Dungeon Design vs Aliens

Much has been made, elsewhere, of the difference between the "OSR" style dungeon and "New" style dungeons. In the older style a dungeon was often a sprawling complex where the objective is not the room at the end of a series of rooms, but just one room among many. In the newer style there may be some wiggle left or right, but dungeons exist as a series of planned encounters that lead to the final chamber.

These philosophies are very evident in the new version of the computer game XCom versus the older X-Com, and are especially present in the "boss fight" base assaults, where you take the fight to the alien facilities.

In the old game the "HQ" was somewhere in the complex. Probably nowhere close to the door, but you could could trace several routes to the HQ and the alien commander's location. In XCom the alien bases are a series of rooms, a chain of encounters designed to test your resources and skills before presenting you with the final encounter.

The connection between table-top adventure design and computer game design has never appeared so clearly to me.