The Firaxis XCOM Series

They reused the XCOM 2 engine with minor refinements, so it looks pretty much the same visually. That's acceptable, since they're making this game less expensive.

Well besides this being XCOM swat spinoff with playable aliens and set of characters instead of randos(presumably considering if an agent die mission fail), I just find it amusing that character "makes an arrest" (clearly uses lethal force)

Well now that I've recovered from surprise, I think its pretty clear this game's purpose is to keep XCOM stuff in public consciousness whenever XCOM 3 is gonna be a thing ._.; Well that or they are experimenting with spin offs

Gotta hold on to the trademarks.

This actually looks pretty interesting. The maskless Muton is still weirding me out, though.

It feels almost like an in-universe advent propoganda piece - FRIENDLY MUTON BUDDY! SARCASTIC SECTOID!

And I also get Salarian vibes off the Sectoid hybrid. But this is basically every XCOM 2 Fanfic post war brought to life.

Hell, this is Psi Effect but it's prequel!

I note they have a set roster; if a soldier dies it's mission over, so they're looking to give the squad character rather than you building up troops and getting a sense of loss for losing a high end Colonel. Interesting choice, less "That's XCOM Baby".

I like they're doing something different with the license. Let's hope this is a precursor to an XCOM 3 big game later.

Well... that is definitely not where I expected the franchise to go next, but I can't say it's unwelcome.

...actually, considering the Skirmishers from WOTC, that almost makes sense in hindsight.

It really does look like "Hey, guys, don't forget XCOM for now, we might be coming up with something in the near future".

I bring stills screencap'd from the trailer!

Looking over the trailers and the site, it's looking to me like they're giving you premade characters, instead of letting you build the roster from randoms like the main games. I don't know anybody else, but that'd be a major dealbreaker for me. My entire thing in replaying the games is developing the stories of my own soldiers, customizing them, building my own squad and whatnot. Hope that's not the case.

Either way though, the game looks like a fun little spin-off. And it's going really cheap right now.

I don't see why that would be a dealbreaker for you. Honestly, I've always been weirded out by how much some Let's Players insist on customizing their soldiers when they know damn well those guys are likely all going to die. Letting generic nobodies rising above the masses by repeatedly surviving and winning the day purely by chance is much more enjoyable than making them out to be badasses right from the beginning, only for them to drop dead less than a minute into their first mission.

In other words, XCOM has never been about you writing the stories of your crew. It's been about your crew writing their own stories with their actions.

It looks like a sidestory or a prequel leading up to XCOM 3. Just a little something to hold the fans's attention while they develop X3.

My playstyle is actually precisely that: making a bunch of nobodies who might die at any point into a bunch of characters that I'm invested in. Customizing them means I'm making little stories for each character, little dynamics amongst them, so I'm more invested in keeping them alive. It means every action I take is more carefully considered, makes every victory more triumphant and every failure and death hit harder. To me, it's almost the whole point of playing, creating a bunch of characters whose stories develop or abruptly end as I play. In fact, I'd say the exact opposite of your statement: XCOM has always been about writing the stories of your crew as you play the game, and that includes creating a bit of their stories from before the game. Essentially, creating a backstory before letting the gameplay take it's course with each character.

That's why I'd be a bit bummed to play with predetermined characters. It'd feel like I'm playing somebody else's squad, not one I made and saw develop. I had the same problem with the Legacy Pack, where I couldn't customize and create new characters for those missions. It made me care a bit less about the squad itself. I was more worried about completing the challenges than about the characters, and to me, that makes things a bit less engaging.

Not an absolute dealbreaker, though. Just might mean I won't be as invested in this game as I am usually.

It's likely to set up the conflict for X3 as well, or at least foreshadow a bit of how things are going to be for that game.

Edited by TheLovecraftian on Apr 14th 2020 at 12:43:48 PM

Glad to see the aliens also becoming people as well. The mutons are a lot... cuter than expected! In a sort of big-eyed puppy way.

