Firaxis gave IGN a seven-minute look at the new, resistance-themed gameplay of XCOM 2 at E3 2015 yesterday, and the game’s looking like a smart new spin on XCOM: Enemy Unknown’s already excellent combat system.
It looks fantastic, and I’m particularly impressed with how drastically the developers have managed to twist the setting. Rather than a humanity’s last defence, your squad of rag-tag troopers are now public enemies, despised by a brainwashed public fully in thrall to the alien leaders.
The XCOM initiative has been blamed for initiating war with the supposedly peaceful alien ‘Elders’, and a PR-savvy collaborator is extolling the virtues of co-operation and obedience on live TV. There are several lovely touches to the world-building, one of which is the fact that your custom soldiers’ faces will now pop up in ‘Wanted’ posters scattered across the game’s levels. You’re an insurgency now, not a spec ops team.
That dynamic shift in tone stretches to gameplay. You’re no longer the defender, responding to alien incursions. Now you are the predator, setting up ambushes and tearing down the illusory nirvana that your enemy has created. Very cool. There’s also a quick look at the nasty Viper elite, who can yank your soldiers over to her and then start constricting the life out of them, and the satisfying hard counter - a Ranger-class trooper wielding a large machete.
I’m pretty excited by all this. XCOM 2 is clearly taking an interesting new approach rather than relying on more of the same, and there’s some stuff in here, like procedural levels and mid-level enemy reinforcements, that should add a whole new level of challenge for those who spent countless hours on the previous game. XCOM 2 is set for release this November, which is shaping up to be a pretty damned good month for video games.
