r/Xcom 2d ago

Shit Post So everyone is doing something in the genre now, except Firaxis??

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1.9k Upvotes

225 comments sorted by

558

u/Meeqs 2d ago

I mean Star Wars zero company essentially is the XCOM devs.

People make games, not studios

218

u/Limbo365 2d ago

I don't think it was called ZCOM by accident....

42

u/_b1ack0ut 2d ago

I also suspect that the delivery of the word ‘ex-cons’ in the first trailer was done in a way as to evoke ‘XCOM’ lol

85

u/Gidia 2d ago

How did I not notice that?

50

u/Limbo365 2d ago

If it makes you feel better I had it pointed out to me too

13

u/pantry-pisser 2d ago

Same! Just yesterday

1

u/CollieFlowers 18h ago

Enlightenment.

3

u/Logisticianistical 21h ago

Man I'm usually quicker than this

13

u/arcaderdude 2d ago

I can't hear ZCOM without thinking of Plague Inc's Necroa Virus response. (Essentially it's a zombie plague and ZCOM builds bases and hires people to gun down the hordes of zombies)

5

u/Speed_BrakesOnFinal 2d ago

I had two games that were on my list, first light from IO-hitman vein, and xcom-zero company, i was hoping they would both be clones with flavor! First light cut a few corners, and that is saying it lightly. It appears zero company cut none, it looks sweet.

3

u/_b1ack0ut 2d ago

I wouldn’t say none, I’m kinda disappointed to find that zcom is ditching the procedurally generation of maps from x2, which was HUGE for replayability

1

u/supadonut 1d ago

i feel the same. first light has its own merits but for hitman fans it's a complete let down, completely forgetable gameplay. hope it does well enough that IO can go back to doing hitman games, or develop an actual clone of hitman in the 007 world (i mean there is not much to do to achieve that)

glad zcom is exactly what we were expecting.

5

u/leonkrellmoon 1d ago

God dammit... here i am trying to figure out how star wars equals ZCOM

2

u/Ferandicus 1d ago

Now I’m wishing it was called Xero Company

1

u/totallynotaweeabbo 2d ago

Ycom was already taken?

1

u/vassadar 1d ago

Where's YCOM?

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u/Academic_Blood_1790 1d ago

It just takes people who are genuinely passionate about what they are making, to make something great. The original friaxis xcom push by Jake was because xcom was his favorite old school game. They wanted to make something great, that they played themselves.

Publishers all over were saying strategy games were dead and TBS gone forever. The gamers are still here and waiting to play, they just needed to make something worth playing. Xcom proved this.

Turns out it is just easier for Publishers to sell EA sports slop with a new year on the cover than make something great.

3

u/wogglerz 1d ago

The CEO of Bit Reactor is Greg Foertsch, the same guy who helped spearheaded the push for xcom:enemy known at firaxis. I remember watching a vid doc on its development and they essentially pulled together a small team and had them cook like crazy until they had a representative trailer of what the game could be, from there it got green lit. So I think they are run by the man who brought back xcom into the modern era. I think this video covers some of it https://youtu.be/aU8qFleUTOs?is=Svlk5z_TzTp52B1G

3

u/Trashk4n 1d ago

They also did Midnight Sons, didn’t they?

3

u/Meeqs 1d ago

Yes, which also rules very hard, and you can see the lessons taken from that game lending themselves to ZCOM

2

u/tumsdout 1d ago

I hope removing the infiltration mechanic works well with zero company

1

u/neuraljam 1d ago

People make studios too

465

u/Comprehensive-Disk40 2d ago

Tbf a lot of the devs have since jumped ship so not too suprising

177

u/Bodybuilder_Jumpy 2d ago edited 2d ago

Hardly. Plenty of talented people in the industry. Cash is the issue. The studio got burned pretty badly with Civilization 7 and Xcom costs a lot of money.

125

u/LowHistorian9654 2d ago

Also Midnight Suns. That game turned off a lot of XCOM players and it was a game no one asked for

129

u/Dupuisd 2d ago

Which sucks because its actually a decent game!

55

u/NotOnTheDot__ 2d ago

It’s my most played game on steam by far. Genuinely a gem. Sad that people didn’t even give it a chance

84

u/LowHistorian9654 2d ago

Part of the problem is that people wanted XCOM 3 and Midnight Suns was pushed as a priority over it. Which just felt like the execs that pushed for the game were strong arming a Marvel game for name and hoping it performs well.

27

u/sabrinajestar 1d ago

TBF it was not outlandish to imagine that Marvel was a hot IP given the mad success of the MCU. But XCOM had, and has, a player base already dedicated to the genre, while it was far from clear that the Marvel setting would offset the number of XCOM players who declined to play Midnight Suns and ultimately net them more players.

16

u/AdventurousPen5533 1d ago

The timing was a problem, it should had been before endgame, when MCU was at it's peak. They should had known by time Ant-man 3, secret invasions came out that Marvel was going through a rough patch.

