14 DAY TRIAL // The Firaxis team working on the upcoming strategy game XCOM: Enemy Unknown has revealed the inspiration sources it has used when creating the various alien enemy types that the player will need to face and destroy.
Jake Solomon, the outspoken lead designer of XCOM: Enemy Unknown, has told Killscreen that, “The first UFOs are disc-shaped, because we wanted it to start in the same place where the original game did, which came from a very campy sense of UFO mythology – The X-Files was very popular when the first games were made.”
The developer talked about the new tall man and added, “we looked at Men in Black, the infiltrator in a black suit. Again it’s not necessarily campy, or campy in a bad way, but the player already has a back-story about aliens in their minds, so we wanted to take advantage of that.”
Solomon also revealed that during the development process of XCOM: Enemy Unknown, the sectoid enemies used to look more human than they do now but the team made significant changes when studio head Sid Meier saw them and said that the player should not be able to relate to them.
The new XCOM uses some of the units and abilities that aliens have had in the classic games in the series, but Firaxis has added more in order to make sure that the game appeals to modern players.
The strategy title will have two layers: a base where the player can handle research, production and recruitment and a number of tactical battles where the player will directly control his team.
XCOM: Enemy Unknown will be launched on the PC, the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360 on October 9 in the United States and three days later in Europe.
A number of unlocks, including a free copy of Civilization V, are available to those who pre-order on Steam.