XCOM 2, a sequel to 2012's celebrated turn-based strategy game XCOM: Enemy Unknown, will be released this November, publisher 2K Games announced today.

It will be available only on Windows PC at launch, followed at a later date by Mac and Linux versions courtesy of Feral Interactive. Enemy Unknown debuted in October 2012 on PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. It was followed by an expansion, XCOM: Enemy Within, in November 2013.

XCOM 2 is in development at Firaxis Games, the studio behind Enemy Unknown and the Civilization franchise. It is the game that publisher 2K Games teased last week as "Advent." As you can see in the XCOM 2 CG teaser trailer above, XCOM is now a guerrilla operation in which humanity is secretly fighting back against the aliens who have taken over Earth and installed a government known as Advent. It takes place 20 years after Enemy Unknown.

Grid View







XCOM 2 will bring in new features such as stealth tactics, procedurally generated maps and mod support, along with new aliens and five updated soldier classes. Those strategies will be necessary because XCOM has to deal with limited resources while facing more powerful, more technologically advanced enemies. Planning missions from a mobile headquarters, players must recruit new XCOM soldiers and build up a resistance to Advent.

"The feedback from the passionate XCOM community played an important role in the development of XCOM 2, driving us to push the visual, gameplay and replayability boundaries of what a strategy game can be," said Jake Solomon, creative director of XCOM 2 at Firaxis Games, in a press release. "We're thrilled to implement long-time fan requested features such as procedural levels and modding support, as well as adding more of what makes XCOM great like new aliens, enemies and soldier classes."

Solomon was the lead designer on XCOM: Enemy Unknown. For more, check out our feature on Solomon and how he couldn't believe how much of a success Enemy Unknown became.

Polygon archive: The making of XCOM