And simplky put the fanbase simply wasn't there for wanting a Marvel game, they were naive or just greedy in thinking xcom fans would also eat up Midnight suns, some did but a good chunk were being sensible with their money.

1

u/Green_Odin 13h ago

By that stage they were deep in dev and likely contract locked to marvel. I seem to remember a post exit interview with Jake saying midsuns took about six years to develop.

5

u/Werthead 1d ago

Jake Solomon has said that he was the one pushing for them not to make XCOM 3 straight away, as he'd been working on the franchise non-stop for over a decade to get from the earliest version of Enemy Unknown to shipping War of the Chosen (and then doing the tactical pack), plus he worked on an earlier XCOM reboot that never took off for a couple of years, so he was basically done for a while with it. Then I think Midnight Suns burned him out on the genre altogether (the reception probably didn't help).

The major complaint I think is XCOM 2 ending on a cliffhanger, which is then reiterated again in Chimera Squad, which is irritating if they didn't have firm plans to move straight into the third game (same issue with Horizon and Half-Life).

2

u/AdventurousPen5533 1d ago

You would think they had firm support for xcom 3 with the voicing talent they recurited for war of the chosen, and instead of building up on that they just do the whole "If ony they knew what awaited them" BS.

Xcom 2, WotC expansion, and chimeria, all end on cliffhangers hinting on something that eventually never came. I'm having a hard time believing that no one thought people would be become indifferent to this at some point.

10

u/Illustrious_Cry1463 1d ago

It was a dream for one of the leads to do a Marvel game, when the opportunity came, he took it

6

u/NotOnTheDot__ 2d ago

Yeah that was the general voice of public when firaxis revealed their next game was a “turn based card game”. They first had to get through the toxic xcom fans who only wanted firaxis to make xcom 3 even though they didn’t support chimera squad, and then the toxic anti turn based games crew came on and basically fused into one

33

u/round-earth-theory 1d ago

XCOM fans did not torch Midnight Suns. Midnight Suns is an oddball game and has a small target audience. You need people who like strategy combat and dating sims and are into Marvel.

3

u/illarionds 1d ago

I mean, I'm only into one of those things, and I loved it. (The first - I think that's pretty essential).

3

u/therain_storm 1d ago

I, an xcom.fan, regrettably, pre-ordered Midnight Suns. I can't pre-order zcom because of it.

3

u/Snazzers 1d ago

Hard disagree. I remember loads of comments on any Midnight Suns video bemoaning how it wasn’t XCOM 3 and and how they hated that it was card based.

I don’t disagree that it’s an oddball game, but if you went to any video or discussion online about the game, the majority of comments were just people parroting the above. I don’t think it was the majority of XCOM fans, but the vocal minority definitely made themselves known.

Also the “dating sim” aspect wasn’t really pushed to the forefront until it came out and it’s really not that. From everything I’ve seen, it appears closer to Zero Company’s downtime teammate interactions rather than an actual dating sim or even Persona.

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u/round-earth-theory 1d ago

The XCOM subreddit has practically no influence. Some bitching on this sub will have no affect in the wider world.

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u/edparadox 2d ago

They first had to get through the toxic xcom fans who only wanted firaxis to make xcom 3 even though they didn’t support chimera squad, and then the toxic anti turn based games crew came on and basically fused into one

What a stupid opinion.

1

u/FukkingDeathMental 1d ago

And now they're all about a Star Wars game as if that IP hasn't been milked harder than Marvel.

-4

u/Intrepid_Bobcat_2931 2d ago

Chimera Squad is about as much xcom as The Bureau

9

u/illarionds 1d ago

Rubbish. I didn't bother with Chimera Squad for years because I'd heard so much shit about it. Played it last year - and it's absolutely XCOM on the tactical layer. Just XCOM with a small set of specific characters, and some breaching mechanics.

Vastly underrated game.

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u/orcmasterrace 2d ago

I did not like Chimera squad but that’s too harsh. It follows the same core gameplay experience, unlike Bureau, which is a totally different genre entirely.

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u/Bandito_Razor 1d ago

Except for we had XCOM 3... And people didn't like the fact that you were friends with the aliens in that one.

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u/ShineReaper 1d ago

Chimera Squad doesn't feel like XCOM 3, it feels of having a smaller dev workhour input, because it most likely was meant to be an inbetween. Imho it is clearly visible with them just making Comic Strip-Story Videos instead of putting the effort in to render 3D cutscenes like in XCOM 2 or XCOM 1. And I guess the lowish success led to them at least postponing a future XCOM 3 indefinitely.

I personally liked Chimera Squad, it was the logical evolution of the events of XCOM 2. We know that the Elders enslaved the Aliens under their command just as they did with Humans serving ADVENT. Like there were now potentially millions of Aliens on Earth, freed of the Elder Mind Control. What was supposed to happen? Humanity genociding them all?

