Your mercs recover from injuries pretty quickly, and research is always going on in the background. You can pay to speed up research or heal wounded soldiers, or purchase in-game currency to get quicker access to better gear, but none of this is necessary in order to win. I’m generally very leery of free-to-play games, but Game Insight has done a respectable job of making its in-app purchases appear mostly in the background. On the subject of money, unlike XCOM, X-Mercs costs you nothing to play – assuming you’re patient.

Your aim is still to benefit mankind, but you’re kind of doing it on your own terms – and don’t mind making a little money in the process. You’re working for a private military company, not a panel of governments, and you feel a little more isolated because of it. Story-wise, X-Mercs expands the fight beyond its bug-like alien menace to include rival mercenary factions. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. And the odds that it will steal much, if, indeed, any sales from the smash hit game that inspired it – which did great business but by now has pretty much run its course (at least until its much-anticipated sequel lands on PCs early next year) – are pretty low. It’d be easy to get a little outraged over the similarities – and I suspect there are some folks at Firaxis who probably have steam rising from reddened ears right about now – but there are just enough differences for X-Mercs to (barely) justify its existence. It borrows everything from XCOM’s small-squad, turn-based tactical fights against alien invaders to its out-of-combat headquarters activities, which include building up base facilities, researching and manufacturing new weapons and gear, and managing and upgrading each member of a very mortal team. Article content Game InsightĪs you’ve probably already guessed from its thoroughly unsubtle name, it’s an unabashed replica of Firaxis Games’ XCOM: Enemy Unknown, one of my favourite strategy games of the last decade.

Liberal crime squad starting questions