Darth Wiki / Unidentified

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Unidentified is a Real-Time/Turn-Based Strategy video game concept by Mad Red X 12, a Spiritual Successor to the X-COM and UFO: After Blank series, as well as Xenonauts. Sometime in the mid-21st century, the world is on the verge of World War III, only for said third world war to be prevented when an Alien Invasion occurs, with five different alien empires all vying for conquest of Earth and extermination of the human race, while also fighting one another. This forces the humans into peace with one another, and the collected governments of the world proceed to unite together their armies and militias into a single Badass Army, which the player has been handed control over and entrusted with fighting back against the aliens.

The game will follow the standard X-COM formula, with a Geoscape view, heavy amounts of research and engineering, and squad-based ground missions. Interception sequences would be in turn-based combat, while, like in the UFO: After Blank games, soldier-based missions are in Real-Time with Pause. There is also a class-based combat system, a Enemy Civil War between the five main enemy factions, an Alliance Meter with various Mega Corps, battles against a Apocalypse Cult and The Men in Black, a more complex story with story arcs, the ability to both make and take requests from governments for resources, and battles in space, underwater and in Another Dimension.

Tropes related to Unidentified

#-B

• Zero Per Cent Approval Rating: Raid the Cult and Omega Syndicate constantly. No-one will care, and you can even steal their stashes of drugs and weapons, then sell them.
• 20 Minutes into the Future: The game is stated to be set sometime in the mid-21st century, roughly any year between 2044 and 2064. The world was on the midst of World War III, which was stopped by the Alien Invasion. Most social and fashion trends have reset back to the 1950s-1990s, while technology is a bit more advanced. The United States of America has divided into three sets (Northern, Southern and Western) and is in the midst of a second civil war, while Britain, Canada and Mexico have annexed the few states that aren't part of either. A New British Empire has been formed, and they've annexed the majority of Europe save for Spain, Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands, who have formed an Anti-Britain Alliance with the majority of South America. Similarly, the Japanese Empire has taken over China and much of Asia, save for Russia, which has been taken over by a quartet of warring corporations, and India, which has united with Africa into a African Coalition. Antarctica is now a People's Republic with a population of 10,000 humans, and Oceania has gotten its act together. Pluto, Ceres, Haumea, Makemake and Eris have been redeclared planets, Ganymede and Titan have been declared planets in their own right, and new planets Vulcan, Tyche, Chiron, Themis, Quaroar, Orcus, Sedma and Nemesis have been found, having been apparently hiding behind a event horizon on the other side of a miniture wormhole on the edge of the Solar System.
• A-Team Firing: Downplayed. Most rookies will be able to hit a stationary target ... most of the time.
• A Commander Is You: Although you do get to directly control troops, and see through their eyes.
• A Father to His Men: The Head Soldier, who openly cares for each soldier, emphasises how inexpendable they are, and even visits them in the infirmary when they get injured.
• A Nazi by Any Other Name: The Compendium.
• Abnormal Ammo: A lot is used for certain weapons. Crystal shards, giant blood cells, biochemicals, "bluescreen" EMP tech, poison, tree sap...
• Absurdly Spacious Sewer: A rare justified example, since the sewage system under the Home Base also doubles as an emergency escape route for non-combat personnel should the base be under attack. Heck, it's even large enough to drive the emergency vehicles through.
• Ace Pilot: Your pilots will eventually become these if you manage them properly.
• Action Girl: Any female character encountered in the games, whether they're a soldier or civilian.
• Action Survivor/ Badass Bystander: Unlike X-COM or even Xenonauts, all civilians are armed in some manner, which can lead to things such as the cathartic sight of a civilian bashing a Selenite's head in with a wrench.
• After the End: The game begins after a series of wars has destroyed the world's political system and most of society, followed by a first strike by alien invaders that killed about 30% of all life on Earth. Humans, who were previously on the verge of World War III, have banded together to defend their home.
• Air-Vent Passageway: A lot of locations you can enter feature these.
• AKA47: Weapon names are generic, while aircraft and vehicles include the "F-19 Eagle", "Megaterra Scout Car" and "Caesar-50". Can also be considered a subversion, as the Invasipedia pages explicitly state the mentioned equipment and vehicles as being developed from or based on the real life weapons and vehicles.
• Alien Abduction: Played for horror, with the one abduction seen on-screen being accompanied by the visible sound of the victim's bones breaking as they are levitated within a tractor beam.
• Alien Autopsy: Carried out automatically, and when completed, they give a 10% damage bonus against analyzed alien species.
• Alien Blood: While plain ol' red is pretty prevalent amongst the aliens, many of them have different coloured blood to humans. Green, Yellow, Blue and Purple are the most prominent colours.
• Alien Invasion: Notable for featuring FIVE different alien empires all fighting each other and the humans for control over the Earth!
  • The Starghost Legion (consisting of Selenites, Teslas, Spectraneers, Molecoids and Psicons) are your standard evil alien empire, intent on conquering the Earth as it is the last in a chain of planets they have already conquered, and they believe that having the Insignificant Little Blue Planet will give them enough control of the universe to defeat any opposition. They're somewhere between all-out attack and infiltration, using psionic attacks and infiltrating Selenites alongside attacks upon cities.
  • The Compendium (consisting of Chameliacs, Viperones, Anterras, Beetlers and Constrictors) are snake, insect and arachnid-based interplanetary jihads who believe themselves to be a collective Master Race who are descended from a race of Benevolent Precursors known as the "Firstborns" and must eliminate any other race that won't bow before them. They're mainly the brute force faction of the alien invaders.
  • The Union of Surviving Races (consisting of Cancerians, Equinoids, Coranites, Eelmen and Vectorons) are a group of aquatic Anti-Villain Invading Refugees who want to take over Earth's oceans after their home planet has been dried up by another race of evil aliens. They mainly specialise in covert missions in the oceans and along coasts.
  • The Empire of Horrors are a whole bunch of Lovecraftian horrors from outer space who have come to Earth to carry out the will of a higher intelligence by wiping humanity out and taking over Earth. They mainly use stealth operations, hiding out in forests and isolated areas before attacking people.
