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Time for more real XCOM! Firaxis, developer of XCOM: Enemy Unknown, has announced XCOM: Enemy Within, which will be a $30 expansion for PC gamers and a $40 stand-alone game for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 players, all on November 12, 2013. Like a Civilization expansion, the basic structure of saving the Earth will remain unchanged: we'll still capture an enemy, attack the alien base, and take the fight to them, but we're getting more options for how to get there.
First and foremost, Firaxis is addressing a couple of XCOM fans' most vocal complaints: you'll now be able to have French soldiers speaking French (among others, courtesy of allowing us to access localized voice files), and we'll see around 40 additional maps combined with Enemy Unknown's 80. That number will include UFO crash maps in urban and rural environments, instead of just forest. Will there be an XCOM base-defense mission? Firaxis didn't say no... which means almost certainly yes.
We're also getting a fifth class of soldier: the Mech trooper. But this isn't a class you're born into like the existing Assault, Support, Heavy, and Sniper - this is one that, after the proper facility is built, you can move any soldier into. He or she will lose all of their current class abilities, but gets to choose from a whole new ability tree up to their existing rank.
We don't yet know the full extent of the Mech Trooper's skill tree, but we do know that the first skill they unlock will be Collateral Damage, whcih will allow us to more easily target terrain (which Gupta says is designed to get us closer to the free-fire weapons of X-COM: UFO Defense). There will also be an upgrade that heals every XCOM soldier in a radius. They'll also have an ability that allows them to serve as mobile cover for XCOM troops, making it easier to cross no-man's-land stretches without being gunned down, a jumpjet system, and Damage Control, which reduces the damage taken for one turn.
Mechs won't be able to equip standard guns and items, but they'll have their own weapon upgrade tree that goes from mingun to rail gun to an energy weapon, and they'll be the first XCOM units to feature a flamethrower.
Presumably, these upgrades will come from researching the one new enemy (of several promised) that Firaxis is prepared to reveal: the Mechtoid. These armored sectoids remind me a lot of the mechs from the TV show Falling Skies, and have the ability to fire twice in a turn (much like the Heavy's Bulletstorm ability). If another sectoid mind-merges with him, he gains a damage-absorbing shield, but he doesn't gain the vulnerability of dying if the caster is taken out. Killing that guy just disables the shield.
Mechs sound impressive, but there's a reason to keep your best and brightest out of a set of metal pants: upgrading a soldier to Mech status disqualifies him or her from receiving genetic enhancements. Every trooper have five slots for upgrades: brain, eyes, skin, chest, and legs. Each will have two options to choose from (which can be swapped if you're willing to pay) and we've gotten the details on two of those sets.
On the brain, you'll be able to choose from Neural Feedback, which inflicts damage on any enemy attempting psi attacks (though doesn't reduce the chance of success) or Neural Dampening, which renders a soldier immune to panic and, should an enemy succeed in mind-controlling him or her, will simply knock them unconscious instead of turning him.
On the legs, you can either upgrade to Muscle Fiber, which lets a soldier climb walls without a skeleton suit, or Adaptive Bone Marrow, which provides limited health regeneration if they're wounded. But remember: you can't have both at once.
So there will be a lot more to spend your money, eleriuim, and alien alloys on in Enemy Within. Instead of increasing our cash flow, Firaxis has added a whole new resource, called Meld. Meld canisters will be randomly scattered throughout maps (in the same way that enemies are randomly distributed), but collecting them will require haste, because they have self-destruct timers. It's a system designed to get us moving quickly and recklessly instead of the slow, safe pace XCOM veterans have developed to keep our best and brightest alive. This is the one thing that sounds like it could be a bit artificially gamey to me, but I'm keeping an open mind.
Here' some more definitely good news: we're getting new grenade types, including a Needle grenade (unlocked after researching a Cryssalid corpse) with a large blast radius, but won't affect enemies in cover. Also, there will be stealth grenades that effectively splash allies with invisibility paint. That sounds overpowered, but Enemy Unknown reduces the critical bonus of stealth attacks from 100 to 30.
Speaking of rebalances, as someone who's played more than 250 hours of Enemy Unknown, I've established patterns in the abilities I choose for my soldiers. I always take Lightning Reflexes for my Assault troops in order to nullify the enemy's overwatch, I always take Sprinter for my Support troops to increase their mobility, and I almost always take Squad Sight for my Snipers. The alternatives to those choices - Up Close and Personal, Covering Fire, and Snap Shot - weren't even contenders.
In Enemy Within, the balance changes make that an extremely difficult choice. Instead of simply increasing your critical chance, Up Close and Personal will now give your Assault class a completely free shot when within four tiles of an enemy, allowing him or her to run in, take a shot, and run out. And rather than waiting for the enemy to take a shot before returning fire, Covering Fire will now take a shot before an attacking enemy, giving you a chance to kill them before they can even inflict damage! For the Sniper, Snap Shot has had its aim penalty reduced from 20 to 10, and Squad Sight (incredibly powerful in Enemy Unknown) will now only do critical damage if you use the Headshot ability, reducing its effectiveness a bit. All of the sudden those two decisions have gone up there to the toughest of any ability choices, meaning I'll want to maintain at least one of each type of each class.
Other upgrades? There are tons. Reaper rounds are an item that will give a ballistic weapon a bonus to critical hit chance, but a reduction to accuracy. Sounds like a good item for the Assault class before laser weapons are unlocked.
The Support class's Deep Pockets is redesigned. It will now give a Support trooper twice as many charges for grenades, medkits, arc throwers, or any other item with limited uses. But don't worry - there's now a Foundry upgrade that allows us to unlock the two-item capacity upgrade for every class!
What's happening on the strategic level? Well, we don't know yet. Firaxis isn't yet declassifying its plans, other than to say that there will be significant changes. This might well suck me in for another 250 hours.
...And then some, because there are new Second Wave options coming as well. There's one that will bring back some of the old-school XCOM terror by giving non-cover-using enemies (like Mechtoids and Sectopods) a 50% chance to fire on your soldiers on sight, and, far more exciting for me, one that randomizes the upgrade trees for soldiers beyond their initial class-specific ability. Imagine a Heavy with Lightning Reflexes and Battle Scanner? You might have that, if you're lucky. The possibilities are endless. Oh, and there's now a Reduced Beginner VO option that will shut up Drs. Vahlen and Shen, allowing us to do our walk of failed Iron Man Shame without being talked down to.
On the multiplayer end, we're getting eight new maps - a couple of which, admittedly, are recycled from the campaign. There's also a much-needed option to pre-configure your squads offline, before jumping into a match and awkwardly fiddling with your points for 20 minutes before starting a game.
