XCOM: Enemy Unknown

XCOM: Enemy Unknown brings to the touchscreen the turn-based tactics game about defending Earth against an alien invasion, which 2K Games made famous by reviving the whole genre. The player commands a squad of soldiers, plans research and base construction, and in individual missions decides on cover, firing positions, and risky pushes – every decision can cost a soldier their life, since the game has no resurrection of characters.

It's precisely the permadeath that turns every mission into a psychological experience with its own emotions: players grow attached to surviving veterans, name them, upgrade their abilities, and losing a battle-hardened unit hurts more than any loss on the map. The conversion of controls to touch works surprisingly well – movement and cover are chosen by tapping highlighted tiles, the camera rotates with a gesture, research and base construction are handled through clear lists – so the tactical depth of the original game is preserved even without a mouse and keyboard.

It's a paid title without ads, with a price matching a full game with a campaign spanning dozens of hours and its own system of research and equipment upgrades. Performance demands and the smaller screen mean the game plays best on a tablet or larger phone, where the tactical grid and action point indicators are easier to read. Even years later, it's one of the most convincing proofs that deep turn-based tactics with permanent consequences can work outside a PC, and XCOM on mobile remains a reference title of the genre.

Why play it: Recommended for fans of turn-based tactics who appreciate the tension of soldier permadeath and don't mind playing a more demanding strategy game on a tablet rather than a small phone.