We scrape the first look to extract hidden information on what's to come.

Game Informer just posted the first in-game look at the upcoming XCOM: Enemy Unknown . There are only three screens, and very little gameplay detail is given, but if we examine them closely these pictures can give us some major insights into what Firaxis is cooking.

#1: The Beauty Shot

The first screenshot shows a ground-level view of a group of geared-up agents running through an XCOM base. Their tech level appears to be very early in the game -- those look like projectile weapons and standard ballistic armor. There's no way of knowing if this is anything more than a cutscene of troops running off to battle.

Quick everyone! Run to Africa!

#2: Home Sweet Home

The second is a shot shows the base layout, which is obviously underground. What's really notable about this is that the traditional X-COM base layout is a top-down view, and this one is a vertical cross-section, like looking at an ant farm. I'm not sure how I feel about this, just because I don't see how base-defense missions will work if bases are laid out vertically instead of horizontally.

We can see the room with the blue holographic globe that the soldiers are running through in the first screenshot in the middle of the screen -- presumably that's your main control room. To the left of that is the hangar where you keep your interceptor craft, but beyond that is speculation. There are a few things that look like they could be alien containment, general stores, and living quarters, but at this resolution it's difficult to tell.

Welcome to Barbie's XCOM Dreamhouse!

#3: Boots on the Ground

Then there's the third screenshot -- our first look at tactical combat. There's lots and lots of info we can glean from this baby:

Not the prettiest forest ever, but definitely an upgrade from 1994.

There's a cover system! The two enemies in the foreground appear to be in half cover behind that chest-high rock and fallen tree, represented by the half-shield icon by their life bars. The female soldier in the center of the screen is behind a tree, so she has a full shield icon. The other soldiers are out in the open, and have no shield icons. That's a big change from X-COM, where a soldier was either behind cover or completely exposed.



Are those enemies human? They're definitely using alien technology -- those weapons they're holding are not of this Earth. Then there's their strange body proportions, particularly their rubbery necks. Either they're disguised aliens, or Firaxis' artists need to do some tweaking on their human collaborator models.



Assuming this works the same way as Civilization V, the blue line around the selected solider is probably his potential movement radius. Also, from the shape of it, we can definitely see that the tactical battlefield is based on a hidden hexagonal grid.



We can only see four XCOM soldiers in this shot, and there are only four blue dots on the radar in the upper left. This could indicate that the squad size in XCOM will be far smaller than in the original game, which started you with eight soldiers and allowed you to control up to 24 in late-game missions. On the other hand, this could simply be an early mission. We can see a blue outline of a soldier in the rear who's obscured by a tree.

And then there's the UI! A wealth of info here.

This is clearly the Xbox UI, though there doesn't appear to be anything here that wouldn't work well enough on the PC. It's quite a minimalist look, and overall I like it. The UI of 1994's X-COM is one of its biggest weaknesses, so I'm pleased to see it's been pared down and (hopefully) made more intuitive. There are four aliens sighted here, as indicated by red icons in the top left. That's pretty much in line with the old alien sighted notifications that show up on the right side of the screen.



Are the dots above the health bars time units? If so, it could imply that each solider only gets to make five or six actions per turn -- that would represent a huge change in the way XCOM plays relative to the TU system in X-COM: UFO Defense. Good or bad is hard to say at this point, though it would definitely be easier for newcomers to understand.



We can see that XCOM soldiers can have two weapons equipped, and can switch between them -- a machine gun and a pistol in the case of Mr. Hicks. It's not quite the same as the old game's model of slots for the right hand and left hand, but the gameplay effect should be similar.



The number in the target above the gun could be either an ammo counter or an accuracy percentage. The target icon in the diamond next to that is probably the firing mode indicator, which is where you'd set snap shot, aimed shot, or auto shot mode. The icon next to Robb Hicks' name is likely his rank. The icons on the left vertical bar? Your guess is as good as mine.



So far, I'm encouraged by what I've seen. The Game Informer story says that there's been some "streamlining" of micromanagement, and that does sound a little scary -- but to be fair, X-COM: UFO Defense could take a bit of streamlining without losing much. What do you guys think of the overall look and feel so far?