Do you twitch uncontrollably at the phrases like ‘turn-based strategy’? Does calculating research costs cause you to break into song? Does the permanent death of those under your command make you euphoric?
If you answered yes to any of those questions, then XCOM: Enemy Unknown may be right for you.
Enemy Unknown is a turn-based strategy game and the foil to the maybe-not-actually-happening first-person shooter said to be being developed by 2k Marin. It’s also being developed by Firaxis, the folks behind the Sid Meier’s Civilization games. I mention this because the producers presenting the demo that I was shown seemed to really, really want to make this absolutely clear. This isn’t just some cobbled together mess being developed by Fred in the basement, they seemed to say.
No. This game has pedigree. That’s turn-based pedigree. So strap the ‘eff in, mother-crumpers.
Developer genetics aside, Enemy Unknown doesn’t much look like it was made by the Civilization team. In fact, it looks exactly like a modern, 3D X-COM game and that’s exactly what fans have been asking for.
The demo we were shown took place outside of an abandoned gas station. The area looked las if it was taken straight out out of an early Stephen King novel; small-town, 70’s charm scrubbed down hard with apocalypse-strength disaster. The producers explained that while much of the game would maintain this aesthetic (which was an old school X-COM standby), the terrain would vary throughout the single-player campaign.
Four XCOM operatives – comprised of a close-range assault trooper, a sniper, a burly support member and a heavy weapons expert – entered the map via dropship. After introducing us to the team and explaining their roles, the person operating the demo showed off how the game will play.
As I’ve said previously, players can expect some deep, turn-based cuts. Each unit on the field is allowed the opportunity to move both move and take one action each turn. Some abilities we were shown included class-based powers like a support unit’s suppression technique, which keeps enemies pinned down under heavy fire. There are also maneuvers associated with equipment selected at the Ant Farm (more on that later), such as when a sniper used a grappling hook to pull himself to a higher position. Alternatively, units can sacrifice their ability to use an action in order to double their movement range. This seems like it could be incredibly useful for moving in and out of Enemy Unknown’s highly destructible cover.
Once the player decides to take take an action, the camera drops down from it’s standard isometric angle and drops in behind the selected unit to give a better view of the action. Here you can watch your soldiers as though the game was a third-person shooter for the duration of their attack or ability. It doesn’t look as though you can actually control the characters’ movement from this perspective, but it did seem that the aiming of weapons was handled manually. The best comparison I can make is that it looks like a cross between Valkyria Chronicles style combat and Fallout 3’s cinematic VATS system.
After some light skirmishing with a cadre of little grey men called Sectoids – one of the game’s alien races which has been carried over from the original – things got hairy.
Brutal looking enemies called Mutons (think armored, alien gorillas) had been hiding out inside of the convenience store. One of the mutons, classified as a berserker, burst through the wall of the building right where the presenter’s support soldier had been taking cover. The berserker grabbed the unit and attempted to do what I can only describe as beating the ground to death with his limp body.
Unsurprisingly, the soldier didn’t make it. What did surprise me was the producer saying that that soldier was dead. Permanently dead. As in forever.
When you start XCOM: Enemy Unknown, you start with a small contingent of rookie soldiers. As you progress, those soldiers become more powerful by ranking up and equipping better gear. However, when one of those soldiers is killed in action, they’re gone for good. All of their experience, levels, powers and equipment are lost for good. It’s up to the player to recruit new rookies and get them up to that same level of efficiency.
This is achieved with what the developers referred to as the Ant Farm.
The Ant Farm is an underground base that function as your primary hub for research, recruitment, equipping characters, mission selection, etc. Aesthetically, it lives up to it’s name as each facility in the base is presented as a cross-section of a room. Once you select a room, you may converse with NPC’s and access the functions of that room. They didn’t show it in the demo, but it looked as though there were empty slots for other areas that you would presumably either be able to build or be granted access to over the course of the game.
The uppermost room houses the 3D world map, which should look very familiar to anyone that’s ever played an X-COM game before.
Here you select missions and send out interceptor ships to track down enemy incursions. Firaxis says that they’re still working on how exactly interceptors will work in the game, so they weren’t able to witness them just yet.
As for other vehicles, the developer claims that the game will feature power vehicles like tanks along with the standard infantry units. While we didn’t get to see these either, they will reportedly function like any other unit with the one exception being that they are unable to level up. They sound as though they’ll be good for a powerful slap in the face now and again, but won’t be as useful as a stone-cold killer in the late game.
I had assumed that the game would be a half-hearted electronic apology to fans of the original game. What I saw instead was the makings of a game that’s got me breaking out with a bad case of ‘day-one buy’. Some noticeable clipping issues to be distracting, but otherwise the game seemed in fine shape. This could very well be a game that lives up to the hype and the pedigree by giving tactical fans a cure for what ails them.
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