XCOM: Enemy Within Preview - Whole New Game

Greg Tito

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Sep 29, 2005
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XCOM: Enemy Within Preview - Whole New Game

Enemy Within expands XCOM in all the right ways.

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Erttheking

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Aliens attack the base? There are missions where aliens infiltrate the base and you have to fight them off with whatever random soldiers you can group together and whatever weapons they had at the time?

FREAKING! AWESOME!
 

Quazimofo

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Fuck, shouldn't have read that last paragraph. Or that first comment. Now that bit's spoiled for me unless I forget about the game until christmas. CURSE YOU GREG TITO AND YOUR COMPREHENSIVE JOURNALISM!
 

Greg Tito

PR for Dungeons & Dragons
Sep 29, 2005
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Quazimofo said:
Fuck, shouldn't have read that last paragraph. Or that first comment. Now that bit's spoiled for me unless I forget about the game until christmas. CURSE YOU GREG TITO AND YOUR COMPREHENSIVE JOURNALISM!
I suppose that is a bit of a spoiler, but it's not going to be one for long. I'll add in warnings though. I apologize if you feel I ruined the experience for you. I know that sucks!

Greg
 

Quazimofo

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Greg Tito said:
Quazimofo said:
Fuck, shouldn't have read that last paragraph. Or that first comment. Now that bit's spoiled for me unless I forget about the game until christmas. CURSE YOU GREG TITO AND YOUR COMPREHENSIVE JOURNALISM!
I suppose that is a bit of a spoiler, but it's not going to be one for long. I'll add in warnings though. I apologize if you feel I ruined the experience for you. I know that sucks!

Greg
No need to apologize. This game and the news surrounding it is one of the situations where if someone wants to be truly surprised by the new stuff, they just need to cut themselves off from the news around it until it comes out. I should have seen it coming. Besides, it still sounds like tons of fun so I doubt the experience will be ruined for ever and ever and ever.

Good call on adding warnings though. Better to err on the side of caution and prevent others from feeling like something was spoiled.
 

Renegade-pizza

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I actually spoke with one of the designers about it at a game-expo. We had a full conversation without me learning anything new...I should probably check my brain for tracking chips.
 

tdylan

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*Remembers feelings of betrayal when it was learned that this would be a $40 standalone rather than a $20 expansion for the X360 game

*Watches preview video

*Stares at copy of "Enemy Unknown"

Shut up and take more of my money!
 

Stupidity

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Sep 21, 2013
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Excellent
Didn't get this game because reviews said it lacked content(Mission types and maps).
As soon as GOTY edition or a decent bundle pack comes out i'm grabbing it.
 

Reduced_Silver

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Mar 4, 2011
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'Enemy Within is a standalone expansion.....'

Um, it requires the base game to play. How is that a standalone expansion.

Oh, that's just for the PC, which is not the major focus of escapist, I get it.
 

Chemical123

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I dont consider base attack as a spoiler because the trailer already pretty much revealed that. Preordered the expansion immediately.
 

Gaboris

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Dec 22, 2011
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Okay-okay I'm confused here.

So this is an expandalone witch means that it can be played by itself, that's okay. But what does that actually mean again? o_O"

Is this a completely separate set of missions that happen besides the original story witch can't be played here or does this thing contain everything the original game had with story and missions as well?
If it's the first then bummer, but okay I can live with it, but if it's the later then what the heck? How's that supposed to work, why would I buy the original then?
Neither makes much sense to me, but I have no idea how this works so I'm just speculating.

Or is it a kind of combination of the two where I can play only these missions as an expandalone, but if it's installed together with the original then it gets integrated into the story? I'd be cool with that especially that that seems to be the most logical to me. :)
 

Bindal

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Gaboris said:
Okay-okay I'm confused here.

So this is an expandalone witch means that it can be played by itself, that's okay. But what does that actually mean again? o_O"

Is this a completely separate set of missions that happen besides the original story witch can't be played here or does this thing contain everything the original game had with story and missions as well?
If it's the first then bummer, but okay I can live with it, but if it's the later then what the heck? How's that supposed to work, why would I buy the original then?
Neither makes much sense to me, but I have no idea how this works so I'm just speculating.

Or is it a kind of combination of the two where I can play only these missions as an expandalone, but if it's installed together with the original then it gets integrated into the story? I'd be cool with that especially that that seems to be the most logical to me. :)
PC is just an expansion, not a stand-alone expansion pack. TAKE A GUESS!
 

