MY TURN

There have been few moments over the last ten years where I’ve been far from a grid full of little soldiers duking it out turn by turn. There was a lull, certainly in attention, after the ’90s, but then XCOM: Enemy Unknown lit a fire under the genre, arguably kicking off the decade of turn-based tactics games—a title I’d never have imagined it earning at the start.

I say ‘arguably’ not because there is any doubt that came out in 2011, a year before , and was just as impressive. It didn’t quite have the same impact, however. is a reimagining of a series that was already acclaimed, but with a more cinematic and character-driven bent. Squads are also smaller, but more customizable, making the loss of any of them devastating—a trend that’s largely been continued.