Najlepsze gry, takie jak XCOM, do grania teraz

The XCOM franchise is beautiful synonymous with turn-based tactics games. It’s a beloved franchise for good reason, and has spawned many, many imitators. If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, XCOM is an almost overwhelmingly flattered series.

Here are our staff’s favourite XCOM-likes and where to play them. any were straight inspired by XCOM; any weren’t. any are besides sci-fi humans-versus-aliens games, while others take the structure and decision it to a fantasy realm or an established IP setting. All of them are fun, tactical times, and we hope you find 1 you’ll dig.

Invisible, Inc.

Where to play: iOS, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Windows PC

Invisible, Inc. is simply a gloriously crisp 2015 tactical stealth game from Klei Entertainment, the Canadian indie studio behind Don’t Starve. It’s a dashing, cartoony cyberpunk heist caper in which a squad of augmented agents fly around the globe, stealing things from the high-security facilities of sinister corporations with the support of a powerful hacking AI. Procedurally generated levels and an exquisitely designed network of interconnected rules work together to make dynamic sneaking scenarios that seem to be on a permanent knife edge of tension; unlike many games in the tactics genre, Invisible, Inc. is impossible to overpower or be overpowered by, and rewards playing with just the right amount of heart-in-mouth risk. In this game, utilizing a weapon is simply a last resort, and remembering to close a door behind you can mean the difference between success and failure. A near-perfect hidden gem of a tactics game. —Oli Welsh

Into the Breach

Image: Subset Games

Where to play: Android, iOS, Mac, Nintendo Switch, Windows PC

Into the Breach is fundamentally Lo-Fi Beats to Tactics To. Whereas games like XCOM go large with costly production values, Into the Breach is refreshingly minimalist. Your squad of just 3 mechs is tasked with fighting back kaiju-sized insects. You can see the full battlefield, in all its pixel-art glory, from an isometric view. all level is randomized, besides — a small bit roguelike — so you never full know what you’re getting into, but you’ll inactive request to thin on strategical expertise and knowing of your team. Into the Breach is pure tactical bliss distilled to its essence. —Ari Notis

Xenonauts

Image: Goldhawk Interactive

Where to play: Mac, Windows PC

While XCOM: Enemy Unknown and its sequel are surely fitting successors to the first 1994 X-COM: UFO Defense, they sacrificed a certain level of complexity for the sake of accessibility. Xenonauts and its sequel (currently in early access) carry the spirit of the first X-COM into the modern era, complete with dense tactical systems and brutal difficulty.

Xenonauts reads like X-COM 1994 with a fresh coat of paint and will feel immediately acquainted to fans of the original. While many of the systems from the strategical and tactical layers have been untouched, Xenonauts does introduce any tiny improvements and quality-of-life features, like a more robust air combat strategy and a more complex backing system. —Alice Jovanée

Fights in Tight Spaces

Image: Ground Shatter/Mode 7

Where to play: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X

Whereas many XCOM-style games focus on military operations across large battlefields, Fights in Tight Spaces focuses entirely on small-scale encounters. Fights in Tight Spaces pits the player against goons, prisoners, brawlers, and assassins in tiny environments. I take up the function of Agent 11, and I gotta kick ass through a series of bars, mess halls, and another contained spaces. I play cards to duck, dodge, and brawl my way out of each fight, and with each victory, I gain fresh cards. This turn-based deck-building game excels at making these tiny situations stressful, and it takes a tactical head to play your cards right and John Wick your way out of each scuffle. —Cass Marshall

Marvel’s Midnight Suns

Image: Firaxis Games/2K Games

Where to play: PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X

Marvel’s Midnight Suns could’ve easy just been XCOM with a superhero paint occupation (Spandexcom, if you will). But it’s so much more. virtually made by the people who made XCOM, Marvel’s Midnight Suns ostensibly features XCOM-style tactics gameplay. That’s simply the vehicle for a deck-building metagame that allows you to further customize your roster’s (awesome) powers. And while an absence of permadeath minimizes the combat tension you’d get in XCOM, it allows area for 1 of the most compelling Marvel stories in years. Midnight Suns underperformed at launch, but if any tactics game deserves a second lease on life, it’s this one. —AN

Warhammer 40,000: Mechanicus

Image: Bulwark Studios/Kasedo Games

Where to play: Mac, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Windows PC, Xbox One

My individual favourite faction of the 40K universe yet got its due with Warhammer 40K: Mechanicus. Centered around the tech-obsessed Adeptus Mechanicus, you’ll command a cadre of Tech-Priests outfitted with forgotten and occasionally heretical technology, scouring Necron tombs for cognition and loot.

While any elements are borrowed from another popular turn-based strategy titles, Mechanicus inactive manages to bring any interesting wrinkles to the genre and gets advanced marks for its score and sound design. It besides has the added benefit of being available on multiple platforms. —AJ

Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Shadow Wars

Where to play: Nintendo 3DS

When searching for a good XCOM-like, why not go to the source? first X-COM designer Julian Gollop produced this spinoff of the Ghost Recon tactical shooter series for Ubisoft, delivering a smartly designed isometric strategy game with the Tom Clancy brand’s modern military styling.

