It’s been said that war never changes, but in the bleak future of the XCOM 2 universe , it definitely has. We’ve already dug into the evolution of the guerilla resistance, but XCOM’s sword-wielding Ranger and supportive Specialist aren’t the only fighters to take up new tactics.

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“ The XCOM 2 Sectoid will be able to raise the dead to fight for him with an ability called Psi Reanimate.

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“ Even just forgetting how terrifying it looks... as you know, as an XCOM player, being ripped out of cover? It's a very discomforting feeling.

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The alien occupation force certainly hasn’t rested on its laurels in the 20 years since taking Earth, and in that time its menagerie of extraterrestrial creatures have evolved into a formidable force that should have both rookies and hardened veterans thinking twice before engaging.“We wanted to make him be even more feral, more imposing,” said XCOM 2 art director Greg Foertsch. “He retains a lot of his similar stuff: he's sinewy, he's got the glow, he's got the psionic abilities, but he has actually blended more with human DNA over time.”The stature of the Sectoid in XCOM 2 should give you an idea of what Foertsch and the Firaxis team wanted to achieve. Even the lower class of alien defenders – and they ARE defenders, as this is their planet now – are physically, tactically, and psionically superior foes.The increased size and savagery of the Sectoid brings them full circle, closer to what Foertsch initially envisioned for Enemy Unknown’s Sectoids in his concept drawings, before they were turned into the smaller creatures we’ve come to know. But there are other reasons to fear this evolved threat. Sectoids still carry the wrist-mounted blaster, but their greater affinity for psionics – which you’ll encounter much earlier in XCOM 2 – is their deadliest weapon.DeAngelis explained a Sectoid ability called Mind Spin as an early-game psionic attack. “It's a little bit of a psi roll, and you don't know exactly what's going to happen,” he said. “It could result in mind control. It could result in something less severe, like a disoriented state or confused state.”That’s terrifying by itself, but nothing we haven’t seen before. So the Sectoid kicks it up a notch: when the inevitable happens and an enemy, civilian, or XCOM soldier has fallen in combat, the XCOM 2 Sectoid will be able to raise the dead to fight for him with an ability called Psi Reanimate. That should make killing this enemy a top priority, before you start racking up the body count during a mission.But the Sectoid is just one of the enemies occupying the alien-built, sterile white mega-cities of XCOM 2. The other alien Firaxis has revealed so far is an all-new threat coming to XCOM 2: The Viper. This venomous reptile is the spiritual successor to the Snake Men of the original X-COM: UFO Defense, and Firaxis reveals they’re the “true form” of the Thin Men in Enemy Unknown, who no longer have to conceal their presence.This elite piece of the occupation force fires plasma weaponry, and still has the Thin Man’s corrosive acid-spit ability. But her real threat comes from her penchant for dragging your soldiers out into the open using the aptly named Tongue Pull ability. Even worse, once she has you, you may not even get the chance to retreat – another of the Viper’s abilities, called Bind, wraps your soldier up in her coiled body and locks them down in place, slowly strangling the life out of them.“Even just forgetting how terrifying it looks... as you know, as an XCOM player, being ripped out of cover? It's a very discomforting feeling,” DeAngelis said.Indeed, as so much of the strategic gameplay of the XCOM series is trying to stay in relative safety while looking for that clean kill, the idea of being yanked out in the open should be enough to make even your most grizzled veterans cautious when taking on a Viper.You won’t even have much time to build your squad up before having to face the horror of a huge, gun-wielding, tongue-flicking, coil-constricting, anthropomorphic snake, because the Viper is another opponent you’re going to encounter early in XCOM 2.As for how to survive those encounters? Firaxis only has some vague hints thus far. “Bring big guns,” Foertsch said, half-jokingly. DeAngelis added: “These aliens - the Sectoid, Viper, and others - you have to have a group to take them down. You have to use group tactics and combinations to really whip them. They are terrifying for many reasons.”

Brandin Tyrrel is an Associate Editor at IGN. You can follow him on Twitter at @BrandinTyrrel