Securing intel or taking care of a base will also help lower the panic levels of that region. The country will immediately pull out of XCOM if you falsely accuse them. Thankfully, there is a suitable punishment for not undergoing a covert-op (more panic) as well as falsely accusing a country of harboring an Exalt base. The emphasis on not killing could've been a real game-changing inclusion to EW In the other mission's case, you're just fighting humans with gene-mods. HQ emphasizes that you be discreet however, there is no real punishment for treating them like aliens. (There is also a base siege mission and a base-defense mission tied to them.) In the first mission case, you are rated poorly for killing the Exalt in great numbers. There are only two types of Covert-Ops: Extract 2 signals with your covert-operative-whom you must send for 6 days to scout, and then rescue him/her-and then leave with as few casualties as possible, and then you have a intel defense mission where you have to kill all Exalt. However, I think they didn't go far enough to punish/incentivize players to NOT kill the Exalt, and they ultimately just create another enemy type to kill. I think that is what Firaxis had in mind when they designed these missions. In all honesty, it more often feels like XCOM is the morally grey organisation when you overpower them.

There is no face to the group to give them any more personality. The only explanation you'll get is they're alien sympathizers who may or may not have been mind-controlled. (They also combine these new missions with the other three types: Escort, Extract and Exterminate).

In gameplay, the EXALT are a new way to spread panic to the world, to harm XCOM's finances/research and to add a new type of mission to the game, Espionage. However, I think that's intentional to get you to lower your guard.Д«ased on the trailer, you would expect an answer to what exactly the new threat is. It means some missions, specifically EXALT, can seem easier than they are. I don't think the change is game-breaking. Aliens send out harder enemies faster which demands you have at least one MEC soldier, so you should get on the power-creep. These new changes appear to have created some balancing issues. These units cannot use gene-mods however, they have one ability that is influenced by their past class.

It also requires that you amputate your soldiers. The MEC Suits and their upgrades also don't need much Meld, yet they cost a lot more of the basic currency. I've found enhancing the sight/aim boosts for rookies useful in avoiding many missing shots, and it only takes three days to implant them. The upgrades for the troops are cheap and they do various benefits like offer auto-regenerating health, extra time for bleeding out, boosts for aiming, sensing enemies from afar, etc. With my time of EW, I never found myself over saturated or scarce on Meld. It's a simple change that goes a long way. However, I do understand it's to punish overly defensive players by baiting them to move. It's never explained why these resources are now available or why the aliens litter them everywhere. You obtain this resource solely from capturing Meld nodes on the battlefield before they turn off. Its usage is specifically for the new class (MEC soldiers) and for the gene augmentations. One new game-changer is the new resource, Meld. However, there are some changes that ruin whatever sense of fair challenge Enemy Within that I wouldn't trust this game with an Ironman setting. In many ways, I would like to say Enemy Within is the definitive version. There are more unique missions and a new mission type, espionage, and it provides a nice thematic middle-half to the game. EW adds the AI behavior from Classic (EU) to the Normal difficulty. The late-game problem of rookies is counter-balanced with gene-mods. There are qualities that improve upon EU's faults. Ultimately, I can recommend it as XCOM 1.5 as it's an entirely new game if you had played on Normal difficulty for Enemy Unknown. I'm at an impasse whether or not I enjoyed Enemy Within. 'EW's sense of 'difficulty' assumes youвЂ™re familiar enough with EU to handle the unfair hurdles.'

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