History Awesome / XCOMEnemyUnknown

** You can invoke this with the name, nickname, and customization options for your troops. Got a female Sniper from Russia? Give her red hair, name her [[Franchise/MarvelComics Natalia "Black Widow" Romanova]], give her Mimetic Skin and level her up to Major for Low Profile, and send her on all your Covert Ops. EXALT won't know what hit them. Got a female Heavy from a Hispanic nation? Name her [[Film/{{Aliens}} Vasquez.]]

*** If you ''really'' go for shock-and-awe, have a ''fully upgraded '''MEC Trooper''''' drop in on 'em this way,

* Meta-Example: While praised on the internet, ''VideoGame/XCom'' had been a dead game series for the better part of two decades. The majority of gamers in 2012 wouldn't even know it existed, and [[AudienceAlienatingPremise wouldn't readily embrace it if the game came out today]]. Add to the mix that [[RunningTheAsylum the developers constantly praised the original game]], and there was a '''high''' chance that Enemy Unknown would be the counterpoint to VideoGame/{{BioShock|1}} and VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}, making the die-hard original fans ''love'' it and alienating everyone else. And it '''didn't happen''', for the most part. Firaxis managed to take a dead game series, burn off everything that didn't belong, replace it with modern technology and mentalities, and make new people feel what the die-hard fans felt so long ago.
** Vindicated with the mere announcement of the sequel ''VideoGame/XCOM2''... despite the fact that it picks up twenty years after an ''Enemy Unknown'' "Game Over".

Awesome moments in ''VideoGame/XComEnemyUnknown''.

[[caption-width-right:350:[[CoolVsAwesome This]] is probably the ''[[UpToEleven least]]'' awesome moment in the game.]]

** Another LP example: From [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0aJoILmg3Y TheStalinator's XCOM playthrough,]] we had the MemeticBadass [[AwesomeMcCoolName William "''Viking''" Wilson]] of the UK. He started as something of a ButtMonkey, as he always took a lot of hits. But he would simply ''refuse to die.'' Poisoned by Thin Men? He would walk it off. Trapped behind an exploding car? Pshaw. Plasma to the face? He would stay up and kill a few aliens for good measure. He would often limp back to the Skyranger, hanging on by one HP. By the time he got his nickname, his badassery had caught Stalinator's notice, and he started growing a massive fandom in the comments section, along with the Argentine Heavy "''Tank''", and Russian Sniper "''Hex''" Ivanov. He usually wasn't the first in everything; "''Hex''" got a lot of the first kills (including the Sectoid Commander, the first Ethereal, and the Uber-Ethereal), and the "''Italian Stallion''" Riccardo Marino was the first psyker, but Will Wilson made up for it by being MadeOfIron and being an awesomely powerful psionic trooper. His SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome, however, was when he, of course, became the Volunteer, and made his HeroicSacrifice to save the Earth. Stalinator himself responded with a BigNo himself, followed by [[SugarWiki/FunnyMoments clips of the "''WILSON''!" scene]] from ''Film/CastAway''. And after all that, fans of the XCOM LP posted memorials and shed ManlyTears to Will Wilson, the greatest hero humanity had ever known (at least in this playthrough). It shows you how good of a game this is, that an essentially randomly-generated soldier can become so beloved by the player and those watching.
*** Most games will have some real bad asses that crop up through the halfway point. Big protective MEC trooper that runs headlong, rocket punching enemies while taking lots of fire? Call him "''Big Daddy''." Mission reward sniper with a nickname of "''Zero''"? Defies statistics and NEVER MISSES. An assault named "Havoc" where the best thing to do is plant him in the path of the aliens and watch the destruction. The game is awesome just for the individual soldier stories that come out of it.

** MEC Trooper vs. Mechtoid is admittedly a fairly good momment for the Mechtoid, which manages to avoid the instant-death fist the first time, parrying it, which leads to the MEC knocking it down with his offhand and finishing the Mechtoid off.

** An MEC punching a Sectopod is even more awesome. A sectopod is the equivalent of a heavy walking tank armed to the teeth. So is your MEC. During the animation, the MEC trooper will leap into the air and double-fist smash the Sectopod into the ground, then open its front plate as it tries to let a cannon shot off and deliver a haymaker that makes it explode. [[ChainReactionDestruction It hurts]], but it's very worth it.

** Vindicated with the mere announcement of the sequel ''VideoGame/XCOM2''... despite the fact that [[spoiler:it picks up twenty years after an ''Enemy Unknown'' "Game Over"]].

