XCOM 2 Announced

[Aya Reiko]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2E_-2wIJIzQ

Known details...

Takes places 20 years after XCOM Enemy Unknown.  Aliens are in control of the Earth through a puppet bureaucracy called the Advent Administration due to the failure of the original XCOM and surrender of Earth.

PC/MacOS/Linux exclusive.

New enemies: Evolved Sectoids, snake-lady Vipers, and Advent soldiers
Stealth-infused tactics, including using cover for concealment and looting fallen enemies and allies
A mobile base: a flying aircraft carrier called the Avenger
Procedurally generated maps and the technology that powers them
Mod support, including official mod tools and Steam Workshop integration
One-on-one multiplayer

More details to come out between now and E3.

Comes out November 2015.

Get Hype. 

[qMyon]

Duly hyped. Loved the previous one.

[Reddyne]

I think the top comment on that vid was "hey looks like my crappy playthrough became canon!"

The whole aliens-conquered-earth angle threw me quite a bit because

Spoiler:

the entire end of previous game foreshadowed the aliens testing humanity to see if they would be able to endure a much greater threat than the ethereals.

Had a laugh at the snake men and then remembered that they were a thing way back when although I never actually played through the original games.

My biggest concern for sequels is always in the execution. Building off the strengths of the original while simultaneously expanding upon the core of the game and ironing out any rough spots can be quite the ordeal for a developer. Here's hoping for the best. So long as I can still have my Polish sniper cackle "HASTA LA VISTA, BABY!" from 2/3rds of the map away I'll probably be satisfied, though. Still, how is nation funding going to happen? Will it be possible to "lose" a nation due to panic/threat levels?

I heard Firaxis may have been in touch with the Long War people? Anyone else have any confirmation?

[Shadow1176]

Hype train full speed ahead!

RIP wallet. Opening wallet for Gaben.

[Sagus]

wait what the hell do you mean the aliens conquered the earth

are you telling me that my Maria "Wednesday" Chavez sacrifeced herself for NOTHING

GOD DAMNIT

but yeh hyped as fuck wooohooooo

[Tamer Anode/Cathode]

Quite a few design elements in the trailer are reminding me of Apocalypse, which has me intrigued. Glad to see they're bringing in more elements from UFO Defense, like picking up stuff off fallen enemies and randomly-generated maps. Maybe they'll bring back Cela-ahahahaha who am I kidding

[commandercool]

Neat. Enemy Unknown felt just a little unpolished to me, so another pass sounds like just what it needs to be great.

[Iced Fairy]

I'm really curious as to how resources and research will be handled, given your a resistance group.  Wonder if base defense will be more then just a single special mission too.

[Raikaria]

I'm really curious as to how resources and research will be handled, given your a resistance group.  Wonder if base defense will be more then just a single special mission too.

Given the situation; since your base seems to be a helicarrier, the closest I can see to 'Base Defense' is intercepting UFO's trying to shoot you out of the sky and/or land on you and/or abduct you into an even bigger ship.

[Mr. Sacchi]

Do we know how XCOM 2 is going to interact with the Enemy Within things? That other organization (whose name I forget) was a pretty big deal in Enemy Within, and since we did fail in defending the earth, I'm curious as to how things canonically ended up with them.

Also, all of my crappy playthroughs are now canon! Yay!

[Ghaleon]

IIRC they did a sneak preview that was kinda vague and they didn't really say what it was about during some show or another like a half year to a year ago, and I recall some people here guessing it was another xcom, looks like dey were right, yay!

[Sagus]

You know, I'm aware it's extremely unlikely, but I really really hope there's an alien campaign in the game.

It was pretty fun that they allowed you to use alien units in the online multiplayer of Enemy Unknown, but a small (doesn't even have to be a long full blown thing) single-player mode playing for the other side would be really interesting, I think.

[Raikaria]

Also:

How's tech gonna work in this game. I mean, this is set after XCom1.

Something which kinda went under the radar: It appears there are actually melee attacks now. Which gives a lot more potential for classes. I can easily see an 'Assassin' or 'Infiltrator' class. Especially when you remember Ghost Armor.

And as for Earth being under alien control; the Sectoids have either managed to evolve very quickly or the Etherials have upgraded them even more drastically than they had tried to already.

I get the feeling something happened after the 'test'. Perhaps after Earth passed the 'Test' the main group came or hell; they made a peaceful integration. I mean, note how you don't see any of the old aliens in the clip. You see snake-men and Sectoid V2... who sticks to the shadows, and most people never saw an Ethereal, so perhaps them showing up [Possibly mind-controlling the Council] and offering to uplift humanity and repair the damage done by their 'enemy aliens' or whatever worked. It also doesn't say 'defeat' 'invasion' or so on. It says 'unification'. I dunno about you; but 'Unification' sounds peaceful. And the Aliens don't seem to be acting tyrannical or harming civilians, they are looking for resistance... which is XCom. Who show up. Showing their searches are perfectly founded.

I doubt the canon is 'XCom failed'. Firstly; they say 'Welcome back Commander'; implying XCom 1 did happen. Secondly if XCom fails the entire project is dissolved. So there wouldn't be an XCom for you to return to.

There are a lot of questions, and not a lot of answers :/

[Tamer Anode/Cathode]

My best guess for the plot is that

Spoiler:

after humans showed their potential in the Temple Ship battle at the end of Enemy Unknown

, whatever force is commanding the aliens decided to come and add Earth to their collective.

[Stuffman]

This sequel looks unexpectedly ambitious, I'm looking forward to seeing what kinds of changes they've made.

Randomized maps is a big deal, I read in an interview that they couldn't overcome the tech hurdle to do that in XCOM 1. Plus, including stealth elements probably means they're going to get rid of the only thing I didn't like in the first game, which was how encountering and activating aliens worked.

[Ghaleon]

Yeah. Just get rid of bs crysalids getting a free 20 hex move after you move and spot them AND then getting their own free turn and attack after where even if you only used half a move and are wearing full speed gear, you cant possibly back away out of their melee range. Other mobs getting to hide behind cover for free when you spot them was a bit unfair too but not excessively so.

 Would like some more ship combat depth too, like a lot more. Maybe even make it so you can send multiple craft of multiple types agains multiple ships of theirs.