New York, NY – June 1, 2015 – 2K and Firaxis Games today announced that XCOM® 2, the sequel to the Game of the Year* award-winning strategy title XCOM®: Enemy Unknown, is currently in development for Windows-based PC. Developed by Firaxis Games, XCOM 2 transports players 20 years into the future, where humanity lost the war against the alien threat that has established a new world order. The secret paramilitary organization known as XCOM is largely forgotten, and must strike back to reclaim control of Earth and free mankind from the aliens’ rule. XCOM 2 is currently scheduled for release in November 2015. The game will also be coming to Mac and Linux via Feral Interactive.
In XCOM 2, the roles have been reversed, and XCOM is now the invading force. They are hampered by limited resources and must constantly evade the alien threat in their new mobile headquarters. Players must use a combination of firepower and stealth-like tactics to help XCOM recruit soldiers and build a resistance network, while attempting to expose the evil alien agenda and save humanity. XCOM 2 will introduce gameplay features such as procedurally-generated levels, which will make each experience unique to the player, as well as offer a much deeper level of modding support. Additionally, XCOM 2 will offer a variety of new content including five updated soldier classes, increased soldier customization, more alien and enemy types, evolved tactical combat and more.
“Firaxis proved they could reimagine a beloved franchise with XCOM: Enemy Unknown, a Game of the Year award-winning title,” said Christoph Hartmann, president of 2K. “With XCOM 2, the team is breathing new life into the series by adding an epic narrative and challenging players to overcome near impossible odds.”
“The feedback from the passionate XCOM community played an important role in the development of XCOM 2, driving us to push the visual, gameplay and replayability boundaries of what a strategy game can be,” said Jake Solomon, creative director of XCOM 2 at Firaxis Games. “We’re thrilled to implement long-time fan requested features such as procedural levels and modding support, as well as adding more of what makesXCOM great like new aliens, enemies and soldier classes.”
For more information about XCOM 2, visit IGN.com, where the game is featured as the IGN First title for the month of June. In the coming weeks,IGN will reveal exclusive details about XCOM 2, including gameplay impressions, in-depth analysis of alien and enemy types, new soldier classes and combat tactics, story-focused insights and more.
XCOM 2 will be available for PC and is currently scheduled for release in November 2015. XCOM 2 is not yet rated by the ESRB. For more information on XCOM 2, please visit www.XCOM.com, become a fan on Facebook, follow the game on Twitter using the hashtag #XCOM2 or subscribe to XCOM on YouTube.
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New IGN article about modding.
"Either day-and-date with XCOM 2’s November launch or soon thereafter, Firaxis intends to release a full suite of modding tools – an Unreal Development Kit (UDK) and the editor the developers use to create content – that will enable modders to run wild with XCOM 2. “It's yours now; do with it what you want.”
“People will see the gameplay source, all the scripting,” he promised. “This is the code that makes the game what the game is. Here's the editor and all the assets that went into this game.”"
"“It's unbelievable what they did,” said DeAngelis. “The Long War was my go-to recommendation when our hardcore fans would come up to us at shows and would say, ‘I beat Impossible Iron Man three times. I want more.’ There's absolutely an awesome challenge there for you.”
“We're basically a 20-hour tutorial for The Long War, and that's okay,” admitted Solomon. “I think Long War was cool, because I think that there is – especially in strategy games – there's always this desire to see more. They did this awesome job of adding a lot more. People will be sharing stories of XCOM and I'll be like ‘I don't even know what they're talking about, this game has changed so much!’ And that, to me, is cool.""
Just some food for thought here.
IGN is obviously in a partnership with the dev to post exclusives. They had the same deal going with Evolve, and we saw content droplets every week or so for half a year before release. (edit: IGN posted some 80 "articles" about evolve in total, and ultimately reviewed it as a 9/10 game which was the highest score given by anyone.)
This is a kind of intentional swarming of the medium with moderately relevant details to keep the name fresh in your consciousness to build hype. The problem is it results in topics like this getting bumped every week or so until the game is released. I'm not saying these articles are completely void of information, they are not. But you should be aware that this is an intentional media strategy to "game" internet forums in order to stay on top.
