It is in the autumn that should be the next alien invasion. And you are going to find out why, this time with a certain impatience expected...
Note the, our universe is divided into two categories of aliens… Those who don't want to harm anyone, who inadvertently crush on our planet, and fun to continue just for the pleasure of dissect them then. And those who arrived with a specific goal in mind: in General, one of us back to the Stone Age in less time than it takes to play the 5 meeting of third Type music notes. Clearly, it is in this second category that the studio Firaxis is held through its next set of battle management, XCOM: Enemy Unknown. A title that we were able to try for a few hours last week, and which has left us excellent impressions, it is for this that are you talking about.
First of all, it should be noted that this new Act of an iconic series on PC and has now nearly two decades was in fact nothing new. He resumed the point about the mechanical of the first episode, in which the player took control of the resistance, and, in a secret base, led the response to the extra land invader. Therefore, gameplay is divided into two parts: a phase of management which was mainly to establish a defence strategy and develop its base and his troops, by building research laboratories or training centres. And a more tactical phase, in turn, where it was flying a squad on the field. Firaxis therefore propose us that a simple remake, say some. Yes, but it does brilliantly.
Take tactical sequences, for example. Quite remarkably, Firaxis was able to print them pretty dynamism, despite the constraint of the turn, proposing particularly interactive environments: buildings, areas of blankets, this car badly parked end street which deserves that it deletes its door, everything is destructible, which requires the player to adapt its strategy and positioning of its troops permanently. Furthermore, developers took care to never offer static landscape during missions: it will always find a small climate effect, some garbage cans on fire, coming a little life to all.
-Side strategy, we of course could not test all possibilities of action, but our brief experience has allowed us to discover a hand both simple, effective, and good taste, each tower allowing a shift and an action, or two trips by soldier. On the tactical range, it looks quite large. Each Member of our group of intervention will thus have of its own arms, and its own competence, which should be used in good intelligence and taking account of synergies. On the other hand, it should be noted that the proposed maps have a vertical dimension, that will be used, or not, to infiltrate a position by a roof, or to offer the best angles of fire for a sniper. And of course, all of this will be scalable: more fighting proceed more modes of travel and arms will develop, through the alien technologies that can retrieve on each battlefield, and study in our laboratories. Thus, our men will develop jet packs, combinations of invisibility, and even psychic powers to take control of the opponent, to dance on the Michael Jackson.
And after each mission, it will be of course the time accounts, an important moment that will remind us that these a few skirmishes on the ground will be seen in a context of more global invasion. For example, each lost unit will mean not only a decrease in your active forces. It will result in a loss in terms of experience, since the recruit to replace will leave zero. Indeed, successive budgets too heavy inevitably lead you to dark defeat. Also be aware that it will give you the choice of missions to accomplish, and by extension, your priority objectives: will all rely you on military power and defend a base hidden in the desert of Nevada, or prefer to develop new technologies that might be critical to the outcome of the conflict, by securing a site for research in China?
In the end, this XCOM seems sailing towards a serene future (as his alter ego FPS, just take a few months of delay in the view), for little that AI is not found with the IQ of a dead goat, and level design to know take advantage of all the tactical possibilities just to expose. And if adventure you are fans of junk (when it is polished, we prefer the term retro-gaming, seems), be aware that you have the possibility to rediscover the original game on Steam for 5 euros, or take advantage of the many free adaptations made by fans, as this UFO2000 (careful, it stings a little eyes still).