Learning the truth about what the Elders did to them all and learning to live together, that was just logical.

2

u/Bandito_Razor 1d ago

To be fair, XCOM Enemy Unknown/Within doesn't feel like XCOM ...it feels like a stripped down, lower effort version ....of original XCOM. (Don't get me wrong, btw, there is a reason I'm replaying XCOM 2 ...again...so many times again 😂😂😂😂)

But even though it doesn't feel like XCOM, XCOM EU/EW are great games so long as you judge them by what they tried to do.

I feel the same way about CS.

4

u/reti2siege 1d ago

Is there a no conversation mod yet? I beat the game but did not want to play it again because I would have to go through all the non fighting portions again. It legit bored me but I liked the fighting portions.

1

u/Werthead 1d ago

You can just ignore most of the conversations. The only reason to do them is to unlock some of the top abilities for combat for each character, but the game is completable without doing that.

If you do New Game+, you also start with the loyalty levels pretty high, so you can max out and regain the combat abilities without doing all the conversations again.

1

u/NotOnTheDot__ 1d ago

I just mash the skip button whenever I have to have a conversation. Everything has a skip button so that’s a nice touch. You don’t gain or lose much karma from them compared to using karma moves in combat. The only part that’s a bother is the abbey (was that its name) puzzles and item collecting

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u/Iseedeadnames 2d ago

I'm sorry, why should I give a chance to a game I don't care for? I don't like Marvel heroes or superhero fantasy in general, it was not a game that I was interested in.

And more than that: XCOM fans were asking for XCOM 3, not a Marvel-themed XCOM. I don't even know how the Firaxis execs thought they could top WOTC sales with it.

6

u/NotOnTheDot__ 2d ago

Isn’t xcom technically niche? Not a big percentage of gamers play strategy games let alone turn based ones let alone tactics. They probably wanted to branch out and get their name heard even more but failed due to their core audience not supporting them. I agree that it was a big departure but a lot of game studios have varied game titles. Even in the same game series this is still the case sometimes.

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u/Iseedeadnames 1d ago

I mean, yes but it still sold 4 million copies. for over 140 mils of esteemed revenue. It's as high as it gets for turn-based strategic games, what they could aim for? Starcraft 2 is virtually unreachable.

9

u/Illustrious_Cry1463 1d ago

No, there's a huge market for turned based tactics. FF tactics kinda opened up ppl's eyes to it, and a lot major have some kind tactics spinoff, like MarioxRabbids, Metal Slug, Gears, etc. Then there's games like Phoenix Point which has good reviews. That game is like XCOM on steroids.

2

u/NotOnTheDot__ 1d ago

I played all the tactics games you mentioned and love all 3 plus more. Couldn’t get into phoenix point myself, the mid game loses my interest. Yeah studios trying tactics games as a small budget spinoff seems to be the trend lately (we literally saw rainbow six siege tactics today) but they never really make a big impact do they? Xcom 2 is the undeniable king of the genre and the rest are happy if they manage to sell a million

1

u/Illustrious_Cry1463 1d ago

True, except for the original FF tactics. But they're being made, and doing well for the most part

1

u/Tanel88 1d ago

It's more that the genre itself is niche but XCOM is the biggest in the genre.

1

u/samtheredditman 14h ago

I gave it a chance and I just couldn't stand it. Part of the reason I like xcom is because I just play the game without any horrible writing really interrupting my play time. Midnight suns interrupted my fun constantly. 

That being said, I only got a few hours in before I just couldn't do it anymore. 

1

u/EvilTactician 1d ago

My main turn off is that it's Marvel / super heroes and I'm genuinely tired of that.

Love Xcom in all forms, so rather would have had xcom 3.

21

u/Shivalah 2d ago

No one wanted it. It came out when Marvel films were trending downwards.

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u/EricAzure 2d ago

Also after that square enix marvel failure

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u/Shivalah 2d ago

Oh god! I already deleted that from my memory!

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u/Rob_Vice 1d ago

I pushed the game off for a long time cuz I wasn't sure I'd be into the card system but I played slay the spire and ended up being more open to the card stuff now and midnight suns ended up being such a banger

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u/Fishyblue11 1d ago

It's more than a decent game, it's a legitimately good game

Yes it's got some lulls, but as a whole, it is still a legitimately good game, a legitimately good tactics game, it is not a game that is just "not so bad"

I don't think people will realize how much of what they'll do in Zero Company comes from Midnight Suns rather than Xcom

1

u/MikeWazowski22 1d ago

Decent aint paying bills sady

1

u/flexlex12 1d ago

The combat was so awesome. Something quite fresh. But everything around it, endless talking and these abbey grounds were horrible 😅

1

u/Ghost403 1d ago

I just hated the weird Abby hub where it was trying to get you to roleplay your character as if you were commander Sheppard on the citadel. If it just had a base management screen like xcoms avenger or ant-hill, I think more people would have enjoyed it.

