They embody the bolder direction of the sequel both narratively and artistically. One of my favorite ways we did this is with the aliens themselves.
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We tried to push the intensity and visceral nature of the series in all aspects. It was a fascinating challenge developing a fresh, but familiar world, polishing the tactical mechanics, and establishing a new open-ended strategy layer. We found the idea of starting the story after losing the original game incredibly inspiring to build a new world upon. XCOM 2 couldn’t use the established canon of UFO Defense we had to start fresh with new ideas to really make the franchise our own and create a true sequel. We also saw this as an opportunity to add gameplay elements like procedural generation back into the series. How do we reinvent a game that was a reinvention of a classic? We really liked the underdog element and wanted to push that further in the sequel.
We felt we found a smart balance between the old and new for Enemy Unknown that fans enjoyed playing, but designing XCOM 2 had a whole different set of challenges. We were floored by the response to Enemy Unknown and were even more excited to continue to develop the series. Once we figured out the core of the XCOM experience, we felt comfortable adding in new ideas and modernizing game mechanics from the original. This is a war where the odds are stacked against you, yet, somehow, you will prevail. A player should be fighting an uphill battle throughout their campaign. It was at this point that the team started to focus more on the “feel” of XCOM.
Earlier prototypes saw a more literal translation from the classic game to ours, but lacked the magic that pulled the experience together. We wanted to put our own stamp on the series, but we had an obligation to deliver a true XCOM experience. Mechanically, the challenge with Enemy Unknown was deciding how much to carry over from UFO Defense and how much to reinvent. Concurrently, a small team and Art Director Greg Foertsch visualized how XCOM would uphold the spirit Jake was looking for with a modern presentation and sleek aesthetic. It was an extraordinarily fun time to be on the project, and was the beginning of this special team collaborating with each of their individual talents. To make sure everyone on the team felt the magic of the original, every developer sat down and played UFO Defense together. Creative Director Jake Solomon’s passion for X-Com: UFO Defense is the reason why he’s in the industry and we knew that he would fight to the death to make sure that the XCOM game we created was faithful to the series legacy. To get it right, we needed to start with a leadership team that slept, ate, and breathed XCOM. Taking on the XCOM series has been an exhilarating and wild ride from the beginning. To look at how we created XCOM 2, we have to look at how we adapted UFO Defense. All of the decisions that went into developing Enemy Unknown in turn impacted the development of XCOM 2. We were well aware and humbled by the impact of the classic game and its impact on the industry when we created XCOM: Enemy Unknown. When we decided to take on the monumental task of developing an XCOM game, we knew that everything started in 1994 with Julian Gollop’s original, X-Com: UFO Defense.
The story behind XCOM 2 is much larger than the time it was actually in development at Firaxis Games.
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