History NightmareFuel / XCOMEnemyUnknown

* Let's think about this from the [[MookHorrorShow alien mooks' perspective,]] shall we? So your leaders tell you to [[spoiler: forcibly uplift a primitive race known as humans.]] Pah, easy you say. These primitive apes are still using ballistics weaponry and they haven't even figured out practical spaceflight yet. So you send out the Sectoids to start abducting. And then, out of nowhere, a squad of ''four'' of these humans shows up and slaughters your advance guard [[spoiler: (assuming you didn't play the [[PyrrhicVictory tutorial]])]]. Okay, you think. We'll send in the Thin Men, Floaters, Mutons, and Chryssalids. ''They'' get slaughtered. Then, your spacecraft start getting shot down by this same mysterious group of humans. Now, the rumors have started among the rank and file of a horrific creature known only as "Doctor [[EnsembleDarkhorse Vahlen,]]" who will capture you, place you in a glass pod, and '''[[TortureTechnician stick probes]] [[WeHaveWaysOfMakingYouTalk into your brain]]''' to gain information on you! And [[SerialEscalation THEN,]] this same group of humans, having turned ''[[HoistByHisOwnPetard your own weapons]] [[HumansAdvanceSwiftly against you,]]'' breaches your base and utterly slaughters everyone inside. They never leave any survivors, and they always take the corpses to their horrific underground base to be dissected and used as ''[[BodyHorror weapons.]]'' So you start bringing out the bigger guns: Sectoid Commanders, Muton Berserkers, Muton Elites, Sectopods, Cyberdisks, more powerful spacecraft, the works. ''[[TheWorfBarrage They're all slaughtered, even when you attack their base.]]'' And those psionics that gave you a massive edge early in the invasion? '''[[OhCrap The humans have them too,]]''' and they'll use them, [[EvilLaugh chortling horrifically]] [[HumansAreTheRealMonsters while they do it.]] You think you have it bad? Try being a platoon of Thin Men or Sectoids on a Council mission going up against a squad of Colonels and Majors.

*** It's worth mentioning that, most likely to audio clip limitations, Zhen maintains his regular voice even after being turned into a MEC trooper. If viewed from the right angle, this can come off as a CrowningMomentOfAwesome and HeroicWillpower

* Let's think about this from the [[MookHorrorShow alien mooks' perspective,]] shall we? So your leaders tell you to [[spoiler: forcibly uplift a primitive race known as humans.]] Pah, easy you say. These primitive apes are still using ballistics weaponry and they haven't even figured out practical spaceflight yet. So you send out the Sectoids to start abducting. And then, out of nowhere, a squad of ''four'' of these humans shows up and slaughters your advance guard [[spoiler: (assuming you didn't play the [[PyrrhicVictory tutorial]])]]. Okay, you think. We'll send in the Thin Men, Floaters, Mutons, and Chryssalids. ''They'' get slaughtered. Then, your spacecraft start getting shot down by this same mysterious group of humans. Now, the rumors have started among the rank and file of a horrific creature known only as "[[HotScientist Doctor]] [[EnsembleDarkhorse Vahlen,]]" who will capture you, place you in a glass pod, and '''[[TortureTechnician stick probes]] [[WeHaveWaysOfMakingYouTalk into your brain]]''' to gain information on you! And [[SerialEscalation THEN,]] this same group of humans, having turned ''[[HoistByHisOwnPetard your own weapons]] [[HumansAdvanceSwiftly against you,]]'' breaches your base and utterly slaughters everyone inside. They never leave any survivors, and they always take the corpses to their horrific underground base to be dissected and used as ''[[BodyHorror weapons.]]'' So you start bringing out the bigger guns: Sectoid Commanders, Muton Berserkers, Muton Elites, Sectopods, Cyberdisks, more powerful spacecraft, the works. ''[[TheWorfBarrage They're all slaughtered, even when you attack their base.]]'' And those psionics that gave you a massive edge early in the invasion? '''[[OhCrap The humans have them too,]]''' and they'll use them, [[EvilLaugh chortling horrifically]] [[HumansAreTheRealMonsters while they do it.]] You think you have it bad? Try being a platoon of Thin Men or Sectoids on a Council mission going up against a squad of Colonels and Majors.

*** This troper can sort of confirm the above; his MEC colonel once calmly remarked "Vehicle fire detected," after the ''third car in a row'' explodes. If that ain't [[DeadpanSnarker snark...]]

* Ethereals. Sectoids and Sectoid Commanders can pull off some pretty nasty psionic moves. With Ethereals, this is ''all'' they do. One Ethereal, and your squad goes from a highly disciplined team armed with high-tech weaponry to a terrified group, cowering from psionic attacks and the weapons of their their own comrades suffering from the effects of MindRape.

