After sending the gaming community into a tailspin with the Advent teaser website late last week, 2K Games has officially unveiled XCOM 2 as a PC exclusive, slating the strategy sequel for a release in November of this year.
Revealed via IGN, the follow-up will take place a full 20 years after the events of XCOM: Enemy Unknown, whisking players into a future wherein the aliens have succeeded in world domination and rule over the remainder of humanity though a government body known as Advent. Reduced to little more than a guerrilla operation, XCOM hasn’t given up hope of toppling the extra terrestrial dynasty for good.
That’s essentially where XCOM 2 will pick up, and in tandem with today’s unveiling, developer Firaxis Games touched upon some of the improvements over past iterations in the tactical series – improvements that have been implemented as a direct response to fan feedback. Jake Solomon, creative director on board the sequel, touched upon some of the new-fangled features that will be introduced, with modding support and procedurally-generated levels no doubt acting as the headliners.
“The feedback from the passionate XCOM community played an important role in the development of XCOM 2, driving us to push the visual, gameplay and replayability boundaries of what a strategy game can be. We’re thrilled to implement long-time fan requested features such as procedural levels and modding support, as well as adding more of what makes XCOM great like new aliens, enemies and soldier classes.”
20 years on from the invasion, humanity continues to fight the good fight against the aliens. Currently slated as a PC exclusive, XCOM 2 will release for both Mac and Linux in the months after its November launch, though 2K Games didn’t specify whether the sequel will ever make an appearance on consoles.
