XCOM Enemy Unknown is a beautiful game, but you can only see every 5 second animation so many times before it becomes repetitive and self-indulgent. Is there a way to make the animations go faster or speed combat up in some other way, so that I can spend more time strategically exterminating aliens and less time watching my operatives shoot their guns?
Increase the speed of combat
xcom-enemy-unknown
Best Answer
You can skip the time watching units move by ordering a unit where to move, then immediately hitting tab to switch to the next unit. If the unit can do an action after moving, you'll still be able to select them again later, once they've reached their destination.
The actual firing sequences cannot be skipped (which I'm okay with, since I'd like to know how much damage I did; unfortunately, it seems they can't be sped up, even the incredibly slow sniper animations...).
You can also skip other non-firing sequences; for example, hitting the "overwatch" key then immediately hitting tab will skip the short "moving to overwatch" sequence.
Finally, remember to use the action keys on your keyboard! It really helps speed up how quickly you can give commands.