XCOM Enemy Unknown is a very challenging game, and unless you're playing it on easy, there's a good chance that you've suffered numerous casualties in your war against the aliens.
The good news is that you can turn the tide against the invaders by unlocking a few super soldiers, which you can bring out into the field of battle. The bad news is that doing so will mark you as a cheater and invalidate your existing session from receiving achievements on Steam, Xbox Live or the PS3. Be warned that if you're playing the game on Ironman mode, which restricts your game to a single save the change will be permanent—for that session, at least.
To unlock these super soldiers, simply head on to your soldier customization screen and rename any of your soldiers with one of the following names:
Ken Levine,
Sid Meier,
Joe Kelly, and
Otto Zander.
Each of the characters comes with a pre-selected list of skills and an overpowered selection of stats, including maximum aim, will, and HP.
In case you're wondering, Otto Zander is an easter egg which refers to the main character in SomethingAwful's Let's Play series of games for the original X-COM games. The first Let’s Play series of X-COM: Apocalypse starred a mission commander named Otto Zander, who went on to reprise his role in X-COM: UFO Defense and Terror from the Deep.
Also note that entering the name of Steve Martin, Firaxis’s president, does nothing.
The cheat works on all versions of the game.
