The security breach trailer hinted that way, and lead designer Ananda Gupta kind of suggested that possibility in our interview, but now it’s finally confirmed. XCOM: Enemy Within will indeed feature XCOM base defense. And, the raiders are the aliens, not the Exalt – the expansion’s new Human rival faction – contrary to what one might have been led to believe. So, prepare for some action inside your own Headquarters.
Now, it’s unclear what will happen if you lose your base defense mission. In the original X-COM (UFO: Enemy Unknown – 1994), you could have several bases spread across the globe. If you lost one to a failed base defense mission it was not the end of the world. Of course, if you’d lose all the bases, it would be game over. Presumably that’s what could happen in this case as well, but in Firaxis’ remake case you only have one base. So, will this be a fight to the death or all will be lost kind of mission, or just a raid to try and cripple XCOM’s progress? We’ll know soon enough.
The XCOM: Enemy Within expansion pack is slated to release on 12th of November 2013 in the US (15th Nov worldwide) for the PC, Mac, Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. For more information, including new features, check out our XCOM:EW announcement post, our interview with the lead designer or the XCOM official website.
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That rifle on picture 2 is huge if you think about it, how can he be holding that and not keel over.
Now imagine if he fires it, hehe.
No kick back. I believe that’s the laser weapon.
My only motivation I have to buy this is the added maps and a few new aliens from what I have seen.I am sad that no depth was added to the campaign apart from some misplaced human thing.
I never did give a toss about no base defence missions anyway.
Yeah, maps and new aliens. But, what about the new second wave options? They seem neat. I’m particularly looking forward to try the fuzzy angles one, the random perks thing and the one about some aliens triggering overwatch on sight.
On the new genetic and mech soldiers I’m cautiously optimistic though. Optimistic because some of the new stuff sounds fun, but cautious because I fear that the all thing may not feel XCOM. I mean, I fear that it may be a bit over the top.
Regarding the Exalt, I would personally prefer to see more depth added to the alien plot, and the aliens themselves, with even more alien types, and a bunch of other surprises, like a different or more developed ending, more alien bases, etc (there could be, I just suspect there won’t be). But, I like the idea of having a bit more complexity on the strategy side (deal with Exalt now, or wait?). We’ll see.
Oh, and the new weapons/equipment (grenades) also sound interesting.
I think the Exalt were added to promote the next game with the engine that will be fighting humans ala a WW2 or Middle east setting.I just think they ruin the theme.
If I were an Alien commander, I would just nuked it. Problem solved.
Base layout was an important part of base defense in the original XCOM (and the right choices made them very easy). I wonder how it’s gonna work out in EW.
I wonder if the base invasion will be a random possibility that may or may not trigger depending on your actions, or – more likely – a one time scripted event that triggers at a specific time no matter what you do or how careful you are?
I’m gonna go scripted, EU isn’t big on random.
I’m still smarting from the fact that 2k wants to charge NZer’s $46.99 US (NZ$56.32) for a DLC via STEAM that Americans are paying US$26.99 Pre order for !!
Gamersgate has a $20-something deal for the expansion.
I bet my money that base defense is in fact a static map, with layout not linked to your actual base layout.
Basically, base defense, will be a new map, with base textures, that’s it. We are still far from the gameplay of original xcom.
Plus, choose medkit or kevlar vest? oh yeah, so ‘streamlined’ gameplay.
“I bet my money that base defense is in fact a static map, with layout not linked to your actual base layout.”
@whocares I would bet on that too:)
That is why I haven’t bought this new X-COM, it is so linear… it does not have a replayability value. The game looks nice but laks the deepth (pun intended:P) of previous parts…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUxqjq6HW3M
Escapist base attack mission playthrough.
Basically it’s a set piece mission that triggers at a random time after you did the alien base assault mission. As you can see from the map, it’s static so your base layout will have no effect.
Failing the mission and it’s game over.
Again with the scripted stuff. =(
So it only happens once in the entire game and failing it just means a insta-game over?
Bingo.
Would be nice if losing the base raid forces you to choose another country to relocate with heavy penalty. However, in our heart of hearts, we all know Firaxis would never do something this unconventional.
Lame.
I got exited when I heard about base invasions because I thought it would be another mission type where you might lose a part of your base if the aliens won, but if its just a scripted story mission then there isn’t really anything interesting about it.
Also, what if this is done poorly? From that gameplay video posted by you the guy in the video said something about you getting random soldiers to defend the base (that is, you don’t choose them). What if you get really shitty ones? Will you just lose and its insta-game over?
Well it could be worse, at least the timing isn’t scripted too. It seems that the Firaxis devs are ever so S-L-O-W-L-Y learning that shallow, scripted, linear gameplay is not fun.
Give them 5 more years and another 10 expansions and EU might actually begin to approach the depth, flexibility and playability of the 19 year old original!
Naah! that’s just wishful thinking……
Total Biscuit did a WTF is… on Enemy Within. The DLC didn’t look very good to me. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Vbj0C1KKwE
Combat and research wise, this expansion is doing a great job. Personally I’ll wait for the 2nd expansion to do to the strategy layer what this expansion seems to be doing to the combat portion.
Then, XCOM might finally be fit to be compared to X-COM.
What an awesome game. The alien update Looks incredible.
Love this site, glad I found it. Keep it up.
Just to be clear to any devs reading this.
I am not buying the DLC because the base mission is scripted, and your other additions don’t add enough variety to the game either to warrent the price.
I want more randomness, and more control, and more missions that change due to my gameplay.
Stop with this scripted crap please.
I might buy this when it drops to £10, I don’t hate everything you did, I just hate the scripted stuff in ALL games.
Btw I do think that duel movement, and the streamlined inventory introduced in Xcom EU, are both good moves that improved on the original.
But everything in the gameplay & story that increases linearity is a BAD move.
This is not a film, this is a game, and the strength of a game is that it allows the player to write his own story.
If I want to watch independence day then I buy a DVD and some popcorn and turn my brain off.
Well, It looks that the new XCOM is the product of the dumbed down gaming of the COD generation. I owned it and i liked it, i finished on the first play trough in the higher difficulty following my original XCOM tactics and it proved very shallow and easy to win.
My biggest wishes for the XCOM franchise are:
+ multiple bases in the globe with different staff
+ greater inventory management and items before mission prep
+ more different kinds of alien ships missions and multiple Alien bases (I remember in the original XCOM if you were not patrolling properly a region aliens set up a base and begin conducting a lot of operations until you take out the base, each alien base was a fight to the death)