A new developer diary was released for one of the many upcoming FPS games, XCOM. The dev diary from 2K Marin is mostly about the team justifying the changes to XCOM and defending the game, saying that it still pays great tribute to the original X-Com.
New-school gamers probably don’t care and more than likely see no problems with the new XCOM…for them it’s probably just a “Sci-fi Call of duty” with a hint of BioShock and Brothers in Arms. For most gamers grown weary of no-brainer shooters, it just looks like another no-brainer shooter. However, 2K wants to convince you otherwise, which is why they released the new video below.
Disappointing, eh? This follows up on their other walkthrough video with 2K further trying to defend Brothers In BioShock: The Invasion of 1950. Realistically, if the devs didn’t try so darn hard to convince smart gamers that this is anything like X-Com I think I would be fine with that, but the fact that they’re trying so hard to convince people that this game isn’t just another shooter is what’s annoying because IT IS just another shooter.
The upgrade features for you and your squad-mates in the game is just like the Plasmid features from BioShock, but far less intriguing since you can only bring two teammates along with you on a mission. The squad controls are also like Brothers in Arms except without the destructible environments, shredding mechanics or the ability to lose a teammate in a single shot. And every single video we’ve been shown showcases an AI that is about as dumb as a Hollywood blonde at an Immanuel Kant tribute convention, with most enemies just standing in the open or using pre-scripted devices that requires elementary squad tactics to thwart. Regenerating health, pre-scripted destruction, static environments and pre-designed side-quest missions pretty much all goes against everything that made the original X-Com fun. The home base also evolves but not based on your management skills but because it’s been written into the game’s script as a progressive element to the story.
Now, all of this would be ignored if this wasn’t supposed to be X-Com…heck, I would probably ignore this game the way reviewers and consumers ignored Bodycount, Operation Flashpoint, Frontlines: Fuel of War, Blacksite Area 51, Turok and every other mediocre shooter this gen, because guess what? Yeah that’s right, XCOM is just another shooter. But the problem is that this has the name and concept of one of the most beloved games of all time attached to it and as a fan it feels like it’s being corporately raped and that 2K Games is blatantly insulting the intelligence of most longtime fans who would have gladly spread positive word about the title had there been some semblance of the original attached to it.
Nevertheless, with a March, 2012 release, maybe 2K Marin will vastly overhaul the AI, maybe change-up the squad system so it’s not just another poor Gears of War rip-off and potentially add some more depth to the shooting mechanics. In the meantime, you can learn more by visiting the Official Website.