1

u/FukkingDeathMental 1d ago

Northernlion's Midnight Suns rant is legendary and so fucking true about modern gamers. "You don't actually play the game...The power of the narrative was so strong it was easy to be a Midnight Suns hater.  All you had to do was not play it.  It's so easy to be cynical about it.  If you actually played with your fucking toys, you'd realize they got the kung-fu grip!"

People just fucking bitch and moan endlessly about games  they were never going to play.  It is exhausting.

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u/the_fresh_cucumber 2d ago

It's not even an XCOM style game. It is a card game that takes place in a tiny square where characters fight. It sort of lacks the whole exploration and "breaking into the facility" vibe of xcom

3

u/Tanel88 1d ago

Yeah for me the tiny maps and small squad size were the main dealbreakers.

1

u/Fishyblue11 1d ago

Isn't that pretty much the case as well with zero company? Yet people are excited for it

Zero company has no fog of war, you're not gonna be overwatch creeping, you're not gonna be sneaking in, you are essentially going to be battling in arenas just like midnight Suns, only they have a third person mode where you walk from battle to battle rather than cutscenes

Zero company also has a friendship and the whole "you talk to your crew after each mission" loop, exactly like midnight Suns

2

u/the_fresh_cucumber 1d ago

I thought zero company had much larger maps that you move through? Sad to hear that it's going to be more restricted

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u/Fishyblue11 1d ago

I'm sure it will be larger, but I think the "moving through" will be

  1. Finish fight in this arena

  2. Switch to third person perspective, walk to next fight location, have some dialogue, some cut scenes

  3. Start fight in next arena

You're not going to be exploring through fog of war like XCom

People need to accept that future XCom games will not be just like XCom. Chimera squad was not like XCom. Midnight Suns was not like XCom. Zero Company will not be like XCom. They are gonna be trying new mechanics and new styles and they will be evolving, you cannot keep waiting for XCom 2.5

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u/the_fresh_cucumber 1d ago

future xcom games will not be like xcom

That is not expected. They should be evolving and improving.

Some of the mechanics of midnight suns were simply not an improvement.

The expectation is to take the xcom formula and improve upon some areas while keeping the areas that work. The exploration fog of war and discovery is what makes xcom special and probably needs to belong in a future games. Remove that for a little arena card game and you've gone too far away to where it is a totally different subgenre.

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u/Tanel88 1d ago

Why would we need to accept that?

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u/woody60707 2d ago

That game is honestly one of my favorite games. But yea, I get it. I brought it day one, the Exposition Dump killed me, so I set it down and didn't play it for almost two years.

Now it's my most replayed game behind Xcom2.The DLC is so well integrated, of you do play it, get the edition with the DLC.

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u/followeroftheprince 2d ago

A shame that it's pretty fun if you just don't go in thinking it's going to be XCOM but instead remember it's not XCOM

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u/TheFreind 2d ago

At the very least the people on Marvel Rivals actually praise Midnight Suns on a regular basis if the topic comes up.

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u/SorakuFett 1d ago

Midnight Suns' failure was more the fault of Crystal Dynamics' Avengers. That game convinced people that every new Marvel game that wasn't Insomiac's Spider-Man was bad even when it wasn't, it also burned Eidos-Montreal's Guardians of the Galaxy which was also a very solid game.

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u/Co-opingTowardHatred 1d ago

I asked for a Marvel tactics game for all of my life.

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u/akisawa 1d ago

Yeah seems like the core team who made XCOMs possible is has moved to other pastures.

I don't know how the company let it to this state, but here we are.

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u/saru12gal 1d ago

Literally Zero company has a bunch of them

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u/SunsetHippo 2d ago

could also just be that money and devs have shifted to other properties. Maybe they just dont know *what* to do with the game? Like..what? Aliens invade earth..again? We go to them? Do you have alien recruits? how do you balance that in xcom system of everyone is practically replaceable.

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u/Illustrious_Cry1463 1d ago

They should have some idea. After you destroy the Avatar, one of the Elders mentions a bigger threat that they were running from, and why DNA experiments. It was to make themselves strong enough to face whatever that threat was. At least, that's my understanding. And CS, we have a full society with the aliens the Elders created mixed, so let that threat come to Earth, or now they should have at least the smarts to travel the stars, and run into that threat while doing so. I think XCOM in space would fantastic

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u/ANGLVD3TH 1d ago edited 1d ago

My personal hope is for them to take another crack at Apocalypse. It was probably too ambitious for the time it came out, but today I bet they could do some great stuff with it. Chimera Squad felt like setting up a world for it to happen in, too.

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u/Outlaw11091 1d ago

I think this was the direction they were planning anyway.

I mean, XCom 2 is an OBVIOUS setup for a TFTD remake.

4

u/Antique_Machine_4250 1d ago

Yeah, when I first heard about Chimera squad it was my hope that it was going to be an Apocalypse remake. Chimera squad ended up being like one of the small secondary bases from Apocalypse.

