Live Hard, Die Hard distils the XCOM experience down into a gritty paste on iOS and Android

• Take on a surprisingly fast-paced and exciting XCOM-like
• Live Hard, Die Hard tasks you with managing your soldiers and research against an alien invasion
• An interesting split-screen view lets you track both front and backline in real time

Back in the day, XCOM: UFO Defence (and later its successor Enemy Unknown) were major hits because of their gritty difficulty and grand alien invasion storyline. Nowadays, you can even play them on mobile. But what if you want the experience distilled down to a fine paste? Well, that's where Live Hard, Die Hard comes in.

Available to purchase on iOS and Android, Live Hard, Die Hard splits its gameplay into two segments. At the top, your plucky soldiers duke it out with an alien invasion, grinding through levels on a one-way assault against the Terminal Core at the heart of their intended conquest. You get only four weeks to forge your own elite strike force for that big final mission, so make your decisions wisely.

On the bottom screen, meanwhile, you'll find your R&D department and hospital. And this is where the XCOM comparisons really come in, as this is where research on aliens (by slicing them open, Dr Vahlen would be proud) will slowly help you gain a critical edge needed against your extraterrestrial enemy. Not to mention it's where you'll be treating soldiers wounded during combat.

Surprisingly nothing to do with the film

But fans of the Long War mod will also note some other interesting mechanics. For one, not only are your soldiers susceptible to, well, injury and death, as you'd expect, but they're also vulnerable to the mental strain and fatigue of shooting aliens all day. It's not exactly Xenonauts levels of detailed, but it's a surprising inclusion still.

All this, combined with the basic but critical controls of where air support lands, which soldiers to rotate in and out, and when to sound the retreat, promises that Live Hard, Die Hard will offer a surprisingly in-depth experience for what on the surface looks like a simple and goofy strategy sim.

Speaking of strategy, though, are you on the lookout for other ways to defend Earth (or destroy it)? Then be sure to check out our list of the best strategy games on Android to check out our picks for budding conquerors.