* Zhang is a badass in general, but it really shines through if he becomes the Volunteer. This is a man who has spent much of his life living outside the law, putting himself first and living through his guile and ruthlessness; when the aliens invaded, however, [[spoiler: and his boss was planning to sell away an artifact which could lead to the loss of thousands of human lives,]] he risked himself not only against his former allies but against a much more dangerous threat, the aliens themselves, to get it into XCOM's hands, and then kept up that fight by joining XCOM. Not only did he excel through the ranks, he attained incredible psychic powers beyond the scope of most humans - [[spoiler: and rather than abuse them, as many who lived a life like his would have been likely to do, he chose to sacrifice himself, saving humanity.]]
* In the expansion, when you rescue [[spoiler:Annette from the dam]], she initially attempts to flee your squad, only to be stopped by a couple warning shots. She then looks out at the path of carnage and alien bodies you carved through to get to her, and all she can say is "You... can kill them? But how..." To her, what XCOM (and the player) has come to consider a matter of course by now (killing alien {{Mooks}} by the dozen per mission) is the equivalent of DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu.

** An MEC punching a Sectopod is even more awesome. A sectopod is the equivalent of a heavy walking tank armed to the teeth. SO is your MEC. During the animation, the MEC trooper will bodily LIFT the sectopod into the air and smash it into the ground, then punch it into scrap metal.

** Or even better: Remember how the game started with an entire squad sans a LoneSurvivor getting wiped out by a mind controlled soldier who then suicide bombed them? Mind control one of the Uber-Ethereal's lesser Ethereals. Walk it right up to its face. Use a point blank Rift to show it just how bad of a mistake it made by messing with humanity.

(S)he has seen TheGreys, TheReptilians, half-man half-machine monstrosities, looked a Cyberdisk in its eye through their scope, faced 250 kg worth of muscle armed and armored to the teeth. \\

---> MEC taking a hit: "Minimal damage, at best." / "All systems green."
---> MEC taking out a unit: "Good riddance." / "Kill confirmed."

* Annette Durand is rescued from EXALT and then join XCOM. Despite being a civilian without any prior military experience (and thus having lower Aim and health than standard soldiers), she more than make it up by her high Will and guaranteed psionics ability.

** And from Canada, [[MassEffect Shepard]], Jane Shepard. And she just happened to hit the jackpot on base statistics and become a heavy with freakishly high aim. [[WholePlotReference Then nearly died in the base raid..........and came back psychic powers and gene mods.]] The Aliens are ''[[PrecisionFStrike Fucked]].''

** And then successful interrogation remarks on how the science team was surprised to find how "pliable" the Thin Man was. Either he was unusually cooperative, or their torture techniques got ''really'' inventive when they found out about his segmented spine.
** The Muton on the other hand isn't panicing...it's just rearing for a fight, pacing the interrogation room while punching it's palm. It slaps aside one of the interrogation devices and proceeds to try and smash it's way out of the glass. DefiantToTheEnd as fitting for a race bred for frontline combat.

** Another LP example: From [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0aJoILmg3Y TheStalinator's XCOM playthrough,]] we had the MemeticBadass [[AwesomeMcCoolName William "''Viking''" Wilson]] of the UK. He started as something of a ButtMonkey, as he always took a lot of hits. But he would simply ''refuse to die.'' Poisoned by Thin Men? He would walk it off. Trapped behind an exploding car? Pshaw. Plasma to the face? He would stay up and kill a few aliens for good measure. He would often limp back to the Skyranger, hanging on by one HP. By the time he got his nickname, his badassery had caught Stalinator's notice, and he started growing a massive fandom in the comments section, along with the Argentine Heavy "''Tank''", and Russian Sniper "''Hex''" Ivanov. He usually wasn't the first in everything; "''Hex''" got a lot of the first kills (including the Sectoid Commander, the first Ethereal, and the Uber-Ethereal), and the "''Italian Stallion''" Riccardo Marino was the first psyker, but Will Wilson made up for it by being MadeOfIron and being an awesomely powerful psionic trooper. His CrowningMomentOfAwesome, however, was when he, of course, became the Volunteer, and made his HeroicSacrifice to save the Earth. Stalinator himself responded with a BigNo himself, followed by [[SugarWiki/FunnyMoments clips of the "''WILSON''!" scene]] from ''Film/CastAway''. And after all that, fans of the XCOM LP posted memorials and shed ManlyTears to Will Wilson, the greatest hero humanity had ever known (at least in this playthrough). It shows you how good of a game this is, that an essentially randomly-generated soldier can become so beloved by the player and those watching.

* Doubles as a CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming, but any time things go catastrophically wrong and you pull it out of the fire with only one or two troopers left standing.

** The stealthily awesome "Mimetic Skin" is a CrowningMomentOfAwesome for the research team as they were able to reverse-engineer stealth capabilities ''[[GameBreaker very early]]'' in the game. All players need to do is kill a "Seeker", research it, build the Gene Mod lab, send your troops in for 3 days, and you have amassed an army that can generate stealth kills. Problem with recon? Just have your Mimetic Skin assault go to full cover, discover the aliens, send everyone else, and the aliens won't even know what killed them. Even more so for Snapshot snipers as they can recon even better ''than assaults'' thanks to them having the "Low Profile" perks that allow them to activate Mimetic Skin at ''any cover''.