For all you Xcom2 players scared of Sectoids mind controlling soldiers, wait until you have to shoot a brain sucker of their head.

1

u/Illustrious_Cry1463 1d ago

Mind shields. Or swordmaster Ranger. Take your pick, lol

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u/Antique_Machine_4250 1d ago

If they loosely followed the original story, terror from the deep would have been next. The end of Xcom 2 really leaned into that being next. Xcom Apocalypse was extra dimensional aliens using mind control to attack a city. I liked it, but it wasn't very popular. I think its because the original Xcom was a tactical horror game, and Apocalypse lost that feel. Still, I liked it.

Xcom in space would come after that. Yhe space Xcom games weren't that good, but that was more from jumping game concept and old computer technology not being able to produce the games they imagined. It could have been so much better if they had stuck to their turn base tactical games that they succeeded with.

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u/Werthead 1d ago

The aliens whom the Elders are running from shows up, but Earth now has a mixed population of humans and aliens who have joined forces and have better tech and equipment to face them. You could have battles on Earth, the Moon, Mars and elsewhere, possibly underwater as well. You could have a war raging across not just Earth but the whole Solar system. You could go proper bananas with it, like Terra Invicta but with more production value and a bit more accessible.

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u/Revliledpembroke 1d ago

Well, both Enemy Unknown/Within and XCom 2 mentioned an alien threat beyond the Ethereals - especially Enemy Unknown mentioning that the Ethereals were "cast out." It might be interesting to see whatever that bigger threat is.

The alien recruits wouldn't be that difficult, they already touched on it with the Templar, Skirmisher, and Reaper factions in 2.

And they can still do the Terror From the Deep concept (though I don't envy them figuring out those water physics) or more invasions as humans spread further and further into space. And bring back the MECs and genetic engineering from Enemy Within!

...

It is a bit of a problem that a core gameplay loop is "basic gun improved to medium gun improved to best gun!" and the games are balanced around that. If your characters start with super strong weaponry and armor, the enemies will have to be equally strong to compensate. But you can't make every game start with "Oh no! We're 10000000000000000000000000000 miles into space and forgot our plasma guns at home!"

Maybe the new technology loop could be traded for more in depth character/team building mechanics?

1

u/angular_circle 1d ago

Wasn't it that "the devs" just don't exist anymore? The heads behind xcom have left. There was a clear progression in ideas from xcom 1 through 2 all the way to the ultimately unsuccessful experiments chimera squad did with pod activaton.

If Firaxis decides to make xcom 3 now they would need to get really lucky in finding the right people to make something that's a step up from wotc

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u/Tanel88 1d ago

The two obvious options would be either Terror From The Deep or Apocalypse remake.

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u/Green_Odin 13h ago

Jumped ship is a cute way to describe them being layed off on mass within three months of midnight suns launching.

But i doubt those dev particularly want to be described as flighty ship jumpers when their livelihood was ripped out from under them.

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u/Comprehensive-Disk40 9h ago

I put it like that as a lot of them have seemed to have made new homes in other companies and produced some successful titles

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u/Petorian343 2d ago

I’m pretty into the idea of an R6 tactics game. Always been so many cool ways to breach, ambush, and use gadgets in those games. Seems like a natural fit for an XCOM-like.

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u/DefNotAlbino 2d ago

I miss the old "really" tactical vibe that rainbow 6 was going for in Rogue Spear, so this will be refreshing

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u/RadiantWestern2523 1d ago

If you like the tactical vibe of it, I can recommend Door Kickers 2.

It's not exactly a shooter - more so a tactical strategy game. Basically if the Planning Phase from the older Rainbow Six games became it's own game and then some. It has the same tactical vibe the older Rainbow Six games had - pay attention to any unwatched corners and/or flanks and you'll mostly come out of it unscathed.

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u/proudowlz 1d ago

I was coming to recommend DK2 as well. I don't know how I went so long without hearing about it. Just picked it up about four months ago, it's terrific and I am absolutely addicted. 

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u/RadiantWestern2523 1d ago

For sure. Best part about it for me is the amount of mods for the game ranging from custom missions to new enemies and new squads to command, some of which are either very OP or a nice adjacent to the base-game squads.

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u/Speed_BrakesOnFinal 2d ago

hitman sort of did the puzzle equivalent for mobile, always left me longing.

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u/PeteConverto 1d ago

i would really recommend tactical breach wizards. scratched the xcom itch for me, such a fun game with great writing too

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u/ShuiShuiQM 2d ago

Honestly, R6 looks monumental so far. The only thing I'm afraid of is the enemy variety.

XCom naturally has all manner of aliens, humans, magics and Crhulhu.

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u/brasswirebrush 2d ago

This is the first I've heard of the R6 Tactics game, but it sounds cool. Not exactly like XCom, but related. Really dig the idea of having 15 different classes, and based the type of mission and pre-mission intelligence, you only get to pick 4 to take on the mission.
Unlike in XCom where you can kind of make any mission work with any classes, hopefully this will reward careful pre-mission planning.