  • The Dimension Z creatures are a race of various bizarre, animalistic Bee People Starfish Aliens from Another Dimension with a semi-Hive Mind who invade Earth to claim it and then the rest of the galaxy as their new territory. They're all brute force.
• Aliens Are Bastards: Averted with the Union of Surviving Races and the Dimension Z creatures, the former of whom are Anti-Villain Invading Refugees, and the latter of whom are seemingly Non-Malicious Monsters who're not entirely confirmed to have any understanding of what they're doing. Played straight with the Starghost Legion, Compendium and Empire of Horrors.
• Aliens Steal Cattle: Some raids on Abductor-class alien ships will have quite a few slaughtered cattle scattered around the storage pods.
• All Your Base Are Belong to Us: Aliens can attack and try to take over your base, and can even succeed in taking over parts of it if you don't reclaim them.
• All Deserts Have Cacti: Half of them do. The others have Hellenistic ruins. The Compenium's Bio-Dome also has cacti — PURPLE cacti.
• All Myths Are True: Alien Abductions, cattle mutilation, cryptids (like yetis and chupacabras), Crop Circles, Reptilian Conspiracies, The Men in Black...
  • Ever heard of porcupines shooting their quills? Meet the Spineboar — a car-sized mutant porcupine that can kill a unarmoured soldier with a single shot. It's also quite resistant to small bullets.
  • Ghosts are also revealed to be real, as well.
• Alliance Meter: In addition to the Funding Nations, there are 25 earth-bound factions waging corporate wars for political and economical power during the alien invasion. You get either more funding or cheaper goods the higher your relationship is with an organization.
• Always Accurate Attack: Melee attacks have no chance to miss at all.
• Always Chaotic Evil: Subverted with the Starghost Legion - there is actually a very peaceful tribe of them who oppose the invasions and conquests. Downplayed with the Dimension Z creatures, who are animalistic creatures who are acting only on instinct. The Union of Surviving Races are a complete aversion. Played straight with the Compendium and Empire of Horrors, though.
• Always on Duty: Actually given a reason! When not actively engaging in combat or covert missions, soldiers will actively train at the base's Gyms, slowly improving their stats.
• Ambiguous Robots: The Alien Autopsy report on the Tetson has the Head Scientist note that while it appears to be a machine, its internals are arranged in a manner similar to organs in a living creature and it possesses what amounts to a circulatory system with plasma instead of blood, making the scientists unsure if it is a robot or a silicon-based cybernetic life form.
• Ancient Astronauts: The Head Scientist will propose this concept during some researches.
• Ancient Conspiracy: The Men in Black, another antagonistic faction who intends to shut down your project and have humanity submit to the aliens.
• Animesque: One of the graphical options for the game is this, giving the graphics a Ben 10 -esque anime-western animation hybrid-style look.
• Another Dimension: Where the Dimension Z creatures are from.
• Anti-Air: Various weapon modules for the ground vehicles, although they can be fired at ground-level targets as well.
• Apocalypse Cult: The Cult, who believe that the Aliens are the saviors of humanity. They and the Men in Black are the only non-alien factions in the game that will start off hating you. And, even if you spend (way) too much money to get their opinion to neutral, they'll never actually like you and their opinion will nosedive as soon as you engage any alien forces. They're also (generally) hated by every other faction and corporation, making them perfect raiding material for you to get additional money by raiding their temples and stealing their stuff.
• Apocalyptic Log: The News Ticker, especially if things are going badly.
• Armor Is Useless: Thoroughly averted. A newly recruited soldier will typically be killed in two shots from the weakest alien weapons, while a soldier with the earliest-researched armour suits will be able to survive a single plasma rifle shot into the face, albeit being badly wounded in the process.
• Artificial Brilliance: During Terror missions, civilians will actively take cover and try to surround enemies, and if it appears that they're outclassed, they'll try to run for your landing ship and hide there.
• Artistic License – Biology: Pointed out and handwaved away with the Gene Lab.
  Head Scientist: This technology is entirely alien to our world. Selectively modifying the genetic content of only specific adult somatic cells, changing and improving the physical abilities of existing, adult soldiers was up until this point seemingly impossible, as it defied the very nature of DNA. But the aliens found a way to make it happen. It just doesn't make any sense ... but right now, with our situation, I do not care about HOW it works. I only care THAT it works.
• Asshole Victim:
  • Any Compendium trooper who gets slaughtered by the humans.
• Attack Drone: Employed by the player and the aliens in several variants.
• Badass Boast: Soldiers and special characters have many badass lines when activating their abilities and taking actions.
• Badass Cape: The Vampire armour has a holographic cape that camouflages the suit's jetpack.
• Badass Crew: A team of experienced soldiers turn into this, mowing down the aliens with ease.
• Badass Longcoat: Omega Syndicate Goons. Petty criminals want to look cool, too. The Head Scientist also wears a combination of this and a labcoat.
• Badass in a Nice Suit: The Men in Black.
• Badass Normal: Civilians, and regular soldiers without any fancy psionics, cybernetics and/or bio-augmentations, once they gain enough experience. All they have are their skills, guns, and armour.
• Bathos: In spite of the Crapsack World and dark storyline, your soldiers and personnel tend to crack jokes to lighten the mood.
• Benevolent Conspiracy: Averted with the Men in Black, unlike other depictions of them. There is nothing benevolent about them in the slightest.
• BFG: A lot of the more advanced technology is this, mainly because the humans build their equipment (including their alien-based tech) on a bigger scale to overcome the primitiveness of their tech.
• Big Bad Ensemble: The Earth is threatened by five different alien empires, a variety of cryptids, the Men in Black, a Apocalypse Cult, and a criminal N.G.O. Superpower.
• Big Creepy-Crawlies: In addition to some of the Compendium, the Starghost Legion also uses some kind of weird gas or radiation to make Earth insects and arachnids grow gigantic and become their personal Giant Mooks. The variants seen are Flies, Beetles, Scorpions, Spiders, Ants, Cicadas, Worms and Bees.
• Bigfoot, Sasquatch, and Yeti: This trio, as well as the Abominable Snowman, make appearances. Like most Cryptids, they're neutral parties who only attack whoever threatens them first - and with their strength, speed and endurance, you do NOT want to threaten them. Aliens will often attack them on sight, though - if that happens, just sit back and watch them tear your enemy to pieces.
  • In addition to this, there's also the Shambling Walkers, the largest and strongest members of the Empire of Horrors, who also have a Eyeless Face and More Teeth than the Osmond Family. Unlike the Earthborn Cryptids, they'll attack any human on site.

