14 DAY TRIAL // The development team working on the newly announced XCOM: Enemy Unknown is eager to establish that their project is directly linked to the classic game launched during the ‘90’s and keeps all the core gameplay mechanics that made that title special.
Jake Solomon, who is the lead designer working on the new XCOM video game at Firaxis, has told Kotaku that, “If you play the game – it’s definitely XCOM. It’s just a new XCOM. I do think that like if you look at screenshots of the original X-COM, next to ours, you would see that sort of lineage there.”
He added, “You’d see the sort of DNA, because we’ve still got the top-down view of the soldiers, and a lot of the fact that it’s turn-based… certainly there are changes and this is kind of our own game, but definitely if you look at the two side by side, a fan of the original could play our game because we are fans of the original.”
The development team has previously said that all its members have played the original game and are keen to take its best bits and upgrade them so that the modern gamer can enjoy them.
Firaxis has announced that the XCOM: Enemy Unknown will be created for both the PC and for home gaming consoles, which has prompted some potential players to say that the experience will inevitably be dumbed down.
The game will offer a strategic layer where players will be able to conduct diplomacy and direct research and recruitment and a turn-based tactical battle sequence which involves direct contact with the invading aliens.
Firaxis and Take Two are set to launch XCOM: Enemy Unknown during this year for the PlayStation 3 from Sony, the Xbox 360 from Microsoft and the PC.
An action take on the franchise is also under developed at 2K Games and will be launched during 2013.