** MEC Troopers are unable to be deployed onto the battlefield without their actual [=MECs=], even though they always have a set of arms and legs available. The given reason for this is that the cybernetic arms and legs made for off-duty hours aren't agile enough to be used. Think about that for a moment. Normal humans can certainly go off into battle, but MEC soldiers without their suits ''can't''. As powerful as the suit may be, a MEC Trooper is even less capable than a normal human without it.

** MEC Troopers are unable to be deployed onto the battlefield without their actual MECs, even though they always have a set of arms and legs available. The given reason for this is that the cybernetic arms and legs made for off-duty hours aren't agile enough to be used. Think about that for a moment. Normal humans can certainly go off into battle, but MEC soldiers without their suits ''can't''. As powerful as the suit may be, a MEC Trooper is even less capable than a normal human without it.

* Site Recon. Its a Council Mission in ''Enemy Within'' where the team is dispatched to investigate a distress signal from a Canadian fishing village. The regular military rescuers have gone silent. You land at the village and start to progress through it. Then, [[spoiler: zombies start popping up.]] This looks ''bad'', because where there's [[spoiler: zombies]], there's [[spoiler: Chryssalids]]. You push through the village, to find [[spoiler: a wrecked whaling ship, where the sharks and a captured whale are being used to incubate an army of Chryssalids. And more and more are getting birthed every round.]] Central makes it clear that you've only got one option: [[spoiler: fight through the horde of Chryssalids to activate the boat's transponder so XCOM can direct an airstrike to wipe out the entire village]]. Then, once you've managed to pull that off, [[spoiler: Chryssalids start pouring out of the whale-hive, and you've got to make a mad dash back to the landing site before either the airstrike wipes you out, or the Chryssalids catch up....]]

** Mec Troopers are unable to be deployed onto the battlefield without their actual Mecs, even though they always have a set of arms and legs available. The given reason for this is that the cybernetic arms and legs made for off-duty hours aren't agile enough to be used. Think about that for a moment. Normal humans can certainly go off into battle, but Mec soldiers without their suits ''can't''. As powerful as the suit may be, a Mec Trooper is even less capable than a normal human without it.

** Mec Troopers are unable to be deployed onto the battlefield without their actual Mecs, even though they always have a set of arms and legs available. The given reason for this is that the cybernetic arms and legs made for off-duty hours aren't agile enough to be used. Think about that for a moment. Normal humans can certainly go off into battle, but Mec soldiers without their suits ''can't''. As powerful as the suit may be, a Mex Trooper is even less capable than a normal human without it.

** While the description is probably meant to be hopeful, the fact that the base augments (the skeletal limbs that the MEC Trooper wears while not in an MEC) are intended to "hopefully" allow the soldier to return to a normal life if XCOM wins the war, is kind of frightening. It's a case of technology and necessity outpacing long-term considerations: MEC Troopers will ''never'' be human again, and it shows.

** Also, their voices. MEC Troopers speak in a borderline CreepyMonotone with a filter effect that makes their voices sound computer synthesized. Makes you wonder how much [[CyberneticsEatYourSoul of their humanity they traded]] for an arm-mounted flamethrower.

** The worst thing about the MEC Troopers is that, unlike [[TabletopGame/{{Warhammer40000}} Space Marine Dreadnoughts]] or [[Franchise/{{StarCraft}} Dragoon]], it's not just [[WeCanRebuildHim critically wounded soldiers getting put into mechanical suits so that they can keep on serving]]. Instead, MEC Troopers can be men and women that voluntarily amputate their own perfectly fine limbs and replace their organs with machines, just so they can have better combat effectiveness. It is both [[HeroicSacrifice heroic]] and scary at the same time.

** The worst thing about the MEC Troopers is that, unlike [[TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}} Space Marine Dreadnoughts]] or [[Franchise/{{StarCraft}} Dragoon]], it's not just [[WeCanRebuildHim critically wounded soldiers getting put into mechanical suits so that they can keep on serving]]. Instead, MEC Troopers can be men and women that voluntarily amputate their own perfectly fine limbs and replace their organs with machines, just so they can have better combat effectiveness. It is both [[HeroicSacrifice heroic]] and scary at the same time.

* While the surgery isn't shown, [[ManInTheMachine MEC troopers]] giving up their arms and legs, along what appear to other parts of their body, is horrifying to picture.
** The worst thing about the MEC troopers is that unlike [[TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}} Space Marine Dreadnoughts]] or [[StarCraftProtoss Dragoon]], this isn't a case in which [[WeCanRebuildHim a critically wounded solider gets put into a mechanical suit so that he/she can keep on serving]]. Instead, MEC troopers are men and women that voluntarily amputate their own perfectly fine limbs and replace their organs with machines, just so they can have better combat effectiveness. It is both [[HeroicSacrifice heroic]] and scary at the same time.
** Also, their voices. MEC troopers speak in a borderline CreepyMonotone with a filter effect that makes their voices sound computer synthesized. Makes you wonder how much [[CyberneticsEatYourSoul of their humanity they traded]] for an arm-mounted flamethrower.

