10 Video Games Where Evil Won

Firaxis Games successfully revived XCOM back in 2012 with XCOM: Enemy Unknown back in 2012, rebooting the popular franchise that had been dormant since 2001’s X-Com Enforcer.

Set amidst an alternate Earth, you were tasked with controlling XCOM, a paramilitary organisation designed to defend Earth from alien invasion by the Ethereals, a species possessing powerful psionic abilities.

Discovering that they’ve experimented on humanity in an attempt to find a species worthy of uplifting, humanity doesn’t take kindly to this and XCOM successfully kills their leader, the Uber Ethereal and caused their ship to self-destruct.

Players thought they were successful in fending off the invasion but 2016’s XCOM 2 revealed a different outcome entirely. Set 20 years after Enemy Unknown, it reveals that you actually lost the war after the Council of Nations surrendered, a new puppet regime called ADVENT has been installed and XCOM has become an underground resistance force.

Initially trying to win over people via propaganda, XCOM 2 ends with ADVENT’s crimes being brought to light and its forces become overwhelmed. It’s clear that the war isn’t over just yet and 2’s expansion, War of the Chosen, implies a new war is approaching.