*** ... at least until ''Enemy Within'' came along and buffed Sectopods with 50% damage reduction from all sources.

** "Operation Bloody Grave" - [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Yeah, sounds like a]] [[TotalPartyKill Code Black]] [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast waiting to happen, huh?]] Especially since the level this operation was on was the [[ClimaxBoss Overseer UFO?]] [[SubvertedTrope Nope!]] Not only did the team manage to decimate two Sectopods, an army of the aliens best ''and'' capture an Ethereal alive, ''[[AndThereWasMuchRejoicing it was done without a single scratch!]]'' Then again, just like the above "Operation Bloody Hero," [[CurbStompBattle the game never quite specified who was being put in a bloody grave...]]
* Meta-Example: While praised on the internet, ''VideoGame/XCom'' has been a dead game series for the better part of two decades. The majority of gamers in 2012 wouldn't even know it existed, and [[AudienceAlienatingPremise wouldn't readily embrace it if the game came out today.]] Add to the mix that [[RunningTheAsylum the developers constantly praised the original game]], and there was a '''high''' chance that Enemy Unknown would be the counterpoint to VideoGame/{{BioShock|1}} and VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}, making the die-hard original fans ''love'' it and alienating everyone else. And it '''didn't happen''', for the most part. Firaxis managed to take a dead game series, burn off everything that didn't belong, replace it with modern technology and mentalities, and make new people feel what the die-hard fans felt so long ago.
** Vindicated with the mere announcement of the sequel ''VideoGame/XCOM2''... despite the fact that [[spoiler:it picks up twenty years after an Enemy Unknown "''Game Over''"]].

* With Second Wave options, Training Roulette can lead to some awful random skill combinations...but then there is the opportunity for your soldiers to have some mind-blowing (literally for the aliens) combinations.
** An assault with Bullet Swarm (Firing your weapon on the first action does not end the turn), Close and Personal (first shot within 4 tiles costs no action) and Rapid Fire (two shots against a single target with a -15 aim penalty using one turn) means the soldier can fire FOUR times in one turn with an Alloy Canon.
** A heavy or sniper with Covering Fire ( reactions shots trigger on enemy attack attempts, not only movements), Sentinel (2 separate reaction shots during Overwatch) and Opportunist (no Aim and crit penalty for reaction shots) means you never actively use these soldiers, just put them on overwatch and watch as the enemy's turn leads to alien slaughter.
** A heavy with deep pockets, mayhem and grenadier (along with the foundry upgrade Tactical rigging) means they can carry 6 grenades that hurt like rockets.

** Snipers can do it even better. Your buddy has been mind controlled and is about to shoot you? You scramble to find the alien mind controlling him, but are unable to kill him before your buddy shoots you in the back... You close your eyes, and hear plasma streaking through the air... But you don't feel anything... You open your eyes, and see your buddy holding his arm before fixing his rifle, while the team FriendlySniper gives you a thumb up... Time to kill that alien scum and free your buddy! You are definitely offering that sniper a month worth of drinks when you'll get back at the base!

* What can be more awesome than killing a Sectoid ? Killing a Sectoid that was buffing one alien, thus making the second alien's brain seemingly explose and kill it too.

** Another LP example: From [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0aJoILmg3Y TheStalinator's XCOM playthrough,]] we had the MemeticBadass [[AwesomeMcCoolName William "''Viking''" Wilson]] of the UK. He started as something of a ButtMonkey, as he always took a lot of hits. But he would simply ''refuse to die.'' Poisoned by Thin Men? He would walk it off. Trapped behind an exploding car? Pshaw. Plasma to the face? He would stay up and kill a few aliens for good measure. He would often limp back to the Skyranger, hanging on by one HP. By the time he got his nickname, his badassery had caught Stalinator's notice, and he started growing a massive fandom in the comments section, along with the Argentine Heavy "''Tank''", and Russian Sniper "''Hex''" Ivanov. He usually wasn't the first in everything; "''Hex''" got a lot of the first kills (including the Sectoid Commander, the first Ethereal, and the Uber-Ethereal), and the "''Italian Stallion''" Riccardo Marino was the first psyker, but Will Wilson made up for it by being MadeOfIron and being an awesomely powerful psionic trooper. His CrowningMomentOfAwesome, however, was when he, of course, became the Volunteer, and made his HeroicSacrifice to save the Earth. Stalinator himself responded with a BigNo himself, followed by [[FunnyMoments clips of the "''WILSON''!" scene]] from ''Film/CastAway''. And after all that, fans of the XCOM LP posted memorials and shed ManlyTears to Will Wilson, the greatest hero humanity had ever known (at least in this playthrough). It shows you how good of a game this is, that an essentially randomly-generated soldier can become so beloved by the player and those watching.

* Some maps in the game can have music playing in stores or resturaunts. Often, this music sounds like it was taken straight out of BlackDynamite. The best time to hear it is ordering a Heavy with a spare rocket to move just behind a closed door with something to shoot behind it.

* In the expansion, when you rescue [[spoiler: Anette from the dam]], she initially attempts to flee your squad, only to be stopped by a couple warning shots. She then looks out at the path of carnage and alien bodies you carved through to get to her, and all she can say is:
---> "You... can kill them? How..."