It’s no secret that I’m really looking forward to Firaxis’ Xcom remake coming this October. I was a massive fan of the original’s brutal turn-based gameplay, but even I have to admit that the ancient graphics and UI have not aged well. Firaxis have been showing off plenty footage of Xcom: EU in the last couple of months, but until now only a handful of people outside of the development team have been able to experience it in person.
Thankfully, a demo has landed on Steam and I have had the chance to play it through several times. While it is a much shorter experience than I had hoped, there is still a fair bit to see and I had a lot of fun gunning down alien scumbags with the new combat interface.
The demo starts with strange looking objects falling out of the sky and crashing down onto a busy urban street. Confused citizens gather around to look at one of the unusual devices, but their curiosity quickly turns to terror as the object activates and starts attacking them. Xcom pick up the distress call from the local military and dispatch a squad.
They arrive a short time later to find the impact site strangely deserted. The dead litter the streets, but there is no sign any living being, human or otherwise. An eerie voice then comes on the radio, repeatedly asking for help. Upon entering a nearby warehouse they find a lone soldier, apparently paralysed with shock and still begging for help. The squad move in for a closer look, but they realize too late that it’s a trap.
The first mission of the Xcom: Enemy Unknown demo serves to familiarize you with the control system and the basic game mechanics. As you make your way from your dropship to the warehouse, a voice from Xcom command guides you on how to select and position your soldiers. If you weren’t already aware, Enemy Unknown does away with the original series’ time units and instead gives you a simplified system where your soldiers have two actions they can perform per turn.
The degree of hand-holding on this mission is surprisingly restrictive, and the game completely determines where you can move and what you can do. While I was a little surprised by this, I suppose it’s not so bad considering that the rest of the demo’s story is determined by the outcome of this mission, and it is essentially just a basic tutorial level.
The second mission offers far more freedom, and past the first few turns you are given full reign over the movement of your squad. Class-specific abilities like the assault soldier’s run-n-gun power and the heavy’s rocket launcher are also available, and make the new action system a lot more dynamic and interesting.
You face off against 3 different enemy types during the mission, the first being the Sectoids that previously devastated your squad. This time, with your superior positioning and numbers they don’t stand a chance. If you’re smart you can take out the two you meet in a single attack.
Next you meet the terrifying Floaters. Unlike Sectoids, they put up much more of a fight and can easily kill one of your squad if you’re not careful. As their name suggests, they can fly and are able to close the distance quickly. They can also use their Jetpacks to hop unpredictably to another nearby location, flanking your soldiers and gunning them down.
The final creature you meet is the Thin man. Two of them can be found hiding out in a large house and once spotted they use their superior agility to burst through the windows and scatter. When killed they erupt in a a cloud of poisonous gas, so it’s a good idea to keep them at a distance. Luckily, their slender bodies are pretty fragile and can’t absorb much damage.
Between missions you can look around the Xcom base. While most of the factilies are not available in the demo, I did get a chance to look at the barracks and the research laboratory. I was able to choose some research based on the items and alien corpses retrieved from the first mission, but due to the shortness of the demo I never saw the results. Before starting the second mission there is a choice between helping China or the USA with abductions, but regardless of which once I selected, the mission was identical. This seems like a wasted opportunity, as different missions could have given the demo a bit more re-playability.
With the second mission complete, you return to base only to be summoned back to mission control. A cutscene plays showing the squad investigating a crashed Alien vessel, and then the demo ends. While it was a bit of a let down that the demo was only two missions long, it has definitely wetted my appetite for more Xcom. Even in my short time with the game I can see how incredibly fun and challenging an experience the full game is going to be, and I will definitely be first in line to play it when it is released in the EU on the 12th of October.
