If you're a fan of the XCOM franchise and a PC gamer, chances are you've heard of Long War Studios and their partial conversion mod for XCOM: Enemy Unknown, Long War. If you're one of the many who enjoyed extending their XCOM experience then you'll be excited to hear that news released by 2K Games today on the official XCOM 2 website tells us that the studio is working on 'something ambitious' with the large headline of Long War 2 (intentionally) giving away what that might be. The news comes along with the information that Long War Studios is re-branding as Pavonis Interactive, potentially due to their branching out from modding into developing their own project Terra Invicta - a strategy game set in space which is currently in 'pre-kickstarter development.'

For anyone who didn't play the original Long War mod, the project gained popularity due to its almost unprecedented scope and, as it stands, has been downloaded from Nexus Mods more than 800,000 times. It added character classes, abilities, weapons, armor, items, new features like soldier fatigue, and re-balanced and improved late-game enemy encounters by allowing enemies to research upgrades just as the player can - all of which significantly extended the lifespan of an XCOM campaign. Where a normal campaign in XCOM: Enemy Unknown could be completed comfortably in 20-40 hours, estimates for a campaign in Long War stood at around 150 hours (though an option for a shorter run did exist). The core team of modders numbered only four but the project gained assistance from no less than twenty-nine contributors, twenty voice actors and three members of Firaxis Games themselves. The mod took inspiration from the first game in what later became the X-COM franchise, UFO: Enemy Unknown, for many of its new systems.

Current information from the source tells us no more than that the mod is currently in development and that more information will be revealed via the official XCOM site in the coming weeks. A short snippet of information from Pavonis Interactive's own news stream does confirm, however, that the project will be a free mod just as the original was and is being developed 'in partnership' with 2K and Firaxis Games. This is the latest in partnerships mod developments between Firaxis and Pavonis, with past ones including leader creation and the Long War Perk Pack.

We'll bring you more on this potentially exciting project as it becomes available, in the meantime, why not check out our review of XCOM 2 which we called 'a solid follow-up to XCOM: Enemy Unknown.'

Quick Take

Long War for XCOM: Enemy Unkown is hands down one of my favorite mods of all time and I'm not just limiting that to mods for XCOM. To me, it managed to not only add to the original experience but enhance it too. So, as you might imagine, I'm super excited for XCOM 2 to get the Long War treatment. The fact that Firaxis and 2K are once again getting right behind the project only deepens my respect for the developer and publisher. To sum up how I feel about this, I think the lead designer of XCOM: Enemy Unknown, Jake Solomon, said it best when he said: "We're basically a 20-hour tutorial for Long War, and that's okay."