• Bizarre Alien Reproduction: The Dimension Z creatures, in addition to all being spawned from a single lifeform.
• Black Box: Most of the technology that the Science and Engineering departments come up with is this. They have no idea how exactly it all works, but they can replicate it.

• Black Market: Where alien technology and artifacts are sold. You can also buy exclusive weapons, equipment, aircraft parts and hair dye there.

• Black Speech: The language of the Compendium sounds like Satan's autodial, complete with Voice of the Legion. The Men in Black also communicate through their own special scary-sounding language.
• Blasting It Out of Their Hands: Higher level Snipers can do this if "Disabling Shot" is chosen, forcing the target to waste a turn on unjamming the weapon. Be cautious though, as they can still use grenades just fine.
• Blinded by the Light: The Recon's Flashbangs leave enemies caught in the radius "Blinded" for around twenty seconds, giving them severe aim and movement penalties. This can cripple even the otherwise scarily accurate Vectorons and Selenite Elites into being unable to shoot straight, and Anterras and Z-Soldiers into barely being able to move. Robots, Shamblers and psionic enemies are immune, though.
• Bloodier and Gorier: Compared to other X-COM-style games, Unidentified features much more blood and gore in its combat, with the alien ray guns slicing through flesh bloodily and frequent Body Horror occurring due to evil alien experiments. In addition to this, your soldiers can perform Brutal Doom -esque Finishers on enemies, which stand out even in this game for just how grotesque and violent they are.
• Body Armour As Hit Points: The primary benefit of armour, though some models also reduce the enemy's chance to hit. Certain special items like Padded Alien Kevlar Vests or Chitin Plating also boost health. Additionally, a soldier who receives less damage than the health bonus given by their armour won't need a stay in the infirmary after the mission.
• Body Horror:
• Bomb-Throwing Anarchists: The Omega Syndicate have a dash of this alongside Take Over the World, War for Fun and Profit, and general gang tropes.
• Bottomless Magazines: Downplayed. Your squad never needs to reload, but they have limited ammunition for their weapons.
• Bridge Bunnies: All of the player's technicians are female. Conversely, all of the scientists are male.
• Briefcase Full of Money: While trading with the Black Market, the image in the background is of a suited, shade-wearing man with one of these and silhouettes of obviously armed guards behind him wearing similar clothes. Merchants of death don't accept charge cards, it seems.

