It's been an exciting week for gaming news. We've had trailers galore and more than enough to whet our appetites for the coming year, but while the rest of the team are gushing over Fallout 4 and Rise of the Tomb Raider I have my eye firmly set on saving the world in the sequel to 2012's XCOM Enemy Unknown.
Fortunately it would appear that we are in for much of the same with the sequel. XCOM is certainly a game that does not need many changes. What we can see from the trailer though is that the stakes are clearly higher.
In the first game the goal was to defend the world, but unfortunately it would appear that between games something has gone wrong. Instead of an alien invasion we are faced with an alien occupation which has already taken over. This changes your mission massively in this new title as you are suddenly leading a ragtag group of freedom fighters and beat back whatever their evil scheme is (albeit with a home base that Marvel’s Nick Fury would be proud of).
It seems clear that the team is much the same as it was before. We see the same classes involved in combat in the form of the sniper, heavy and assault specialists based on the weapons they seem to be carrying which don’t seem to have changed that much either. However, what appears to be a follow on from the specialisations and augmentations in the first game, there is the apparent inclusion of close combat as we see one particularly soldier take on an alien with a sword. Another slightly different inclusion is some sort of hovering drone device which might be in place of the first game’s mini-tank platform.
Hopefully we will still see plenty of need to research new technologies and manage your base’s resources in order to give your troops the best chance possible out in the field. As the aliens spread out from their foothold position there should still be a need to send out fighters to take down enemy craft to give you the opportunity to capture dead or alive aliens to help you advance. These are all things from the XCOM franchise in general that should not be changed regardless of storyline, in order to keep the true feeling of the game alive.
There is plenty to look forward to with this title and it has to be said that it is sure to get fans of the series excited over the coming months as we learn more. It is nice to see that the franchise is taking the story in a direction which the original games did not, while still keeping the core gameplay strong. The main thing for it to do is simply remember that it has a lot to live up to.
Welcome back, Commander...
What is grabbing your attention as we enter the second half of the year? What are you going to be looking forward to one Arkham Knight has come and gone? Let us know in the comments below!