- Games
- Strategy Games
- XCOM 2
Opinion | February 5, 2026, marks 10 years since XCOM 2 dared to make us lose
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.
(Image credit: Firaxis)
- Copy link
- X
Weekly digests, tales from the communities you love, and more
Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over.You are now subscribed
Your newsletter sign-up was successful
Want to add more newsletters?
Every Friday
GamesRadar+
Your weekly update on everything you could ever want to know about the games you already love, games we know you're going to love in the near future, and tales from the communities that surround them.
Signup +
Every Thursday
GTA 6 O'clock
Our special GTA 6 newsletter, with breaking news, insider info, and rumor analysis from the award-winning GTA 6 O'clock experts.
Signup +
Every Friday
Knowledge
From the creators of Edge: A weekly videogame industry newsletter with analysis from expert writers, guidance from professionals, and insight into what's on the horizon.
Signup +
Every Thursday
The Setup
Hardware nerds unite, sign up to our free tech newsletter for a weekly digest of the hottest new tech, the latest gadgets on the test bench, and much more.
Signup +
Every Wednesday
Switch 2 Spotlight
Sign up to our new Switch 2 newsletter, where we bring you the latest talking points on Nintendo's new console each week, bring you up to date on the news, and recommend what games to play.
Signup +
Every Saturday
The Watchlist
Subscribe for a weekly digest of the movie and TV news that matters, direct to your inbox. From first-look trailers, interviews, reviews and explainers, we've got you covered.
Signup +
Once a month
SFX
Get sneak previews, exclusive competitions and details of special events each month!
Signup + An account already exists for this email address, please log in. Subscribe to our newsletterCan you believe that XCOM 2 is 10 years old? I certainly can't. Firaxis' boundary-pushing strategy game still looks and plays like it could have been released yesterday. It's a testament to the developer's ingenuity and the brilliance of XCOM's core premise, covertly repelling an alien invasion with finite manpower and limited funding.
With 2012's series revival XCOM: Enemy Unknown, Firaxis established itself as a more-than-capable custodian of Julian Gollop's original vision. Yet four years later, XCOM 2 saw the studio return to the alien-embattled universe not with plans to build upon Enemy Unknown's foundations, but with the ambition and confidence to rock them, risking it all on one chilling question: what if humanity lost?
Down but not out
We've rounded up the best strategy games you can play today
XCOM 2 was one of the last games I ever preordered, and I vividly remember my excitement in the run-up to launch. It was a jolting sensation, a turbulent restlessness – I wanted nothing more than to tear through the long months between me and February 5. How could I not? After spending well over 100 hours in XCOM: Enemy Unknown, the idea of building a resistance and waging guerilla warfare, along with new features like a stealth phase and different classes, were tantalizing. Even XCOM 2's key artwork – an alien head made up of human skulls – crystalized the series' core, of the dynamic stories built upon life and loss. A decade of actually playing XCOM 2 has done nothing to dilute these passions, and I feel the same now as I did then.
You may like-
One year after Civilization 7 tried to fix the strategy genre's biggest problem, Firaxis is meeting fans in the middle
-
The 25 best strategy games to play right now
-
Bethesda reflects on 10 years of Fallout 4: "You have to accept the creative choices you make on every game"
Much of XCOM 2's enduring strength comes from its fascinating reframing. What if all the resources we had available in Enemy Unknown weren't enough? Is our faith in humanity's resilience naive, even arrogant? With XCOM 2 set two decades after the aliens have already occupied Earth, the resources available to us in the original game are gone. All that remains is hope – hope that mankind can overcome once more, or at least go down fighting.
It's a brilliant narrative, nourished by XCOM 2's strategic layer. Rather than Enemy Unknown's kill 'em all approach, XCOM 2's missions are narrower in scope: assassinating a collaborator, for example, or a hit-and-run raid to steal resources or information. Most of these missions have turn limits in which you not only have to complete said objective, but reach an extraction point to escape. The tables are turned, and you no longer have the home field advantage – miss your ride out, and those soldiers are captured or killed. I'm a very methodical player in strategy games, so the added time pressure hasn't always been my cup of tea. But XCOM 2's underdog tone would fall flat if the player was in control from start to finish, and I respect Firaxis for committing to that vision entirely – a remarkable risk, given how divisive time-sensitivity can be in any genre.
While I begrudge timed missions as a necessary evil, I unreservedly adore XCOM 2's stealth mechanic. Your soldiers begin guerilla missions concealed for as long as they can stay out of sight, offering an opportunity to set up one-sided ambushes, sneak past patrols, or smash-and-grab an objective before the enemy has time to clog your exit route. Wiping out a squad of ADVENT soldiers before they can fight back is a sublime high, but, as is often the case in XCOM, it's the failures you remember the most. I once tried to ambush a weapons convoy with a grenade, sparking a comically serendipitous chain reaction of explosions that blew up the roof my squad was perched on. In another mission, cover was blown by my sniper auto-pathing through a plate-glass window. It's the dynamism at XCOM 2's heart: you're given all of the tools to stay one step ahead, just so long as you can keep your feet out of Firaxis' bear traps.
That philosophy was taken further in 2017's War of the Chosen expansion, which introduced elite Chosen aliens who could turn up in any mission and adapted their strategies based on their previous encounters with you. Likewise, the Lost – hordes of zombified humans drawn to noise – made battlefields more fluid than ever; forcing you to consider every gunshot to remain one step ahead of their overwhelming numbers.
