Welcome to Blog Banter, a monthly blogging event that was created by bs angel and is coordinated by Game Couch. This is where gamers from different sites write about the same topic.
This month’s topic is about a franchise shift or a game that is getting a reboot that isn’t needed.
2K Games has just announced that they are bringing back X-COM. This is fantastic news for die hard fans up until the part where it says FPS and FBI agent.
Now if they would mix in FPS with the isometric view then there might not be so many complaints. To remake X-COM as a full FPS game is a huge mistake.
Sure, it’s the team that is behind BioShock 2 (2K Marin and 2K Australia) but personally I didn’t find Bioshock 2 as good as the first installment. To me, it felt more like a drawn out DLC and I was sad that 2K Boston wasn’t at the helm.
“With BioShock 2, the team at 2K Marin proved themselves as masters of first-person, suspenseful storytelling, and with XCOM they will re-imagine and expand the rich lore of this revered franchise. Players will explore the world of XCOM from an immerse new perspective and experience firsthand the fear and tension of this gripping narrative ride.” - Christoph Hartmann, president of 2K
The original X-COM series had a different type of style of gaming that is hard to describe and it worked. There is no reason why they can’t do the same with the tools that they have today. Not all games need to be an FPS to be successful.
XCOM is the re-imagining of the classic tale of humanity’s struggle against an unknown enemy that puts players directly into the shoes of an FBI agent tasked with identifying and eliminating the growing threat. True to the roots of the franchise, players will be placed in charge of overcoming high-stake odds through risky strategic gambits coupled with heart-stopping combat experiences that pit human ingenuity – and frailty – against a foe beyond comprehension. By setting the game in a first-person perspective, players will be able to feel the tension and fear that comes with combating a faceless enemy that is violently probing and plotting its way into our world. - taken from the website: XCOM.com
The name X-COM is the name of the multi-national task force that has been given the task to investigate and combat the growing UFO threat that exists in the not so distant future. Making the game about an FBI agent completely changes the game. It is no longer X-COM and the core of the story is different. They seem to just using the name X-COM to sell more units.
The tension from the original game was already there without the FPS element and without fancy graphics. I don’t understand why it isn’t possible to do the same thing but keep the game play and the core of the story intact. The way the hardcore fans remember and loved.
Many fans have been waiting for this day and now are heart broken to hear that it will be an FPS game.
X-COM was a computer game series from Mythos Games and MicroProse that started back in 1993. It was known as an action-based strategy/space/combat game. The first game of the series is held as the best and is revered as the best PC game ever made.
Now that 2K has a hold of it and is making it into an FPS game, we can only wait until we actually play it to know how wrong this is.
2K plans on releasing X-COM onto the XB360 and the PC. Still no word if it will be available for the Ps3. If you want to make X-COM right, have it for the PC only, keep the core story and the game-play. That’s what the real fans truly want.
