XCOM is back. As an FPS.

[Oskuro]

Well, I'm a heretic that hasn't played the original XCOM games, just the UFO remakes (and liked them), and something I kept thinking while playing was that the concept could work if you were to substitute the turn-based tactics with FPS tacticoolness in the vein of R6V2 or GRAW. Heck, why substitute? They could still have the turn-based tactics as a commander mode or somesuch.

I agree with Vympel in that the actual immersion will make or break the game. If clicking on the "Launch Mission" button feels like you're shutting down the game and firing up Quake, then there's a problem.

And it's about time they made a decent Syndicate sequel, even if it is FPS too.

Now, let's just pray they don't try to have the best of both worlds and implement some sort of VATS aiming system.

[Stark]

Ugh those UFO games were even more broken than UFO.

You could easily make a game with a strategic and squad-based level, but that is expressly NOT what they're doing here. They're just making a shooter with research and the UFO brand stamped on top.

God knows why the UFO brand is even worth anything; it's based on one and a half good games and maybe half a dozen horrible abortions.

[Arthur_Tuxedo]

The X-Com concept could work as an FPS if they kept the tight quarters, high lethality, high firepower, and tension of the first two games. To make it work you would need terrain and object destruction, a good orders system a la SWAT 3 and 4, and the ability to jump into the skin of another soldier when the one you're controlling gets killed. Co-Op multiplayer would be a blast, as well. I don't see this concept being executed in a big-brand, bid-budget game from a major studio, though. I could see something like this as a $20 Steam game without the X-Com branding, although most likely in a multiplayer only form without the strategic element.

[Oskuro]

The UFO games broken? That'd be if you consider the whole map being covered in brown crap just because you didn't get a random mission in said crap to get some random item to enable a techtree to be broken. Or in other words, hell yes.

Still, I had fun with them, the game concept is solid, even if the execution is sucky.

You could easily make a game with a strategic and squad-based level, but that is expressly NOT what they're doing here. They're just making a shooter with research and the UFO brand stamped on top.

Yeah, same old, same old. After reading the article in more depth, and seeing some screenies, I'm not to sold on the idea. I feel the pressence of the next generishooter.

Oh, and they are making a Syndicate remake. Can't say I'm too optimistic about that either.

The X-Com concept could work as an FPS if they kept the tight quarters, high lethality, high firepower, and tension of the first two games. To make it work you would need terrain and object destruction, a good orders system a la SWAT 3 and 4, and the ability to jump into the skin of another soldier when the one you're controlling gets killed

Wich would be like Swat 4 with resource management, or like the Rainbow Six series before they tried to make it more appealing to the mainstream and removed all mission planing and strategy. Yeah, that feels like a pattern.

[Vympel]

The Rainbow Six games were overrated as all get out. The difficulty level was insane, the planning phase was tedious, and I mostly just found myself soloing the missions with one team.

[Vendetta]

Wich would be like Swat 4 with resource management, or like the Rainbow Six series before they tried to make it more appealing to the mainstream and removed all mission planing and strategy. Yeah, that feels like a pattern.

See, the thing about Rainbow Six is that no-one actually gave a fuck about the single player bit, Vegas was built ground up for multiplayer, based on the multiplayer bit of the old Rainbow Six games (the bit people actually cared about), and the single player was just that with AI targets.

[JonB]

Actually, think of an X-Com game where the Battlemap is similar in effect to Valkyria Chronicles combat. Overhead strategic moves, where you shift into 3PS for actually controlling your trooper.

[PeZook]

Wich would be like Swat 4 with resource management, or like the Rainbow Six series before they tried to make it more appealing to the mainstream and removed all mission planing and strategy. Yeah, that feels like a pattern.

Why do people care so much about the mission planning in R6? It was a stand-in for terrible, terrible AI who had to be told what to do with extreme fidelity. Oh, you moved that waypoint two meters too far? Sucks to be you when a scared college student mows the entire team down during the mission. Sucks even more when you command a different team and have to figure out what the fuck is happening to the other one every time you play...oh, also? A terrorist can spin around and shoot you in the head just fine, but forget about doing that yourself.

I tried playing some older R6 games, and they all suck because of that. Sorry.

[Arthur_Tuxedo]

Also, the proper way to win most missions in R6 was not to fire massively destructive rockets into every house, barn, grain field, and suspicious cherry tree, nor to lob demo charges and alien grenades in random directions with wild abandon. This, I feel, was the greatest shortcoming of the series.

[wautd]

It's only UFO but painted blue.

Yes and no... it is fairly harder, if only because of the Lobster Men and the fact that they made the Chrysalids FLY!...

It may sound campy, but I still remember the first Lobster Man when I played TFTD together with a friend when we were kids (15 years ago?). It's just one alien in this level. How hard can it be?... before the squad got decimated

[Oskuro]

Hey, I'm not saying the R6 series were this epitome of awesomeness, just saying that in order to make it mainstream worthy, the slower parts tend to be excised. That doesn't bode well for an XCOM game to be a proper XCOM game.

[2000AD]

My first reaction was: "BLEAGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH"

Then I remembered that Fallout 3 managed to not totally suck. So there might be hope.

After the initial "Wahoooo-wait FPS?" reaction that's what I thought too.

