XCOM: Enemy Within Introduces the Paranoia-Inducing Seeker

[Cognimancer]

XCOM: Enemy Within Introduces the Paranoia-Inducing Seeker

XCOM: Enemy Within will be deploying some new alien enemies, and at least one of them is going to be setting up a permanent residence in your nightmares.

The XCOM series can hardly be labeled "horror," but at the same time there's little more terrifying than watching one of your soldiers turn a corner and come face to mandibles with a Chryssalid. XCOM: Enemy Within, the upcoming expansion to last year's Enemy Unknown, is adding at least one more new breed of alien to terrorize your squad: the Seeker. A new development blog explains the role of this newcomer, which has been dubbed the "Flying Spider Shark" by one Firaxis developer.

"One of the things we wanted to do in Enemy Within was to get the player looking over her shoulder more often," reads the blog post. "The aliens were missing a subtle assassin, something that can attack suddenly and without warning when the player least expects it. The Seeker was an obvious candidate."

The Seeker is a flying, robotic squid with limited cloaking ability. Their AI will avoid direct confrontation with players, preferring to hide until the soldiers engage another group of aliens. At that point the Seeker strikes - sneaking up on an unsuspecting human and strangling them, which deals increasing amounts of damage until a soldier can shoot it off the targeted squadmate.

There are some counters to the Seeker's invisibility, and later armor types and gene mods can render troops immune to strangling altogether. Still, in the early stages of the game this sounds like a terrifying addition to the alien roster. Keep an eye out for more alien sightings leading up to Enemy Within's November 15 release date.

Source: 2K Games [http://www.2kgames.com/blog/firaxis-developer-blog-the-seeker]

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[bjj hero]

When you turn a corner and see that big ED 209 looking ***** infront of you. Nothing else quite makes your heart sink.

 

[Piorn]

"Enemy Within, the upcoming expansion to last year's Enemy Unknown,(...)"

Wait, so it's an expansion to the base game? Or a standalone update release based on the same engine?

 

[BoogieManFL]

"Enemy Within, the upcoming expansion to last year's Enemy Unknown,(...)"

Wait, so it's an expansion to the base game? Or a standalone update release based on the same engine?

I thought it was DLC expansion type of deal.

 

[omega 616]

Coming face to mandibles with a Chrysalid wasn't what made me drop one, it was those disks things... When I first encountered that badass it threw something and killed 3 guys and reduced another to one health.

This new one though... Seems early game like a nightmare but with things to basically render them useless late game, they sound under powered.

 

[Korten12]

"Enemy Within, the upcoming expansion to last year's Enemy Unknown,(...)"

Wait, so it's an expansion to the base game? Or a standalone update release based on the same engine?

I believe it's an expansion on PC, and a standalone on Consoles.

 

[Frankster]

I'm gonna hazard a guess that the armor defence vs strangling is going to be limited to heavy armor types, so your snipers and medics will still be vulnerable. I hope.

Between this and mechas, im honestly looking forward to this DLC, gives me a reason to reinstall new xcom which i thought was pretty decent first playthrough, but lacked replayability.

 

[BloodRed Pixel]

There are some counters to the Seeker's invisibility, and later armor types and gene mods can render troops immune to strangling altogether. Still, in the early stages of the game this sounds like a terrifying addition to the alien roster.

what's the point in making one enemy type the ultimate nightmare and the render it obsolete later in the game?
hope the counter option will be limited, like seeker revealing smoke bombs or something.

 

[Dogstile]

There are some counters to the Seeker's invisibility, and later armor types and gene mods can render troops immune to strangling altogether. Still, in the early stages of the game this sounds like a terrifying addition to the alien roster.

what's the point in making one enemy type the ultimate nightmare and the render it obsolete later in the game?
hope the counter option will be limited, like seeker revealing smoke bombs or something.

If armour can make it unable to strangle like they say, it'll be like fighting thin men again. Dangerous as hell early game, but as you ramp up they're basically paper trying to hold against an ocean. Makes sense, once you truly get a good squad with decent skills and equipment, they should be able to take any scenario provided no tactical errors are made.

 

[MammothBlade]

"The X-COM Series can hardly be labeled horror"

Clearly someone hasn't played UFO Defence.

Or TFTD for that matter, heh heh heh.

XCOM still has amazing potential for sci-fi horror. The scariest type of horror, for me at least.

