XCOM 2
Written by: Adam "ManKorn" Korenman, CC2K Video Games Editor
When We Lost the War
One of the biggest surprises from the announcement, and one of the biggest points of contention, is that the storyline is being retconned. In the original game, you won the war. The aliens were defeated, at least for a time, and humanity was able to rally together in the end. According to Creative Director Jake Solomon, the story of X-COM 2 stems from an alternate history.
“When the aliens showed up, XCOM suffered massive casualties, and governments around the world crumbled in face of popular support to surrender. Then, the Earth was quickly overrun. And so, 20 years into the future, the world is a very different place. The aliens rule Earth from giant shining megacities where all the people of Earth are flocking; that’s where they’re promised an easy life, a secure life free of disease.”
Fans are not thrilled with the idea that all of their hard work in the first game has simply been washed away. What happens to the characters they’ve created? Did they even exist at all? Did we discover psionic powers? Did we harness the plasma weaponry of the alien races? This blatant gray-washing of history has already led some players to an early boycott, although we in the gaming community see that as par for the course. Heck, we’ve all been guilty of saying “their is no way I’m buying that game after X did Y to Z.” In the end, I think they will come around.
Still, why the need for the reboot in the first place?
Well, the original sequel to X-COM was the odd-if-well-received Terror From the Deep, in which a completely new underwater alien race emerges to take on Earth. The X-COM team has to fight beneath the oceans in a strange Atlantian setting that felt a little out of place. Still, the ending fight set up the epic X-COM: Apocalypse perfectly. But that was then, and this is now. The new X-COM Gaming Universe took a few liberties from the source material, and most would say it improved upon the formula. Even people who had never played tactical games enjoyed the release. By taking the sequel and wiping away all the efforts of the first game, it feels like we’ve been hosed.
The new history has X-COM lose the war before it even begins. Overwhelmed by the blitzkrieg invasion, the soldiers go underground. They start a resistance movement, operating out of a massive helicarrier called the Avenger. Instead of defending countries to secure funding, now we have to convince the world to go against the new alien overlords. It presents an interesting new playpen, but will it be worth the effort?