Games Like XCOM - TOP List

Both the original X-COM (or UFO) by MicroProse and its reboot XCOM, by Firaxis, are excellent, engaging turn-based tactics games putting you, the player, in charge of an international organization with the training and resources to fight against an alien invasion.

But fighting back against an alien invasion is not the only flavour of turn-based tactics game. Below you’ll find a short list of the best games like XCOM in some manner, and further down a gallery with many more titles which can scratch your tactical itch.

Best Games Like XCOM

Battletech

Battletech is a great, complex game about walking engines of war called battlemechs. Each mission gives you control over up to four mechs of different specialties and characteristics, and you need to keep track of many different factors, including heat dissipation, balance, or which side you present to the enemies. Detailed damage system, including mech limb damage, makes every decision matter.

Warhammer 40.000: Mechanicus

Mechanicus is a treat for every fan of the Warhammer 40k license, but it’s also a great tactical game in its own right. You control the titular heavily augmented techpriests of Adeptus Mechanicus and their cyborg troops as they explore an ancient tomb, looking for forgotten and forbidden technology. The WH40k aesthetic and solid tactical layer make Mechanicus worth checking out.

Phoenix Point

Phoenix Point was developed by a studio founded by a creator of the original X-COM. Your soldiers fight against mutants created by an extra-terrestrial virus which conquered most of the world. Phoenix Point offers large squads (up to even 16 soldiers), evolving enemies, and several competing factions with dramatically conflicting motivations. It’s the most direct competition for XCOM you could find.

Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden

Based on a Swedish tabletop RPG, Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden takes place in a postapocalyptic world with mutants and weird powers. It has a predefined cast of unique characters, a mix of real-time exploration and turn-based tactics, and even a branching storyline which brings it closer to an RPG. If you want to look for old world artifacts with a shotgun-toting boar and a duck with crossbow, try it out.

Xenonauts

Xenonauts is an ideal game for every fan of the original X-COM games. In many aspects it looks and plays like a modernised version of MicroProse classics, with updated graphics, polished gameplay, and a slightly different setting: the Cold War era. It’s a mechanically deep, complex, demanding game with a lot of potential for creating emergent narratives. Few games are as ‘like XCOM’ as Xenonauts.

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