XCOM 2’s next DLC is so big it almost became XCOM 3 War of the Chosen may as well be called a total conversion
Quote:
Jake Solomon’s team at Firaxis Games isn’t very happy with him right now. The DLC he’s cooked up for XCOM 2, called War of the Chosen is big, so big that the team considered making it the groundwork for XCOM 3.
“We definitely talked about that,” Solomon told me with a laugh. “We have a lot of features that could have been the basis for a sequel, but for us a sequel also requires an entirely new narrative. ... We’re very systems-oriented and so, for us, this is an opportunity to make a new experience, a new game. But we’re not going to totally replace the narrative.”
War of the Chosen will be an option for players starting a campaign, just like previous DLC Alien Hunters and Shen’s Last Gift. It will add three new factions to the game, groups of human resistance fighters that players will be able to win over to their side. It will also include a new tier of three Alien commanders, called the Chosen. The module will also have a boatload of new cinematics and voice acting, all with the goal of making the game more intimate.
“As you’re playing the game you’ll hear a lot more voices and they’ll be commenting on what you’re doing,” Solomon said. “It just adds a lot of warmth to the game. It feels more alive as you’re playing.”
Each of the three factions will have their own leader, who will communicate with the player in much the same way that the Council spokesman does now. In battle, the Chosen champions will taunt the player, commenting on their actions in previous fights. Each will have their own personality. The Assassin, Solomon said, is focused on duty and honor while the Hunter is a joker. Meanwhile the Warlock is almost like a religious fanatic. All three are siblings, and each is racing to claim Earth as their own.
There will also be radio broadcasts, both from Advent controlled territory and from free human settlements in the wild. It all combines to bring more vivid characters to XCOM, something that Solomon and his team have wanted to do for a long time.
The most interesting new mechanic for players is something called “bonds.” New soldiers will each have a compatibility rating, and certain individuals will get along better than others. As relationships grow, Solomon said there’s a chance that soldiers could develop a bond. After a mission, the camera will zoom in on them back at base having a beer or training together on the weapons range. As those bonds increase, more powerful skills will be unlocked on the battlefield. One allows a soldier to take their action and give it to their bondmate.
There’s even a chance that two soldiers who don’t really get along could change their opinion of one another. For instance, Solomon said, if a soldier saves a comrade that they actively dislike their relationship could begin to change.
Apparently that is marketing manager Kevin Schultz (FXS_MisterKevin on Twitter/Reddit) getting abducted:
Some Firaxis comments from Reddit:
FXS_MisterKevin
Chosen first have to daze a soldier before it can interrogate or kidnap. Once they're down, the Chosen move in to take an action. You still have a turn to get the soldier back on their feet.
FXS_ArcticPyre
To give some more gameplay details here...Most of the Chosen's attacks apply a new "Dazed" status effect, which is unique to the Chosen but functions similarly to Stunned. Soldiers who are Dazed can be revived by any adjacent soldier as a free action. The Chosen can only kidnap or interrogate Dazed soldiers, so you always have the ability to (try to) revive your units.
FXS_ArcticPyre
You can take missions to rescue soldiers captured by the Chosen, and if you succeed they will have their inventory items when they return to the Avenger.
The optimal deal in these situations is to go for the comfy X-ISO of the Chosen whilst waiting for the inevitable discounted Complete edition to drop from an alien supply dropship sometime in the future, or at least that's what I'll do
I dunno what you guys are talking about. Just pirate it, there's no reason to buy it, the pirated version is feature-complete. If you like it, you're welcome to buy it later, as you like.
I dunno what you guys are talking about. Just pirate it, there's no reason to buy it, the pirated version is feature-complete. If you like it, you're welcome to buy it later, as you like.
Don't get me wrong i was watching some streams and it looks great, i was more commenting on the fact that an expansion is the same price as some whole games.
Don't get me wrong i was watching some streams and it looks great, i was more commenting on the fact that an expansion is the same price as some whole games.
well from what i understood its quite huge to the point of being like Xcom 2.5
To na a few (stolen from neofag)
- Revamped and improved Story, with new cutscenes, new story missions, new scripted missions.
- New locations, new mission types, new tech, new enemy types and buildings.
- Changed strategy layer.
- The chosen are your direct adversaries and they are very powerful. They have their own distinctive strengths, strategies and weaknesses. You fight them several times during the campaign (on scripted missions and during normal encounters) and they grow in strength over time (just as you do). Many people compare them to the Nemesis system in Shadow of Mordor. They can also kidnap and torture your soldiers and you’ll need to mount a rescue operation to free them before they give away too much intel about you.
- Three additional factions have been added to the game. The Reapers, the Skirmishers and the Templars. This faction will provide very powerful soldiers (with unique skill trees and traits) and have their own story missions.
- Your Soldiers can now form bonds and sympathies with other soldiers during battle and can become friends. By this they start unlocking new shared abilities between them, like having the option to get one extra turn per missions. But if one of the friends dies, the other will suffer the loss in a big way.
- Soldiers will have more personality. For example, one soldier might be afraid of a certain type of enemy, another one might only be happy when his gun is fully loaded.
- Soldiers can also get tired after especially long, gruelling missions, affecting their performance if you bring them on the next one. And if they’re shaken they can’t enter the battle at all, and need to rest up for a while.
- You can earn special skill points and XCOM points by doing certain things during a mission (e.g. flanking, killing something out of stealth). You can use skill points to go back and learn a skill you didn’t take previously (for example a ranger can now have both the conceal and the run’n gun ability). Every soldier will also have also access to random abilities from other classes, you can learn those skills by spending xcom points (for example a sharpshooter could have the chance to learn the covering fire skill from the specialist class). You still get to choose one skill after each promotion.
- There are modifiers for normal (none scripted) mission. Those could be a limit of three soldiers, or a level littered with dangerous explosives…
- Propaganda is in the game. You will for example hear advent propaganda downplaying your doings and achievements. You can also create your own propaganda, by creating posters which you’ll see plastered thought out later levels. It’s a cool idea, but there is probably no gameplay attached to it.
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