[yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2E_-2wIJIzQ[/yt] Looks like the Aliens/EXALT won and X-Com has become a resistance group?!?
20 years is a long time, one imagines the process was slow and appropriately insidious. Indeed, an underlying theme of Enemy Unknown & Enemy Within was the idea that after developing all this alien based tech, unlocking gene modification, psi powers and advanced cybernetics that they might be letting the genie out of the bottle and will never be able to get it back in. Indeed, it's interesting how these new X-COM soldiers seem to be using mostly old-school tech and the enemies have all the (presumably) modern equipment. It suggest that the starter gear may be based on some old stockpile of leftover obsolete laser weapons and basic combat armour from the first game. Besides, that setup is so much more preferable to "...and then they came back again". That'd be boring. Also, the mobile base lends itself to the possibility of leaving Earth, perhaps even doing the Sidonia mission from the original game. On a somewhat related note, the new Tomb Raider teaser also dropped today. Perhaps we should also start an E3:2015 thread to put all the upcoming news and teasers in?
Booyah! Awesome news.. i have played the new XCom to death on PC and my old Xbox 360 and it was so fun. Can't wait to play this one and see what's new and what kind of changes and improvements they've made. I just hope my older laptop will be able to handle this.
A nice surprise. Last I looked at the official forum, general consensus seemed to be "it's not happening". I enjoyed the hell out of Enemy Unknown/Within. Hopefully they don't do something stupid like turn it into a FPS, MMO, Facebook game or something. Never know with the industry these days.
Never heard of that. Well, hopefully they won't do it again then. The sequel to a strategy game should be a strategy game. All I'm saying.
The Bureau: XCOM Declassified was a prequel 3rd person TBS/RTS hybrid set in the 1940s/1950s... Pretty good game and story...
I'm cautiously excited about this. I enjoyed the previous game, but not for very long. Every battle felt exactly the same and I only played it for a few hours before quitting due to boredom. The structure of the previous game was perfect, but it needed more variety. I hope this sequel offers that.
I really like the switch in style that you now control the units in the Fog of War and when you are ready you reveal yourself. Also like the options to hack enemy turrets or that you can carry unconscious group members to safety once you extract (also a nifty change is that you call for extraction and determine the point). The gameplay shows quite some cool stuff and it's just in an early stage of the game so there's bound to be some big developments later on. Also looks like the graphics are on a tolerable level which may let older computers play it well enough, always something to consider because not everyone can change PCs every year or two.
Strategic Gameplay from Gamescom: [yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=un9YdJl5-uk[/yt] Damn, they really took the wrecking ball to the old strategic part of the game and rebuilt it from the ground up. It's expanded in every way and direction and i'm positively curious and excited to have it be more unpredictable and chaotic. The game looks and sounds very good and November can't come soon enough. I just hope they'll do a demo so i can test if my older laptop will be able to handle it (should be.. it doesn't look too advanced technics wise, more on the level of the old XCom so older PCs should be able to run it fine).
Ah damn.. the release has been pushed from November to February http://xcom.com/news/xcom-2-now-coming-to-pc-worldwide-on-february-5-2016 On one hand it's good for them not to follow EA's example and release games with massive problems or with half assed features but on the other hand i was so looking forward to spending time blasting Aliens during Christmas (nothing says Christmas more than a bullet through an Alien )
So it was finally released today and to put it short.. it's a blast! It's all what you love about XCom, several points from the old game fixed and the new additions are awesome. To start it off.. the game has far more cutscenes that drive the story forward and they are well done. As i've only played for a total of about 5 hours (and had to restart since i finally found out how to switch the installation in Steam from German to English thus losing my first savegame of about 2.5h gameplay) i naturally can't provide an indepth review of the mid and late game but what i've seen is outright awesome. Lets start off in no order of importance: The Interface of the game XCom players will be instantly familiar with the style, there have not been many changes but why would they. If it ain't broken don't try to fix it. Graphics and sound Very pretty but then i have a brand new PC that can run everything at max settings but then again pretty graphics are almost secondary for strategy/tactical turn based games (but it still looks very nice) Gameplay Well, here we go. I'll split it into the tactical and strategic areas because they are naturally fundamentally different. Tactical: XCom players will be instantly familiar with the layout of the screen and the controls so no need to repeat that as there are no major changes here. However the classes of the previous game have been heavily redesigned and some are brand new. There are: - Rangers Sort of the scouts of the team, able to sneak around undetected if given the right skills and the close combat specialists who wield a friggin' sword they can use to attack enemies at close range (and deal massive damage for the early stage of the game). It's just fun to wound a bigger enemy, i.e. more hitpoints than the basic enemy grunt, and then run up the Ranger to slice him up. They replace the Assault Soldier from XCom in the short range, mobile soldier department - Specialists A sort of combination