C-D

• Cassandra Truth: One news report states "UFO enthusiasts around the world feel sense of vindication following appearance of aliens."
• Category Traitor: The Head Scientist and Head Soldier specifically call the Men in Black "traitors" rather than just enemies. For once, it's justified as they're humans trying to help the aliens conquer humanity.
• Character Class System: The game has a Team Fortress 2 style character class system, with each class having a unique role and two unique weapons.
  • The Rifleman is the main frontline class of the game, armed with a Assault Rifle and Battle Rifle. They're the Jack of All Stats of the game, and have a automatic 25% resistance to all non-damaging debuffs.
  • The Assault is the main support fighter of the game, armed with a Automatic Shotgun. They have increased strength and speed but aren't too durable, and automatically use all defensive equipment with 40% more effectiveness.
  • The Support is, like the name suggests, the fire support provider of the team, armed with a SAW. They have enhanced accuracy but reduced speed, and land projectile attacks twice as fast as other classes.
  • The Recon is the speed fighter and scout of the game, using a Scattergun. They have the lowest health but the highest speed (doing everything 33% faster), and have 50% more efficiency with melee weapons.
• CIA Evil, FBI Good: Inverted. Amongst the Divided States of America, the FBI is on the side of the Western States, who are undeniably evil. Meanwhile, the CIA is siding with the Northern States.
• Cold-Blooded Torture: Interrogations.
  Head Scientist: As an added bonus to our research, the alien creatures are not signers of the Geneva Convention, thus the usual protections do not apply. (evil smile)
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Each soldier class's emblems and base uniform can allow you to see what class they are. Riflemen are cyan, Assaults are grey, Supports are purple, Recons are green, Grenadiers are red, Stealth Operatives are black, Heavy Weapons are blue, Paramedics are white, Combat Engineers are orange, Specialists are yellow, Rocketeers are magenta, and Marksmen are khaki. On the enemy side, the Starghost Legion and Compendium's troops' ranks are identifiable by the colours of their uniform, as well as the type of headgear they wear and weapons they wield.
• Comic-Book Fantasy Casting: The Head Scientist, Head Engineer, Head Soldier and Vehicle Manager are physically based on Keanu Reeves, Sigourney Weaver, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Joe Pesci respectively.
• Common Tactical Gameplay Elements: Being a tactical game, Unidentified implements most of these: Fog of War, Scouting, High Ground, Unit Specialization, Panic, Attack Range, Flanking, Attack of Opportunity, Friendly Fire, Taking Cover, Covering and Suppressing Fire, Target Spotting and Defensive Stances.
• Cool Old Lady: The Head Engineer, the leader of the technicians. She's notable for being the only one of your main generals who legitimately is friendly towards you, as opposed to the Head Scientist, Head Soldier and Vehicle Manager.
• Cosmetic Award: Averted with the medals: each one gives a specific bonus to the soldier to which it is awarded. A soldier with all medals is significantly more effective on the battlefield than an equivalent rank soldier without any medals.
• Cow Tools: Some are visible on occasion in a soldier's room, ranging from guns to skateboards.
• Crapsack World:
  • The in-game News Reports depict a grim picture of the world as panic starts to rise. Economic collapse, unchecked rioting, destroyed infrastructure, and starvation become common reports later in the game, and these incidents only get worse and worse as the invasion progresses. This damage progressively escalates over time to give you the feeling that you're fighting an escalating war and that the fate of mankind is at stake.
  ABANDONED CIVILIAN SHIP LOCATED OFF COAST OF (country). ENERGY WEAPON DISCHARGE EVIDENT. (10-20) PASSENGERS REPORTED ABDUCTED.
  UNIDENTIFIED EXTRATERRESTRIAL SHIP STRAFES CIVILIAN AREA WITH DESTRUCTIVE WEAPONRY in (country). (50-90) CIVILIANS REPORTED KILLED IN ATTACK.
  GRUESOMELY MUTILATED CORPSE OF MISSING WOMAN FOUND NAILED TO STREET SIGN IN (country). MESSAGE OF "THIS IS YOUR FATE HUMANS" FOUND WRITTEN IN BLOOD ON OTHER SIDE OF SIGN.
  MASS DESTRUCTION IN (country) AS ALIEN SHIP TOPPLES OVER LARGE OFFICE COMPLEX ONTO OCCUPIED SHANTYTOWN. (200-300) REPORTED KILLED AS CIVILIAN VOLUNTEERS WORK ON EXTRACTING SURVIVORS.
  • Even before the Alien Invasion, Earth was this. America has divided between the Northern States, Southern States and Western States, and is in the midst of the Second American Civil War, which has only calmed down a bit by the invasion. Britain and Japan are both conspiring to Take Over the World, having already conquered the majority of Europe and Asia respectively. Russia has become One Nation Under Copyright, and Africa has become a bunch of Private Military Contractors, sending out massive amounts of untrained civilians to fight for the highest bidder since they have a lot of people. Oceania has managed to stay together, but has suffered a massive economic and technological collapse, with many people being reduced to farmers and hunter-gatherers against the wildlife of Oceania. Pretty much the best place to live is Antarctica, which now has a populace of just over 10,000 people - and, well, it's Antarctica.
  • Subverted with the rest of the universe. The alien empires are vast and far more technologically advanced than humanity, and you're just a single planet similar to the Gaulish village from Asterix, but Humanity Is Superior and by the end of the game, the human forces deal heavy enough blows to the aliens that they'd be foolish to try and invade Earth again. The final battle against the Compendium where they attempt to use a Doomsday Device to just completely destroy Earth ends with your army pilots deflecting it back to destroy the majority of the Compendium fleet, sending the survivors into hiding.
• Critical Hit: On headshots, weak spots, and the absolute centre of mass.
• Cyanide Pill: The Men in Black cannot be captured alive, as they'll always commit suicide when incapitated.
• Designated Point Man: The Recon class. They combine Fragile Speedster and Glass Cannon, having horrible Survival and Strength but the highest Speed of any class and use Scatterguns, which are extremely powerful at close-range. They also have increased proficiency with melee-weapons, and do everything from firing to swinging to using equipment 33% faster.
• Determinator: Humanity's hat in this universe. Every other race in the galaxy is more advanced, more numerous, or simply more powerful, but humanity wins out every time because they NEVER. GIVE. UP.
• Divided States of America: The US in the game has undergone a secession and is in the midst of a second civil war. It's currently divided between the Western States (California, Oregon, Washington, Nevada, Idaho, Wyoming and Montana), Northern States (Washington D.C., Virginia, Wisconsin, Iowa, Dakota, Nebraska, Colorado, Kansas, Illnois, Michigan, Indiana and Ohio), and Southern States (New Mexico, Arizona, Missipi, Alabama, Georgia, Oklahoma, Carolina and Hawaii). During this time, Alaska and Maine have been annexed by Canada, while Mexico has retaken Texas and the New British Empire has taken over New York, Conneticut, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania and Florida. None of said territories are good places to live in.
• Doing Research: Wouldn't be an X-Com homage without some tinkering with juicy alien technology. You also get a small damage bonus against alien species that are researched.

E-F

• Earn Your Happy Ending: The ending of the game. Earth is starting to improve, humanity having become a far stronger technological power moving towards a more peaceful society. The Starghost Legion has retreated from the Solar System, and the Compendium has been dealt a severe blow that's taken out most of its members. The Union of Surviving Races have finally found a new home and made peace with mankind, the Dimension Z creatures and Empire of Horrors have been pushed back to their home dimensions, the Men in Black have been exposed to the public, and the Cult has been disbanded and outlawed. After beating this game, it's safe to say that YOU deserve it.
• Enemy Mine: This occurred at the start of the invasion - the human race was on the verge of World War III before the aliens showed up and started blowing everything up, causing all the governments to scramble together and hit the aliens with everything they had.