It could be worse, it could've been "New Dungeon Keeper and it's a JRPG"

[Gramzamber]

Fallout 3 was never an FPS. It's a hybrid RPG with FPS elements, so it can work as a successor to the previous Fallouts. Well it would if the storyline wasn't shit.
This is just.. come on. The market is saturated with FPS, and even if it wasn't, every single attempt to retool XCom into something other than team-based strategy has failed.
Interceptor, Enforcer, Alliance. Each worse and worse, to the point that Alliance was scrapped. Now this? Fuck no.

Coming up next: Star Control returns as a shoot 'em up!

[Sarevok]

Hey Star Control could make a gripping shooter. Doing the planetside segments in FPS mode would rock. Imagine fighting alien creatures, driving the rover in thunderstorms, seeing lakes of lava and so on. Then there are all the alien bases and ruins to explore that could make for exciting indoor tactical gameplay.

[Stark]

Star Control would make a good lots of things.

What it WON'T make is games sell, so it'll never be remade. Remember 'branding', kids? Yes, you could make a 3D tactical space combat game or adventure game or third-person shooter or whatever out of StarCon, but it won't magically make nerds buy it so it'll never happen.

UFO on the other hand is a brand so strong people actually bought the flight sim one.

It's just sad UQM are such a bunch of fatties they won't change 16-position rotation to proper rotation for NO REASON.

[Vympel]

Fallout 3 was never an FPS. It's a hybrid RPG with FPS elements, so it can work as a successor to the previous Fallouts. Well it would if the storyline wasn't shit.
This is just.. come on. The market is saturated with FPS, and even if it wasn't, every single attempt to retool XCom into something other than team-based strategy has failed.
Interceptor, Enforcer, Alliance. Each worse and worse, to the point that Alliance was scrapped. Now this? Fuck no.

Coming up next: Star Control returns as a shoot 'em up!

I don't think Alliance was scrapped due to it being shit, but yeah I agree with the general sentiment.

[The Romulan Republic]

Sounds pretty horrid. You're Fox Mulder with a spacegun and they badged it 'XCOM'. So what?

Yeah, my thoughts were along the lines of "they might as well have just made an X-Files FPS."

[Steel]

Sounds pretty horrid. You're Fox Mulder with a spacegun and they badged it 'XCOM'. So what?

Yeah, my thoughts were along the lines of "they might as well have just made an X-Files FPS."

Holy shit!

Do you think thats actually what happened?

Someone approached the board to suggest remaking a popular franchise, mentioned X-Com and then the board is like oh yeah, great idea, I loved that tv series, at which point the guy making the presentation switches gears slightly...

[Vendetta]

Actually, think of an X-Com game where the Battlemap is similar in effect to Valkyria Chronicles combat. Overhead strategic moves, where you shift into 3PS for actually controlling your trooper.

Yeah, when I first played Valkyria Chronicles I thought that.

It would need the balance tightening up though, to stop the whole "Alicia and her cheerleaders" thing that VC had at high levels.

[Sarevok]

It's just sad UQM are such a bunch of fatties they won't change 16-position rotation to proper rotation for NO REASON.

Well the UQM teams goal was to merely port the game to windows which they did succesfully. They had a clear and strict goal which is rare in the world of free and opensource programming. The sad part is since then neither them nor anyone else tweaked the code to fix ancient bugs and limitations. Like the aforementioned ship rotation limitation.

[Vympel]

Allegedly from a French magazine:-

- No world map : There's a USA map (with a 50s' style) for selecting the missions.
- Research & production : yes.
- Base management : yes.
- Team management : yes.
- Choice of the next missions : yes.
- No control of your teammate during the mission (in the demo, this may change)

It seems like you can goof around in your base between the mission (in first person view).

- The demo was running on an XBox360.
- You play as the chief of operation of the base between the mission.
- The choice of the played mission will impact the game.
- In the demo, lots of area of the base were off limits.
- During the missions you can take photos (research ?).
- The game is due for release in a little more than a year.

So it looks like a mixed bag. Its not worldwide, its just the US, hence the FBI agent thing. I don't have a problem with that - X-Com:Apocalypse didn't suffer terribly from being only one city. However, the teammate control is a sticking point, and I don't like "choice of the next missions / impacts the game" thing, makes it sound scripted.

[Stark]

Frankly, it sounds like they just made you walk around the inter-mission menu.

[Satori]

Frankly, it sounds like they just made you walk around the inter-mission menu.

Hey, it worked for Privateer.

They'll probably make you research the alien guns before you can use them.... not so different, since many FPSes don't let you use the really good guns until later levels, IIRC.

Having AI controlled squadmates sounds more like a pain than a feature though, knowing how those things go.

[Nephtys]

So basically, the strategic mode is familiar.

You have a map of 8 robot masters alien sites. You gain things from missions. For example, when you kill crashman sectoid commander, you can acquire crashbombs stun launchers for later levels. Then you continue until you have all the gear and cleaned up enough levels to attack wily's fortress Cydonia.

[Gramzamber]

If there's one thing worse than an FPS, it's an FPS with tacked on "strategy" elements that amount to glorified inter-mission menus and busy work.
I agree that a rebalanced Valkyria Chronicles type game would be perfect for a "modern" take on XCom.

Also I really hate it when they go on about "immersion" and "tension" and that only a first person view can provide that.
Let me tell you something, few things were more immersive and downright tense than the original XCom games. Sending that soldier down a dark alley, not knowing if there was a Snakeman there ready to fill them full of holes, or going through an alien base knowing there's a bunch of Chrysalids waiting to zombify and turn you into one of them.