It’s difficult to please both new and old fans alike when rebooting a beloved franchise, but in 2012, Firaxis pulled off a game-development miracle when it successfully revived the legendary but long-mistreated X-COM franchise with XCOM: Enemy Unknown. The modernized version recaptured the key elements that made the 1994 original memorable: an against-the-odds struggle against a technologically superior foe; the emotional sting that comes from the permanent loss of personalized soldiers heroically killed in battle; and a deep tactical system with an element of randomness that forces you to prepare contingencies in case your plans don’t survive contact with the enemy.

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“ Surprise: You didn’t beat the aliens – they steamrolled you.

Down, But Not Out

The aliens have a weird idea of tourist attractions.

“ XCOM never acquired advanced weapons and armor technology.

Human Revolution

Sneaking into position to ambush Advent soldiers will be easier than a fair fight.

“ This is really more of a Sons of Anarchy-type of squad.

We'll have much more control over our soldiers' looks.

Enemy Territory

“ The structure of a typical XCOM 2 mission will be dramatically different from what we’ve seen before.

Every map will look and play differently each time you see it.

“ We’ll be able to scout out the alien positions and move our troops around the battlefield before the fighting starts.

Nice propaganda center. It would be a shame if someone fired a grenade launcher at it.

“ Because maps are procedurally generated, the AI has been made more procedural to allow aliens to navigate and fight on them.

Solomon painted an alternate version of how the war unfolded: “When the aliens showed up, XCOM suffered massive casualties, and governments around the world crumbled in face of popular support to surrender. Then, the Earth was quickly overrun. And so, 20 years into the future, the world is a very different place. The aliens rule Earth from giant shining megacities where all the people of Earth are flocking; that’s where they’re promised an easy life, a secure life free of disease.“We’ll have much more on the new setting next week, in Impossible Ironman is Canon: Why Earth Had to Lose the War for XCOM 2 to Happen.And here’s another shocker: though XCOM: Enemy Unknown and XCOM: Enemy Within came out on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC, XCOM 2 is a PC-exclusive game. More on that on Friday in Why XCOM 2 Had to be a PC-Only Game.The year is 2035, and XCOM now operates as a resistance movement against the alien occupation. That represents a huge shift in context for both the strategic and tactical battles we’ll fight in XCOM 2. “XCOM never lost the war; they just never stopped fighting and went underground,” explained Solomon. “Players are no longer the commander of this elite military force. They are commanding a very hardened group of freedom fighters and guerrilla fighters, and they’re leading them to ignite a global resistance and wake everyone up, and then try to rescue Earth from the government that now controls it."Firaxis isn’t going into detail about its new version of XCOM’s strategy layer just yet, other than to say that territory control will be important. From what we see in the trailer, in which the Avenger flies out of the canyon where it was concealed and off to parts unknown, we can surmise that it will move from region to region as XCOM attacks vulnerable alien targets in hit-and-run strikes. “The idea is that you’re inspiring people by actually taking the fight to the aliens and their New World Order,” Solomon hinted.What he is going into depth on is the tactical battles (which have always been the meat of XCOM games) and how this change in circumstances affects the moment-to-moment gameplay of using teamwork and complementary weapons and abilities to shoot aliens in the face. Solomon described the creative process that led to a guerilla-themed XCOM as gameplay-driven. “The idea for us is that mechanics always come first, and then we look for a setting that’s going to fit the mechanics,” he said. He and his team had some big ideas about how to change up battles and make them more tactically interesting and less repetitive, and the freedom-fighter setting rose up around them.First of all, we have a new team of battle-hardened XCOM soldier classes that are similar to Enemy Unknown’s, but distinct. The Sharpshooter shares a lot of DNA with EU’s Sniper, but can also specialize in using a pistol as a primary weapon instead of a last resort. The Ranger is the evolution of the Assault class, still specializing in close combat with shotguns and the like, but now comes equipped with XCOM’s first lethal melee weapon: a machete-like blade. The Grenadier? He (or she) blows things up, much like the Heavy. The Specialist replaces Support, and uses a hovering drone called a Gremlin both in combat to stun enemies and buff allies, and out of combat to pull off tricks like long-range hacking. There’s also a fifth mystery class that Firaxis is saving for reveal closer to launch.We’ll have more on XCOM 2’s new classes next week in Meet The Specialist and Meet The Ranger.We can now swap genders and set nationalities to our liking – if you want an all-female, all-Portuguese team, you can do that. What’s more, we’ll be able to tweak the look of the right and left arms, torso, pants, and headgear individually, drawing from a larger selection of pieces designed to give this version of XCOM a more ragtag, scavenged look and feel. “When that stuff came online I got caught in the trap of customizing rookies, which was a huge mistake,” Solomon confessed. “We try to make it easier for the player to customize, but you can spend a lot more time customizing your soldiers, which you should not do unless you have relative certainly you’re either going to re-load when they die or that are going to survive. So, don’t do that on rookies because you’ll have wasted a lot of time.” Veteran soldiers will have unique cosmetic upgrades unlocked to visually emphasize how hardcore they are, he added.As we see in the trailer, XCOM sometimes gets to take the first shot – and that’s a huge deal. Except in certain situations (Stealth Suits and Battle Scanners), the aliens have up until now always seen us the moment we see them – and when they do, they “scamper” to cover and deny us the chance at a clean shot. In fact, the scamper is probably the most common complaint I’ve seen from other XCOM players, some of whom see it as an unfair advantage for the aliens. Those people will be very happy to hear that they’ll have the opportunity to cancel out that advantage in XCOM 2. “The first enemy that you get to jump on, obviously they don’t get to scamper anywhere,” said Solomon. That’s not all: “Enemies will get surprised, so that prevents them – some of them, based on some factors – from fully scampering into cover.” Between that and hinting at further, yet-to-be-disclosed ways to counteract the scamper, Solomon makes it sound like if we play our cards right, setting up an ambush correctly could turn what would’ve been a losing fight into shooting fish in a barrel. Don’t expect to be backstabbing aliens or picking them off one at a time like Batman – stealth is useful for getting into position to ambush the enemy, but does not replace combat.If the maps were the same set of 80 or so pre-built setups we saw in Enemy Unknown, that might give us too much of an advantage over the aliens – but that’s where XCOM 2 throws in another much-requested feature: procedurally generated maps. Solomon summed up the need for a system like this in a way that’s music to any gamer’s ears: “Obviously, replayability is a big thing at Firaxis, and it is a big thing for XCOM. We always talk about value for the player’s dollar, right? And the core of that is replayability, to make your game as replayable as possible.”More on that later this week in XCOM 2’s Procedurally Generated Maps.