• Evil Counterpart: The Men in Black are this in contrast to the player's organisation: a pro-alien group that uses the same classes, equipment and abilities as you, also reverse-engineers alien technology as the campaign goes on, and even has a direct contrast to you in terms of relationships with the public and the invaders - you and your gang are a public organisation who want to enlighten the public on the alien technology and help them resist the alien invasion you're fighting to stop, while the Men in Black are a secret shadow organisation who want to keep the public in the dark and keep them stupid before submitting them to the aliens. During the raid on their headquarters, you can even see that they even have their own holo-globe, except grey instead of red like your version.
• Exposed Extraterrestrials: The Compendium's soldiers.
• Expy: Due to the game being a Fan Game/ Spiritual Successor to the X-COM and UFO: After Blank series', as well as Xenonauts, this occurs with several alien lifeforms, settings and technologies.
  • Zorium is pretty much Elerium/Alienium, and is even named after a scrapped resource of the same name from X-COM: Apocalypse.
  • The Dimension Z creatures are very heavily based on the aliens from X-COM: Apocalypse. They're all evolved from a single organism, are freakish creatures from Another Dimension, use hideous Organic Technology, and are tied to a Puppeteer Parasite (the main difference is that they control the parasite rather than the other way around).
  • The Compendium are this to the Halo series' Covenant. Monstrous, xenophobic Space Nazis? Check. Multiple races that form a kind of caste system? Check. Fantastic Racism mentality that posits that they're the Master Race(s) and that everything else should either serve them or be eliminated? Check. Perception of entitlement due to believing themselves to be the descendants of a advanced race of Precursors? Check. Special hatred of mankind, who turn out to be the true descendants of the Precursors rather than them? Check!
  • The Psicons are almost identical to the Martians from Mars Attacks!, just grey instead of green and with Icy Blue Eyes.
  • Eelmen are basically Deep Ones from outer space with sonic weapons.
  • The Recon class is heavily based on the Scout, with the same cocky attitude and habit of bragging about their physical fitness, albeit with a somewhat nicer attitude. Word of God says that if it were made into a real game, he'd even prefer the male Recons to be voiced by Nathan Vetterlein.
• Fallen States of America: The US has essentially collapsed and divided into three sub-sections, with Canada, Mexico and the New British Empire have annexed the remaining states that haven't formed one of the three territories. These territories consist of the Western States of America (California, Oregon, Washington, Nevada, Idaho, Wyoming and Montana), the Northern States of America (Washington D.C., Virginia, Wisconsin, Iowa, Dakota, Nebraska, Colorado, Kansas, Illnois, Michigan, Indiana and Ohio), and the Southern States of America (New Mexico, Arizona, Missipi, Alabama, Georgia, Oklahoma, Carolina and Hawaii). The Western States have embraced Political Overcorrectness and California has become a black-supremacist matriarchy dominated by a corrupt government, while Idaho has become a Mormon theocracy. New Mexico, Arizona, Alabam, Georgia and Carolina have formed a new Confederate Alliance, while Hawaii has gone back to native rule. New England has become the sole Truce Zone for the Second American Civil War, and Amsterdam has split off to become its own micronation. The war between the Western, Northan and Southern States is still on-going even in the midst of the Alien Invasion, and the entire country has become little more than a joke around the world, with even former third world nations being several times richer than the entire country. Cities from coast to coast have been reduced to bomb-shattered slums filled with people constantly fighting in the streets over anything they can get their hands on, and any attempts at trying to form reunification have been met with mockery by the people.
• Fatality: Finishers, which your soldiers will perform on enemies when in close-range and the enemy is low on health. The type of Finisher done depends on the enemy type and the soldier's weapon, but a lot of them feature a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown often ending with the victim having their head, limbs or organs torn out.
• Flying Cutlery Spaceship: The Compendium use these.
  Head Scientist: What practical use is there to the designs of these ships, aside from intimidation factor?
  Head Engineer: Maybe that's what they're designed for?
  Vehicle Manager: Or as part of their brand identity?
  Head Scientist: You may have a point there.

G-H

• Good Weapon, Evil Weapon: The dimorphism between your weapons and the Men in Black's weapons becomes more pronounced later on in the tech trees. At first, they only start with black-tinted ballistic weapons, compared to the khaki camo your soldiers default to. For the lasers, they're black to your light grey and shaped more like standard sci-fi ray guns as opposed to your weapons, which look more like regular guns repurposed to fire lasers. Subverted in that you can equip their weaponry to no ill effect – functionally, they're the exact equivalent to your own hardware.
• Gratuitous Laboratory Flasks: They appear in the lab, complete with glowing liquid inside.
• Groin Attack: One Finisher has a soldier kick an alien in the crotch so hard the victim's genitals EXPLODE.
• "Have a Nice Day" Smile: Grenadiers will do this to an enemy caught in the range of their explosives right before they detonate, complete with a cheery wave.
• Hidden in Plain Sight: Your outposts outside of the main Elaborate Underground Base are hidden within cities, often in apartment blocks (which also provides accommodation with soldiers, who live relatively normal lives there when not on duty) or police stations. In addition, most Men in Black bases turn out to be located in warehouses or fancy skyscraper penthouses.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: The entire point of the game, really. Aliens attack Earth with vast technological superiority, and Earth fights back by taking that technology and improving on it.
• Hollywood Healing: Justified. Very justified. How can the Trauma Inn heal someone's blown-off limbs, or huge amounts of broken bones, and in some cases even decapitation? Because they have access to stolen alien warp technology, which has been adapted to heal wounds by warping the space the wound is in to cause cells to begin regenerating at a rapid rate, even causing new ones to develop in proper patterns to reform limbs. Of course, this still requires several days in non-stop warp treatment, and the technology can't be adapted into handheld medkits until sufficient breakthroughs in the technology are reached.
• Humans Are Survivors: Overlapping with Humans Are Warriors - humanity is basically the immovable object to the aliens' unstoppable force.
• Humans Are Warriors: Essentially, the humans are the main brute force faction of the game. The weapons they make tend to have the highest base damage or greatest rate of fire and their armour is highly protective, but this comes at the cost of being very heavy. As mentioned earlier under BFG, that's because humans build all their equipment on a bigger scale to overcome the primitiveness of their tech, with the sheer power of this oversized technology being one of the big advantages over the other factions. The Compendium build weapons for sleekness and rapid production, but they are almost always weaker than the more primitive human tech - a Chameliac laser rifle always does less damage than a human laser rifle. The Union of Surviving Races use big, powerful weapons, but have terrible firing rates and poor accuracy, whereas human weapons using similar technology do less damage per shot, but fire faster and are more accurate. Even human psionic technology has advantages over alien tech: human tech is designed to either work despite lower aptitude (humans are not as psionically gifted as the aliens, which means their PSI equipment has to be more powerful by default), or they're designed to completely nullify psionic abilities, which no other race even attempts.
• Hypocritical Humor: A couple of examples exist, the most prominent being the interrogation of a Man in Black deprived of his Cyanide Pill, who will call you and your organisation puppets whilst also being part of an organization that is trying to help the aliens conquer Earth because of the potential benefits of siding with them.

