XCOM: Enemy Within Preview - Whole New Game

[Mr Companion]

GEEZ thanks for spoiling the base attack! I mean its awesome to know there is finally a base defense mission as I miss those from old UFO defense but some discretion would have been nice. Still I guess it is important to note if you are looking to purchase so I see why you mentioned it.

edit: Whoops posted before I saw other people chewed him out for this my bad! Sorry Greg didn't mean to lay it on ):

 

[cathou]

I am very unsure of Enemy Within. I have some minor problems with Enemy Unknown, but I've enjoyed it a lot, and those problems can be forgiven and I can overlook them in favor of a fun game. But everything I'm seeing about Enemy Within just has me thinking I will not like it.

I don't understand why there's suddenly a human enemy faction, and why these pillars of MELD just appear everywhere. X-Com is not hard set in reality, but it just seems strange to have MELD blocks everywhere all of a sudden, is there an explanation for them? And the humans, why add those, I could understand if this was some sort of continuation on the story, and some parts of the world signed up with the aliens and so you now have some human enemies, odd, but I'd get that. However isn't this supposed to just take place during the main story, a rewrite really, so aliens attack Earth, humans fight back, and a small group decides to also cause mayhem. I don't know, until I see a strong reason or something it just puts me off, I'm here to fight these invading pricks, not a group of dumbasses.

Then the genetic modifications seem really strange to me. That's what some of the aliens did, and look how it turned out for them. It's an option, I get that, and it could be kind of cool, but part of what was interesting about X-Com was the soldiers were just humans fighting aliens, some of which were genetically modified in what was generally referred to as an icky thing, and now we can just do it too. Then the idea of just taking a soldier hacking off their perfectly working limbs so you can add robotic limbs to them, that just seems really screwed up. I would totally be on board with the idea that if you had a gravely wounded soldier you'd have the option to speed up their recovery but grafting robotics to them and get them back onto the field that much faster. But this sounds like taking fully functioning soldiers and hacking them up, ew.

And I'm just worried these advances in your soldiers will just make things that much easier. I'm having some trouble on Classic, but normal has become so easy for me I find it boring. I mean, they give you the option of having a guy in a walking battle suit who can seemingly kill almost every enemy type with one punch, and has a crap load of HP, just seems over powered. Do the enemies get that much stronger? I think I've only heard of two new enemies, one being a sectoid in a mech suit? I doubt anything is going to be that much harder than a sectopod.

it's not really a continuity of the game you know. the meld dont pop out of no where, it's just that in the new reality of enemy within, they are there from the start.

from what i understand, the new human faction want to use the chaos cause by the alien to take over the world. in the setting of the game, they work against you. so when they slow your research, steal you money and cause panick around them, you might think about dealing with them...

it's not only new aliens but also they tweaks the game mechanics. the sectopod is harder to kill because heavy bonus on machines is halved, also the mech technology seems to cost so much that it will be impossible to have a full mech based squad. remember also that the most powerfull weapon for the mech, is a melee weapon. so you actually need to get right beside the alien to use it...

 

[ChristopherT]

it's not really a continuity of the game you know.

Yes, I know. It's sort of like a re-write, or a second draft.

the meld dont pop out of no where, it's just that in the new reality of enemy within, they are there from the start.

But story wise, I wonder if they get explained. Because unless the aliens brought them and carelessly dumped them everywhere they went, then the GELD is kind of appearing out of no where and without explanation. It would be fine if you could only find GELD inside alien ships, but this is out on the street, like the bombs, except we know the bombs are placed there by the aliens for a reason. So the GELD seems strange to me, did the aliens bring it, if so why leave it laying around, it would be nice going in knowing whether it makes any sense in universe.

it's not only new aliens but also they tweaks the game mechanics.

Maybe it will all work out, I just don't want a reason to not want to play the game anymore because of something like making the game easier, or they make it so the game becomes a bit more on the borken side of things. I get that I may be worrying about nothing at all, just these things (other than the special base thing -wink wink-) don't seem like improvements to me, yet.

EDIT : I spelled it GELD, over and over, it's MELD, I get that, eh, I leave it.

