XCOM Defence - Part 2

Part 1

If you want to gets some information on the upcoming "remake" of XCOM (and I say remake in quotes, as there is a lot of discussion as to if it is really a remake) check out their site and these two videos:

XCOM site

XCOM Demo walkthrough (June 2011) 22 mins

Dev Diary #1

Just to put my own preferences in perspective, shooters are not my favourite game type. If I do play shooters, it tends to be those very heavy on the story side, such as Halo and Gears of War. I find those stories well written and engaging. If I am looking for multi player carnage, I will switch from console to PC and play something like Battlefield: Bad Company.

There is quites a bit of discussion on IGN and Blue's News as to whether or not this upcoming game from 2K is really a remake of XCOM.

The original XCOM was a turn based while this remake has become an FPS. Does this deserve to be part of the XCOM legacy?

In a word? Who cares!

What we want are great games. If this XCOM can deliver a great game, I don't care if it is a true successor or not.

However, let's look at soem of the details. Probably the most obvious aspect of the original was the turn based squad movement. While I enjoyed this aspect, some of the battles could become tedious at the end. As I mentioned in Part 1 of this post, the key aspect of the original XCOM was the tension, the not knowing what was in the fog, what horror I would see next. When those evil aliens attacked my base (something I never expected) I was pissed. I don't think we took any prisoners on that mission. If this remake can maintain that tension, they are a long way towards following in the footsteps of the original. Unfortunately, I think some of the video they are releasing will make it harder to capture that tension. Imagine walking through those towns in the video and seen that black stuff and thinking "What the hell is that?!" If you have seen the videos some of that tension is already lost. Note to 2k if you are reading this: Don't release any more details of the enemies the player will face. No more screenshots, nothing. It will make the game that much better.

What also made the original so enjoyable was that you could recruit new agents, develop those agents, capture alien tech and aliens, and research them to discover new weapons (and mind powers). It seems this remake has all of that (not sure about the mind powers). You can recruit new agents, take them on missions to gain experience, find tech and use it to research new stuff.

For me, the jury is still out on this remake. However, if it captures the tension of the original, along with the ability to recruit/develop agents and discover new tech, it will have covered the key aspects that made the original so compelling.

Your mileage may vary.