Berling's Beard

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Gah! Super stoked to get this! So happy you've been profiling it in such depth. I play Enemy Unknown on the 360 and plan to get the expansion on console as well.
 

Greg Tito

PR for Dungeons & Dragons
Sep 29, 2005
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Gaboris said:
Okay-okay I'm confused here.

So this is an expandalone witch means that it can be played by itself, that's okay. But what does that actually mean again? o_O"

Is this a completely separate set of missions that happen besides the original story witch can't be played here or does this thing contain everything the original game had with story and missions as well?
If it's the first then bummer, but okay I can live with it, but if it's the later then what the heck? How's that supposed to work, why would I buy the original then?
Neither makes much sense to me, but I have no idea how this works so I'm just speculating.

Or is it a kind of combination of the two where I can play only these missions as an expandalone, but if it's installed together with the original then it gets integrated into the story? I'd be cool with that especially that that seems to be the most logical to me. :)
So to clear this up for you -

For the PC, it's an expansion which adds all the gameplay I describe to the missions, plot, and gameplay of the original.

For the consoles, it's a standalone expansion which you can buy as a separate disc, but that ALSO includes all of the missions, plot, and gameplay of the original in addition to the new stuff in the campaign.

Hope that makes sense, sorry to confuse!

Greg

Edit: Fixed this in the article, just to be crystal clear. The information was in the linked articles announcing the expansion, but i figure you shouldn't have to click through to get that.
 

ChristopherT

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Sep 9, 2010
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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.
 

Demandred20

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I would run out to buy this immediately if I hadnt suddenly remembered that I already had. Glad I didnt fall into the preorder trap but then unless they completely managed to balls things up I was at least pretty sure I would get more X-com and that was better than 95% of games these days. I´m however ectatic that this preview and TBs confirm that they managed to pull off another home-run.
 

Gaboris

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Dec 22, 2011
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Bindal said:
Gaboris said:
Okay-okay I'm confused here.

So this is an expandalone witch means that it can be played by itself, that's okay. But what does that actually mean again? o_O"

Is this a completely separate set of missions that happen besides the original story witch can't be played here or does this thing contain everything the original game had with story and missions as well?
If it's the first then bummer, but okay I can live with it, but if it's the later then what the heck? How's that supposed to work, why would I buy the original then?
Neither makes much sense to me, but I have no idea how this works so I'm just speculating.

Or is it a kind of combination of the two where I can play only these missions as an expandalone, but if it's installed together with the original then it gets integrated into the story? I'd be cool with that especially that that seems to be the most logical to me. :)
PC is just an expansion, not a stand-alone expansion pack. TAKE A GUESS!
REAL smooth. You're a real pro at not acting like a jerk for no reason.[/sarcasm]
Everywhere they called it a standalone. Tell me how does that make it clear that it's different on PC then on the console? :)

Greg Tito said:
So to clear this up for you -

For the PC, it's an expansion which adds all the gameplay I describe to the missions, plot, and gameplay of the original.

For the consoles, it's a standalone expansion which you can buy as a separate disc, but that ALSO includes all of the missions, plot, and gameplay of the original in addition to the new stuff in the campaign.

Hope that makes sense, sorry to confuse!

Greg
AH! Okay now I get it. Didn't know that it was different on the PC since everywhere they just called it a standalone. Thank you for clearing that up.

Greg Tito said:
Edit: Fixed this in the article, just to be crystal clear. The information was in the linked articles announcing the expansion, but i figure you shouldn't have to click through to get that.
Great idea with adding this into the review. I'm sure a lot of confused ppl like myself are going to be glad for that.
 

chozo_hybrid

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Jul 15, 2009
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Greg Tito said:
Quazimofo said:
Fuck, shouldn't have read that last paragraph. Or that first comment. Now that bit's spoiled for me unless I forget about the game until christmas. CURSE YOU GREG TITO AND YOUR COMPREHENSIVE JOURNALISM!
I suppose that is a bit of a spoiler, but it's not going to be one for long. I'll add in warnings though. I apologize if you feel I ruined the experience for you. I know that sucks!

Greg
I'm happy you mentioned it, the expansion will cost me around $50 because I live in New Zealand, but it sounds really worth it, I have one question if I may:

IS the base defence mission only going to happen once in a game? Do you know? Or can it possibly happen more then once, because I hope it has more then just one chance to pop up :D