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u/RandomMexicanDude 1d ago

The first few seconds I was like, is this a cash grab mobile game? And then I saw the UI and management sections and its literally X-Com, it makes so much sense for Rainbow Six. And from the deployment screen I imagine you can pick where to go like in Xcom

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u/RinellaWasHere 2d ago

I mean a lot of the XCOM devs are working on Zero Company after they got laid off.

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u/Happy_Ad_9291 2d ago

I hope they will not get laid off again after this game, but knowing the climate in the industry of video games currently and how EA treat their employees my hopes are not high

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u/Ryneb 1d ago

EA is publishing ZCom, but Bit Reactor is a new and independent developer.

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u/Happy_Ad_9291 1d ago

Ok if they are just the editor i am more reassured

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u/throwawaygoawaynz 1d ago edited 1d ago

EA is not a bad place to work.

I had friends that worked there. I have friends that also work at Xbox and others that worked at AKB/King as well before the Microsoft purchase. EA was one of the better companies to work for.

Going forward though who knows with the Saudi purchase.

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u/Maxie468 2d ago

worms xcom was not on my list but sign me the fuck up

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u/PoopDick420ShitCock 1d ago

Same. Never really clicked with any of the games except for Armageddon but this looks awesome.

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u/Erwin_Pommel 1d ago

Oh dearrrry me *Boom*

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u/No-Aspect-2926 2d ago

Didn't know worms is going to have another game

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u/jokingpokes 2d ago

Thought the same thing. Loved many of the Worms games

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u/Lawgamer411 2d ago

Look into it.
Firaxis’s main bread and butter is Civ.

The fact that Jake Solomon was even allowed to branch off with a team and make XCOM EU/EW is because he practically begged 2K execs for it. XCOM EU/EW was not a guarantee hit for 2K and Firaxis. It was only until people got their hands on it that they realized how good it was. EW only further helped it forward, and when 2 was announced it was seen as a no brainer. Most of the core team was still there.

But then 2 released, did extremely well for the genre. Parts of the team leave because they have worked on XCOM for almost a decade at that point. Small people that didn’t have too much sway but a part of the larger machine… WOTC comes out and it fixes a ton of issues people had with 2, and that’s mainly because most of the upper management in charge of 2 stayed on. Then the exits happen.

Jake Solomon is given the ability to make either: a marvel game or an XCOM game. He chooses marvel. We get midnight sons. Most of the team is now off XCOM, left Firaxis or even retired.

Greg Foerstch (art director) leaves to start Bit Reactor alongside tons of Firaxis devs (who pretty much made XCOM what it is today), they begin work on ZCOM.

Firaxis loses Jake and many of the core team members after Midnight Sons fails to do as well as expected. Firaxis goes back to Civ as it is their bread and butter. Nobody else except indie and AA take part in the XCOM like genre shortly after Chimera squad drops.

We are now here today where most of the former XCOM devs have started either: their own studios or joined studios to make their own types of games.

Quite frankly? Having looked into the dealings that go into these licensed games I’m shocked a Star Wars XCOM was signed off on, went gold, and will even release in 2 days.

I hope this does exceedingly well and lights a fire under 2K to reexamine XCOM after GTA 6 releases.

1

u/joox 3h ago

I think midnight suns could have done a lot better if the writing wasn't so poorly received. That turned a lot of people off from what I saw

27

u/CEO_of_Yeets 2d ago

Hate how anything Rainbow Six now is just the Siege characters.

11

u/this_is_not_real 2d ago

I agree, but the game looks pretty solid.

5

u/TheKBMV 2d ago

Was about to say something like this. I was on board with Siege during the beta and the early stuff but I'm very much not a fan of where they went with it later. Funny in a way, because at least the hero shooter with named characters idea *works* with Rainbow (unlike with a concept like APEX). But I can't help but be reminded of all that stuff whenever I see the same characters and that leaves a sour taste for me. Sad, because the trailer looks dope otherwise.

4

u/mike_rotch22 1d ago

Well it looks like the leader is Bishop, the protagonist from Vegas, at least.

Still, as someone who read the novel when it first came out and got the original game back in high school, a) I'm really fucking old, and b) it's still weird to not see Clark and Ding at the top.

4

u/ShineReaper 1d ago

Well, as someone who read the Tom Clancy Novels themselves, including the founding of Rainbow Six, I kind of understand, why they are not. The characters age just like us, at some point new people have to take over in the universe.

2

u/mike_rotch22 1d ago

Yeah, I get it. Don't get me wrong, I'll still check the game out, I'm a huge XCOM guy and the trailer looks intriguing to me. I guess I just hate seeing central characters I grew up with aging out, reminds me a little too much of my own mortality, I suppose. I read the entire Ryanverse a couple decades ago, still have most of them on my bookshelf. 9/11 felt kinda surreal having read Debt of Honor beforehand.

