that had not yet been encountered, as well as a strange psionic artifact. The newly discovered species, called Ethereals, have powerful psionic abilities.
Once the Overseer ship is shot down and the psionic artifact recovered, a massive enemy "Temple Ship" in low Earth orbit over Brazil reveals itself and starts causing earthquakes. The reverse-engineering efforts enable XCOM to unlock and develop latent psionic powers that are present in some humans, thus enhancing their human soldiers. The most powerful of these human psychic soldiers becomes the Volunteer, who uses the psionic artifact to tap into the aliens' psychic communication "hive", an experience that also increases his or her psionic strength, allows the Volunteer to attack and board the Temple Ship, and seek the Uber Ethereal, the leader of the alien invasion.
During the final battle aboard the ship, the Uber Ethereal reveals that, because of their failure to further improve their own race, the Ethereals have been experimenting on other species throughout the universe to identify a race that is mentally and physically strong enough to be "Uplifted". By allowing humans to slowly obtain their technology, the Ethereals allowed humans to evolve to a fuller potential and believe humanity may be the culmination of their search for the perfect species to prepare for "what lies ahead", a vaguely worded destiny they do not further describe.
After slaying the Uber Ethereal, the Temple Ship begins to collapse into itself, creating a black hole that would destroy Earth due to its proximity. The Volunteer urges the other XCOM soldiers to evacuate the doomed ship but stays behind and using the psychic gift to control the ship and fly it further from Earth, causing the ship to self-destruct.
In March 2015, a series of extraterrestrial objects land in a major German city. A squad of four soldiers is sent to investigate the incident. Upon entering a warehouse, the squad finds a small, alien creature mind-controlling German soldiers. The squad is ambushed; all-but-one of the soldiers are killed before the area is secured. Alien attacks begin all over the globe.
After shooting down alien scout ships and securing the crash sites from surviving alien crews, as well as interdicting alien attempts to abduct human civilians for unknown purposes, XCOM obtains the corpses of various alien troops. Autopsies reveal all of these alien types have been genetically or cybernetically altered, which seems to indicate they are foot-soldiers for unseen leaders. XCOM's head of research Dr. Vahlen requests the capture of a live alien for interrogation, which involves the development of a weapon that can capture a live alien and the construction of a facility in XCOM's subterranean base to safely hold a live alien prisoner.
XCOM captures one of the alien troops and interrogates it, revealing vague information about another type of alien called the Outsiders, which are artificially-created, crystalline beings that are encountered aboard unidentified flying objects (UFOs) and appear to serve as pilots and navigators. Dr. Vahlen then requests XCOM capture an Outsider for study. An Outsider is captured and examined, revealing their exotic, crystalline structures behave in a manner similar to antennas, receiving a signal broadcast from an underground location on Earth. XCOM dispatches a team to investigate the signal, which is found to be coming from a secret alien base where experiments are performed on abducted humans.
XCOM develops a method for gaining entry to the alien base and assaults it. During the mission, the alien base commander is discovered to have psychic abilities but the soldiers defeat it. The commander's psychic communication device is recovered and reverse engineered. Tapping into the aliens' communications reveals a stealth Overseer spacecraft is patrolling above Earth. The craft is shot down and is found to hold an alien species that had not yet been encountered, as well as a strange psionic artifact. The newly discovered species, called Ethereals, have powerful psionic abilities.
Once the Overseer ship is shot down and the psionic artifact recovered, a massive enemy "Temple Ship" in low Earth orbit over Brazil reveals itself and starts causing earthquakes. The reverse-engineering efforts enable XCOM to unlock and develop latent psionic powers that are present in some humans, thus enhancing their human soldiers. The most powerful of these human psychic soldiers becomes the Volunteer, who uses the psionic artifact to tap into the aliens' psychic communication "hive", an experience that also increases his or her psionic strength, allows the Volunteer to attack and board the Temple Ship, and seek the Uber Ethereal, the leader of the alien invasion.
During the final battle aboard the ship, the Uber Ethereal reveals that, because of their failure to further improve their own race, the Ethereals have been experimenting on other species throughout the universe to identify a race that is mentally and physically strong enough to be "Uplifted". By allowing humans to slowly obtain their technology, the Ethereals allowed humans to evolve to a fuller potential and believe humanity may be the culmination of their search for the perfect species to prepare for "what lies ahead", a vaguely worded destiny they do not further describe.
After slaying the Uber Ethereal, the Temple Ship begins to collapse into itself, creating a black hole that would destroy Earth due to its proximity. The Volunteer urges the other XCOM soldiers to evacuate the doomed ship but stays behind and using the psychic gift to control the ship and fly it further from Earth, causing the ship to self-destruct.
