Option 1

Game: XCOM: Enemy Unknown (2012)

Website: http://www.xcom.com/enemyunknown/
Gameplay: http://youtu.be/1VP4YmExQAE

Introduction
XCOM: Enemy Unknown is a turn-based tactical role-playing strategy game where the player is the commander of an elite military organization named XCOM, protecting Earth against an alien invasion. The player directs his or her soldiers in turn-based combat missions against alien enemies around the world. Apart from the combat, the player also directs the organization’s research and engineering divisions in creating new technologies and improving XCOM’s base of operations, and manages the organization’s finances

No.2 The Lens of Surprise
– The fog-of-war in the turn-based combat results in surprising enemy encounters as enemies are only   revealed when the player’s solder is within visible range of the enemy.
– New types of enemies are introduced during combat when the player first encounters them. New or unexpected enemy appearances can result in unit losses or mission failures if the unknown enemy is not handled properly.
– The story line also has a twist at the end in terms of why the aliens invaded Earth.

The usage of a simple fog-of-war is a good design as it creates many surprising encounters and creates unpredictability during a standard turn-based combat. The element of surprise from hidden enemies also results in the player having to adjust and adapt their strategies accordingly. Although some of the maps are notably repeated, the element of surprise creates intense and unique combats each time. The element of surprise from hidden enemies also results in the player having to adjust and adapt their strategies accordingly.

No.4 The Lens of Curiosity
– The story line creates curiosity by creating and open-ended and continuous analysis of why the technologically more advanced alien beings would want to invade Earth as player clears the missions.
– Each alien type has a compelling back story and is revealed after defeating them and doing a mandatory autopsy ‘research’ on them. Each alien type autopsy also reveals more upgrades for the player.

The story line paired very nicely with the revelation of the analysis as the player completes more mission and defeats more aliens. The autopsy design also generates curiosity and the drive to meet and kill more aliens as each alien has its own special autopsy and analysis result. This curiosity pushes the player to keep on playing the next mission, collecting alien specimen and researching new technologies.

41 The Lens of Punishment
– Soldiers that are injured during combat requires recovery time before they can be used for the next combat.
– Soldiers that die in combat are permanently dead. They leave behind only their equipment.
– Failing or ignoring missions will result in a decrease in the amount of resources given to the player.

The punishment in the game might create a domino effect resulting from a single mission loss. If the player loses all his best soldiers in a combat, he also loses the mission. With no high level soldiers available, player will have to go into combat with the lower level soldiers. This causes a more difficult battle and result in an even higher chance of loss. Loss of missions also results in a decrease in resources given to the player. This might result in an irrecoverable loss which stemmed from a single mission loss.

Should have a slightly tweaked system that allows a better chance of recovery.

No. 49 The Lens of Visible Progress
– Higher level aliens look bulkier, more armored and carry a bigger weapon.
– Higher level soldiers do not physically look different. Only the rank beside them changes.
– Armor and weapons look much more advanced as the story progresses.
– Alien space ships become much bigger as the story progresses.

Even though the soldier’s physical appearance does not change as he levels up, the rank placed beside its name during and outside of combat is very obvious and can easily tell which soldier is of higher level. You can tell how far you are progressing in the game as the alien space ships encountered will become bigger with each mission completed.

No.51 The Lens of The Pyramid
– After defeating all the basic types of the aliens, the game slowly introduces the upgraded versions of similar types of aliens.
– The final mission re-introduces all the different types of missions according to how powerful they are and the backstory to where the alien came from (different from the autopsy backstory)
– Each mission becomes gradually more difficult by having different combinations of aliens. It allows players to find out how to defeat a particular combination before adding more to it. Higher level missions can only be completed flawlessly only if the strategies introduced at the lower levels are applied accordingly.

The introduction of the different types and levels of aliens is very well-balanced. The design of the tactics learned at the lower level being reapplied at the higher levels is very well designed and balanced and done very implicitly. Players will automatically think of the strategies used previously and apply it during the higher levels. This makes the game intuitive to play and not frustrating for the players as they encounter tougher aliens.