Enternity.gr - Forum

PLATFORMS
PC/PS3/XBOX360

GENRE
Real-time strategy
Turn-based tactics

PUBLISHARE
2K Games

RELEASE DATE
NA October 9, 2012
EU October 12, 2012

OFFICIAL SITE
Not yet available

GAMEPLAY
XCOM: Enemy Unknown will feature the return of the classic strategy gameplay the series is best known for. Unlike Firaxis' Civilization Revolution, the console versions of XCOM:EU are not simplified content-wise as compared to the PC version.The PC version, however, will feature a different (mouse driven) tactical UI and "the ability for modability".
The game's real-time strategy element is confined to the global view called "Geoscape", where the player keeps track of the situation around the world and conducts resource and personnel management on strategic layer, directing research of alien technology and production, interacting with the governments of the organization's funding nations, ordering their aircraft to intercept UFOs (interception has now more gameplay elements as compared to the original game) and dispatching their soldiers to engage aliens on the ground.A new view dubbed the "ant farm", doubling as the game's menu, shows the fully customizable XCOM headquarters (there is only one XCOM base this time, with different bonuses associated to its location as chosen by the player) where the player can order the research and engineering, equip the troops and such, and is also able to observe the various activities of XCOM personnel.
All ground combat is completely turn-based, using an isometric 3D, third-person perspective tactical view featuring fog of war, line of sight, the "overwatch" reaction fire and destructive environment, where the player commands a squad (up to six per mission) of personalized and fragile ("permadeath") soldiers in battle. The traditional time units, grid map movement, as well as some (but not all) of inventory and ammunition mechanics and the initial squad deployment phase have been all removed. In their place, the tweaked gameplay introduces the system of varying cover, supression fire, stealth movement, a variety of different abilities (for both the human and alien combatants) and class specialization for the XCOM operatives: Assault, Support, Heavy Weapons, Sniper.The missions now have various sub-objectives (other than just neutralising the alien presence and possibly rescue of civilians) and the engine employs cutscenes and dynamic camera movements.The new elements of this system were described as similar to the ones featured in Valkyria Chronicles and Silent Storm.

WIKI
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XCOM:_Enemy_Unknown

SCREENSHOTS










VIDEO

Ένα εξαιρετικό opening post για ένα πολύ πολύ πολύ ενδιαφέρον παιχνίδι!

XCOM: Enemy Unknown Exceeds Our Lofty Expectations

As enthusiastic as I’ve been about Firaxis’ XCOM strategy remake since writing the GI cover story, my opinion has only improved since playing a decent chunk of it this morning.

XCOM’s core concept shines through beautifully. The tutorial mission wastes little time in introducing players to what XCOM: Enemy Unknown is all about, killing off three of your four squaddies within ten minutes. Learning the controls is a snap, and giving out orders on the 360 pad the demo used couldn’t be easier. More importantly, picking up on the base level of the tactical skills XCOM demands is a matter of minutes.

As promised, aliens have no qualms about murdering your troops. Leaving a squaddie in the open when aliens are about is all but a death sentence. Even worse, most cover doesn’t last long against alien weaponry – nearly everything is destructible, and even if a shot misses it’s likely to blow a hole in something. On the plus side, even the basic human weapons that XCOM operatives start with are more than capable of taking out whatever the bad guys are hiding behind as well. The first time you fling a grenade at a Sectoid and don’t just kill the malevolent little bugger but level the shack it’s hiding in, you’ll never want to go back to a game that lacks destructible terrain.

In a lot of ways, playing XCOM doesn’t feel like the slow menu-driven navigation that we commonly associate with strategy games. Moving squaddies around the gridless world is effortless and fast, executing actions is a few quick button presses, and the alien turn goes by in seconds. Little touches, like how you can move a second character while the first one is still animating her run, make the turns fly by. I’ve played a lot of tactical RPGs, and XCOM’s interface is the best I’ve seen.