Ghost Recon: Shadow Wars’ run sends players to east Europe and Russia, where they must survey battlefields, carefully decision and position their six-person squad, and engage in turn-based skirmishes where 1 incorrect decision can spell disaster. You know, real XCOM stuff. Shadow Wars is challenging and sometimes grueling — missions can take upward of 45 minutes each — but the game features a smooth learning curve and difficulty options for players who like not to struggle.

Originally released in 2011 as a Nintendo 3DS launch title, your best option for securing a copy of Ghost Recon: Shadow Wars is secondhand (now that the 3DS eShop is closed) on places like eBay where loose cartridges go for $10 or less. —Michael McWhertor

The Banner Saga

Image: Stoic/Versus Evil

Where to play: Android, iOS, Mac, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Windows PC, Xbox One

The Banner Saga is simply a trilogy of titles that plays like a mix of XCOM and Oregon Trail with the communicative kind of the Mass Effect trilogy. Set against a backdrop of Norse mythology, The Banner Saga has you leading a band of warriors and refugees attempting to last Armageddon, forcing you to frequently choose between empathy or pragmatism. The trilogy is full of meaningful tactical and communicative choices that carry over from 1 game to the next and can have a profound impact on your characters or how communicative beats progress.

The Banner Saga features beautifully hand-drawn characters, animations, and environments that item the remarkable level of passion that went into this title. The game besides includes a score by the incomparable Austin Wintory, the composer liable for the soundtracks to Journey, Abzu, and another excellent works. —AJ

Capes

Image: Spitfire Interactive/Daedalic Entertainment

Where to play: Mac, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X

A superhero variant on the XCOM formula, Capes is a comparatively fresh release (May 2024) and puts you in control of a squad of superpower crime fighters looking to take on the nefarious Company, which is imprisoning superpowered individuals and experimenting on them. It has fun character plan and mechanics that encourage repeated usage of powers in combat and unique play patterns for each of the heroes.

Some caveats: The writing is intentionally hokey, which I feel matches the expressive art style, but might be a turnoff to any players. And the stages deficiency the tactical depth of many of the another games on this list, sometimes lacking multiple solutions and forcing you to retry the same phase until you figure out the right path. But I’ve inactive had a fun time. If, like me, you have fond memories of Freedom Force but want it played like a more modern tactics game, this one’s for you. —Pete Volk

Fallout Tactics

Image: Micro Forté, 14° East/Bethesda Softworks

Where to play: Windows PC

Published in 2001, Fallout Tactics is the only game of its kind in the past of the franchise. It’s a combat-focused title, but with a amazingly meaty communicative that plays out over 22 distinct missions that can be experienced in a variable order. It besides features full voice-over, including a crucial function by the late R. Lee Ermey (Full metallic Jacket).

Rendered from the classical isometric perspective, it features 3 different game modes, including an unusual hybrid real-time setting that I’m not peculiarly fond of. But the most authentic way to play, called Individual Turn-Based, is the most reminiscent of the first Fallout games, Fallout (1997) and Fallout 2 (1998). Basically, it takes the gritty combat of the first CRPGs and blows it out into its own version of XCOM. You can even decision and fight from inside vehicles.

Fallout Tactics polishes off quite a few the rough edges found in the combat from the first 2 games, while besides introducing a fewer more of its own devising. Line of sight, in particular, can be a bit hard to suss out at times. I actually like its combat to later interpretations of the formula, including Wasteland 2. But the real reason that it’s on my individual all-time-favorites list is that it’s the only entry in the series that takes place in the Midwest, allowing you to blaze a way from Springfield, Illinois, to Kansas City, Missouri, and beyond to the West Coast.

Does Fallout Tactics play in Peoria? You bet your ass it does. Just watch out for the radscorpions. —Charlie Hall

Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle

Image: Ubisoft Paris, Ubisoft Milan/Ubisoft

Where to play: Nintendo Switch

If you’re looking for a cutesier, simpler, easier XCOM-like, Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle is simply a large place to start. Players usage a variety of Mario and Rabbids characters as pawns on preset stages filled with enemies and obstacles.

Each turn, you can boost up your pawns with peculiar powers that heal, hurt, or decision your own pawn and others nearby. The pawns besides decision a set number of spaces in a set pattern each turn, just like chess (or XCOM) — that means it’s just as satisfying erstwhile you check an enemy off the stage, bounce off your another pawns to traverse the board in 1 move, or make it to the goalposts on the another side safely.

Mario + Rabbids games are surely easier than your average level of XCOM, but that’s not to say they aren’t challenging at times. I’ve gotten well stuck on a fewer different levels, which is humbling considering these games are technically for kids — which brings me to possibly the best part of these games, which is how adorable and fun the cinematics are.

Watching a Rabbid version of Luigi fly across the board and cartoonishly bonk your enemy on the head is massively engaging, and the sounds are just as enjoyable. It’s practically designed for parents to play with their kids (I say, childless). The stages are reminiscent of 3D Super Mario levels, piquing my nostalgia, but with plenty of fresh elements that make it breathtaking to see each phase unveiled.

Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope, the sequel to Kingdom Battle, is reportedly just as excellent, with a fewer tweaks that make the gameplay even more engaging. —Zoë Hannah