 

[sonofliber]

okay can we get info in what matters? for example: the campaign, will it still be a base invulnerable to everything even if you are clearly the aliens biggest threat? will the maps finally be RND? or we will have to play the same 6 maps over and over (now expanded to 8 thanks to the dlc), will the AI still spawn in the same places? will the AI move more that 3 units when it sees you?, will we have a good UFOPEDIA now?, etc.. etc..

 

[DeimosMasque]

okay can we get info in what matters? for example: the campaign, will it still be a base invulnerable to everything even if you are clearly the aliens biggest threat? will the maps finally be RND? or we will have to play the same 6 maps over and over (now expanded to 8 thanks to the dlc), will the AI still spawn in the same places? will the AI move more that 3 units when it sees you?, will we have a good UFOPEDIA now?, etc.. etc..

Here's the known gameplay changes so far: http://xcom.wikia.com/wiki/XCOM:_Enemy_Within#Gameplay_and_Interface_Changes

In addition there are now 47 additional maps.

 

[Agayek]

okay can we get info in what matters? for example: the campaign, will it still be a base invulnerable to everything even if you are clearly the aliens biggest threat? will the maps finally be RND? or we will have to play the same 6 maps over and over (now expanded to 8 thanks to the dlc), will the AI still spawn in the same places? will the AI move more that 3 units when it sees you?, will we have a good UFOPEDIA now?, etc.. etc..

1) Yes

2) They're adding an additional 47 maps IIRC, but the map selection process is largely unchanged. It'll randomly select from the 65-70 pre-built maps at random and send you to them.

3) They've changed the old maps to accommodate the Meld spawn locations. Not sure if that also extends to enemy spawn locations (but I would imagine it does).

4) I doubt the AI's detection process will change very much.

5) I doubt it. They'll probably conclude the research archives are sufficient.

 

[gigastar]

There would probably be a late game version of it just to make sure youre checking on your squadsight sniper outside of telling him to eliminate a couple of enemies from across the map every turn.

 

[Ed130 The Vanguard]

They really wanted to nerf Squadsight Snipers didn't they?

Coming face to mandibles with a Chrysalid wasn't what made me drop one, it was those disks things... When I first encountered that badass it threw something and killed 3 guys and reduced another to one health.

This new one though... Seems early game like a nightmare but with things to basically render them useless late game, they sound under powered.

Once you hit HEAT Ammo for Heavies Cyberdisc's become a cakewalk, unless this was a late-game creature like a Sectapod there should be some counters for it that you can research.

 

[Bindal]

Bit of a slow news day today? Because the Seeker was revealed with the War Machines trailer and details were covered during PAX (how it works, ect). And that's been a while already.

"The X-COM Series can hardly be labeled horror"

Clearly someone hasn't played UFO Defence.

night time. your squad arrives at the farm, they slowly leave the skyranger and fan out. one by one they are picked off, you hear scream and see sickly green fire from alien weaponry but you cant pinpoint the location.. yup not horror at all

Was never horror for me, it was just annoying.

They really wanted to nerf Squadsight Snipers didn't they?

Once you hit HEAT Ammo for Heavies Cyberdisc's become a cakewalk, unless this was a late-game creature like a Sectapod there should be some counters for it that you can research.

Both gets nerfed. Squad Sight removed any chance for Crits (unless you combine it with Headshot or the sniper can see the enemy without squad sight as well) and HEAT ammo only gives 50% more damage instead of 100%.
Also, there was a counter to Sectopods - HEAT ammo + Rocketlauncher (or Blaster Launcher). Incredible damage instantly. Followed by a Sniper in a Flight Armor, Damn Good Ground and a Plasma Sniper and that Sectopod is history.

 

[MiskWisk]

"Flying Spider Shark"

Well, that's worrying. In fact You know what, I'm out. You all can deal with flying spider sharks. I don't want more nightmare fuel.

 

[Ed130 The Vanguard]

They really wanted to nerf Squadsight Snipers didn't they?

Once you hit HEAT Ammo for Heavies Cyberdisc's become a cakewalk, unless this was a late-game creature like a Sectapod there should be some counters for it that you can research.

Both gets nerfed. Squad Sight removed any chance for Crits (unless you combine it with Headshot or the sniper can see the enemy without squad sight as well) and HEAT ammo only gives 50% more damage instead of 100%.
Also, there was a counter to Sectopods - HEAT ammo + Rocketlauncher (or Blaster Launcher). Incredible damage instantly. Followed by a Sniper in a Flight Armor, Damn Good Ground and a Plasma Sniper and that Sectopod is history.

I knew of the removal of crits nerf, but the addition of a creature that goes after lone squaddies (ie the sniper up back) is a little overkill.