If you have fond memories of playing the original XCOM (Extraterrestrial Combat Unit) games on DOS back in the early 90s, then you will probably be keeping an eye on the franchise reboot announced by 2K Games earlier this year.
The originals were tactical strategy games, and many will be sceptical of the new XCOM being released as a first person shooter. And so they should be. It is all very well rebooting a beloved franchise, but what is the point if you are going to change everything that made the originals so great?
Well fortunately the development team at 2K are adamant that they are keeping the game grounded in its roots, while at the same time, introducing their own new creative spin. Like its predecessors, the narrative behind the new XCOM is “built around fear and the unknown” says 2K producer Harvey Whitney in our behind closed doors presentation. “We are taking all the features that made the early X-Com games such classics, but blending it with new ideas,” says Whitney. To be fair, this is what any sequel should aim to do.
The game takes place in 1950’s USA, amidst the pervasive height of the nuclear family. Every home has 2.5 children, a cat, a dog, and a white picket fence. Belying this desperately perfect exterior however, is something dark and insidious. Something, dangerous and corrupting. Something, Alien…
The gameplay presentation we were given kicked off inside a military hangar. This, Whitney tells us, serves as the player’s base of operations. From here your team researches new technologies and monitors the alien threat that is sweeping across the US largely unnoticed. He walks us around the hangar, which is adorned by period accurate decor. Everything from the parked trucks, to the outfits worn by agents seems to have stepped straight off the set of a Grace Kelly movie.
Mid-way through our tour of the hangar HQ, an emergency call comes in. The broken screams through the telephone indicate some sort of alien disturbance in a nearby suburb. We are given the choice of going out to the scene to investigate, or ignoring it to continue with other matters. Whitney explains that every choice will have consequences – he seems to think he is the first game developer to ever use this now tried and tested concept.
So we elect to go out to the scene. We are introduced to our two-man support team, and taken to a weapons locker. We take a shotgun as well as an experimental lightning gun and head off. The trip between the hangar and the investigation location is broken by a loading screen, so don’t expect an open world to navigate and explore.
The Titan wreaking havoc
We arrive at the scene, which would be a picture perfect American suburban snapshot were it not for a sinister taint and eerie silence in the air. The game is presented in a brightly coloured palette in the first person view. As agent Carter and his team members make their way down the leafy suburban street they hear a shriek from a nearby house. They pursue the cry, and spot an oily black blob sliding along the driveway fast. They get there seconds too late, and the home’s occupant is laying face down covered in black slime. Carter takes a photograph of the dead body. This aids research being conducted by XCOM and is reminiscent of the photography system used in Bioshock, another 2K game.
They continue on from house to house, until a massive confrontation is had between the XCOM team and about 20 of these oily black blobs. They jump around erratically, but luckily the team is well equipped and the shotgun, lightning gun and Blobotov (experimental molotov cocktail type grenade) are adequate to disperse the alien threat. One team member dies in the fight though, and Whitney explains that this will happen from time to time. The house in which the fight takes place is covered in black slime, but you manage to save one of the occupants.
Just then, a massive explosion rocks the house. The team goes outside to investigate, only so see a monstrous monolithic object floating in the air: the Titan. Humming with incandescent energy, the Titan begins emitting blasts of explosive force. Carter snaps a quick photo for research purposes, but the team knows they are out of their depth and makes a beeline for the car they arrived in. The Titan pursues the remaining two agents, blasting away at concrete and causing all manner of debris to fly about. As they make it to the car, a final massive blast is emitted by the Titan, and the screen blanks and fades to an XCOM logo.
It’s all very impressive indeed, but it doesn’t do anything to appease the diehard X-Com fan in me. While the demo showed off an unforgiving eye for detail and focus on the era in which the game is set, it did not show off any of the depth which made the original games such classics. The X-Com games of the 90’s were strategic, and the XCOM demo we saw made no allusions to being a strategy game at all. One can’t deny it was packed with atmosphere, action, suspense and character, but there was no sense of anything really going on beneath the hood; a shortcoming which will surely alienate fans of the original games if not rectified before release.
Still, the game is a way out, and the early demonstration was impressive in its own right. If 2K adds some solid party control and actual strategy then XCOM will appeal to new gamers and old fans alike.
XCOM is currently scheduled for release exclusively on PC and Xbox 360 sometime in 2011.
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XCOM E3 Trailer
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