The “ant farm” base where you return between missions and work your overall strategy is similarly easy to navigate. Choosing research and engineering projects, leveling up soldiers, dealing with the Funding Council, and the rest of the strategy portion is simple and easy. I love that nearly every decision you make has clear, significant benefits and drawbacks. Help China, and the U.S. throws a fit as their citizens’ panic level rises. Research alien weapon fragments, and the Sectoid corpses sitting on your autopsy tables keep their secrets to themselves. Build advanced scopes, and you’ve got no money for the hundred other uses for cash. The difference in equipping a squaddie with a scope or with grenades is huge.

The only thing I’m not a fan of that I saw today are the occasionally janky cuts to “glam cams” in combat, but Firaxis assures me that you’ll be able to turn those off entirely. Thank goodness for that.

In a second, hands-off demo, Firaxis showed off several endgame abilities and one of the legendary soldiers you can unlock. An assault soldier with ghost armor hauled ass across what seemed like half the map in a single turn, while cloaked, and grappled up to the top of a building to shotgun an unsuspecting alien in the face. A sniper with a jetpack took off and blew away two monsters behind heavy cover from his superior vantage point with a lethal plasma rifle. Sid Meier himself – the in-game model is dead on, except for the legendary developer being a hulking space marine instead of a mild-mannered kindly man of small stature – took control of an alien’s mind and had it eat its own grenade.

I couldn’t be happier with how XCOM is turning out now that I’ve gotten to play it for myself. I can’t wait to dig into the full game – and to play with all the awesome toys that result from XCOM’s efforts to turn the aliens’ own tech against them. Now that the show is over, I can say with no reservations that XCOM is my personal favorite thing shown at E3 2012.

XCOM: Enemy Unknown will feature deathmatch multiplayer
Publisher 2K Games has announced that XCOM: Enemy Unknown will contain a one-on-one deathmatch multiplayer mode.



The announcement marks the first time that a deathmatch component will be included in an installment of the popular RTS series.

Multiplayer will still retain the turn-based style of the single-player campaign, with a focus on strategy and tactics. Players will be able to craft their own squad of soldiers and/or aliens, and will each receive 10,000 points at the beginning of each match to spend on various units and inventories. From there, combatants will have 90 seconds to make their next move.

The mode is being kept as a standalone experience outside of the XCOM canon.

“Throughout the history of the XCOM series, players have acted as the world’s last hope against the alien invasion,” said lead designer Jake Solomon. “With the multiplayer mode in XCOM: Enemy Unknown, gamers can finally find out what it’s like to command alien units and unleash extraterrestrial destruction on Planet Earth or defend it with a squad of XCOM soldiers and alien allies.”

XCOM: Enemy Unknown will release for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC on October 9 in North America, and on October 12 in Europe.

XCOM: Enemy Unknown ‘more tactical than original’, says producer
XCOM: Enemy Unknown’s lead producer Jake Solomon has told VG247 why he feels the game is more tactical than Julian Gollop’s original, UFO: Enemy Unknown. He also stressed that he doesn’t want to upset fans of the original by saying that, so hear him out first.



Speaking with VG247 at gamescom last week, Solomon explained why he felt the new game is more tactical, “The original game wasn’t as tactical as this game. I mean, it was tactical in its own way, but we have things like abilities an explicit cover system, bonuses for elevation, perks, passive perks and we just put a big tactical layer over the experience.”

“The original game would do things like having enemies being able to see further than you,” Solomon continued, “so they would just shoot you from behind the fog of war. These were things that, at first you might not have understood, but in our game everything is very clear.”

Solomon added, “With the original game – I know how it works – but people typically didn’t understand why they were getting shot. That created huge amounts of tension in the original game, and put you in the dark – literally in the dark. You could take a step, get shot and be like ‘who the f**k was that?’”

“With our game we said, ‘it has to be tactical, but it also has to be fair’, as tactical games that aren’t fair, just aren’t tactical. We started moving out XCOM game toward fairness and that got us worried and thinking , ‘well hold on, is this still tense?’”

“It was a big struggle throughout development to give a sense of risk and tension. Because in the original you could run around a corner and be like, ‘aw f**k, there’s some guy standing there and now he’s going to shoot me.’ We wanted to make sure the game was tactical but that there was still a chance to gamble.”

What do you think based on what you’ve seen of XCOM: Enemy Unknown so far? Does it look more tactical than UFO: Enemy Unknown, or can the original still not be beat?