I-J

• I Want Them Alive!: Recommended, as interrogating live aliens allows you to unlock new research topics and can even give upgrades to certain weapons, equipment, and aircraft.
• In-Universe Game Clock: The legendary Geoscape returns, albeit with more versatile settings and new options, such as deploying satellites, checking on the panic level of countries, and making and taking requests with governments.
• Imported Alien Phlebotinum: If you can't wield it, reverse-engineer it. If you can't reverse-engineer it at the miniscule size the aliens made it, mount the result on Powered Armor. And if you can't make a viable weapon out of it, make it into a Healing Shiv.
• Invisibility Cloak: The Personal Cloaking Field, which pops up late in the game. It's not perfect (users can't attack while invisible and robots with heat vision can spot the user if they're not standing still), but it's pretty damn useful.
• Just Before the End: Human civilisation was on the verge of World War III just before the Alien Invasion, which resulted in this trope being averted thanks to The Apocalypse Brings Out the Best in People.

K-L

• Kinetic Weapons Are Just Better/ Rock Beats Laser: Laser, plasma, atomic, radiation and magnetism-based weapon-using aliens will melt under the superior firepower of your humans with pistols, shotguns, scatterguns, nailguns, assault rifles, machine guns, sniper rifles, battle rifles, and grenade and rocket launchers.
• Les Collaborateurs: The Men in Black and the Cult.
• Lovecraft Lite: The Empire of Horrors - a space-travelling bunch of eldritch horrors, enforcing the will of a mysterious higher being (who turns out to be Yog-Sothoth himself), and attacking Earth from the shadows with all kinds of weird abilities. That being said, they're vulnerable to bullets and technobabble rayguns, and if you plan properly and think ahead, your soldiers wearing Powered Armour and armed with death rays will curb-stomp them.

M-O

• Middle Eastern Terrorists: Omega Syndicate operatives encountered in East Europe have this motif. In West Europe, they have a The Mafia motif instead.
• Misfit Mobilization Moment: The cutscene that plays as your troops run to the carrier plane.
• More Dakka: Ranging from collapsible ten-barrelled miniguns that spew out lead at a rate of 200 bullets per second to enormous gyro-stabilized turreted weapon platforms to Wave-Motion Gun-equipped tanks with Deflector Shields and the ramming option, there sure is a LOT of dakka in Unidentified. Your Mileage May Vary on whether or not it's enough dakka.
• Nothing Is Scarier: The game features heavy usage of psychological tension, with enemies hiding in the shadows and soldiers panicking as they get attacked by enemies they can't see.

P-Q

• Plasma Cannon: Considering the genre, this inevitably appears.
• Precision F-Strike: One piece of graffiti has a Moral Guardian trying to convince people not to swear even during the Alien Invasion, talking about how children could be listening. Someone has politely scrawled underneath "FUCK THAT!".
• Powered Armor: A lot of the armor suits seen in the game, namely the Vampire armor, which comes with a Jet Pack and holographic Badass Cape, and the Cancer armor, a Bio-Armor suit made from Dimension Z creature tech.
• Purely Aesthetic Gender: Soldiers come in both male and female varieties, and while their gender does change their voices and some of their animations, as well as a few gender-exclusive lines, they function exactly the same regardless of sex.

