When comparing XCOM: Enemy Unknown vs Call of Cthulhu: The Wasted Land, the Slant community recommends XCOM: Enemy Unknown for most people. In the question“What are the best Turn-Based Tactics games on Steam?” XCOM: Enemy Unknown is ranked 2nd while Call of Cthulhu: The Wasted Land is ranked 18th. The most important reason people chose XCOM: Enemy Unknown is:
There are quite a few add-ons available for XCOM, including the Enemy Within expansion pack.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Assortment of add-on content available
There are quite a few add-ons available for XCOM, including the Enemy Within expansion pack.
Pro Effective resource management mechanics
Resource management feels like a juggling act, in the best way possible. Users have to make hard decisions on what options to give priority to, as they all will effect gameplay in some manner.
Pro Death is permanent
Death is very permanent in XCOM, meaning if a player looses a high level player mid game that they may have a pretty tough time advancing past that point.
Pro Requires good planning
Each character in the game has a set amount of action points meaning the player needs to tally how much it would take to move and then use a weapon when deciding on where to place each of their characters. this requires careful planning and makes for fun strategy focused gameplay.
Cons
Con Proper choices not obvious until after the fact
Choices that effect the game are not obvious when they are happening and once realized is too late.
Con Individual characters much more important
While gameplay-wise this is very similar, there are mission fail-states if core characters die, meaning you don't get quite the same meat-grinder recruitment as in the X-COM/XCOM games.