by XCOM: Enemy Unknown made a big splash when it hit PC and consoles late last year–and Mac OS back in April–and now (as developer Firaxis promised back in March), it’ll pop up on the App Store for iOS on Thursday for a mere $20. According to Firaxis, this redesigned version “takes the complete XCOM experience of the console and PC version of the game and optimizes it for the touch interface of iOS device.”
XCOM: Enemy Unknown is a remake itself, being a “reimagining” of the 1994 strategy RPG UFO: Enemy Unknown. In a nutshell, you and an elite secret organization are in charge of fighting back an alien invasion via turn-based strategy and skillful management of your finances and human resources. (It’s much more fun than it sounds.) Mac|Life’s own Mikel Reparaz had a chance to review the Elite Edition for Mac OS and to preview Firaxis’ upcoming version for iOS. According to Reparaz, the iOS port “felt just as complex and fun as the Mac version. If it can stay that good through an entire playthrough, this could easily become a new iOS obsession.” We’ll be releasing a review soon after its release on Thursday.
For $20, you get the entire game that’s going for around $40 on the other systems, and you can sync it with all your other iDevices with iCloud. The only feature that’s really missing is the head-to-head multiplayer mode, but don’t worry–according to Firaxis, it’ll be coming as a free download later on in the year. Graphical quality has also taken an expected hit based on the screenshots and our own hands-on preview, but not so much to warrant skipping it if you’d prefer to play it on a mobile device. At the very least, it’s nice to see that Firaxis has the guts to offer the full game for iOS at a flat price rather than burying the experience under freemium microtransactions.
According to Firaxis’ press release, supported devices include the iPad 2 and later, the iPad mini, the iPhone 4S and up, and the 5th generation iPod touch.
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