X-COM
Aliens
The third set of beings to invade Earth. Here We Go Again!
Tropes applying to all aliens:
- Aliens Are Bastards\Eviler than Thou: They view the Sectoids as food and have some as livestock. Saving these Sectoids will improve your relationship with the Mutant Alliance and make them hostile towards the aliens if they weren't already.
- Bee People: All are spawned from a single organism.
- Body Horror: Their Bizarre Alien Biology is just so unnatural and grotesque (for example, the Megaspawn has numerous organic weapons embedded into its body, and the Spitter has no head or organs, and upon being subjected to a autopsy is revealed to not even have a brain) that it's hard to see just HOW they could possibly all be the same species. As it turns out, they're not. They're all just various types of (presumably) genetically engineered meat robots for the Micronoids. Much of their Organic Technology fits under this as well, not to mention their home dimension, which is one big Womb Level.
- Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: To the aliens seen in the previous two games. The Cydonian and T'Lethian empires were highly-advanced, monsterous invaders from another planet who viewed humanity as nothing more than test subjects and possibly as a food source and used technology far more advanced than anything humanity had been able to build up to that moment. These aliens, however, are essentially near-mindless, feral beasts who use freakish, disgusting Organic Technology, hail from Another Dimension, are Invading Refugees, and are really all just a bunch of footsoldiers for the Micronoids.
- Decapitated Army: Averted - while they will weaken after the destruction of the control center in their dimension, they will manage to rally for the final battle and fight tooth and nail like cornered animals (which they essentially are at that point).
- Invading Refugees: Their home dimension was wrecked by a supernova, so now they want Earth as a new home.
- Keystone Army: Zigzagged - they have no singular leader to kill, unlike the aliens from the last two games, but should the Dimension Gate Generator go down, they won't be able to attack Earth again. However, accessing the gate requires you to destroy literally everything else in their dimension.
- Living Ship: Functionally, their ships are flying mushrooms.
- Organic Technology: Everything they use. It's all grown from a mushroom-like structure in their home dimension, while another one grows new buildings. The one that builds new structures is compared to a reproductive organ.
Brainsucker
One of the earliest aliens you'll encounter, these are used as ammunition by the Brainsucker Launcher.- Expy: Of the Facehugger from the Franchise/Alien films.
- Face Full of Alien Wing-Wong: How they mind control people. They shove micronoids into the targets bloodstream, who then mind control the host.
- Living Weapon: They exist only to brainsuck the host. They die immediately after doing so.
Anthropod
The foot soldiers of the new menace.- Evil Counterpart: To your human, hybrid and android soldiers.
- Humanoid Aliens: They're vaugely humanoind, but still very weird looking.
- Mooks: For the aliens, as they are one of two creatures that can wield weapons.
- Weak to Magic: One of the few aliens who are particularly vulnerable to psionic attacks.
Spitter
Thin humanoids with a nozzle-like head used to shoot acid spit.- Acid Attack: The spit acid globs.
- Beast of Battle: The Alien Autopsy done on its corpse reveals that it doesn't even have a brain.
- Humanoid Aliens: They look fairly human, except for having a hole where their face should be.
Popper
An alien that functions as a living bomb.- Action Bomb: A living one.
- Bizarre Alien Biology: Their Suicide Attack apparently consists of them producing explosive chemicals in their stomachs and then somehow detonating them, though how is never explained.
- Living Weapon: They're basically walking bombs.
- Starfish Aliens: They look like nothing alive on Earth.
Skeletoid
The alien's aerial troops.- Airborne Mooks: They achieve this via antigravity implants.
- Elite Mooks: Tougher and more skilled than the Anthropods, and have moderate resistance to psionic attacks.
- Humanoid Aliens: Same as the Anthropods, though they appear to be more like emaciated humans than anything else.
- Nothing but Skin and Bones: They look like skeletons with skin draped over them.
Psimorph
A much more advanced form of the Anthropod, capable of psionic attacks.- Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: Downplayed, as it's only about 10-12 feet tall.
- Boss in Mook Clothing: Essentially a much stronger, flying version of the Micronoid Aggregate.
- Personal Mook: Typically only present in Alien Mothership missions.
- Spare Body Parts: Why are Psimorphs so resilient? Because they have twelve copies of every major organ.
Megaspawn
The alien's version of a tank.- Beast of Battle: They aren't exactly the smartest of creatures.
- Giant Mook: This thing is, functionally, a living tank.
