Welcome Back Commander: XCOM 2 Invades Your PC In November

[Fdzzaigl]

I like that the plot still remains a mystery and that we're fighting against overwhelming odds again.

Honestly, XCOM wouldn't really feel like XCOM to me if humanity wasn't struggling upwards. Pulling back the whole curtain on the events of the 20 years following humanity's "victory" would be equally disappointing.

 

[Zontar]

As hyped as I am for this and totally going to buy it day one, I was really hoping that when the eventual Xcom 2 was announced that it would have the Aquatoids.

 

[DrOswald]

Hey, what's with shunning the console crowd from this game? I loved EU and EW. Don't make me come out of my filthy peasant hut to shout angrily at the pidgeons due to your betrayal.

The game sold relatively poorly on console, it was only barely enough to cover cost of development for the console version. On the PC it sold like crazy. They are going where the money is.

Wait... We LOST? So Stephani "Deadeye", the badass french sniper and the only survivor of the chrysalid incident lost her life at the alien ship for nothing? That fucking sucks... I guess that Amelie Stephour, her daughter gonna carry the torch then... (If I don't suck and get her killed as well)

I think it is more a case of being too damn good at our job. The plot of the first game, which is admittedly very easy to miss, is that the aliens were looking for a new warrior race that would be powerful both physically and in psionics as well as having the creativity and ingenuity to adapt to new situations. XCOM proved beyond any doubt by repelling the first wave that humans were exactly what the aliens were looking for. At which point the aliens would just bring in a battle fleet that XCOM could never hope to deal with, the combined military might of the entire Earth could never hope to fight off a determined force of the aliens tech level. This is the logical extrapolation of the events of XCOM:EU. I like it.

But Deadeyes sacrifice probably bought Humanity an extra decade or so of freedom. That not nothing.

 

[Fdzzaigl]

They could do some pretty crazy legacy stuff too if they wanted. Like Deadeyes being a mentor / hero who inspired the next generation of undercover XCOM to take over and construct their new base(ship) somewhere over in that desert etc.

I doubt they'll do that, but they could.

 

[ObsidianJones_v1legacy]

so... what of Meld ? Mech Men and Mutated Military Muscle? Mental Might (Yay! All M's!) Are all these making a return?

 

[Neverhoodian]

Awesome. I just hope they'll be able to address some of the wonkier issues with the first game. Is it too much to hope that we'll be able to deploy more than a maximum of six soldiers this time around?

Snake Men and Melee Combat ACTIVATED!!!!!
F*CK YES! *U** YES!!!!!!!!!
However I turn off with the whole "Aliens won the War" Theme....
What was the point of our Victory in the first X-Com? All the effort for nothing?

To be fair, the original series took an almost perverse pleasure in making your efforts from previous games seem like wasted effort. No matter how many times you thwarted the alien threat, the world gradually turned to shit anyway. Overpopulation, ecological collapse, political upheaval, famine, extremist cults, religious wars and alien toxins all contributed to the world's decline. Eventually the planet is rendered uninhabitable save for a few contained areas like Mega-Primus in X-COM: Apocalypse.

If I was to hazard a guess, I'd say the "good" ending to Enemy Unknown is still canon, but it wasn't enough. The alien "invasion" may have just been a scout force, with the bulk of the fleet arriving a short time afterwards. After all, it was made clear that

Spoiler

The Ethereals were "testing" humanity to see if they were worthy subjects for their experimentation.

Or perhaps it's a different alien empire entirely.

 

[Rattja]

Well...I know what I'll be doing when winter comes along at least.

The moment I saw the words "XCOM 2" I felt something I have not felt in a while, true excitement for a new game. Right before they start attacking you see that classic flag on the back of the uniform, it sent chills down my spine and I got a sudden urge to play it. That it would be made another didn't really cross my mind until now, but that plot could be very interesting to play through.
I like the idea of fighting back after being taken over, being the attacker rather than the defender, it seems like the natural step for it to take rather than another game where you defend again. It also fits nicely with the story too I think.

From what I can tell in the trailer there will be a bunch of new stuff to play around with, like melee combat. Although that seems a bit dangerous to get that close to anything.
As for those human looking soldiers, I am guessing those might be either EXALT troops or some other group of humans being mind controlled by the aliens. It also looks like that drone stuns one of them, so that could possibly be an important game mechanic. Maybe you can free them so they join you or something, that would be kinda neat.

While I will try my best to not put my expectations too high, I have to admit I am hyped right now.

Also this reminds me, I should try to finish my Long war game while I wait.

 

[Towowo]

Perhaps they think that honey is better than vinegar when trying take over something. That by appearing as friends they'd be easier to assimilate, under the pretense of goodwill.

 

[vallorn]

Hey, what's with shunning the console crowd from this game? I loved EU and EW. Don't make me come out of my filthy peasant hut to shout angrily at the pidgeons due to your betrayal.

It looks like they are rolling parts of the PC Long War Mod into the game. I'm saying this due to the extra help the Long War guys recently got... Plus some of the features like the extra classes seem to have taken inspiration from the Long War mod. I can only hope that it kept the insane and crushing difficulty levels that Long War could provide.

 

[Product Placement]

XCOM 2 is set twenty years in the future, where Earth ultimately lost the war against the alien invaders.

