Should I play Enemy Unknown before Enemy Within?

[OH]

I was under the impression that Enemy Within was a new campaign so I played Unknown first, am I still right in doing so? Is Within meant more for a second playthrough?

[P-47 Thunderbolt]

Enemy Within is more of an expansion pack to the original game rather than a separate campaign. There are not many reasons to play Enemy Unknown over Enemy Within unless you do not like the extra features/changes.

[OH]

So there's no reason to wait to play it?

[Mr_Faorry]

Within isn't a new campaign per say but it's a whole different experience.

-It adds the meld system which gives you some more ways to upgrade soldiers and a new soldier class, however meld is a limited resource so it's an extra thing you need to manage AND it's on a timer in missions to grab which puts a little extra pressure on you.

-It also adds the Exalt system which is essentially a side story within the game where Exalt will give you various debuffs throughout the game until you eventually destroy them after you do enough of the new covert missions.

-It also adds a couple new items and enemies, but that's tiny compared to the first two.

I'd say play without it at first just to get a hang of the game since it means you have less things to manage and worry about as you try to learn how to play. Though if you're already competent with games like this you won't lose anything by playing with it right out the gate, only reason you wouldn't play with it is if you wanted to see the difference between the two.

[Yaeri]

I'd just start playing enemy within right off the bat. It adds extra features and gameplay.

[Karasukan]

Start playing EW. It has all the stuff from EU but with a wider storyline. I always had the feeling they pushed out EU because of a deadline to complete the game as EW

[SpaceBallsJim]

if you have both in library never play ufo enemy unknown, just play within, you will be missing our on many many things and its just dumb and pointless to play with no expansion if u already have it... game is soooo much better with expansion

[Hollywood]

If anyone can get Enemy Within to launch with Window 10, let me know.

[Karasukan]

Originally posted by Hollywood:

If anyone can get Enemy Within to launch with Window 10, let me know.

i runs normal. it doesnt use that 2k launcher XCOM2 uses. But please create a different thread for that

[SpaceBallsJim]

Originally posted by Hollywood:

If anyone can get Enemy Within to launch with Window 10, let me know.

works normal for me, after launch i get to pick if i wanna play unknown or within, i click within and thats it... only anoying thing im getting from the game, every time i launch it, its msg with that first time setup installer crap... but i can choose to skip that

[Oubley]

Originally posted by SpaceBallsJim:

if you have both in library never play ufo enemy unknown, just play within, you will be missing our on many many things and its just dumb and pointless to play with no expansion if u already have it... game is soooo much better with expansion

What are you really missing? The game seems to progress fine for me playing unknown.

edit: The following seems like it would change the story more then enhance the story:
-New Soldier Abilities: Construct the Genetics Lab to physically enhance your operatives’ abilities including augmentations to the chest, brain, eyes, skin, and legs or build the -

-Cybernetics Lab to enable the construction of the new Mechanized ExoskeletalCybersuit, or MEC. The new MEC Trooper class has specialized abilities and each suit can be upgraded with new weapons including the flamethrower and grenade launcher.

-New Weapons and Equipment: Give your operatives an extra tactical edge with new projects from your engineering team and the Foundry.

-New Enemy Threats: Adopt new tactics to counter the threats from two new alien types and a deadly new organization known as EXALT.

-New Strategic Resource: A valuable new alien resource, known as Meld, has been discovered. Secure it on the battlefield and use it carefully back at base to unlock new research and upgrades.

-New Tactical Challenges and Maps: Cloak-and-dagger and intelligence operations provide new tactical challenges on over 40 new battlefields.

[Mr_Faorry]

Originally posted by Oubley:

What are you really missing? The game seems to progress fine for me playing unknown.

edit: The following seems like it would change the story more then enhance the story:
-New Soldier Abilities: Construct the Genetics Lab to physically enhance your operatives’ abilities including augmentations to the chest, brain, eyes, skin, and legs or build the -

-Cybernetics Lab to enable the construction of the new Mechanized ExoskeletalCybersuit, or MEC. The new MEC Trooper class has specialized abilities and each suit can be upgraded with new weapons including the flamethrower and grenade launcher.

-New Weapons and Equipment: Give your operatives an extra tactical edge with new projects from your engineering team and the Foundry.

-New Enemy Threats: Adopt new tactics to counter the threats from two new alien types and a deadly new organization known as EXALT.

-New Strategic Resource: A valuable new alien resource, known as Meld, has been discovered. Secure it on the battlefield and use it carefully back at base to unlock new research and upgrades.

-New Tactical Challenges and Maps: Cloak-and-dagger and intelligence operations provide new tactical challenges on over 40 new battlefields.

Enemy Unknown is fine on its own, but Enemy Within is just better as it adds so much stuff it leaves Enemy Unknown feeling a bit lacking after play with it.

The main story remains the same, it just adds a new secondary story revolving around Exalt as well as giving you a whole bunch of new tools to play with such as gene mods, mechs, and a bunch of new foundry projects as well as the new aliens sprinkled throughout missions.
Basically it just takes the existing game, adds new items, enemies, and soldier classes/ upgrades and gives you a series of new side missions relating to stopping Exalt to fill in the time between main story objectives.

[Sabaithal]

Enemy Within is pretty much Enemy unknown, just with more stuff to play with. So, not really much reason to play EU before EW, you won't be missing anything.

[.VM8RA]

it works the same for both of the newer games. the expansions actually just add more to the base game.

it's a lot like how command and conquer expansions worked as well. like zero hour for general (sweet game)

[Striker]

Had 8 hrs of gameplay playing Enemy Unknown until i resolved to search what Enemy Within is, now i'm gonna play it from the start. Lol

[Matchstick]

Play Unknown for a couple months of in-game time before getting into Within. It's much, much better to understand the base game before adding in the crapload of content that comes with Within, because new players will most likely get overwhelmed by the number of things to learn/manage/build/keep track of.