Preview Gamestar + Video
Google Translation:
"It surprised us how fierce and sometimes violent the scenario is staged. Blood and splatter effects are not lacking, but none of it is grossly exaggerated and fits logically into the war and invasion scenario.
XCOM: Enemy Unknown is a mature title in every way. Tough scenario, hard in the game mechanics and hard in the claim."
Last edited by Lovecraft; 05-26-2012 at 10:56 AM.
Sounds nice and bloody at least.
as i know how keen you all are to read new info, I took the time and translated the text. I didnt proof-read the translation, so dont take it TOO literal, or word for word. its a nice article, with a few nice details in them...
here you go, enjoy:
It takes more than water pistols!
We were able to try x-com EU the first time and deliver the answer to the most important question to the remake: does the 18 year old game mechanic still work today?
Hollywood taught us:
alien invaders fail on the most mundane problems in life. A firewall against human hackers? Aliens in indipendence day obviously dont need that sort of stuff! Armor against water, on a planet coverd with two thirds of that stuff, where it even rains from time to time? In signs unneccesary. Guarding the improtant commando units against a handful of US-marines (battle: LA)? Ey, what the heck! Obviously, alien generals seem not to be the smartest guys, at least in flicks like those.
Not so in X-com EU, the re-imagining of the classic X-com UFO defense (in europe aka UFO: enemy unknown) from the year 1994. because here, the defense of earth means mostly one thing: CHALLENGING! That was the case 18 years ago, and should be the same from octobre this year. We have tested the game on a preview event of publisher 2k games.
XCOM: the original is the starting point
there were big doubts of the fan community that the remake could not capture the spirit of its ancestor. They were awed in shock, hearing that XCOM should be published as a shooter, but these plans have been postponed now.
Luckily for them, the strategy-experts of firaxis are re-imagining the game! Firaxis senior game desinger ananda gupta explains how the develpment started off: „we took the original and copied it 1:1. on that basis we have evaluated of what works still today, and what not. What can we improve upon?“
well now, as XCOM is still seen today as one of the best games ever made, there was little to improve. The improvements mostly lie, apart from the graphics, in the detail.
For example there is only one big base now, which works similarly to the mother ship in starcraft2 with people to chat with. „the base is supposed to give you a real homely feeling. Would we have used multiple bases, as in the original the identification, with it would have been much weaker. Other than that, it would have seemed logical to offer another contact person in the other base too. That would have meant too much effort, all in all.“ Gupta explains that move.
Fans from the first minute may be interested in two things though: is XCOM EU equally complex and demanding as the original? After the testing session we are very optimistic to answer both questions with YES! The tutorial alone takes you 2 hours to finish. „it wasnt easy to pull through such a long tutorial“ gupta states „but it was necessary and we're happy we've gone to that extent“
the necessary it is! Right from the frist (turorial) mission we learn plausible lessions. Our team of four is now supposed to explore mysterious asterioid impacts on earth.
But from that mission, only one soldier returns alive. Mercilessly, the tutorial teaches the player what is really important in this turn based title, and what to look out for: cover, scouting, line of sight, flanking and that one should never EVER let aliens flank you.
Because as in the original, dead soldiers stay dead. That also includes experience gathered from combat this way, every move will need to be taken into serious account. Gupta:“ XCOM was a difficult game to beat. We want to keep it that way!“
the well structured tutorial explains the basics of the global real-time-strategy and the turn based comba, as well as camera movement by audio transmissions from base and guides you through the complex game mechanic. This way we learn how to research things.
With the help of research, we can capture and learn about alien technilogies as stealth, telepathic skils, waepons or jetpacks, and finally use them against the invaders. At the same time we have to dimplomaticly deal with funding nations, and always decide which nation we will help with our limited resources.
Depending on the desicions we get different boni, and unattained countries will cut back in support. In the tactical mode we learn how to destruct cover, from crates to cars to walls of houses. Everything that gives you cover can be destroyed. This fact is rabidly used by aliens as well! Additionally there are level ups of our sodliers and an extensive equipment arsenal.
All in all, its amazing how little the general mechanic of the game has aged, and how much fun it still is. We gave the employees a hard time, getting us away from the computers. XCOM EU comes out for consoles as well, and works perfectly fine on those, but we exepct the controlls to be easier and quicker on a PC.
Besides, the PC version will include (compared the consoles) a few extra game mechanics, as grid systems you can toggle on/off or the activation of already moved squads, in order to see their stats and re-evaluate their position. To our question if there's going to be a CO-OP or PVP part, we got a meaningful answer: „this event is focused on single play only“. So there is still hope left and we're optimistic that there's somehting going on in this case.
We were also surprised how grim and sometimes violent the scenario is put to place.the blood- and splatter effects are not few, but nothing extremly exaggerated. It fits the atmosphere perfectly well. Also because aliens disregard international conventions of war, nor take a humane aspect towards humans.
So it seems XCOM EU will be a full grown title, in every aspect! Difficult in the scenario (tutorial), difficult in the game mechanics, and a fierce challenge. The invaders will definitely not be gotten rid of with a few water pistols.
what i like the most in here is the fact that the PC version will let you swtich beween already moved units!
this game will rock sooo hard!!!
maybe someone can remove the (GERMAN) tag in the threads header. its a bit misleading by now.
Good interview and I guess Peter Murray has more to do with this game...not sure. I thought he did mostly spin for Civ 5, and while I love that game, I thought he over glorified it to the point of being misleading before it released.
I've saw an early video for XCOM where he was narrating the same scenerio they use for all demos and he was obviously reading from a script and clueless, so his transformation into a lifelong fan and expert on the game is pretty remarkable.
I have a hard time taking anything he says all that seriously but I'm sure I know nothing and my perceptions aren't accurate. Whatever.
What I want to see is real gameplay footage by someone that isn't a marketing or other rep that's reading a script and playing the same set scenario repeatedly.
I dunno, this is always how Firaxis does things, but it's bothersome.
I'm following/waiting for several other games too, like Torchlight 2 and Guild Wars 2 - both excellent games that dropped NDA pretty early and had a decent amount of beta access such that there's plenty of player commentary and video out there. If a game is good, this is great hype and advertising. The Secret World has done the same, and Diablo 3 had a typical bliz (sick of bliz but they are good about this) lengthy beta cycle with no nda.
Games like this generate a lot of hype, visibility, and free advertising while letting potential players (and sure buyers) get some good info WITHOUT spoiling the games for release.
I just don't like the secrecy and don't like being spoon fed tidbits via gaming press. If the game is just in a balance stage then it's largely done. Set the people free and let us SEE the real game instead of canned info via gaming press and such. If the game is good, you get free advertising and hype.
2 hours to finish the tutorial, nice!
Thanks for the translation
in short... "I CANT WAIT, GIVE ME THE DAMN GAME NOW!!"I just don't like the secrecy and don't like being spoon fed tidbits via gaming press. If the game is just in a balance stage then it's largely done. Set the people free and let us SEE the real game instead of canned info via gaming press and such. If the game is good, you get free advertising and hype
if its any consolation, we all feel the same way....
Two hours just for the tutorial? Nice. Looks like we'll have a decent length of a game on our hands
I beg you gys, dont get overexpect something from the game. I's the first way that leads to dissapointment.
In everything rest -- it sounds cool, but let's just stay sence and stick to facts that we allready know without giving out hopefull guesses which will do no good.
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