But... we won! Don't say Zhang's [http://xcom.wikia.com/wiki/Shaojie_Zhang] sacrifice was in vain (who I, incidentally, made into the Volunteer [http://xcom.wikia.com/wiki/The_Volunteer])!

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

so... what of Meld ? Mech Men and Mutated Military Muscle? Mental Might (Yay! All M's!) Are all these making a return?

Marvellous manipulation of your M's, Mister!

Hey, what's with shunning the console crowd from this game? I loved EU and EW. Don't make me come out of my filthy peasant hut to shout angrily at the pidgeons due to your betrayal.

It looks like they are rolling parts of the PC Long War Mod into the game. I'm saying this due to the extra help the Long War guys recently got... Plus some of the features like the extra classes seem to have taken inspiration from the Long War mod. I can only hope that it kept the insane and crushing difficulty levels that Long War could provide.

Ah that is fair enough. Still plenty of time left to see how this develops. I have high hopes indeed.

 

[Terminal Blue]

Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeesssssssssssss!

Sorry, got that out of my system.

Honestly, the concept seems pretty awesome, and (assuming its the same alien invasion from the first game) an interesting chance to explore more of the Ethereals' motives which were hinted at in the first game. Also, is that fucking honest-to-God snakeman?

EDIT: If it wasn't good enough, I love the retro-future style of those screenshots. It looks like a very clear visual homage to Apocalypse (which is actually my favourite of the old X-Com games).

So yeah the aliens of the new Firaxis Xcom seem the nicest aliens out of any xcom like franchise. I'm not so sure I want to be leading a resistance against our new overlords, we could do a lot worst.

Based on what we know of the aliens from the first game (and assuming again it is the same invasion, which I'm pretty sure it is - you can see an Ethereal on one of the propaganda posters) I'd guess the aliens have mind controlled earth's leaders and are using them as a puppet government to keep some semblance of order while they slowly harvest the population for experiments. I'm not sure the "gene therapy" described in the video is quite what it appears to be, and the alien-human hybrid is.. well.. I wonder where that came from?

 

[Gailim]

Wait... We LOST? So Stephani "Deadeye", the badass french sniper and the only survivor of the chrysalid incident lost her life at the alien ship for nothing? That fucking sucks... I guess that Amelie Stephour, her daughter gonna carry the torch then... (If I don't suck and get her killed as well)

actually the developers confirmed that the "volunteer" does NOT die at the end. they are teleported to parts unknown

 

[Sehnsucht Engel]

This is awesome. I loved EU/EW, but wasn't expecting more xcom from Firaxis for some reason.

 

[Lil_Rimmy]

Oh.

Oh boi.

...

HYPEHYPEHYPEHYPEHYPEHYPEHYPEHYPEHYPEHYPEHYPEHYPEHYPEHYPEHYPEHYPEHYPEHYPEHYPEHYPEHYPEHYPEHYPEHYPEHYPEHYPEHYPEHYPEHYPEHYPEHYPEHYPEHYPEHYPEHYPEHYPEHYPEHYPEHYPEHYPEHYPEHYPEHYPEHYPEHYPEHYPEHYPEHYPEHYPEHYPEHYPEHYPEHYPEHYPEHYPEHYPEHYPEHYPEHYPEHYPEHYPEHYPEHYPEHYPEHYPEHYPE HOLY SHIT HYPE!

HOLY SHIT THIS LOOKS SO COOL I WANT THIS RIGHT NOW IN AND AROUND MY MOUTH HOLES DEAR GOD GIVE ME MORE BRUTAL TACTICAL GAMEPLAY!

Man, everything about this trailer looks fucking sick. The melee attacks, Snakemen, some human? enemies, a creepy humanoid/ethereal alien! Also, a stun drone, so you don't have to fuck around with those bloody Arc Throwers. But one thing I'd love to see is them getting the Long War devs in on this, or at least giving them some modding tools for XCom 2. Seriously, Long War is great fun, bloody brilliant mod and I just love the massive fights with 12 XCom operatives all with different classes. I think I'm gonna have to play some more Long War while I wait, but holy shit this looks good. The real question is how long is it going to take for them to release a Long Resistance mod?

EDIT: Also, the Volunteer isn't dead! Holy shit, what if the end-game of XCom 2 is the Volunteer returning or being found or something? That'd be some really, really cool shit, especially if they let you import saves (unlikely, but I can dream Harold!)

 

[Phil the Nervous]

This is gonna be AWESOME!!! More areas, more story, more strategy, more Xcom!
...that cobra guy- mutated human?
THIS IS SO HYPE!!!

 

[OverEZ]

November needed to be yesterday.

 

[EMWISE94]

Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! I happily await having that ONE soldier that can't aim for shit who I eventually leave to get eaten by chrysallis hordes while the rest of the team bail... only to have them still be alive at the end of it all..

 

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

Hey, what's with shunning the console crowd from this game? I loved EU and EW. Don't make me come out of my filthy peasant hut to shout angrily at the pidgeons due to your betrayal.

The PS4 and Xbone are already showing their age. It is unlikely that they would be able to run the games, not without a massive hit in graphics and/or reduced gameplay.

 

[Gennadios]

Fingers crossed, Firaxis had two recent screwups and as decent as the original re-release was, they clearly had no idea what they were making. Players wanted a full procedural game and we got canned maps with procedural enemy placement and linear DLC campaigns for our time.

Hopefully they've stumbled enough to really try this time, but I don't think it'll be a day one purchase.