R-S

• Real Is Brown: One graphical option gives the game a Quake -styled dark, moody sci-fi look.
• Reed Richards Is Useless: Averted, provided you fulfil the requests that the governments sometimes make. Providing specific alien corpses, weapons, alloys and equipment allow for major breakthroughs in medical fields, enable advanced prosthetic limbs, make quelling riots easier, hasten reconstruction thanks to advanced new alloys being available, enable local authorities to get their hands on laser and plasma weapons, provide the public with free electricity from your bases' generators, and even make cities harder for the aliens to attack with stronger structures and a better-armed populace.
• Regional Bonus: In-universe. Similar to X Com Enemy Unknown, building your base in a specific region will unlock a permanent minor bonus, which can also be acquired by having enough outposts and satellites in that region.
  • Northern United States: "Fire When Ready" - All experimental weapon projects are completed within 24 hours.
  • Southern United States: "Power to the People" - Base facilities that provide Power cost 40% less to build and maintain.
  • Western United States: "Alternative Medicines" - Alien corpses and technology sell for 50% more on the Black Market or to governments.
  • Canada: "All In" - Monthly funding is increased by 40%.
  • Mexico: "Legacy of Uxmal" - Training Psychic Powers takes 20% less time and is 35% cheaper.
  • Brazil: "Emergency Reserves" - Your base automatically starts out with an extra 10 Power.
  • Argentina: "Public Heroes" - All missions gain 20% more positive attention from the public, improving public relations and reducing panic.
  • Chile: "Ready for War" - All resources start with an extra 10% added, and monthly funding is increased by 10%.
  • South American Union: "Architects of the Future" - All base facilities are built 20% faster and cost 10% less to maintain.
  • United Kingdom: "We Have Ways of Making You Talk" - All interrogations are completed within 24 hours.
  • Spain: "Cyberware Specialism" - All engineering research and development projects are completed 10% faster and for 10% cheaper.
  • Sweden: "Biological Research of the 21st Century" - All science research is completed 10% faster and costs 15% less.
  • Denmark: "Fear No Evil" - Soldiers' Heroic Willpower gets a 10% starting boost, and panic worldwide progresses at a 5% slower rate.
  • Netherlands: "Spare Parts" - All engineering projects cost 30% less and are completed 25% faster.
  • West Europe: "Future Combat" - All soldiers complete training 10% faster.
  • East Europe: "Armed to the Teeth" - All soldiers can carry a additional 20% more weight in backpacks, and all backpacks start with a additional 4 spaces.
  • Russia: "Under the Table" - The Black Market pays 25% more for goods.
  • China: "Suit Up" - All experimental armour projects are completed with 24 hours.
  • India: "Radio Communications Riot" - All EMP technology is researched and created at a 30% faster rate, and radio signals from the Cult and The Men in Black are 20% easier to hack.
  • Japan: "Pursuit of Knowledge" - Each base laboratory increases research speed by 25%.
  • West Asia: "Air Superiority" - All aircraft and weapons cost 30% less to build, maintain and repair.
  • East Asia: "Ring of Fire" - The main base starts out with an additional level from the start with a Thermo Generator pre-installed.
  • Egypt: "Blessing of Ra" - Power facilities generate 35% more Power, and facilities built above ground do not require Power.
  • Nigeria: "The Old Path" - All Psychic Powers cost 15% less energy.
  • North Africa: "Call to Arms" - Soldiers recover from injuries 15% faster.
  • South Africa: "Survival Training" - All soldiers get a few extra Hit Points from the start.
  • Oceania: "Army of the Southern Cross" - All soldiers get a small increase to their strength, aim and Heroic Willpower.
  • People's Republic of Antarctica: "Spy Ring" - All covert operations on the Cult and The Men in Black are completed 25% faster.
• Rule of Cool: Gigantic ten-barrel miniguns that can collapsed and carried around by soldiers before being immediately redeployed to shred enemies apart with hundreds of little plasma balls shot per second? That's cool. Gigantic mech suits that follow the body movements of the pilot, equipped with Deflector Shields and enormous missile launchers and gatling guns? That's cool. Suits of mechanical armour that allow the user to fly, dual-wield magnetic shotguns, and launch their fists like rockets with enough force to punch through concrete (or a organic target) and keep going? That's cool. Medical kits that use Wave-Motion Gun technology to heal missing limbs by warping the space the wound is in until a new limb grows in its place? Oh, you BET that's cool!
• Spheroid Dropship: The Starghost Legion employ these, apparently working via some kind of anti-gravity. The Head Scientist jokingly calls them "alien water bombs".
• Spare Body Parts: Available via genetic engineering. There are three of these types of modifications - "Secondary Brain", which allows a soldier to survive decapitation or a headshot and spend the rest of the battle as a Technically-Living Zombie before needing an extended stay in the infirmary; "Auxiliary Heart", which allows a soldier to survive a otherwise fatal hit and just be knocked out for the rest of the battle (again, requiring a visit to the infirmary afterwards); and "Third Lung", which allows a soldier to run faster and for longer (and no stay in the infirmary afterwards).
• Stat Grinding: Averted. Unlike X-COM or Xenonauts, soldiers gain experience and level up to improve their stats.

T-V

• Take That!:
  • While training at the base, a Recon has a chance of saying "Arrrgh, I'm so bored! I might as well be watching One Piece!" ^note  This is a ironic joke, considering that Mad Red X 12 doesn't mind One Piece, at least the earlier chapters.
• Tech Tree: It's a X-COM successor, what did you expect?
• Technically-Living Zombie: Will happen to one of your soldiers if they survive decapitation or a headshot via the "Secondary Brain" genetic modification (having a second brain in their chest that takes care of basic biological functions). They'll spend the rest of the battle in a zombie-like state, blindly stumbling around and bashing at enemies with their fists.
• The Aesthetics of Technology: The alien technology has multiple. The Starghost Legion's tech is usually chrome and always smooth, sleek and spotless; the Compendium have a Bio Punk appearance to their Cyborg Organic Technology, although their rayguns are a lot boxier and more silvery; the Union of Surviving Races have a post-apocalyptic Ocean Punk Used Future look to their stuff; the Empire of Horrors have a Lovecraftian Superpower Steampunk medieval-inspired Raygun Gothic look; and the Dimension Z creatures' Body Horror-infused Organic Technology is ugly, veiny and bloodied.
• The Engineer: In addition to the technicians back at base, there's also the Combat Engineer soldier class. Combat Engineers are defensive support classes, having low health and not being good at stealth operations, but have the best Intel of all classes and are just below Stealth Operatives in terms of psionics. Their main forte, however, is that they can build, repair and upgrade any vehicle or combat equipment twice as fast with only half of the resources. They can also fight with their Railguns and Shockers, and their preferred melee weapons are Wrenches and Crowbars.
• The Mafia: Omega Syndicate operatives encountered in West Europe have this motif. In East Europe, they have a Middle Eastern Terrorists motif instead.
• The Men in Black: The, well, Men in Black. They fit the bill physically, with a uniform of a black suit, white shirt, black tie, and Sinister Shades, with some type of armour underneath. They communicate in Cypher Language, travel around in black helicopters rather than the more regular combat helicopters used by your organisation, have surveillance vehicles parked around the areas they appear in, and will attempt Vertical Kidnapping on your soldiers via their grappling hooks. The members of the organisation are fanatically loyal, and they appear to also be a Artifact Collection Agency. Your soldiers and workers frequently theorise on which government could be behind them, or if they're part of a One World Order. As the story goes on, however, they also provide something of a subversion of this trope, as it's revealed that they're less akin to the traditional Men in Black and more in line with The Illuminati - they're an Ancient Conspiracy that's existed since at least the Renaissance, have been working in the shadows with their members masquerading as ordinary civilians, and use Numbers Stations to hypnotise regular people into becoming their mindless Mooks. As is shown by the raids on their Hidden in Plain Sight bases, their insignia even has the stereotypical Illuminati "eye".
• The Squad: The player's soldiers form something of this dynamic.
  • The Leader: The player commander, obviously.
  • The Lancer: The Rifleman.
  • Cold Sniper/ Friendly Sniper: The Marksman.
  • The Engineer: The Combat Engineer.
  • The Medic: The Paramedic.
  • Demolitions Expert: The Grenadier.
  • Designated Point Man: The Recon.
  • The Big Guy: The Assault and Heavy Weapons.
  • Support Party Member: The Specialist and Rocketeer.
  • The Sneaky Guy: The Stealth Operative.
  • Robot Buddy: The Drones and Droids.
• United Europe: In one sense, Europe is united - because the New British Empire has violently annexed the majority of the continent. Spain, Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands are the only nations to remain independent, and only because they were able to get help from the South American Union.
• Universal Ammunition: Averted - every weapon, even of the same type, has a different ammunition type (i.e. Laser Rifles and Laser Sniper Rifles need different ammo).
• Urban Warfare: Terror missions, naturally.
• Vindicated by History: In-universe, and Played for Laughs. The previous two presidents of the United States of America prior to its collapse have caused many older people who lived in the 2010s to look back fondly on Donald Trump's presidency, with some even saying they'd rather have him back in office if he hadn't died fifteen years before the events of the game.
• Virtual Paper Doll: The soldiers you employ have enough cosmetics to rival the Team Fortress 2 mercs.

