Trailers: XCOM - Gameplay Trailer

[chimeracreator]

So was Fallout.

I don't know, since this is supposed to be a prequel of sorts. Having recently replayed the original, I see a lot of the influence the original had on this, and I actually like it so far.

What could you possibly see that is in any way related to the original besides guys with guns shooting aliens? If that is the case then Resistance and Halo fit the qualifications for spiritual successors of X-Com.

I'd say that Halo has more to do with the original X-COM than this does. You have body armor in that, just like in the original X-COM. You have lots of normal human soldiers die, just like the original X-COM. Finally you have a wide variety of aliens, just like the original X-COM.

The only things this new game has in common with the original is that ducking behind cover is a good idea and the name.

 

[MajorMurray]

Ok then, look at it like this. I have two things to say, and neither of them are putting 2k Marin in a good light.

One, They are using controversy from them taking the name of X-COM so that they can launch themselves out of obscurity and into the spotlight. I hadn't even heard of the game till I watched a person defending it's right to exist. For a small game company, there is no bad news. However I don't like it, you could think it's what they are doing.

Two, they want to completely rewrite X-COM to fit their image or their understanding of it. They are fans, but they are the kind of fans that say it would be better if they did this or that. I don't this is the case, but it could very well be.

Now, listen. I am happy to see this trailer, with the developer actually showing us the game and all it's features. I like squad based shooters, I miss my Ghost Recon. I like the resources for squad abilities, while it may look like it is taking pointers from Mass Effect, I don't get that feeling from it. I think they are just trying to keep X-COM alive, because come on, if they weren't making this game, would you even be thinking about X-COM. Or would you be thinking about the next big release. There games that the more I hear the less I like, that's Battlefield 3, War in the North, and Mass Effect 3. But the more I hear XCOM from 2k Marin, the more I like. I want to see this game come out, and you should too. When it does come out, watch a let's play or, read a review, rent it. See it for yourself. And just to help the sake of an argument, I've already bought the original X-COM, I'm about to play it.

Also I like that you can send agents to preform missions on their own while you preform missions, that's something I really like to see in a game like this. That's all I'm gonna say, no point in continuing the argument. This is just the point of view from a gamer.

 

[Halceon]

"If that combat intelligence, that fierce hunger to understand the enemy from the inside out is key to what we feel makes an xcom experience mechanically."

No, you blithering fool! Mechanically an X-com experience is derived from the assymetrical, from a handful of earth's finest being worthless and having to learn how to hide and be scared again. From the need to outmanouver, from the need to predict what you can't even see yet.

Also, I hate this hero-oriented thing. Did the squad do anything at all? Kill anyone? Draw fire? As far as I could see, they were merely toolbelts. Which is dumb. One of the beauties of X-com was the fact that you could have your best man, a hardened veteran of 30 missions, die to a blaster launch on the first turn he gets out of the transport.

 

[Vapus]

As an oldschool xcom fan all I can say is this looks HELLA dissapointing.. Pretty much gears of war meets brothers in arms using xcom as a label to sell it.. sigh..

 

[Rythe]

After the disclaimer that I've been an X-COM fan long enough to own an original copy, my issues with this game are...different.

At first I was disappointed in this new game because of what they were doing to the name, but there wasn't enough info to really get a feel for the game itself and the initial alien concept wasn't that great.

Eventually, I was mildly interested in the concept of the aliens, like there was a glimmer of potential there.

Now I'm just disdainful of this game, even if the glimmer of potential remains for the part of the aliens that you'll barely interact with, that being their world and culture and not invasion parts.

First off, this video reveals a game that reeks of design by committee. They made a deal of checking off their politically correct boxes despite how at odds it put their version of the 1960s with the actual historical context. To top off their ignorance or dismissal of history and context, was our hero really using a German SMG instead of something like a Tommy Gun? In the 60s? (Or at least something more appropriate. My movie and TV based knowledge of post-WW2 weaponry maaay not be the best...)

Then the aliens themselves crib heavily from the Anti-Spirals of Gurren Lagann, and I'm pretty sure the game has no idea what 'living technology' actually entails given their vision of it is 3D geometry wars. The poltergeist zipping the dude around and leaving him in a wall basically cements the idea that they're just borrowing affective bits and pieces from other works and throwing them in the pot without any real rhyme or reason or understanding then trying to cover it up by throwing the BS technobabble on thick. That said, the terraforming business was actually a little interesting as was the view of their dimension or whatever the hell that was, but overall, the in-game aliens were incoherent and utterly unimpressive in the firefight.

Speaking of unimpressive, let's look at the gameplay. They may have had godmode on for the demo, but the weapons had no weight other than getting to see the little health bars go down. Which begs a huuuge question - why are there health bars at all? That smacks of terrible design and aesthetics if your visuals give no indication that shooting at stuff is doing anything until they suddenly fall over (Also an artifact of stealing Mass Effect's gameplay). Then they pulled out an 'advanced' weapon for us to see as they shot up the titan and I was stuck wondering what the big deal about this dull, uninspired 'advanced' weapon was. This is Mass Effect without any of the care that obviously went into Mass Effect. I really hate chest high walls at this point too.

