Being ushered into a tightly packed and sweaty gaming booth with dim electric blue lamps overhead, SFL got their hands on the first three missions of the brand new XCOM Enemy Unknown, developed by Firaxsis Games and published by 2K. Inspired by the hallowed mid 90's PC classic strategy UFO: Enemy Unknown, this hands on progresses our XCOM journey after our trip to the Royal Observatory in Greenwich earlier in the year.

Our time on it at Gamescom has got our hearts a’patterin, as it opened with the famous quote from Arthur C Clarke: “Two possibilities exist: Either we are alone in the Universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying.” From that moment on we knew that we were in for something special - a piece of authentic sci-fi goodness.

Assuming control of the top secret XCOM project in the year 2015 (only the most elite military and scientific organisation in the history of mankind) the aim is to deploy a series of crack teams of special operatives around the world to defend and deflect the ever mounting waves of alien invaders. The ground combat sequences in the first three missions (with level one essentially a tutorial exploring ground coverage, flanking techniques and miniature combat) bring back timeless turn based satisfaction.

We encountered two types of alien enemy with differing strengths that forced us to react quickly and move strategically around the outdoor, multi level locations; Thin Man with his distorted proportions and huge agility he can cover large swathes of ground quickly or attack by unhinging his jaw and vomiting corrosive acid and Sectoids who run in packs with high pitched speech patterns. These little fella’s have the ability to form a psionic link with each other to share combat boosts between them. Both quite pesky for Tracey as she lost a member of her crew (perma death for the poor lass involved) during the third mission to rescue the scientist Anna and bring her back safely to the base.

Moving Anna across the destructible park setting, taking cover (if it hasn’t already been flattened) between benches, behind statues and open car doors provided welcome relief as there were some genuine, heart-in-mouth moments - like when Ian broke cover, trying to move to a new location within the setting. One of the aliens had Overwatch activated and as Ian came into their line of sight, time slowed, the camera shifted and zoomed in on the attacker as they shot at/spewed on/attacked him. If the probability of hit is high – e.g. usually when they were on higher ground than us – then a loss of precious life was inevitable. We quickly learnt to plot our route through the world very carefully and always have a back-up plan! The Fog of War means that you are unable to see what your troops are unable to see, again adding to the nervousness of battle.

Outside of the combat, there’s yet more strategy to get your teeth into like customising the abilities, gear and weapons of the boys who are deployed – will they specialise in snipe, assault, support or heavy weapons? XCOM HQ, aka the ant farm, is home to your research hub, engineering bases, barracks and a mansion of other opportunities which also tested our decision making skills as it was made clear the choices we make within each of these areas will impact on our personalised route through the game.

Consequences were highly visible as we were presented with two alien invasions in different parts of the world but informed we could only go to one due to time and resource constraints. America or China? The country we chose would give us either additional scientists or monetary reward, however, the one we'd ignore, discard and let the aliens tear apart would have their level of panic raised in the Situation Room and they might withdraw funds from the XCOM project.

Perhaps the ultimate aim is to keep a balance across the entire world but choosing what to keep under control and not creating a hysterical alien invading frenzy is interesting. A dark and faceless man currently represents the Council. As he dished out our third mission, we began to get the impression that there may be a little more to him than meets the eye…

1 vs 1 multiplayer has also been revealed adding an even greater value to what will be a huge game and aims to create additional play time. Taking up to six operatives out into the field of battle, the choice to offend, defend, ambush or retreat comes to the fore as players pit their wits against each other and it will soon become apparent if you’ve a) picked the right men with the right skills to mobilise and b) if the strategy unravels when you lose your key units by a little careless play early on.

XCOM Enemy Unknown is out on PC, XBOX 360 and PS3 in the UK on October 12th 2012.