Fend off the alien invasion in XCOM

XCOM: Keeping the Dream Alive

Written by: Florin

February 8th, 2012 7:00 am - 1 Comment

In a world infested by linear first-person shooters, the guys at 2K Marin try to differentiate themselves from the crowd and meet the incredibly high expectations. XCOM is one of the franchises that is just as popular now as it was in day one, which makes the upcoming title one of the highly anticipated releases of this spring. Developers concluded that sticking to the first-person recipe and enhancing it with some team-based gameplay should do the trick and satisfy both fans and newcomers.

XCOM Combat Shield 550x390 XCOM: Keeping the Dream Alive

Image credit: Gamespress

The plot is similar, with the elite unit assembled to repel the alien invasion, but it is the way this secret organization is presented that is different. 2K’s take on this is slightly different and instead of introducing the player to a worldwide agency with considerable resources and a vast area of operations, they focus on the American division. This allows the player to concentrate on smaller but equally significant tasks and get fully integrated into a team that becomes a second family.

This favors interaction with other characters, acts as an incentive to learn more about the organization and makes recruiting of new agents more personal. Given the fact that the game takes place in the sixties, XCOM’s resources are limited and players need to outsmart rather than overpower the aliens. The only way to succeed is by assembling the brightest minds and stealing the invaders’ secrets, harness their power and ultimately use it against them.

Don’t let them conquer the Earth

Instead of shooting your way in and out of alien infested buildings, you need to command a three man team and take a more tactical approach in every situation. The enemy is insidious, vastly superior in terms of technology and has just a single goal: to wipe out humanity and claim the planet once its inhabitants are gone. This makes everything more personal and stakes couldn’t be higher, so each time you succeed in fending off an invasion, you should get a feeling of accomplishment.

2K aims to release XCOM in March and for the time being we can only settle with a rather short Demo level and a trailer. Both look nice and do a great job in promoting the game, but the information they disclose is simply too limited to allow any definitive conclusions. Just like those guys in XCOM we can only keep the dream alive and hope for the best. Meanwhile enjoy the XCOM E3 Trailer:

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Article Written by Florin (36 Articles Published)

I am an avid gamer and a passionate reviewer, with three years of experience in this line of work. I've worked for Games32 and during those three years, I've written hundreds of previews and reviews for both PC and console games. The website was unfortunately revamped and now offers casual games, but some of my articles still exist on the developers' websites. Before working as a game reviewer, I’ve played competitive Starcraft. I won the Romanian Championship 4 times in 8 editions and I won the Balkanic Cup with the national team. I know what gaming is and I can relate to both rookies and pros.

Follow Florin on Twitter @dragonbloggers

Guest

Is this article a joke?

Firstly this game has been delayed from March into the 2013 "financial year".

Secondly, this game was the most ill-favoured entry in the X-Com franchise any of us fans had ever seen, largely because it has exactly squat to do with said franchise besides "You fight off an alien invasion". Seriously, most of the fans want to see this thing die an ignominious death, and about half of them want to see the same happen to 2K Marin.

Thirdly, there was no "American Division" of X-Com in the original game, and 2K Marin's XCOM tries to rewrite the series' canon by claiming X-Com was invented by the Yanks in the 1960s instead of being created in 1998/1999 as an international concern.

Fourthly (?), "Developers concluded that sticking to the first-person recipe and enhancing it with some team-based gameplay should do the trick and satisfy both fans and newcomers."? Seriously? The original was one of the best isometric turn-based strategy games ever created. It wasn't a blasted FPS! That's the other side of this - X-Com fans don't want a goddamn FPS, and FPS fans probably won't be interested in the original comic-booky X-Com universe. Marin have even admitted that this is just a game they were already making and just decided to slap the X-Com name on, anyhow.

Fortunately we're probably going to be seeing Firaxis' more traditional XCOM: Enemy Unknown before we see 2K Marin's little abomination, if we end up seeing 2K Marin's game at all. There's this underlying suspicion it's going to be cancelled in most recent mentions of it in the gaming press.