E3 2011 Closed Doors: XCOM “Looking A Lot More Like XCOM… Sort Of”
I was very interested to see how XCOM was shaping up since last year’s E3 showing and after sitting in on the demo I felt that that 2K Marin is very much trying to make the transition that Fallout 3 did from Fallout 2. However, Morgan Grey, Director of Development at 2K Marin reassured journalists that they are trying to “distill all the original goodness of the original.” The strategic campaign is a non linear one as the player is able to pick from variety of missions.
For those unfamiliar with the original XCOM the premise was a hostile extraterrestrial invasion; the player charged by a coalition of nations with their removal. The player must: capture and research alien technology, manage personnel, maintain military installations, combat hostile aliens on the ground and manage relations with the member nations.
2K Marin’s new XCOM is very much similar to that of a Batman: Begins or a Battlestar Galactica “reboot’ per say telling a new origin story. You’re very much doing the same strategic management, but in a much more intimate infantry focused gameplay style.
Morgan Grey Director of Development at 2k Marin and Drew Smith Producer at 2K were on hand to show off 2k Marin’s XCOM. Three “pillars” emphasized during the demo were mixing and matching strategic combat, recruiting the best and the brightest to whoop aliens with your crew, and the concept of learning about the unknown alien threat by finding out what makes them tick via research, autopsies, and field work.
You play the role of agent William Carter, a field intelligence analyst, who recently joined an organization called XCOM, ultimately secret, but ultimately dedicated to battling aliens. The demo starts in Carter’s office while reviewing evidence about the alien incursion and picking your team’s classes that you’ll take with on the field of battle. Much of the battles will be infantry based combat in neighborhoods, schools, and civilian districts rather than large scale maps.
The variety of missions you’re able to pick from in the continental United States allow for different strategic outcomes such as potentially stopping alien incursions, defending key installations, and going on hunts to gather resources in order to build exotic weaponry. This allows the player go on missions they see fit as the strategic ups and downs of the campaign continue. There are also the huge primary missions or main path with the significant story beat to keep players interested.
On the agent management screen, similar to an RPG, the player is able to recruit different agents and different class types with different abilities. Here you’re able to upgrade them over time managing this sort of roster of agents is how you pick and deploy them out into the field and instead bringing the war to the aliens. The particular mission in the demo is tracking down a scientist to recruit and boost your research efforts. Once on the field, you’re able to stop time pick what commands you want, and send your agents to you desired positions.
Gameplay consists of gunning down aliens in the first person view and using tactical view. Tactical view is the real time interpretation of the classic XCOM‘s battlescape mode. You’re able to survey the battlefield, align your agents into different pieces of cover, control their power use, and to generally solve the best way of tackling the situation in front of you. Powers include disrupt, which allows you to stun an enemy and throwing down deployable shields. The producer emphasized that it’s about using those agents you recruited in the tactical environment.
As the demo progressed, the aliens known as “the outsiders,” have setup a shield defense. Once the demo player ran around with squad and flanked the enemy he had the ability to capture the alien technology and either use it up against the outsiders or take it back to base for further research. It’s certainly a balance call of whether to use the tech you just acquired so it’s a risk reward scenario. Not every bit of alien tech has an immediate use, though.
As the end of the demo neared, Carter and his squad reached a Titan, an alien equivalent of a B-52. Much better than their captured turret, the demo player decided to use the turret against the Titan and make use of research from capturing the Titan. Although, once deployed you cannot retrieve the tech to take home.
XCOM isn’t your normal run and gun shooter, and if that’s what you’re looking for, you might be disappointed; however, for hardcore XCOM fans weary about where the series is going, it’s looking a lot more like the original than when it was first shown off with more strategically thoughtful gameplay, a genre bender. XCOM is set to release March 6, 2012.
