From the XCOM Archive: How to defeat the Aliens and Stay Sane

Abstract

XCOM: Enemy Unknown, a 2012 video game (actually a reboot of a game released nearly two decades earlier), presents players with a relatively stereotypical task – they must defeat cosmic invaders. It also proposes a clear, linearly-presented plot and an intriguing mechanism of concern for the individual soldiers who are fighting the ignoble aliens. An analysis of the relationship between the rules and procedures of the game and its narrative-aesthetic layer allows for an interpretation of its central themes, chiefly, the problem of guaranteeing security, the dilemmas faced by a multicultural society, and instrumental reason as a tool in ruling over others. Dealing with these issues by means of typical videogame techniques, XCOM becomes an important link in the chain of narratives about invasions from outer space initiated by War of the Worlds, a critique of colonial institutions written by H. G. Wells in 1898. A description of the methods by which these classic problems are adapted to the needs of the contemporary audience of popular culture enables me to demonstrate the analytical tools used in interpreting video games.