8 Video Games That Used Time Itself Against You

8. XCOM 2

Oh Xcom 2 you glorious bastard. Somehow you managed to take an already winning formula that was present in the original series and dial the tension up to 11. For you see now not only did you have to tackle extremely challenging enemies who rival you in tactical skill and outclass you in terms of firepower, but now you had to do so with a TIME LIMIT.

Not content with letting players hunker down and work the averages and percentages to their favour, the Firaxis dev team decided that for Xcom 2 they were going to instil objectives that forced players up the map and into dangerous territory. After two or three turns you might lose precious resources and intel or even let a key figure escape unless you pushed deep into dangerous areas.

It made picking your cover even more essential than it was before, and put an even great fear in players of losing precious team mates.

From a gameplay perspective this made the entire experience feel more desperate and genuinely tense, but from a players perspective we were all crying "Are you KIDDING me?!" as the spectre of the devs hung above the battle tapping the face of it's watch with an evil smile on their face.