The game Firaxis has been teasing for the past few weeks has been officially unveiled as XCOM 2. It’s the sequel to 2012’s XCOM: Enemy Unknown, an excellent turn-based reboot of a classic strategy game from the 90s.
The new game is set 20 years after the events of XCOM, when the aliens have finally won the war and taken over the planet, and it’s up to the largely-forgotten XCOM organisation to rescue humanity and take back the planet from alien rule. This time around, XCOM is the invading force, and must make do with fewer resources and employ a wide range of strategies to take on the aliens.
It’s a bit of a letdown thinking that all the hard work put into the original game was all for nought in the end, but it does at least give fans another chance to go toe-to-toe with new foes, from a new perspective.
IGN was given exclusive access to the game’s first trailer, which you can see below. While what you’ll see is a cinematic, the visuals definitely appear a lot grittier than the 2012 game’s more cartoonish ones did, but presumably that just means the team has been given more resources with which to make the new game, and they’ve chosen to upgrade its graphics.
Comingsoon.net says “XCOM 2 will introduce gameplay features such as procedurally-generated levels, which will make each experience unique to the player, as well as offer a much deeper level of modding support. Additionally, XCOM 2 will offer a variety of new content including five updated soldier classes, increased soldier customization, more alien and enemy types, evolved tactical combat and more.”
Sounds good to me.
XCOM 2 is out in November 2015 for PC, with versions for Linux and Mac also coming via another developer, Feral Interactive.
[Source & Image – Comingsoon.net]
