XCOM: Enemy Within

[Gregness]

So, we all had a blast with XCOM: EU, but the slingshot DLC got a pretty lukewarm reception since a small linear story was pretty badly out of place with the rest of the XCOM experience. Well, it turns out now we're getting the proper sort of additional content courtesy of XCOM: Enemy Within.

Here, have some videos:

First, the announcement trailer:


And an extended interview:


To sum from the ign article, it sounds like this is going to be all the right kinds of additional content for a game like XCOM. It seems to be the same campaign, just with a whole lot of extra shit thrown in. A 50% bigger map pool (plus some more multiplayer maps), rebalanced soldier abilities and access to the various localization voices for your soldiers, confirmed changes to the strategic layer (though it hasn't been disclosed what or how much is changing), and what looks to be full-on trans-humanism with gene mods and a new cyborg soldier class. There's going to be a new resource to spend on all the new toys that will spawn in canisters on missions that self destruct if you're too slow. This seems like it might be sort of artificially gamey, but I'll reserve judgment 'till I play it. I also heard somewhere that they're planning on increasing the difficulty on Classic and Impossible, but I'm not sure if that's a seperate thing from your need to rush to get the meld canisters or not.

Also, new Second Wave options:

Originally Posted by THE ARTICLE

...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.

I do kind of wish that they were adding more than 40 maps to the rotation since with how much I played EU I'm not sure how much that'll help missions stay lively if I play EW anywhere as much.

But, I mean, I'M TOTALLY STOKED YOU GUYS!