Sign up to the GamesRadar+ NewsletterContact me with news and offers from other Future brandsReceive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsorsBy submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over.I could spend the rest of my days waxing lyrical about War of the Chosen, but ultimately it all feeds back into XCOM 2's guiding light: reactivity. By experimenting with XCOM's relationship to the player and doubling down on the sequel's scrappy guerilla premise, Firaxis found a way to share its own authorship with players. The same story can have a thousand endings, and vice versa – for as many times as I've rolled credits on XCOM 2, I've never reached them the same way twice.
In 2026, XCOM's future is unclear. We've heard nothing from the series since the 2020 spin-off XCOM: Chimera Squad, although Marvel's Midnight Suns carried many of its ideas forward with its deck-building elements in 2022. And while I desperately hope that Firaxis is working on XCOM 3 alongside its "expansion-level" update for Civilization 7, XCOM 2's spirit lives on in the next generation of strategy games. Complex Games' excellent Warhammer 40,000: Chaos Gate - Daemonhunters leaned on environmental carnage for that reactive flavor in combat. You can see traces of its Geoscape map in Menace's choice-heavy planetary campaigns, while Star Wars Zero Company is being made by veteran XCOM developers and shares its DNA in all but lightsabers.
Ten years on, perhaps that's the most fitting legacy XCOM 2 could have: not a direct continuation, which it rebuffed in the first place, but an unpredictable spread of successors, all born of the same seeds.
XCOM 3 wishlist: What we'd love to see from a new XCOM game
CATEGORIES PC Gaming Platforms
Andrew BrownSocial Links NavigationFeatures EditorAndy Brown is the Features Editor of Gamesradar+, and joined the site in June 2024. Before arriving here, Andy earned a degree in Journalism and wrote about games and music at NME, all while trying (and failing) to hide a crippling obsession with strategy games. When he’s not bossing soldiers around in Total War, Andy can usually be found cleaning up after his chaotic husky Teemo, lost in a massive RPG, or diving into the latest soulslike – and writing about it for your amusement.
View MoreYou must confirm your public display name before commenting
Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.
Logout Read more
One year after Civilization 7 tried to fix the strategy genre's biggest problem, Firaxis is meeting fans in the middle
The 25 best strategy games to play right now
Bethesda reflects on 10 years of Fallout 4: "You have to accept the creative choices you make on every game"
Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 developers made my favorite RPG of 2025 by trusting their original vision: "We had the strength to say, 'Yes, that's what we want'"
Larian's new Divinity game might mean a pivot back to classic RPGs and I can't wait to see it
"We've learned to love and trust the process": How Hades 2 built on Supergiant's Early Access legacy to deliver the best roguelike of 2025
Latest in Strategy Games
Anime Reversal codes (February 2026) for free Rerolls and Gems
One year after Civilization 7 tried to fix the strategy genre's biggest problem, Firaxis is meeting fans in the middle
RPG legend returns to the franchise he co-created 40 years ago as Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era's advisor
Kingshot codes (February 2026) for free Gems, Hero XP, Resources, and more
Manor Lords publisher says most indie publishers are "predatory and opportunistic," and "not particularly competent"
Hopes for Metroid Prime 2 Remastered seemingly dashed as Walmart apparently leaks it and stone-cold classic Pikmin 2 for Nintendo Switch Online's GameCube library
Latest in Features
Despite its pricing delay, Valve's Steam Frame could still turn out to be the VR market's Steam Deck moment
10 years later and with no XCOM 3 in sight, I'm in love with XCOM 2 now more than ever
Control Resonant may be an action-RPG, but Remedy isn't veering into hellishly-challenging territory: "There are no parries, there is no back-and-forth with a single enemy"
My favorite Baldur's Gate 3 companion got more love in the latest MTG Secret Lair, but I can't stomach buying it
Hell Let Loose: Vietnam wants to be a tougher, smarter FPS where kills hardly matter: "We sit in a specific space where we're not COD or Battlefield, but also not military simulation"
Beast of Reincarnation's battles are about "the joyful dilemma of choice", building on Pokemon battle planning expertise
GAME REVIEWSMOVIE REVIEWSTV REVIEWS
1Nioh 3 review: "Brutal clashes across wide maps avoid retreading Elden Ring – this is all demon killer, no filler"- 2This Lord of the Rings card game is a puzzle-solving masterclass
- 3Highguard review: "A fresh but muddled FPS genre mashup that needs refinement if it's to have any staying power"
- 4This hidden role board game makes me feel like a puppet master, so Traitors fans should listen up
- 5Cairn review: "This climber has a grip on me – even when it loses its footing with awkward systems"
1Return to Silent Hill review: "Neither an impressive adaptation nor coherent enough to act as a standalone film"- 228 Years Later: The Bone Temple review: "The wildest and weirdest entry into the franchise yet"
- 3Avatar: Fire and Ash review: "Still a technical marvel, with some of the year's best action filmmaking"
- 4Five Nights at Freddy's 2 review: "We have waited two years for a Five Nights at Freddy's 1.5"
- 5Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery review: "Brings Knives Out back to its roots for a sequel that's almost on a par with the original"
1Wonder Man review: "A low-key gem that's up there with the MCU's best"- 2Starfleet Academy review: "It may feel a little different to what we're used to, but this is Star Trek through and through"
- 3A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms review: "This Game of Thrones spin-off is a heartfelt and fun return to Westeros"
- 4Stranger Things season 5 finale review: “Shows off both the best and the worst of Hawkins”
- 5Stranger Things season 5, Volume 2 review: “All set up for a finale that has so much to deliver”
