E3 2011: XCOM Gets Slightly More Tactical

I don’t think anyone will mistake XCOM, 2K Marin’s reboot of the classic turn-based isometric tactical strategy game, for any other game from this generation. Whether you like it or not, this XCOM ditches just about every convention of the franchise for a first person view and a down the iron sights view. It takes place 1960s America where you play a Field Commander tasked with gathering intel and technology from a mysterious transforming alien race.

The big selling points of the demo was a slightly new direction for the game, as they responded to complaints from fans that there didn’t appear to be any tactical gameplay from last year’s E3 reveal, along with unique characters and a story that is told against an unexpected backdrop of the tumultuous ’60s. Each team member is supposed to have their own story as to why they’ve been recruited into the XCOM group. Dr. Weir, scientist-turned pariah for his sexual orientation and outlandish theories now has gained the special attention of the scientific community as his theories and studies prove effective in combating the invaders.

I’m not sold on this approach to telling the story (right now it seems unintentionally camp; The X-Files meets The A-Team meets War of the Worlds) or the setting (civil rights, sexual revolution and aliens – what?), but we know almost nothing at this time and they certainly delivered on character and story in Bioshock 2, so for now I’ll give them a pass.

You’ll get the chance to talk to your team and explore the XCOM HQ between missions, and now you’ll be able to select team members who fulfill class roles (soldier, medic, etc.) to accompany you on missions two at a time. At any given time there should be multiple available missions where you can deploy with your team. Once you encounter the enemy, there’s a new tactical mode that slows down the action to a crawl allowing you time to issue commands to each squad member. If you’ve played Mass Effect or Brothers in Arms, this implementation of tactical combat should be very familiar.

Last year’s demo showed you fighting black blobs of sentient tar and an obelisk that decimated two agents when it transformed into a ring shaped weapon. This year the blobs have been replaced with bi-pedal foot soldiers who look like pixellated grunts (intentionally; they’re made up of small moving cubes). When working as a team, these basic enemies appear to be a challenge, especially when they employ cube turrets and energy block shields.

As the team’s field commander, you have special abilities beyond team orders some of which were derived from the aliens’ own technology. For example, in one encounter the commander was able to “trick” the LEGO squad to focus their attention on another team member while you flanked their position. Any alien tech that’s not been destroyed, such as the shields, turrets or vehicles can be captured if you have the right team member with you on the mission. This captured tech can be re-used to your advantage in battle or harvested to be spent on new tech back at HQ after the mission is complete.

During our demo, all of the alien tech was deployed onto the battlefield, showing how much more effective their tech is compared to our basic weapons, but I’m the kind of player who will never use these kinds of resources mid-mission, in favor of the long-term benefits. Remember the ring o’death from last year’s showing? Well, this year it served as a mini boss during a courtyard battle. When damaged past a certain threshold, the squad captured it and immediately brought it out to fight against waves of grunts. It’s unclear if this capture mechanic will play out as something more than a gimmick, but with proper tuning it might be something fun to play with if you can get over hording tendencies.

The very end of the demo showed you getting sucked into the alien’s dimension/world where it was hard to be certain, but it looked like large ships and structures shifted across the horizon of your view ominously. They explained that the aliens’ main objective is to terraform Earth, so the levels may start out looking like picturesque American neighborhoods, but chaotic blue structures will begin to grow out of the ground as the outsiders begin to take over.

I’m not sold on the new tactical mechanics. This seems like a big endeavor — reworking the entire focus of the combat system. Our demo had green health bars showing up above each enemy’s head and every environment felt sparse compared to what I would expect from a modern tactical shooter (even Homefront‘s set pieces felt more alive and dense).

2K Marin is managing this enormous development effort including 2K Australia and others. I hope they have what it takes to reinvigorate the brand and bring something worth experiencing to the crowded market. With Mass Effect 3 and Ghost Recon: Future Soldier both coming out early in 2012, XCOM will have to be exceptional to follow Bioware and Ubisoft’s AAA take on the genre.