XCOM: Enemy Within DLC

Can confirm game launches and works contrary to past reviews saying otherwise. Just started a playthrough today.

I've never actually played XCOM: Enemy Unknown in its original vanilla release, I hopped onto the game a couple of years after it was rereleased on consoles as Enemy Within so I do admit I did have to a do a quick search to see what this expansion added and I gotta say it's a lot. Not all of it amazing but at the time of release you would probably be getting your money's worth. Nowadays I'd just recommend getting the game bundled on a sale because $16 AUD is more than worth it for the complete experience and paying $50 for a $40 game from 2012 is ridiculous. XCOM: Enemy Within is a big, fat expansion (I love me a good expansion) that expands the game in several ways while keeping the core of the original intact. You get a mix of new enemies, some story missions, two new technologies to research and invest into along with a new enemy faction to fight against, I'll go over these individually outside of the almost 50 new maps they added which is just a really solid addition regardless of the rest of the expansion. So first off you get two new alien units to fight against. The Seeker is a squid-like drone that can go invisible and grapple onto your troops. This was essentially created to stop lone snipers from camping across the map. The other, more substantial unit is the Mechtoid. That's a Sectoid slapped into a mech with plasma cannons. They pack a punch and are definitely a priority target when facing them. They can absolutely shred your soldiers to pieces if you're not careful. I lost one of my best Assault troops to a Mechtoid. Next you get additional missions. Most of them is from Operation Progeny which is a string of missions where you get a vague introduction to EXALT and investigate some missing people with special powers. When completed you get about four new soldiers with guaranteed psionic abilities. It's fine I suppose but nothing amazing. The most interesting thing to come out of it is a new mission where XCOM HQ gets raided by the aliens. You can actually lose the game here if you're not prepared enough which I did in my original playthrough way back then so be prepared and make sure you got some laser weapons on hand. Now the one mission everyone I know dreads is Site Recon which is a standalone mission where you investigate a fishing village in Canada that's gone quiet only to find out it's been infested with Chryssalids hiding in a whaling ship. This is to many, the bane of their existence. It's hard, frustrating and if you're not prepared you will lose pretty badly. I managed to get out with a full squad in my newest playthrough (as of writing) but don't be surprised if you lose at least one or two of your troops in this mission. It's damn hard. So a new resource is introduced called Meld which can be found throughout various battlefields in glowing canisters with a time limit attached to them before they're destroyed. This was definitely added to stop players from camping and staying put but, it's not that big of a deal if you miss a canister. You automatically get them if you complete the mission and you'll be swimming in Meld by the end of the game. Meld are alien nanomachines (son) used for two purposes: to genetically alter your troops or to turn them into cyborgs and slap them into a thick plated mech suit. Gene Mods are found through researching, usually from alien autopsies and made in a genetics lab. You can kit out your troops with an extra heart to stop fatal deaths, stronger bones for better wound recovery times, chameleon skin to hide better and best of all, stronger brains to make yourself immune from mind control. A fully modded soldier does wonders, especially for Snipers. The alternative as mentioned earlier is to build a cybernetics lab and create MEC units which are big, bulky manned mech suits with big guns and lots of health. I'll be honest I never cared much for MECs. They're pretty expensive, requires training units and from my experience don't have great aim range. I just found using SHIVs from the base game is far cheaper and effective for essentially the same role. Gene Mods in comparison enhance your current soldiers with additional abilities at a lower cost (though they take longer to develop admittedly). Maybe there's something I'm missing here but yeah, I'll take Gene Mods over MECs almost any day. Lastly you get the aforementioned new faction to fight known as EXHALT: a secret paramilitary/crimminal organisation that's basically evil XCOM. They want to take over the world while humanity is distracted by the alien invasion and they'll do cheap tactics like stealing your lunch money and stirring panic across nations to achieve that power. You do this by undergoing covert operations, taking one of your soldiers undercover to infiltrate possible EXHALT cells across the council nations. The task is usually defending a hack or shutting down their transmitters, nothing crazy. As you progress you'll find more clues to the whereabouts of their HQ where once found can be promptly invaded and their entire operation can be dismantled, Now this was the main selling point of the expansion, it's in the name. You're dealing with a bunch of human traitors and I like the concept but they definitely could have done more with it. They are not really much of a threat in the grand scheme of things. By the time you face them you'll probably have laser weapons to fight against not well armoured soldiers with conventional firearms. They also never develop anything beyond laser weapons and a couple of gene mods so you don't really get anything interesting to fight against. Imagine if you will a roided up EXHALT MEC that's unstable but super powerful. That would be an awesome way to twist your own designs while fighting them. Or they have their own SHIVs that release poison gas grenades. If EXHALT is meant to be XCOM's evil shadow then lean into it more. It would have been cool if they were a bigger, alter ego threat. As is they're primarily a side gig you deal with passively until you find their home base and destroy them. After which they disappear for the rest of your game. Now I certainly have my gripes with Enemy Within but I would still recommend it overall. It's solid enough and doesn't subtract from the core game at all. It adds more to the complete experience if anything with the Gene Mods, new maps, aliens and missions. I just wish certain aspects were better developed, especially with EXHALT. That being said if you do get this expansion, definitely get it on sale in the bundle.