W-Z

• Wave-Motion Gun: Warp weapons are the peak of Compendium engineering, using a method that humans can barely comprehend to tear targets up by warping the space said targets occupy. As such, they make them into Rifles and Pistols. The Humans, on the other hand, make them into Launchers and Tank-Mounted Weapons, and then later into shields, gatling guns, and even MEDKITS!
• Wave-Motion Tuning Fork: Some of the weapons used by The Men in Black, as well as the Compendium's laser rifles.
• We Have Reserves: Unlike X-COM, the game will actively punish the player for taking this route. Not only will losing a soldier result in their home country reducing their funding, but if enough soldiers are killed because of the commander's bad decisions, the Head Soldier will go starscream and brutally kill the player before taking over the operation himself.
• We Have Ways of Making You Talk: The name of the perk of having a base in the UK, which will allow all Interrogations to completed in a single day. Kind of makes you wonder what the hell they're doing to the aliens to make them crack so quickly...
• Weapon Specialization: All the soldier classes have these - a unique main weapon, a unique secondary weapon, a shared sidearm, one unique or one shared melee weapon, and a unique grenade.
  • Rifleman:
  • Assault:
  • Support:
  • Recon: Scatterguns, EMP [[Guns]], Submachine Guns, Bats or Sticks, and Flashbangs.
  • Grenadier: Grenade Launchers, Pistols
  • Stealth Operative: Dart Guns, Revolvers, Submachine Guns or Sticks, and Gas Grenades.
  • Heavy Weapons:
  • Paramedic:
  • Combat Engineer:
  • Specialist:
  • Artillery:
  • Marksman:
• Worthy Opponent: What the Starghost Legion and Union of Surviving Races eventually come to regard the humans as. The former even base several of their later aircraft and base defences on human designs (the Invasipedia description for these remarks on the irony).
• Would Not Shoot a Civilian: Absolutely averted by both sides.
• Yakuza: Omega Syndicate operatives encountered in areas occupied by the Japanese Empire have this motif (except for in China, where they instead have gear reminiscent of old Chinese warriors).

Shout-Outs

Unidentified has so many Shout-Outs that a full page would probably be needed. But until then, a separate folder will do.

• There are quite a lot of references to Team Fortress 2, both in characters, cosmetics and lines. Several cosmetics are even almost completely identical to the cosmetics of the game.
• Many achievements are shout-outs to other games, TV shows, movies, and other media:
  • "Atop the 4th Dimension" (Reach the highest point in Dimension Z)
  • "He Got What He Wanted" (Shoot a muffin off a table during a terror response).
  • "Slick Shady" (Dodge 500 damage by remaining in the shadows during one mission.
  • "A Man Has Coughed in Brazil" (Get Madagascar to close their airport).
  • "Plan 9 into Outer Space" (Reach outer space for the first time).
  • "Ain't Got Time to Bleed" (Have one soldier kill an enemy while dealing with three or more major wounds).
• Sometimes, when working at base, a Paramedic may sing to themselves "The knee bone's connected to the ... something ... the something's connected to the ... red thing ..."
• During some missions featuring battles against giant insects, you may come across "HAIL ANTS" graffiti.
• Among general grafiti, you can find drawings and messages such as:
  • A triangle with "fnord" written under it.
  • A mock propaganda poster of Lt. Vixen for the Northern American States, of which someone has written "But isn't she from Korea, not America?", and someone else has replied "Well, yes, but actually no."
  • A drawing of Monica from Doki Doki Literature Club! getting the shit beaten out of her by Sayori.

Tropes related to the To Yuggoth and Back DLC campaign

• Mission-Pack Sequel: Similar to the Half-Life 2 episodes, it's Downloadable Content that has a entirely new campaign that's primarily set around expanding one of the elements of the base game - in this game, the Empire of Horrors.
• The Mothership: The Nightgaunt, the main hub of the game which serves as humanity's staging point for their attack on Yuggoth.
• To Hell and Back: Well, to an evil eldritch planet and back.