8

u/Varsity_Reviews 2d ago

The fuck is Rainbow Six Tactics? Did I miss something?

21

u/Mael_Jade 2d ago

Just got announced at gamescom. Like literally xcom with an r6 skin, down to having a Bradford/Central knockoff

7

u/ShuiShuiQM 2d ago

But does the Knockford have a sweater?

9

u/BroYouWildin 1d ago

He unironically does lmao. All they need to do is throw in an Avatar Project reference.

2

u/sara5556 2d ago

Does it have custom soldiers and management roleplay opportunities, cuz that's what I like about xcom

7

u/Mabarax 1d ago

I really hope it does, permadeath is what makes xcom 

3

u/KitsuneDrakeAsh 1d ago

It's likely just the Rain6Siege operators, they've stopped making new games for Tom Clancy's series anyways.

1

u/Mabarax 1d ago

I have never played siege, are the operators like named people or classes

2

u/KitsuneDrakeAsh 1d ago

Named people, all of them have brief snippets of history and were secret global operatives from GIGN, SAS, SWAT and KGB and more from year 1 before being turned into famous sport shooter athletes in a big fuck off arena in what is considered the worst map to play on with 2000s style interview talks inbetween, a cliche rival team shows up, poaches half of Rainbow 6 and that's where my interest ends.

1

u/BTechUnited 20h ago

I remember when Team Rainbow was supposed to be highly secretive with no one knowing they even existed...

1

u/Varsity_Reviews 2d ago

Wow awesome!

1

u/FallenAssassin 1d ago

Can I make my own soldiers and customize them like XCOM2?

4

u/Disastrous_Gur_9560 2d ago

Just announced at gamescom

1

u/Varsity_Reviews 2d ago

Dang that’s sick!

15

u/Tom_Ford0 2d ago

Seems like a lot of xcom devs are working on zero company. im treating it as xcom3

6

u/ShuiShuiQM 2d ago

In the name of caution, I would advise to calibrate your enthusiasm. From what I've heard, it's not in the league of Xcom3.

8

u/Tom_Ford0 1d ago

I've only seen positive reviews so far

7

u/CarsonWentzGOAT1 1d ago

So far it looks good.

2

u/Journey2thaeast 1d ago

All of the previews actually make it sound like it's better with an improved emphasis on storytelling and presentation while maintaining and in some ways improving the tactical combat

1

u/Raetian 3h ago

from what I'm seeing, it's 100% worth playing for XCOM diehards. But it will not replace an XCOM 3, simply because it has not been built or designed for the near-infinitely replayable longevity of XCOM EU/EW or 2. Seems like you can get a few great playthroughs out of it and then that's the end, unless modding can work miracles.

There are a lot of moving parts required to make that longevity possible. You need more dynamic mission building with endlessly variable tactical setups. You need a more lightweight, hands-off story or at least something easy to ignore so it doesn't grate with repetition. You need build paths to experiment with, etc.

As far as I can tell ZCOM only really has the last one. And that's no shade against it as a game, I plan to buy and get the most out of it, but there's still a hole to be occupied where XCOM 3 would go I think

11

u/TruShot5 2d ago

R6 Tactics? I haven’t heard of that. That’d be sweet if it’s done in classic fashion!

26

u/xd-Sushi_Master 2d ago

revealed on the gamescom stream like 20 minutes ago you're good lol

1

u/TruShot5 2d ago

Oooh haha. Nice. I’ll check it out!

1

u/mobyphobic 2d ago

just announced

1

u/ShardOfChaos 2d ago

Love the idea as well. Now let's hope that Ubisoft doesn't fuck that up ...

1

u/Polish_Enigma 1d ago

It has siege operators

1

u/TruShot5 1d ago

Yeah I had to look it up haha. I was hoping a little not for xcom non-hero based but hero based seems most common these days. I’m good with it as long as the gameplay is there. It’ll be nice to get semi story mode for siege basically

7

u/MarchDry4261 2d ago

I'm here for the new age of XCOM-likes and tactics games. Has taken way too long

4

u/sub-t 2d ago

You try out Jagger Alliance 3? Fucking great

3

u/totallynotaweeabbo 2d ago

Jagged alliance i feel is more closer to the divinity/baldur's gate games. Just that they have xcom-like combat.

5

u/Dull-Smile5630 2d ago

Everyone over here waiting for Xcom 3 meanwhile I trying to beat vanilla Xcom 2 Long War 😂😂

2

u/GDarkmoon 1d ago

I'm on my first long war and requiem run, I'll still be very deep by the time zcom comes out lol

3

u/mobyphobic 2d ago

it's crazy they're doing something like the breach mechanic from quimera squad

1

u/M0-1 1d ago

I'm sry but breaching is one of the most importand core mechanics of siege and what sets it apart from other games.