 

[cathou]

it's not only new aliens but also they tweaks the game mechanics.

Maybe it will all work out, I just don't want a reason to not want to play the game anymore because of something like making the game easier, or they make it so the game becomes a bit more on the borken side of things. I get that I may be worrying about nothing at all, just these things (other than the special base thing -wink wink-) don't seem like improvements to me, yet.

EDIT : I spelled it GELD, over and over, it's MELD, I get that, eh, I leave it.

just for the rewriting of the panick mechanic that now have a lot less soldiers fire on each other, it worth it !

 

[Unit72]

So ive already preordered. Loved Xcom EU and am looking forward to more of it. I don't get the hype about base defense though. Anyone explain what im missing there? Anytime it comes up its touted as "AW YEAH FINALLY!, WOW CANT WAIT, THIS IS A GAME CHANGER!" Its just another destroy all aliens from the map mission but in ur base instead of in the woods or at a gas station. Yeah its different in that you get reinforcement waves and its a 1hr+ map but I just don't see what the big deal is. Im not bashing it its just I don't get it.

 

[TheMemoman]

Elbow Rocket! :O!

 

[Agayek]

But story wise, I wonder if they get explained. Because unless the aliens brought them and carelessly dumped them everywhere they went, then the GELD is kind of appearing out of no where and without explanation. It would be fine if you could only find GELD inside alien ships, but this is out on the street, like the bombs, except we know the bombs are placed there by the aliens for a reason. So the GELD seems strange to me, did the aliens bring it, if so why leave it laying around, it would be nice going in knowing whether it makes any sense in universe.

That's exactly what it is. The reasoning for MELD being on maps is that it fell out of alien ships when they were shot down, or the aliens dragged it out in order to use it while harvesting humans and didn't have time to reclaim it when XCOM showed up, etc, etc.

 

[Babylon Rocker]

So ive already preordered. Loved Xcom EU and am looking forward to more of it. I don't get the hype about base defense though. Anyone explain what im missing there? Anytime it comes up its touted as "AW YEAH FINALLY!, WOW CANT WAIT, THIS IS A GAME CHANGER!" Its just another destroy all aliens from the map mission but in ur base instead of in the woods or at a gas station. Yeah its different in that you get reinforcement waves and its a 1hr+ map but I just don't see what the big deal is. Im not bashing it its just I don't get it.

I guess its mostly ppl who played the original that are hyped about Base defense.

Those defense missions back then where a thriller, you had up to 8 bases and the aliens could scout and attack any of them.

It added a whole layer of strategic management to the game. I usually had 3 bases with striketeams and 5 with more or less only hangars. On higher difficulties you had to make sure that a few of your more experienced soldiers where stationed on the fighterbases at all times because defending a Base with a Rookie crew against a full blown Muton/ethereals attack was more or less an automatic loss. There was even a certain way about how to build your bases to create artificial chokepoints.

It was a bit of an all or nothing scenario, loosing ment that the base was gone for good, and usually a lot of resources with it

And to the Video... cant wait to play it, looks like a relly fleshed out expansion rather than a half assed dlc

 

[Bindal]

I guess its mostly ppl who played the original that are hyped about Base defense.

Those defense missions back then where a thriller, you had up to 8 bases and the aliens could scout and attack any of them.

Actually, I am a bit disappointed in the new Base Defense (was hoping to defend the base against EXALT rather the Aliens) and found Base Defense in the original one of the most annoying mechanics of all - and it made me rather glad that it wasn't in Enemy Unknown.

 

[Saika Renegade]

Mmh, this is going to make things all the more interesting. I eagerly anticipate seeing it go live.

EXALT reminds me of the old Cult of Sirius from Apocalypse, albeit wearing a different kind of crazy pants.

 

[James Joseph Emerald]

Is it odd that one of the things I'm excited about most with this expansion (that wasn't mentioned here at all) is that your international crew of soldiers can finally speak in a language other than American English?

That was one of my biggest gripes. I actually took pleasure in having a really ethnically diverse team, with a Nigerian medic, Brazilian grenadier, Japanese sniper, Irish commander (of course), etc. and they're all like, "Aw yeah, baby! Let's rock!"