My suggestion would be to carefully consider how important the information in the article is at the current date. Does it REALLY matter if procedurally generated maps are unveiled 6 months before release, or 2 months? Is the content of SIGNIFICANT impact to the game, or has it obviously been "chopped up" (ie. post about 1 class when there are 10 in total). Is the article purposefully vague to avoid giving promises and specifics which can be unveiled at a later date? Then maybe consider if it is not the best idea to post about it.
Many of us are interested in the game and we look forward to learning more about it. But I personally find this droplet media strategy to be annoying more than anything.
What is TU as a system?
Why would you not like open movement in GCIII? I Flipping HATE the starlanes in Endless Space, its absolute garbage.
Story setting strangely reminds me of Half-Life 2.
What is TU as a system? Why would you not like open movement in GCIII? I Flipping HATE the starlanes in Endless Space, its absolute garbage.
TUs are time units, where you have AP values or whatever, and the turns become very granular. It doesn't appeal to me anymore, it feels off.
Open movement is fine, IF the AI can handle it. GC AIs could never handle it, thus, rendering the games unplayable for me after a while.
I'm not here to tell you those systems are bad, just that they do not appeal to me anymore.
Tried to post this before, but forums went boom.
There was livestream during E3, watch the replay here.
2:27 - robot army
2:49 - markings on neck, plus shades, I'm thinking that's a Thinman, also peaceful visitor, yeah right
3:15 - there's Bradford,
4:40 - wanted displays of XCOM soldiers in cities
5:29 - red tiles mean the enemy will discover you, that's handy
5:49 - that doesn't look like human blood from that Advent trooper
5:56 - overwatch now targets different opponents
6:56 - here comes the Viper
8:03 - Advent has turrets
8:40 - aliens can call in reinforcements
9:32 - turrets can be hacked
10:36 - Muton Berserker and Advent MECs, game is not pulling any punches
11:23 - you need to pick up critical health and dead soldiers to get their gear
11:34 - calling an evac
21:23 - the Berserker is female
24:20 - as stated in a previous article the new Sectoid has an ability called PSI Reanimate, this brings back dead alien troops and Xcom soldiers to fight for it. Doesn't that sound fun?
There is some dissension on the Xcom forums about the outline of being able to see where your stealth ends in relation to the aliens.
I say so what, we the player are going to need to see how close we can get to set up ambushes. I am certain that Impossible Iroman, with 3rd wave options will make you guess how close you can get before you trigger the enemy.
I like what I see so far. Graphix are ok, I really wish they went with a full 64 bit code from the ground up but oh well.
They are taking a survey about XCOM 2.
A new video showing the strategic layer was posted: configure your mobile HQ, manage research and manufacturing resources, recruit and customize soldiers, upgrade weapons, armor and abilities, and ultimately build a global resistance network to combat the enemy occupation.
I'm going to miss Shen and Vahlen.
Developer Garth says Vahlen is "missing".
My prediction: The way Vahlen acted in EU/EW and going by some of the things she said during the game, I wouldn't be surprised if she's working for Advent...either by choice or by force.
You heard it here first, folks.
Oh, and I also believe Han Solo is going to die in the new J.J. Abrams Star Wars movie...since I'm throwing predictions out there.
Or, perhaps, a rescue mission to extract Vahlen? or 'debrief?
A definite possibility.
Who knows? It could be one of those "if you rescue her she joins XCOM...if you don't/can't she stays with Advent" or something like that.
Whatever the case, the new, longer, videos are quite captivating. I wonder if building / expanding the ant farm into the rest of the captured ship will be similar to Xcom EU/EW requiring the expenditure of money,etc., OR will the captured ship have 'surprises' when certain chambers are accessed? Expanding the base on the ship might be more of a challenge?
I have some rather bad news, the release date of XCOM 2 has been pushed back to 5 February 2016.
No huge surprise there!
I have just started the Long War mod. February is fine by me
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