XCOM: Enemy Unknown Screenshots, Video Interview, and Other Details Released

Game Informer has released the very first details and video interview for Firaxis’ XCOM: Enemy Unknown, a ‘re-imagining” which promises to bring back the original X-COM titles’ gameplay (leveling soldiers included) to a multi-platform audience. Apparently the modernization is not without “streamlining”, in the words of Game Informer’s Adam Biessener:

So what do you do in the real-time global view?

On the strategic layer, players direct research into alien technology, give their engineers and foundries fabrication requests, interact with the nations of the world (who have to be mollified to secure funding for XCOM), intercept airborne UFOs with jet fighters, level up their soldiers and recruit new ones, and dispatch the Skyranger transport to engage alien incursions on the ground.

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Is this going to be dumbed down for the “wider console audience”?

Firaxis is undeniably streamlining aspects of the game and removing no small amount of micromanagement, but from what I’ve seen I wouldn’t call it “dumbing down” the game so much as getting rid of tedium and uninteresting mechanics. Soldiers still die permanently, fog of war and line of sight are hugely important in combat, and you absolutely can lose the game if you screw up too badly.

We have also uploaded the screenshots to our own gallery, should you prefer to check them on there.