Fridge

What i hate about XCOM is the restrictive gameplay you need to put up to be able to get into the endgame. You need to be a) lucky with missions and your base and b) follow a clear path of action (build power generators and satellite uplinks and satellites). There is no other way to reach the endgame without losing half the World. Panic Levels feel more than a "we want you to play that way and do it fast else we just fiorce you to lose the game" limiter rather than a real gameplay asset. Heck even if we win 100% of all our missions you will still lose because of panic. Combat is also restrictive and totally dumbed down, instead of giving the aliens a good AI they just gave them a "reaction turn" so they dont get instantly killed as soon you discover them (seriously, why would 3 aliens play cards in the middle of nowhere) and the fact that your soldiers are very limited to it (seriously, your top of the class soldiers can only carry one item? random classes?) and the fact they rather give the aliens artificial boosts (bonus to crit / hit / life) instead of improving their AI and tactics later on shows how much they rushed the game to get it out into the shelves instead of delivering a well balanced tactical game. What also adds to the pain is the risk of getting a bugging game on ironman ( i got one where i am stuck on the northpole and cannot reload to avoid that) other than that, its rather fun to play

I like that idea, but you can also tweak that a bit by adding some sort of "terror" missions like the XCOM:EU Game has right now. make those UFOs land and spread Terror in cities /countries outside of your radar range, making the local authorities call for help which you have to clean up then.