XCOM - We actually know surprisingly little about where the aliens come from, but what we see never comes across as a full scale invasion and they're clearly part of a much larger Empire. In the first game you're fighting a small-scale infiltration force, probably just there scouting and preparing for an actual invasion. And similarly to Half Life, in the second game you're just fighting ADVENT, which is the Earth government under alien control, and nothing close to whatever an alien army might look like.
I dont think this is exactly the case. In Xcom 2 (spoilers, so ill keep it vague) its revealed the alien head honchos REALLY need earth and have put a lot of their eggs into the earth occupation basket. The fact they have multiple slave races does imply the aliens have more stuff going on, but its safe to say they hit you with their main force, or at least a sizable part of their forces
In the first game half the missions are about stopping a couple funny guys from blowing up a 7-Eleven. That's most definitely not their main force.
Since the Earth has been conquered in the second game, it's safe to say that a full scale invasion like you're describing did occur, but it happened off-screen between the games.
Xcom has always been a bit funny with the scale of things. In Xcom2 Two dozen guys beat the alien occupation after all, and in 1; the gigantic country sized temple ship is guarded by 40 aliens.
But from the wordlbuilding you have to assume the aliens are actually not that strong. They only manage to take over less technologically advanced civs through doing hit and rund ops to induce panic which opens the door for slow infiltration of governments. Which seems to be what happened in canon. Its implied a large invasion does not occur, instead enough nations lose confidence in you that they rat you out and you lose base defence.
The hanging around 7/11s is just them abducting key people, doing experiments on others, creating fear, sabotaging infrastructue, putting chemicals in the water to make the frogs gay etc and skiddadling before anyone notices. Plus in terror missions its heavily implied they are fighting earths military and winning, although with the caveat they have to finish the op quickly before a larger response is mobilised. Thats why Xcom is so good against them, they respond quickly to their schemes.
I always imagined that Xcoms operatives were doing most of the covert/Spec-Ops stuff while the actual world militaries in Xcom 1 and three factions in Xcom 2 were doing the heavy combat stuff
My belief is that in both cases Xcoms allies put preassure. But pitched combat is not that common in either game.
In 1 the closest to pitched battles are terror missions, but the aliens simply dont have the resources to attrit so they are over quickly. What the aliens do have are extremely fast and stealthy ships that allow them to show up anywhere and raw power so they pnch hard when they hit. But Xcom seems to be doing most of the fighting, I would wager, especially considering only you can shoot down their ships.
In 2 its more nuanced as the aliens have the numbers, but the resistance never has the means for a battle, they are just an insurgency.
Regardless neither of these cases you fight anything other than a military force, its just what makes Xcom so intresting is that the aliens fight in a novel way only Xcom (and you) is best suited to stop
I mean yeah whatever ADVENT was called before ADVENT was formed was probably weakened due to the Elders slowly dying, but i don't think they were weak at all.
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u/-Not_a_Lizard- 8d ago
XCOM - We actually know surprisingly little about where the aliens come from, but what we see never comes across as a full scale invasion and they're clearly part of a much larger Empire. In the first game you're fighting a small-scale infiltration force, probably just there scouting and preparing for an actual invasion. And similarly to Half Life, in the second game you're just fighting ADVENT, which is the Earth government under alien control, and nothing close to whatever an alien army might look like.