* One of the VendorTrash that you can collect after capturing the alien base is the [[AlienLunch "Alien Food"]], a nutritious slurry eaten by the aliens. If you the description, it will be reveal that [[ToServeMan the soup contains unmistakable traces of human DNA]]. With that in mind, just think about what happens to all the civilians that gets abducted, or the unpleasant implications on what will happen to the body of your fallen soldiers if you are unable to retrieve them due to the mission being aborted.

** The worst thing about the MEC troopers is that unlike [[Warhammer40000 Space Marine Dreadnoughts]] or [[StarCraftProtoss Dragoon]], this isn't a case in which [[WeCanRebuildHim a critically wounded solider gets put into a mechanical suit so that he/she can keep on serving]]. Instead, MEC troopers are men and women that voluntarily amputate their own perfectly fine limbs and replace their organs with machines, just so they can have better combat effectiveness. It is both [[HeroicSacrifice heroic]] and scary at the same time.

* While the surgery isn't shown, MEC troopers giving up their arms and legs, along what appear to other parts of their body, is horrifying to picture.

* Site Recon. Its a Council Mission in ''Enemy Within'' where the team is dispatched to investigate a distress signal from a Canadian fishing village. The regular military rescuers have gone silent. You land at the village and start to progress through it. Then, [[spoiler: zombies start popping up.]] This looks ''bad'', because where there's [[spoiler: zombies]], there's [[spoiler: Chryssalids]]. You push through the village, to find [[spoiler: a wrecked whaling ship, where the sharks and a captured whale are being used to incubate an army of Chryssalids. And more and more are getting birthed every round.]] Central makes it clear that you've only got one option: [[spoiler: fight through the horde of Chryssalids to activate the boat's transponder so XCOM can direct an airstrike to wipe out the entire village]]. Then, once you've managed to pull that off, [[spoiler: Chryssalids start pouring out of the whale-hive, and you've got to make a mad dash back to the landing site before either the airstrike wipes you out, or the Chryssalids catch up....]]

* Ethereals. Sectoids and Sectoid Commanders can pull off some pretty nasty psionic moves. With Etherials, this is ''all'' they do. One Ethereal, and your squad goes from a highly disciplined team armed with high-tech weaponry to a terrified group, cowering from psionic attacks and the weapons of their their own comrades suffering from the effects of MindRape.

* Site Recon. Its a Council Mission in ''Enemy Within'' where the team is dispatched to investigate a distress signal from a Canadian fishing village. The regular military rescuers have gone silent. You land at the village and start to progress through it. Then, [[spoiler: zombies start popping up.]] This looks ''bad'', because where there's [[spoiler: zombies]], there's [[spoiler: Chryssalids]]. You push through the village, to find [[spoiler: a wrecked whaling ship, where the sharks and a captured whale are being used to incubate an army of Chryssalids. And more and more ar egetting birthed every round.]] Central makes it clear that you've only got one option: [[spoiler: fight through the horde of Chryssalids to activate the boat's transponder so XCOM can direct an airstrike to wipe out the entire village]]. Then, once you've managed to pull that off, [[spoiler: Chryssalids start pouring out of the whale-hive, and you've got to make a mad dash back to the landing site before either the airstrike wipes you out, or the Chryssalids catch up....]]

* One of the VendorTrash that you can collect after capturing the alien base is the [[AlienLunch "Alien Food"]], a nutritious slurry eaten by the aliens. If you the description, it will be reveal that [[ToServeMan the soup contains unmistakable traces of human DNA]]. With that in mind, just think about what happens to all the civilians that gets abducted, or the unpleasant implications on what will happen to the body of your fallen soldiers if you are unable to retrieve them due to the mission being aborted.

* One of the VendorTrash that you can collect after capturing the alien base is the [[Alien Lunch "Alien Food"]], a nutritious soup eaten by the aliens. If you the description, it will be reveal that [[ToServeMan the soup contains unmistakable traces of human DNA]]. With that in mind, just think about what happens to all the civilians that gets abducted, or the unpleasant implications on what will happen to the body of your fallen soldiers if you are unable to retrieve them due to the mission being aborted.

* Ethereals. Sectoids and Sectoid Commanders can pull off some pretty nasty psionic moves. With Etherials, this is ''all'' they do. One Ethereal, and your squad goes from a highly disciplined team armed with high-tech weaponry to a terrified group, cowering from psionic attacks and the weapons of their their own comrades suffering from the effects of MindRape.