XCOM: Enemy Unknown Preview

GameSpot has gone hands-on with XCOM: Enemy Unknown‘s multiplayer mode, taking a close look at the changes made to fit the classic turn-based strategy to an online model. What might be surprising is just how much has been altered in the process, but it looks like the spirit of XCOM might yet remain intact.

Most notably, Enemy Unknown’s multiplayer matches are generally quick and dirty, in direct contrast to the extensive single-player strategic marathons. Online matches eliminate the strategic layer completely, pitting two players versus each other in a single combat skirmish that’s likely to last around 10 to 15 minutes. The setup is pretty simple: each player is given 10,000 total points to spend prior to the match on various units and inventories, and once the match begins, each player has 90 seconds to take their turn. (That’s true of ranked matches, at least; you and a buddy can customize these and other options in unranked play if you want to experiment.)

The point limitation is the game’s primary means of balancing, though Firaxis is abundantly aware that once the game is released into the wild, players might find creative ways to steamroll their opponents. There’s good news in that regard: the studio can adjust point thresholds on the fly without patching, so if those cyberdiscs you like so much are overpowered (and a few members of the team suspect they might be), numbers can be tweaked without constant patches and hotfixes.

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We played every match with an Xbox 360 controller, and indeed, it was this version we played during our studio tour. This might come as a concern to PC players, who feel rightfully possessive of X-COM and its successors. Solomon reassured us that Enemy Unknown is in no way less deep or challenging just because it appears on consoles–and additional comfort came from none other than Sid Meier himself, Firaxis’ director of creative development. Meier is the beloved designer behind Civilization, Alpha Centauri, and other renowned strategy games, and he’s all too aware of the stinging criticism of passionate PC gamers. One of Firaxis’ many goals was to retain the elements that made the original X-COM so memorable–and bring them to as many players as they could.

The preview also goes into quite a lot of detail about some of the new units players will get to control, on both the human and alien sides. While I’m not so interested in the multiplayer, personally speaking, Enemy Unknown is certainly one of my more anticipated games at the moment.