Having never played XCOM the video game, I didn't know what to expect from XCOM The Board Game.  Knowing that Fantasy Flight Games was behind it, however, made picking up this game a no brainer.  In XCOM The Board Game one to four players take on specific roles in order to fight an alien invasion of Earth.  One player plays the Commander, who must keep track of the budget, deploy interceptor aircraft to fight UFOs, and choose which Crisis card the team will have to deal with.  The Chief Scientist must choose which tech to research and how many resources will be devoted to each research.  The Squad Leader will be responsible for selecting missions, deploying four different types of soldiers to accomplish the missions, and deploying soldiers to defend XCOM's headquarters.  The Central Officer is in charge in satellites, which are used to combat UFOs in orbit.  All players have starter cards and can gain techs which allow them to use special abilities to help to the team.  Everything the team deploys, from interceptors, to soldiers, to scientists, to satellites, must be paid for out of the budget, and so players must constantly negotiate with the rest of the team for everything they want to do.