But then they made a big deal of whether or not you use captured alien tech in the mission or brought it home for research. As was mentioned before, this is terrible game design. A power gamer always takes the tech back with them for long term rewards and the people who don't are shooting themselves in the foot by hurting their ability to trick out themselves and their squad. Not that the squad seemed to do much other than provide the aliens something else to shoot at and extra ability slots. Even more worrying, the ability/Mass Effect stuff was their revamped and improved combat. I hate to think what they might have been running with before.

Now the gall of it all is that they also took what effectively was MP/Mana/Energy and called it Time Units and then tried to pretend it made any sort of sense. It was a fragile move to begin with, but it completely shatters into a bloody mess the moment they said it was a move to placate X-COM fans because, of anyone out there, WE KNOW BETTER.

Like I said, there is so much here that smacks of design by committee and/or people who aren't particularly good at crafting worlds and making games. I'll give the dated graphics the destructo terrain bit towards the end. It's a tradeoff to put the game on consoles, but everything else is pretty much amateur hour. At least design-wise. There seems to be at least a few good artists and coders behind the table of idiots running the show.

In short, I seriously doubt this game will be anything other than an average mess based on this trailer.

Edit: Nope, not a German SMG.

 

[Master_Fubar23]

Alright, just gonna put it out there, I hiss at this game. It is not X-Com, because X-Com is a turn-based strategy game with some base management stuff set in a near future, at a world-wide setting with a semi-cartoony aesthetic. This game is not those things.

It is in fact a shooter involving aliens that is set in a 1960s ish period with a realistic artstyle. Which could be great! But it isn't X-Com.

I think this game would do better as an original IP. Those who have fond memories of X-Com don't want to see it become a shooter, and everyone loves an original IP.

Edit: To clarify, I genuinally think this game has excellent potential. I'm really big on setting and like the person in the trailer says, 1962 is a fascinating year, and the game could really go into the politics of both America and of the Cold War as a whole. But that's a lot to ask and from what I saw in the trailer it seems we have:

Stupid and Cliche one-liners ("Now THATS what I call firepower!")
Coverbased shooter combat (the person says that you can't stand toe to toe with the aliens, it doesn't look that tough, the smg is powerful and your health regenerates fast)
No real strategy (I say this because look at how fast time units regenerate. It's crazy. Also, once you level up a few agents, why ever use anyone else?)

Not convinced people.

I can't agree more. In X-Com you had as many men you could fit inside a transport and you needed to bring as many men as possible since they would drop like flies. If I want to play a Mass Effect clone I'll just play Mass Effect. Though the story might be its only redeeming factor though and I really do hope it is. I generally perfer story over gameplay so I'll play a game that might not be fun but has a great story.

 

[MajorMurray]

First off, this video reveals a game that reeks of design by committee. They made a deal of checking off their politically correct boxes despite how at odds it put their version of the 1960s with the actual historical context. To top off their ignorance or dismissal of history and context, was our hero really using a German SMG instead of something like a Tommy Gun? In the 60s? (Or at least something more appropriate. My movie and TV based knowledge of post-WW2 weaponry maaay not be the best...)

It's a weapon nick named the grease gun, my great grandfather had one. The real name is the M3 submachine gun. It's a submachine gun, very easy to use and it has a short stock. I believe in Fallout New Vegas it's called the 9mm submachine gun. Just trying to clear this up. Also the M3 might not have much kick, but that alien rocket launcher type thing! POW!

 

[Product Placement]

Can people please stop comparing this to Fallout 3?

I don't know what planet you were on when that game came out but in my social circle, we were hyped. I loved fallout 1 and 2 and when news came out that a new company had gotten their hands on the Fallout license, I was thrilled and I found exceptionally little negative feedback coming from the community. You wanna know why? Because everything I saw coming from Bethesda was telling me that they were making a Fallout game.

I'm not even gonna listen to an argument stating that this is the same.

 

[Rythe]

It's a weapon nick named the grease gun, my great grandfather had one. The real name is the M3 submachine gun. It's a submachine gun, very easy to use and it has a short stock. I believe in Fallout New Vegas it's called the 9mm submachine gun. Just trying to clear this up. Also the M3 might not have much kick, but that alien rocket launcher type thing! POW!

Thanks! I really wasn't sure, but the rounded rear end made me think German for some reason, and then I realized I had no idea what the Western/American SMG of the time period looked like because the Tommy Gun was more the 20's and such.

 

[thirion1850]

I guess I should be happy it's got a bigger color pallet and they fight Aliens rather than nazi's again.

 

[remmus]

frankly I´m in the "it looks interesting but it shouldn´t be called x-com camp"

 

[Sandwichboy]

Well, at least we know they're making something contemporary, not like those boring old strategy games that no one buys.

 

[Dogstile]

Honestly, it looks like Brothers In Arms with less squads. It also looked perfectly possible to take out every alien with just the SMG and GODDAMMIT STOP WASTING YOUR LONG TERM RESOURCES YOU DID NOT NEED TO USE A TURRET.