To be perfectly honest, I wasn’t expecting much from XCOM. In fact, I didn’t plan on looking at the game, but that was changed when I was literally dragged to the demo in between appointments, and let me tell you, I’m glad I caught a peek of the game. Yes, it’s another shooter, which I’m sure Micah is thrilled about, but it’s got enough going on to help make something appealing, exciting, and constantly leaves you wondering what’s next, creating an experience I can’t wait to get more of.

The game is set in the 1950’s, and follows the exploits of William Carter, who found an alien artifact, and is now in charge of XCOM, a specialized agency within the FBI dedicated to seeking out and investigating any alien threats. To borrow a phrase from the San Francisco Chronicle's Erick Wong, it’s sort of a mix between Mad Men and Men In Black, but without the comedy aspects as the game is fairly grim. You’re dealing with the unknown and the game brings a great sense of dread or anxiety with it as you’ll never know what’s around the next corner – there’s not much time for levity here.

Before you embark on a mission, you’ll return to your base: a hangar in the desert (Area 51 perhaps?) where you’ll be able to upgrade your equipment or select your next mission. Equipment upgrades are based on research performed in the field. To this end, you’ll constantly be asked to gather samples from alien remains, photograph the deceased, or even document any new forms of alien life. From there, you’ll be able to take this information back to the base and apply these findings to that artifact that Carter initially found, applying any new tech for practical use. In the demo, a few of the new devices included a lightning gun as well as a sort of Molotov cocktail (we’ll explain the latter in a moment).

The game doesn’t use a directly linear approach – instead, you’ll be able to choose missions from your base, whether it’s investigating a distress call, some sort of anomaly spike, or even simply research missions, allowing for a little deviation in how you proceed in the game’s narrative. The mission used in the demo was investigating a distress call, which whisked us away to a very friendly, suburban neighborhood, straight out of Leave It to Beaver. However, the serene setting quickly changed when we heard screams from a nearby house, forcing us into action.

One thing you’ll quickly notice in the field is that Carter isn’t alone – in our demo, we had two partners, ensuring our safety during the investigations, but they can be killed just as easily as you, so you’ll have to keep an eye on their backs while they focus on yours. As you approach the house you heard screams coming from, you’ll see a black blob skitter by, and as you give chase, you’ll see black slime all over the place, including fresh corpses, letting you know you’re on the right track as you take pictures to take back to the XCOM base for research. Another scream shot through the front yard, and as you round a corner, you’ll see a man stumble out of the house, vomiting a black, viscous liquid before he expires. As you cross the threshold of the house, you’ll be given your first proper look at these homicidal aliens as they’re literally coming out of the woodwork.

These enemies aren’t your run of the mill FPS fodder – it takes some doing before they are felled. Even when they seem to be eliminated, you’ll need to keep shooting until you obliterate the core of these black blobs – until you do that, they’ll still pose a hidden threat as they can still regenerate, so be sure that these baddies are properly obliterated before you move on. Should you be overwhelmed by these foes, you’ll still be able to remain a formidable opponent using the aforementioned upgraded weapons. You’ll be able to use your lightning gun, which will spread to several lifeforms, eventually subduing them, or if you’re in a hurry, you can use a flame grenade. This particular grenade is basically a transparent jar encasing a black fluid (total guesswork, but I’m thinking it’s the same substance that comprises the black slime aliens) that’s ablaze. When you hurl it into a group of enemies, it will light them up and quickly dispatch anything in the blast radius.

We eventually made our way to the second story of the house, rescuing a woman hiding in the bathroom that was actually under attack by one of these blobs (a few well-placed shotgun rounds made short work of that), and once she was rescued, we made our way back to the car to get out of there. It was pointed out that we were a man down, as one of Carter’s partners fell during the mission, but since we saved a civilian, it was considered a success. Our colleague didn’t fall in vain.

As we emerged from the house, we saw an obelisk floating in the air (and we quickly snapped a picture to document this new enemy). It quickly formed two segmented rings (one within the other) and just when I was trying to figure out what was happening, a beam shot out, hitting our partner, quickly disintegrating him and the car he was standing next to, so it was clearly time to hightail it out of there. As we were running to our car, this new enemy gave chase, shooting beams at us, and right as we got to our car, we turned around to take one last peek, only to find a beam heading our way… and that’s where our demo ended.

What we saw was certainly exhilarating, and gave me a far better impression of what the game was all about and it quickly became something I’m convinced is a title to look out for. Between the options given to you, the great setting, the fun (but somber) narrative and the solid core gameplay, XCOM has earned a spot as one of the best games from E3 2010. While the game is another FPS, it uses this fantastic approach where you’re not aware of what the enemy is – it’s constantly changing, and the anxiety that this approach brings does a great job of making the game different and exciting.