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X-COM's creator believes the strategy genre's in dire need of innovation, and his new game is his attempt

Chip 'n Clawz vs. The Brainiods is the new game from XCOM creator Julian Gollop - can it's family-friendly spin on strategy give the genre a much-needed boost?

A few moments of more zapping and combat barking later - during which I can't quite shake the sense that I am playing with strategy and tactics game royalty, an eminently intelligent man, and in the process being an absolute bonehead - my little personal crisis is averted. The Brainioids is a curious real-time action-strategy mix, not too unlike Pikmin or Orcs Must Die!, where you're on the ground adventuring and fighting, but also constructing buildings and defences, gathering resources and issuing commands. This is then spent on more buildings, which generate melee or ranged soldiers - each one unlocked, during each level, by you finding and hacking a little podium somewhere on the map - which you use to slowly push forward through increasing defensive waves of enemies.

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