A couple more in the same vein that haven't been mentioned yet and also, imho are worth checking out:

Hard West, also from Creative Forge
Warhammer 40,000: Mechanicus
Stirring Abyss
Black Legend
Othercide

XCOM: Enemy Within for me was the best XCOM game from reboot series, better than the base game Enemy Unknown, XCOM 2 with or without expansion War of the Chosen and 100 times better than godawful Chimera Squad.

Never played Invisible Inc., gameplay videos put me off. However I did play Hard West and I was so impressed with it that Phantom Doctrine from the same developers was next in line, but for some reason that game bored me to death in a very first mission, I tried to start over a few times with the same ill effect.

Games to consider:
Hard West (from the Phantom Doctrine develipers)
Gears Tactics (I find it challenging and fun game)

Hmm Hard West what others mentioned is surely not scify, you should try that out.

Hello kai2!

I am not so fond of the gameplay changes in both newer XCOM games. My main issues are with the removal of the action points and the AI's "reaction turn" while moving my units.
Do not get me wrong, I do like multiple turn-based games with the similar one move and one action concept ("Vandal Hearts" on Playstation 1 is still one of my favorites among those), but the original X-Com games offered so much more freedom and flexibility with their pool of action points per unit per turn...

"Phantom Doctrine" always intrigued me by its setting alone. However, I did not pull the trigger on it, yet.

As mentioned by others before, "Invisible Inc." is both more a puzzle type of game as well as a rogue-lite/like. I found the idea(s) great, but was not satisfied with the execution and soon lost interest in the game... As a longtime X-Com player, I am missing the sense of progression in the game and its for me underwhelming "campaign".

Another 'hidden gem' in the genre is for me "Shadow Watch".

"Shadow Watch" features a somewhat unique art style, inspired by french comic book designs and is using a multiple-action-points system similar to the original X-Com games (although each of your team has significantly fewer action points--if I remember it correctly, only less than ten points).
But I have to warn you, its controls are archaic (keyboard only, without mouse pointing!) and it lacks a little bit in overall polish.

Good luck, kai2!

Kind regards,
foxgog

One game still not mentioned that actually enjoyed much more than I thought, is SteamWorld Heist.

It's XCOM(reboot)-like on 2D, the main diferenciator is that there are little/no RNG shots, you somewhat manually aim. That makes the game much more interesting and not so frustating as XCOM, although the tactic aspect is a bit more straight foward and not as "deep", specially once you got to know how to cunter AI. It's also way less boring than watching all those repetitive cutscenes....

Worth noting that this is a very family friendly game and can run in any potatoe made after 2010, including integrated graphics.

OK story with silly and charming space-robot-pirates and awsome sound/music.

Phantom Doctrine is great, with a caveat: it suffers from repetition in secondary missions.
You want -and sometimes need- to play them, but after a while they start to repeat.

Still, it's the one I like the most among the mentioned, and all of them are well worth playing.

Thanks for the suggestion... I'd never heard of Shadow Watch!

I checked out I Am Not a Monster: First Contact and it looks great (at least the developer seemed to have passion for the project)... although I hear it has issues. Will probably pick that up one day on sale sooner-than-later. Thanks again.

Yeah, the Freedom Force games are a lot of fun. Sure wish they'd continued that series!

Love I Am Not a Monster! It's squad-based turn based tactics, but that's where the similarities with XCOM end. The '50s sci-fi feel is great, and wish it was explored in gaming a tad more. Oozes with cheese!

Wait for Tactical Breach Wizards

@Kai2

Glad you started this thread because I decided to do another XCOM: Enemy Within playthrough and I'm having a much different experience. It's the tutorials that turned me off, when you get past the in-your-face handholding it's a very good game.

Thanks. ;p

How is it? I may finally play it.

Never knew X-Com had so many knock-offs! Just found...

UFO: Extraterrestrials

But no one sells it!!!

Thanks to all for responding. I appreciate getting information on games in this X-COM-style genre. I knew very little about it prior.

If you like Warhammer 40000 then you could look into Chaos Gate: Daemonhunter. It's not finished yet but it is supposed to be a sequel or remake of Warhammer 40k: Chaos Gate. I haven't played it myself but it's often described as X-Com in the Warhammer 40k Universe albeit not very great.

After all of my belly-aching about tone... I've become extremely interested in Phoenix Point. I'm drawn to the ballistics-based combat system and being able to aim manually (I'm also a big fan of games that utilize turrets). Will definitely keep my eye on that game.

The first hour is tedious but after that it's fun. It's got enough variables that it has decent replay value. Not my favorite setting but that's OK, still fairly enjoyable -- which is getting harder and harder for me to find these days. I'd love to see a follow-up to Solasta but that's a tiny studio so it'll be a few years at least.