Queenspawn
The source of all the aliens you fight in the game.- Bragging Rights Reward: Capturing her amounts to this, as while taking her alive allows you to research the powerful Alien Gas Grenade, by this point, you should probably be able to easily overwhelm the aliens with what you have. The game itself acknowledges this, noting that it isn't necessary to capture her, but it would be a vicious insult to the aliens if you succeeded in doing so.
- Mother of a Thousand Young: She's the source of all of the aliens you've fought through the game.
- Infinity +1 Sword: Due to how late she's encountered in the game, and the fact that she is a unique enemy, capturing her alive is not necessary to win the game. However, if you do capture her, you can interrogate her and unlock the Alien Gas Grenade, which can utterly devastate the aliens.
- Unique Enemy: Is the only member of her kind encountered in the game. Presumably, the Micronoids wiped out the rest so that they wouldn't have to deal with disloyal mooks.
Micronoid Aggregate
A psychic slime that is used by the aliens. They are the real Big Bad of the game.- Big Bad: They are the ones behind the Third Alien War, as the live in and control all of the other aliens you encounter. With their home planet now dying, they've decided to claim Earth (which isn't in the best shape itself) as their new home and humans as their new hosts.
- Blob Monster: And a psychic one, at that. Ironically for a blob monster, they're also the Big Bad of Apocalypse.
- The Man Behind the Man: They control every other alien in the game via living inside their bloodstreams and subjecting them to mind control. Learning this allows you to create a toxin dedicated to killing them, which is one of the strongest weapons in the entire game.
Overspawn
A huge alien lifeform airdropped onto Mega-Primus.- Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: It's so big, it's fought on the cityscape rather than in tactical combat!
- Fake Ultimate Mook: Exaggerated. It's a supremely powerful Godzilla of an alien, far more powerful than any you face in 'normal' gameplay, and yet its lack of ranged abilities renders it harmless against aerial assault (which you WILL be using at this point in the game) and it will often kill itself by collapsing buildings onto itself. Not only that, the Overspawn is an PR disaster for the Aliens - the destruction of city property will sour most of their supporters. Letting the Overspawn run around if it's not a direct threat to your faculties is entirety advisable.
- Villainous Breakdown: The in-game UFOpedia theorizes that this is why the Overspawn is released, on the part of the Aliens, noting the change from infiltration to outright destruction of Mega-Primus.
Organizations
The multiple political factions and Mega Corps of Mega-Primus, all vying for political power and profit in the war against Mega-Primus.
Tropes Applying to All of Them:
- Alliance Meter: You get cheaper goods the higher your relationship is with an organization. Organizations also have relationships between each other, which affects your standing. If you attack Company A, and Company B is hostile towards Company A, this will make Company B like you more. Meanwhile Company C is friendly towards Company A, so this will also lower your standing with them. Trying to make everyone your best friend is virtually impossible, and not worth the trouble in the first place.
- Corporate Warfare
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: Many of them, namely Marsec, Solmine and Transtellar, have a record of suppressing the rights of civilians and colonists.
- The Guards Must Be Crazy: Killing personnel or damaging their property will make that organization angry, but simply stunning their units or stealing items from them strangely does not. Also, the guards won't open fire unless they already hate you or you provoke them, so if you grab a bunch of stun gear, then raid someone who doesn't hate you, they will never fire back, and you can safely take everything that spawns on the floor without consequence.
- Monster Protection Racket: Ironically, the fastest way to improve reputation with an organization is to let the aliens attack their buildings. An Overspawn attack can turn an unfriendly organization into an ally very quickly.
- Urban Warfare: All combat that isn't in the Alien Dimension is done in Megaprimus.
Government
The government on Mega-Primus, composed of thirteen elected senators. They're X-COM's main financial backers, are friendly to them and Megapol, and are hostile to the aliens, and hostile to the criminal syndicates, Psyke and Diablo (but not Osiron).- Do Well, But Not Perfect: If you're very, very good, the Senate will decide that you're very cost-efficent and will reduce your weekly funding.
- Fantastic Racism: Towards hybrids and androids.
- I Fought the Law and the Law Won: Levelling entire city blocks will turn the senate against you, which results in your funding being cut, which is a Game Over unless you're making an enormous amount of money selling manufactured or stolen goods.
- Permanent Elected Official: As the UFOpedia states, senators can only be removed from their positions through proven cases of misconduct.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Their noticeable flaws aside, they are your main benefactor and fight against the alien invasion like you do. They're also cracking down on the main criminal gangs in the city, Diablo and Psyke (although not Osiron, but that can be explained by how Osiron mainly conducts legitimate law-following business and secretly employs other gangs to do their dirty work for them unless they absoulutely have to).
- Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: Even if they cease funding and threaten to shut you down, you can keep fighting for survival so long as your bank account remains in the positive... and as long as you have a functional base and a steady source of income to sustain your private army, you can go renegade. Want to show the Senate what you think of their threats? Go level half the city!
Megapol
The main emergency services and law-enforcement of Mega-Primus, Megapol are the city's police, run the firefighting and ambulance services, and also produce several weapons, vehicles and tools. They start out allied with X-COM and the government and are hostile to the aliens, MarSec, Transtellar, and all three of the main criminal gangs (Diablo, Osiron and Psyke).- Badass Normal: Megapol officers, when met in the Battlescape, are well-equipped and will be able to handle Anthropods. Tragically, though, they won't actively assist X-COM unless in danger.
- Bad Cop/Incompetent Cop: They are just as aggressive as the gangs they fight against, and are more likely to raid their buildings.
- Five Rounds Rapid: Against the aliens. Against human criminals, however, they're actually quite effective.
- The Friend Nobody Likes: Despised by eight factions right from the start (MarSec, Transtellar, Diablo, Osiron, Pyske, S.E.L.F., the Mutant Alliance, and of the course the aliens), but hey, at least they're your friend.
- I Fought the Law and the Law Won: Unlikely to actually win against anyone in a standup fight, not least because Megapol's buildings are cramped mazes that end in a lot of point-blank firefights. Your agents might survive a hit from a basic alien weapon; a beat cop definitely won't.
- Police Are Useless: Justified and subverted. They're actually effective at enforcing the law against humans, and will actually attempt to fight against alien ships entering our dimension, but are woefully underequipped to fight against the extraterrestrials and will require X-COM's aid.
- Police Brutality
The Cult of Sirius
A crazy Apocalypse Cult that founded under the belief of that the aliens are the saviours of mankind. They're the only faction that starts out hostile to X-COM and friendly to the aliens, and are also unpopular with pretty much every other faction.- Apocalypse Cult: Founded under the belief of that the aliens are here to redeem mankind. They're the only faction in the game that will start off hating you, and, even if you spend (way) too much money to get their opinion to neutral, they'll never actually like you (the costs are prohibitive) and their opinion will nosedive as soon as you engage any alien forces. They're also (generally) hated by every other faction in Megaprimus, making them perfect raiding material for you to get additional money. Kill 'em all, let their god sort them out, and steal their stuff.
- Cult: Obviously.
- The Goomba: The Cult is a wonderful source of money during the slow days when you have few alien incursions (If the cultists don't want to be persecuted, then they shouldn't keep so much valuable loot in their temples.) Be careful though, because soon the cultists will start sporting things like rocket launchers and even alien equipment like Boomeroids. On the other hand if you play it right raiding them can net you access to those weapons before they hit the market - or at least let you get more of them without having to pay out the nose or wait for the market to restock.
- Les Collaborateurs: They are allies of the Aliens and will assist them in conquering Earth.
MarSec
A private security company that primarily operates on Mars and the Moon, founded in the 2060's to allow X-COM to focus their efforts on fighting aliens during the Frontier War (which the spin-off Gaiden Game X-COM: Interceptor revolved around). Ominous and mysterious, they are controversial due to their notorious reputation for quelling riots and civilian protests through extreme violence, but they do manufacture a lot of technology that will be useful for X-COM. They start out friendly towards Solmine and the Extropians, unfriendly to X-COM and hostile towards Megapol.- Corrupt Corporate Executive: They have a reputation for Police Brutality, and are rivals with X-COM due to viewing the organization as a competitor.
- Every Man Has His Price: One of the few factions you really do need to frequently bribe, as the massive amounts of stuff they sell is vital for your campaign to stop the aliens.
- Fantastic Drug: A UFOpedia entry mentions that a renegade MarSec scientist created the Psiclone implants that the Psyke syndicate uses.
- Interservice Rivalry: With Megapol, what with them being rivals in private security and all. As a result, each time you attack the aliens you'll gain a good amount of reputation with Megapol, and take a small hit with Marsec. They're not necessarily alien sympathizers, they just don't like that you're working with their competitor.
- MegaCorp
- Private Military Contractors: They're primarily a private security force for Mars and the Moon. Part of the reason they oppose X-COM is that MarSec was meant to take over X-COM's role within the solar system.
- Shout-Out: They're heavily based upon the unnamed Martian mining company from Total Recall (1990). Both have lucrative Martian mining interests, private security forces, repressive methods, and little regard for the welfare and working conditions of the miners. In addition to this, their M400 autogun is also based on Laser Squad, a older game originally developed by the Gollop brothers.
