XCOM, the cult-classic franchise of turn-based strategy games, has had a new “secret” mobile title release under the name XCOM Legends. Providing studio Iridium Starfish with the rights to develop the game under its renowned license, 2K had this XCOM mobile game published under the radar without any major public announcements. However, if you watch the gameplay footage, it’s pretty obvious why XCOM Legends didn’t receive any big fanfare for its release.
XCOM Legends’ presentation is woefully subpar to that of its predecessors — to the degree that the gameplay looks absolutely dreadful. Unlike the previous titles in the franchise, the fundamental turn-based strategic aspect is missing, along with any sort of exploration. In fact, fans will find very little of the signature experience in XCOM Legends similar to that of a proper XCOM title other than its name.
This mobile spinoff will have players idly rush from one staged encounter to another, soullessly fighting enemies with flashy abilities. It seems that all the core flanking, base management, and tactical gameplay has been swept under the rug. Instead, the focus here is to earn various kinds of in-game currency to make gacha-oriented purchases.
The final statement rings very true in that those who want to experience XCOM on mobile can simply play the fantastic titles via their ported versions on Andriod and iOS. It’s baffling to contemplate why the XCOM license was even granted to this mobile release. XCOM‘s identity revolves around “hardcore-ish” turned-based tactical gameplay, and XCOM Legends, unfortunately, hardly proves itself worthy of being placed under the distinguished franchise.
“It’s just Raid: Shadow Legends with Xcom skins, good god almighty”
“This looks like an awful, watered down cash grab. It looks so cheap, like someone made this using flash”
“Why play this junk when you can just buy xcom 1 or 2 for ya phone”
