I can honestly say that the newest version of X-Com has failed to capture my interest as previous version have. I may be biased because of my preconceptions of the original. The graphic design and story telling are brilliant. The detail put into the maps was fantastic. Kudos to the graphic design team. However, the watered down game mechanics were really weak. Replay value is really weak. The decision to 'dumb down' the gameplay for whatever reason left me feeling cheated. You can only bring ONE extra item with you on a mission? You can wear a shirt, but not carry a grenade. Or you can carry a (one) grenade, but you can not carry a med kit. Only one type of soldier can carry a second item , and only when they just about max out thier level? The childish way inventory was handled really lost me. The best soldiers the world has to offer keep shooting each other and crying for thier mamas because one of them took 2 pts of damage? Really? Wow. I mean, just.... wow. This really happened during a game : Everyone is okay. Escorting Civilian to the dropship. Drop ship in sight. Looks like another perfect run... What? Talking fire. Man One is scratched. He panics and crys for his mama. Man Two feaks out and shoots Man Three in the back of the head (killing him). Woman Four looses it and shoots the civilian in the back of the head (Killing him). Man Five panics and crouches calling for emergency evac. Man Six, sick of hearing Man One cry for his mama, puts him out of his misery.... Our turn. All together now. Everyone crys for their mama while the aliens finish them off. Mission Failure. Game Failure. The same maps... over and over. You basically fight the same fight over and over. You appear in the same spot. The aliens appear in the same spot. They get a free move. It gets boring really fast. If the player could start in a different corner of the map each time you would have 4 times as many maps! Random maps would have been even better. I really had high hopes for the new XCOM. Fortunately, I did get a free copy of Civilization 5 for pre-ordering. Guess what? Civ 5 is actually pretty good. Throwing away more money on DLC for XCOM? Probably not.