I had never played an X-COM game before this one and in general, I always want to start with the first game in a series. So I started with this one, and I have to say, this is one of the best games I have ever played. They do a great job of setting the atmosphere and tone; it really feels like you are trying to save earth from a UFO invasion. The creepy music that plays when you are fighting aliens in ground combat creates this sense of dread and hopelessness that most of your men are going to die.

The game is ruthlessly difficult and I say this having only played the beginner difficulty setting. The aliens are better than you in every way, they have faster ships, more accurate weapons, bigger guns, and even mind control. But, if you can reverse engineer the alien technology, then you have a much better chance of changing the tide of war. There is also an enormous amount of detail in the game mechanics, enabling a much higher skill skilling for those that really want to play the best. The level of detail puts modern games to shame; its sad that hardly any modern games have the complexity of ones from the 1990s.

I have 20 hours so far in X-COM: UFO Defense and I have not even come close to beating the game. And most likely, I will actually fail and have to start a new campaign, but thats okay since losing is part of the experience. So if you are looking for an immersive and challenging classic from the 90s, then I highly recommend X-COM: UFO Defense.