14 DAY TRIAL // Before the launch of XCOM: Enemy, the team at Firaxis talked a lot about the new EXALT faction and the way it will significantly change the game experience because it will offer players an enemy that fights like a human from a tactical standpoint.
I must admit that the first few meetings I had with the group were pretty trying affairs and that I lost two valuable operatives fighting them in the early game.
The rebel human faction, which seeks to use the alien technology for its own aims, uses laser weaponry that can do a lot of damage during the first third of XCOM: Enemy Within and they also have access to some really powerful gene mods, including healing and adrenaline bursts.
Combat against EXALT also takes place under special conditions, with the player having to protect one covert operative that only has access to a pistol and lacks any solid armor, and also having to protect a location or clear another.
This creates a very interesting tactical puzzle because the most obvious solution is to split forces and try to achieve both mission objectives at the same time.
But the enemy human faction is powerful and deploys solid teamwork, which means I have often lost battles because of a failure to focus my firepower.
The best tactic I have found is to first go straight to my covert operative and make sure that he is safe before scouring the rest of the map for enemies in order to clear them out and complete the objectives.
But the biggest problem of the EXALT missions in the new XCOM is that once a player gets Titan armor and plasma-based weapons, they simply become much too easy, just a way of collecting some more spoils and working towards finding out where their Headquarter is actually hidden.