From the devs that brought us XCOM: Enemy Unknown, XCOM 2 aims to be a deeper and more immersive experience. Recently, we were given a behind closed doors viewing of a city skirmish where your unit was tasked with demolishing a huge statue and eliminating the alien presence.
The previous title kept things fairly simply when it came to the enemy aliens early in the game, ramping up in a few ways in the latter stages. While we weren’t informed exactly when this particular mission takes place in XCOM 2, it’s evident that players will be encountering a far more advanced enemy. In our time with the game, we saw a basic militant group assisted by a snake experiment that could pull your team members in from a distance. Once within her grasp your solider stood no chance, but a vengeful teammate introduced a new melee attack to disperse of the snake. Later in the match, a transport dropped in some pretty advanced enemy combatants, accompanied by a large brute.
The tone of the mission immediately shifted when your handler called for an evacuation, but the aliens aren’t the only ones with advanced gear. There’s a unit equipped with a partner drone that likely has a wealth of capability, but we only got to see it hack a heavy turret and add to the team’s firepower. It’s definitely going to be interesting to see what other things the drone can add to combat.
Even with the added firepower, the new assailants were too much for our team. The brute charged and smacked one of the soldiers into a large SUV, showing off one of the contextual cinematic moments that have been added to the game. I’m not sure how deep the new additions go, but subtle touches like this along with a character commenting on a nearby hologram add to the immersion and the desired cinematic feel of the tactical conflicts.
After your soldier hits the vehicle and slumps to the ground, we’re shown another feature when the lone conscious unit calls for evacuation, picks up the unconscious solider, and hikes back to the extraction point. The tactical system from Enemy Unknown was already pretty solid, but the new additions look to make XCOM 2 a must have title for turn based strategy fans. Look for the full game in November 2015.
