Unidentified

"'Just a month ago, it seemed that a third world war was going to become reality. Nearly every nation was developing nuclear weaponry, fallout shelters, war vehicles, and safety procedures to keep at least some of their population safe. Russia, China and the now Divided States of America in particular were preparing to launch thermonuclear blasts at one another, surely wiping out all life in their continents. It seemed that the war was defined in stone, and absolutely nothing would stop it from happening.""Then something did.""Lifeforms from beyond our solar system came from the sky, without the slightest warning. As the governments of the world scrambled together to fight back, the alien ships began destroying not only each other, but also Earth. Entire cities were wiped clean off the map by UFOs filled with legions of snake and insect-like aliens. Technologically advanced invaders dropped down to open fire on civilians in small country towns, slaughtering them while leaving behind human-like creatures to take their places and infiltrate governments and militias before killing them from the inside out. Monsters from the depths of a Lovecraftian nightmare emerged from the shadows, destroying buildings and woodlands while eating any Earthly lifeform that came across them. Beasts emerged from the seas, attacking beaches and stealing technology while slaughtering humans and animals in droves. Portals and vortexes began to open, and from them … things … began emerging and attacking humanity with technology that looked like it was made from alien flesh.""Even with the five alien factions also viciously attacking and killing one another, humanity was the main target. Within that one week, named 'the Days of Darkness' by survivors, roughly 25% of the human race was wiped out. All the nuclear missiles in the world were deployed into the skies, taking down many alien ships, but more kept emerging. Then, just as suddenly as they came, they left. Intercepting their radio transmissions, human forces were able to deduce that they would be returning soon to finish what they had started. They had destroyed our cities. Our security. Our place in the universe.""But not our strength.""A war had indeed started, but not a world war - rather, a war between worlds. The armies and militias of the Earth have all united against a common enemy, dedicated to developing new technologies and taking down the aliens whenever possible. While the invaders are all at each other's throats, they all share a single common objective - the complete eradication of our race. This will not occur. We will fight until our last stand.""You are in charge of our efforts, Commander. Do not fail us.'""- Official manual description"Unidentified is a real-time strategy survival horror action-adventure role-playing game concept by Red-Verse-Writer, heavily inspired by Xenonauts, UFO: Alien Invasion and the X-COM and UFO: After series. In the game, the player takes the role of the commander of Earth's united military after a alien attack by five different alien empires led to the destruction of most of society and the deaths of roughly 25% (roughly 5.5 billion people) of the Earth's human population. The alien empires are hostile towards both humanity and one another, and wage wars against all other factions as the player guides the forces of Earth to overcome the alien threats and rebuild civilisation.

Gameplay
Unidentified is built around expanding the gameplay and concepts of the X-COM-inspired games before it. Combining role-playing and real-time strategy elements with 4X-style gameplay, action-adventure first-person shooter combat, and survival focuses, the game features the player controlling the Earth's military force through multiple different perspectives. The player is given control over a single underground base with a small group of soldiers and larger teams of non-combatants, such as scientists, technicians and managers, and must direct research, manufacturing, base defences and construction of new facilities in it, and soldier training.

Geoscape
Like X-COM, Xenonauts and UFO, Unidentified features a Geoscape, a global view of the Earth from space. From here, the player can outfit troops and aircraft with equipment and weapons, launch interceptors to attack UFOs, track planes and troop carriers, and select locations over which to position satellites for radio coverage. The player can also select locations for where troop carriers should be sent from the Geoscape, as well as engage in defence missions against alien vehicles attempting to attack the main base or the player's satellites, which will require the player to launch a weapon-equipped space shuttle to defend the satellite. The player can, while viewing the Geoscape, choose to pause, speed up, or slow down time at will.

Base
Unlike other games of the style, Unidentified features a single underground base for the player to manage. The player, viewing the base from a sideways perspective, can choose to build facilities, provide resources to upgrade facilities, direct scientists, technicians and soldiers in training, research projects on captured alien technology, and manufacturing new weapons and items. The HQ, the main facility of the game, is located up at the top of the base, and is where the player can choose missions to respond to, view global coverage, watch aircraft on their way to a mission, view funding countries and their panic level, check satellite coverage with additional interdiction aircraft, view financials, sell salvaged alien technology on the black market to raise funds, view a list of strategic objectives to help progress through the alien invasion, launch satellites to increase their coverage of the Earth, fulfil council requests by providing certain items, and launch Covert Operations against alien bases and certain locations.

Interception
The player can launch their interceptor planes to attack or defend against UFOs and alien portals, which will trigger combat sequences in the air. These sequences, known as "Interceptions", play out in a turn-based JRPG style, with the player's aircraft and the enemy aircraft each taking turns to attack each other using a set of time points. If a player's plane loses all its health points, it will crash down in a area of the Earth, and the player must deploy their troop carriers in to rescue the pilot. The aircraft itself will be retrieved and slowly repaired. If a enemy ship is shot down, it will crash in a similar manner, and the player has the option of either sending in soldiers to retrieve it and capture or kill enemies, or airstrike it, which will result in a small monetary bonus but will not allow the player to salvage any materials.

Factions
Unidentified features multiple enemy, friendly and neutral factions in both battle and in strategic sectors. The main antagonist threats are the five alien factions all vying for the domination of Earth and extermination or enslavement of the human race. Unlike other games of the genre, the alien empires are all inherently as hostile to one another as they are to the player's soldiers, which can be used to the player's advantage.

Classes
"Main article: Unidentified/Classes"

Items
"Main article: Unidentified/Items"

Alien Life Forms
"Main article: Unidentifed/Starghost Legion""Main article: Unidentified/The Compendium""Main article: Unidentified/Union of Surviving Races""Main article: Unidentified/Empire of Horrors""Main article: Unidentified/Dimension Z Creatures"Unidentified notably features five different warring alien factions for the player to combat, capture and research. Unlike in other X-COM-style games, these alien factions are not working together, but rather fighting one another over control of the Earth, and will often attack each other in addition to the player's forces.

Research
"Main article: Unidentified/Research"

Base Facilities
"Main article: Unidentified/Base Facilities"

Genetic Modifications
"Main article: Unidentified/Genetic Modifications"After sufficient research into the Xenobiology line of research and the capture of several alien genetic clinics, the Genetic Clinic will be able to be built, allowing the player to provide their soldiers with permanent upgrades.

Trivia

 * Unidentified features many references and Easter eggs alluding to X-COM, UFO: After, Xenonauts, and other science-fiction movies, games and television shows.
 * Several cosmetic items are direct references to other games.