The grey skinned aliens - what are they? Not the hybrids from XCOM 2 - eyes aren't big enough.

I note one of the squad members has cyber prosthetic, like an off duty MEC trooper. And yeah, looks like they're going to give us CHARACTERS rather than just blank customisables. I'm ok with that as any story you ascribed to your squaddies was never borne out in the game.

As long as we can keep that knife edge feeling; but having a mission fail if one dies feels a bit "eh" and not in keeping with that skin-off-their-teeth last man standing feeling. But I'll reserve judgement.

And it's out this month! I like that flash-to-bang release.

Absolutely everything about this looks wonderful to me. I've been hurting for an XCOM-type game, but I've been turned off the various similar games for a number of reasons. And it's coming out on the 24th! Steam actually says the 23rd. So that's a nice treat in a week and a half, instead of another thing to wait a year for.

Pre-made characters seem to be the main thing people are griping about. Story-wise, I prefer them this way, because I'm not that great at roleplaying with blank slates. Gameplay I'm less sure. It doesn't look like the characters are particularly customizable, which can be annoying. But we'll see.

And I do hope that XCOM 3 follows from this. Most XCOM-type games (including XCOM itself) always start from the exact same point, with the overwhelming alien attack and you coming Back from the Brink. Setting the next game in a more developed, recovering world could be interesting.

Looks like XCOM: The Tactical RPG. Seems interesting. I'll probably pick it up and have something to do during the quarantine.

If we get a shout-out to this but with Gatekeepers, it'd single-handedly justify the game's existence.

Edited by eagleoftheninth on Apr 14th 2020 at 8:57:03 AM

A lot of people tend to only customise characters after those survived the trial by fire (i.e. their first few engagements or so) and any character you create goes in a pool where they can be drawn from in later playthroughs.

I created myself as a character once and when I started my first camapaign, I ran into the guy while scanning random sites on the world map. He actually almost died once, but I got a medic to him in time.

Back in my first Enemy Unknown playthrough, my Volunteer ended up being a late addition to the team that came from a council mission, and then lucked into some of the best kills I ever had in that game. I didn't even want to use them at first, but they just kept being so consistently good that the story wrote itself. It's stuff like that that makes me enjoy the games as much as I do.

look man i get a playable viper without mods so im hooked

And maybe we get to hear what they sound like now!

Interesting the sectoid is basically a Salarian. I hope the Muton is also cultured and not just a scaled up Klingon...

I was surprised to say the least. Everybody was expecting the next game to be Terror from the Deep, but surprise, IT'S APOCALYPSE TIME!

Edited by Dirtyblue929 on Apr 14th 2020 at 10:10:17 AM

Wait, the characters can't die and their deaths will mean needing a restart?!

THIS IS NOT XCOM BABY, THIS IS NOT XCOM!

Must suck for Gear Tactics though, they were probably expecting to not get much competition for their release and then Firaxis says "Surprise motherfucker".

And this isn't even a cash-in! :D

Either way I'm pretty excited for this, looks really cool.

Just makes me want to get back into doing all of the new XCOM games again.

I really gotta wonder how long after all of the mods came out that Firaxis decided "Better put in playable aliens..."

Well besides this being XCOM swat spinoff with playable aliens and set of characters instead of randos(presumably considering if an agent die mission fail), I just find it amusing that character "makes an arrest" (clearly uses lethal force)

Looking the trailer over, I like the visual style they're taking to this spin-off. It's a bit more cartoony, yeah, but considering the grittier, grey-and-brown style of other XCOM-like games, I like the more colorful and cartoony aesthetic. Makes the whole game seem a lot more fun to play.

Also, the timeline system, if they do it right, might be the best thing they'll ever do to the franchise. No more alpha strike, no more turns that completely make or destroy a mission. A lot more tactical than the usual, although it'll probably be a while to get used to the change.

Edited by TheLovecraftian on Apr 14th 2020 at 3:02:01 PM