it’s x-com, but not as we know it
amiga, games, retro, scifi April 15th, 2010For this UFO: Enemy Unknown fan it’s been a long wait for a sequel. Sixteen years long. So you can imagine how terribly excited I got when I read 2K Games’ announcement that they had a brand new X-COM game in production. I thought my wait was finally over, but then I read on a little. They’re making an X-COM first person shooter?!
UFO: Enemy Unknown
The first X-COM game, UFO: Enemy Unknown (UFO Defense to our American friends), is a classic turn based game that blends long term strategic planning and resource management with squad level battles where only the best tacticians will prevail. It’s provenance couldn’t be better either, coming from the same creative team that brought us the great Rebelstar and Laser Squad games on the 8-bit home computers of the 1980′s. I spent most of early 1994 grappling with the alien invaders and nothing has come close to that gameplay since.
"New X-COM" from 2K Games
So the new X-COM game has been a long time coming, and like many retro properties that have seen a new lease of life recently, it’s being given a re-imagining:
XCOM is the re-imagining of the classic tale of humanity’s struggle against an unknown enemy that puts players directly into the shoes of an FBI agent tasked with identifying and eliminating the growing threat. True to the roots of the franchise, players will be placed in charge of overcoming high-stake odds through risky strategic gambits coupled with heart-stopping combat experiences that pit human ingenuity – and frailty – against a foe beyond comprehension. By setting the game in a first-person perspective, players will be able to feel the tension and fear that comes with combating a faceless enemy that is violently probing and plotting its way into our world.
That, and the screenshot, is all the information there is so far. It reads like you play a modern day Fox Mulder, perhaps initially investigating strange occurrences before uncovering an alien plot to invade the earth and then moving into management of and participation in the fight back. It’s a bold move to make with a series that has such a long history and dedicated fan base. However with BioShock, 2K Games proved they have the ability and imagination to take tired genres in innovative new directions, so I’m hopeful the end result won’t be another dumb run-and-gun with only pretences towards strategy.
I, for one, welcome our new alien overlord overlords. Watch the skies!
John Girvin is a software engineer, sci-fi buff, cyclist and retrocomputer fan (ie: nerd) from Belfast, Northern Ireland.
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April 15th, 2010 at 1:17 am
Is X-COM anything like Rebelstar. I use to play that (and Rebelstar 2) on the spectrum all the time, and consider those to be 2 of the best games ever made. X-COM seems to have slipped by me since I never owned a pc until 1998. If I were to buy one of these games on Steam, which one would you recommend?
April 15th, 2010 at 2:20 am
@Lee: Grab XCOM: UFO Defense (I thought Enemy Unknown was a much better name) and XCOM: Terror From The Deep – these were the ones that Julian Gollop was directly involved with. Apocalypse and later weren’t quite as engrossing, and the spin-off shooter/sim games (Interceptor, Enforcer, etc.) are pretty weak.
I’m not holding my breath based on a fairly insubstantial screenshot though, as much as I have faith in the new team developing it (2K Marin – last game: Bioshock 2).
April 15th, 2010 at 9:06 am
I’ll second Glenn’s choice of games there. Start with UFO Defense, move on to Terror From The Deep, then skip the rest and wait for the new game. For what it’s worth, Terror From The Deep seemed a lot more difficult than the first game.
Did anyone ever play any of the UFO:Aftershock series?
April 15th, 2010 at 12:02 pm
I wasn’t a gamer at the time these games were coming out – and it wasn’t because of the Mac thing
It was more because I wasn’t a gamer. I was busy writing backgrounds, scenarios, characters, plots for tabletop roleplaying games and never really looked at what computers could bring to the experience – mostly because, being pre-internet, I was more interested in gaming with humans.
Now – for my own proto-game company I’m interested in real-time and turn-by-turn squad-based tactics and strategy games.
So…where can I get X-COM: Enemy Unknown….
April 15th, 2010 at 12:20 pm
Nice post John – I remember playing the demo of UFO on a coverdisk years ago, but didn’t really understand what was happening (I was very young at the time).
Thanks for the comments too, I think I’m going to give this series a go as well when I get the time. A friend of mine has long been a huge fan of these games and I always meant to give them a try.
April 15th, 2010 at 12:23 pm
£8.99 on Steam for 5 games seems reasonable.
It’s crying out for an iPad UI too…