of the old Support Soldier who runs around with a little flying drone besides him who, given the right upgrades, can support your troops by either boosting their defence, healing them (thus far only once per battle) or using it as an offense drone. However the new part is that you can use it as a remote hacking device, i.e. if there is something hackable (an enemy gun turret, Robot or Sensor installation) you can send it there and you will presented with the hacking options.. depending on your skill it will either be easy or very hard (or anything in between) but you are also able to choose different hacking systems that give you additional bonuses but if you fail the hacking attempt the enemy gets boosted so it's a risky thing to do. - Snipers Pretty much what the class says.. your basic long range gunner but in addition the only class that's still being able to wield a pistol so even if he moved he will still be able to deal out damage and be able to finish off these last 1-2 hitpoints of an enemy you failed to get in the initial strike - Grenadiers The heavy weapons trooper.. sporting the telltale gatling gung as the Heavy from XCom bit instead of the rocket launches he now has a grenade launcher that has a bigger range and area of effect There is a fifth class which you don't have access to in the beginning.. i've seen it in action on Youtube but don't want to spoil it for your (though you can guess what it's gonna be pretty early in the game). Once you start the tactical part there all kinds of missions you have to do but the best ones so far are those where you can move about undetected in the beginning. This is accomplished by giving the enemy troopers an area of vision marked by red ground squares in which they will notice your troopers, stay out of this area and they will not see you - basically fog of war but now it works for you instead of the enemy. This gives you the possibility to set up an ambush, positioning your troops where you want them to be and then springing the trap (usually by shooting the first trooper). If set up properly your soldiers can now pick apart enemy troopers by gunning them down out of overwatch as they react to your ambush.. so much fun! Other mission types include escort a VIP to an extraction site, go to a marked point on the map and blow it up/hack it/ do something else (every soldier can do this) or the ever beloved terror defense missions (had one so far but there will be more coming). You can basically destroy everything in the tactical part.. benches, walls, ceilings. Hit them with grenades or anything else with enough force and you can open up even more approaches and tactical options (but beware, blowing away a wall might mean the ceiling will come down soon. Not a good thing to stand underneath it then). There are also some changes in the aftermath of a battle, e.g. your soldiers can be come shaken if they are heavily wounded meaning their willpower is temporarily reduced until they take part in a successful mission that restores their wiillpower (very nice touch), you can either pick up the heavily modded gun of a killed soldier or pick up the soldier himself so you don't lose his valuable gear once you need to extract at the end of the mission. Strategy: The storyline starts of some 20 or so years after the first game and XCom has lost. As a result the Aliens have taken over the world, installed a puppet government and driven XCom into the shadows where they fight a guerilla war. This is where XCom 2 starts.. you need to make contact with various resistance groups, gather intelligence (which you need to go on certain missions) and gather supplies which isbasically the money which you need to pay for all your gear and since there are no governments anymore that support XCom you need to beg, borrow and steal everything you need. To do this you have a huge, captured alien ship, The Avenger, with which you can fly around earth and go to various points of interest that provide you with ressources, intel, new recruits or missions that have their own rewards. The old press the time warp button and wait principle is still there to a small degree but you now have far more autonomy and options to proceed on your own instead of advancing time and waiting for an UFO to appear, shoot it down and then send it your soldiers. Need more money? Go to supply sites. Need more soldiers? Look for missions that either reward you with raw rookies or a seasoned veteran. As the story progresses you learn of a vital alien projext that needs to be stopped at all costs.. once you have been informed a new information bar appears on the screen. Once it is full it's game over and the Aliens have won (what that actually means i don't know.. i've only played for about 5 hours ). The strategy part feels much more dynamic as you get to decide to a great degree when something will happen and where instead of waiting for events and then responding. If you have read all of that congratulations, you must be really interested in the game and even with the meagre playtime i have invested so far i can wholeheartedly recommend this game for everybody who likes turn based strategy games and XCom in general. It is a worthy successor to the new XCom line of games made by 2K and improves on nearly all aspects of the older game while introducing some fun new mechanics and gameplay.
Doing alright with the tactical game so far, but I'm hanging by a thread in the strategic game. I guess that's how it's supposed to feel.
the thought of time pressure in a turn based strategy game gives me cold sweats I'll still play it though
It's not reaction time like in a shooter obviously but time constraints.. there's so much to do but the opponent is also progressing so you have to carefully think what you do and spend your time on to get the best benefit. This is also one of the redesigns i like about this game.. you have something to do constantly instead of waiting for a UFO or an attack by the aliens like you did in XCom.