XCOM

It was followed by the prequel The Bureau: XCOM Declassified and the sequel XCOM 2. The X-COM core series consisted of four main games published by MicroProse: UFO: Enemy Unknown , X-COM: Terror from the Deep , X-COM: Apocalypse and X-COM: Interceptor . The premise of the franchise is that an alien invasion beginning in 1999 prompts the creation of a clandestine paramilitary organization codenamed X-COM by a coalition of funding nations. The sequels, against new alien invasions, are set underwater , in a futuristic megacity , and in space . UFO: Enemy Unknown, featuring a turn-based ground combat system, remains the most popular and successful game in the series, having been often featured on various lists of best video games of all time. A spin-off game, Interceptor, constitutes a hybrid of a strategy game and a space combat flight simulator. After Interceptor, Hasbro Interactive purchased MicroProse, acquiring its studios and the X-COM brand. In 2001, Hasbro published X-COM: Enforcer, a poorly received third-person shooter loosely based on the events of Enemy Unknown, marking a low point in the series. One of them was X-COM: Genesis, a real-time strategy and tactics game "going back to the roots but in full 3D." Another was X-COM: Alliance , an Aliens-inspired mix of strategy game and first-person perspective tactical shooter, using the licensed original Unreal Engine. Terry Greer, a former senior artist and head of game design at MicroProse UK, disclosed: "We'd also discussed other avenues for future games including time travel, retaking the solar system , and resistance movement concept where you had to fight back after the world was taken and humanity was totally under the alien yoke." OpenXcom is an open source re-implementation of the first game in the series intended to fix all the bugs and enable modding.OpenApoc is a similar open source project for X-COM: Apocalypse. In 2010, 2K Marin announced they were working on re-imagining of X-COM, relabeled as XCOM. It was described as a tactical and strategic first-person shooter that would combine elements from the original X-COM alongside a new setting and viewpoint while keeping some main concepts from the original game series. Unlike the global scale of previous games, Chimera Squad focused on a specific city, giving the player control of a diverse squad of humans and aliens. The game introduced several changes to game mechanics, such as replacing randomly generated and customizable squad members with preset and unique soldiers, and utilizing "interleaved turns" instead of a team-by-team turn system. The Dreamland Chronicles: Freedom Ridge was a game for the PC and PlayStation 2 by Julian Gollop's Mythos Games , claimed to having been "essentially a remake of the first X-Com with 3D graphics."The Dreamland Chronicles was canceled in 2001 and Mythos Games soon ceased to exist. Laser Squad Nemesis is a 2002 low-budget PC turn-based tactics game developed by Gollop's next company Codo Technologies and very similar to the turn-based Battlescape combat system of the first X-COM.