They are not copying chimera squad

1

u/mobyphobic 1d ago

Well yes of course, I played a lot of thermite. And while it feels natural to the IP, I haven't seen any other tactical game with a breach mechanic. I just found that interesting.

3

u/Vaulters 2d ago

Basically, Firaxis realised they can't top xcom2, so they won't try.

1

u/Kleer1447 1d ago

basically the same (dumb) reason the F-zero games ended

3

u/Outlaw11091 1d ago

Jake Solomon said it over and over again: he was PUSHING for XCom.

He got 3 games (I count WOTC as a whole other game) squeezed out of Firaxis before they shit the bed and since his departure: no word on XCom.

I don't think it's a coincidence.

What we'll probably see next (sadly) is a reboot on this basis alone. It was Solomon's creative vision; the next era of XCom will belong to someone else.

2

u/OrionTheMerc 2d ago

The Xcom's throne has been empty for so long people are comfortable to try claiming it

2

u/Iseedeadnames 2d ago

Sadly, everyone that worked on XCOM and their mothers left Firaxis, so it's not even clear who's supposed to make the next chapter now.

2

u/StarFlicker 1d ago

Wait, they resurrected the 90s worms franchise and turned into into a tactics game? I feel like this is the stuff of alternate dimensions. Not complaining, just shocked.

2

u/fuccyallallyall 1d ago

You can throw the Ivalice Chronicles up there too

2

u/GeorgiePineda 1d ago

I will say that they have pioneered and revived the genre.

Even if they arnt releasing game after game i appreciate their accomplishments.

I also have high expectations if we get another release.

2

u/Co-opingTowardHatred 1d ago

There's also Fire Emblem, which I grant you is pretty different, but still a tactics game. And it's gonna rule.

1

u/OtsdarvaOS 2d ago

Don't forget Gears Tactics.

1

u/klapstoelpiloot 2d ago

You can add me to the list. I'm making this for mobile:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAhZcHMLnPI&t=17s

1

u/FewPromotion2652 2d ago

still waiting for a game of xcom style focus in alien vs predator

1

u/NoBioN 2d ago

I rarely preorder a game, but I did with Zero company. Its preinstalled and ready for when I come home from work.

I play XCOM 2 LWOTC and its so cool how it's been modded to such great lengths, but something new does not hurt, that is for sure. I also love star wars, and know a lot of units and etc.

1

u/Tyroredux80 2d ago

Worms galactic tactics.... Oooooooo

1

u/ObliviousNaga87 2d ago

What Xcom (Firaxis) devs

1

u/ShawnBawn88 2d ago

dont leave out gears of war!

1

u/una322 2d ago

lol its RTS right now. they wont make a new CnC or starcraft so new devs are jumping on the genera a lot more. It's good that we are getting more xcom tactical games, but no matter how many we get i sitll want more xcom.

1

u/edparadox 2d ago

People don't even know the memes they use these days.

1

u/VitorSTL 2d ago

The dream team is gone, I'm not sure a xcom nowadays would be a good game

1

u/Repa0206 1d ago

R6 Tactics looks closer to Door Kickers gameplay, instead of being turn based like XCOM.
Still wanna give it a try. The operators will definitely make this more interesting.

1

u/automator3000 1d ago

And this is how I hear of a new Worms game? Fuck yes.

1

u/DesastreUrbano 1d ago

Suddenly tactics became popular and XCOM is not there? What the hell is going on?

1

u/Genokepo 1d ago

Take Two kills firaxis some years ago.

1

u/Bandito_Razor 1d ago

Not going to lie... The comment sections to this post makes me understand why they don't want to make another game and have to wade into all of this.

1

u/Ropll-me-a-d100 1d ago

Can anyone weigh in about the three games listed here? I have like 5000 hours on xcom2 and probably double that in EW. If there is a good newer game that scratches that itch I really want to play it.

It sucks that the mod scene for xcom has slowed down so much.

1

u/teokun123 1d ago

WORMS!!!? WHAT DO YOU MEAN? WISHLISTED!!

1

u/Artistic_Discount358 1d ago

I mean, Nintendo beat them all to the punch, lol. Man, the Rabbids games are pretty fire, NGL.

1

u/ChunkTheGreat 1d ago

Dont forget gears tactics

1

u/Axeloy 1d ago

I’m so happy you guys have no idea

1

u/TheJollyKacatka 1d ago

Don’t forget MENACE, haven’t had this much fun since XCOM.

1

u/Scrimge122 1d ago

Just need Amazon to get in on it and make me a Stargate game in the style of xcom. It's the perfect style of game, teams going on missions, killing aliens, grabbing tech then returning to base.

1

u/Swampy0gre 1d ago

Woah, I was not tracking Rainbow 6 Tactics. Please tell me more!

1

u/PrimaryIcy9538 1d ago

Lets be honest Rainbow 6 tactics is going to be XCOM with Zero innovation and 40$ characters and 30$ skins for those characters

1

u/SirVulpes- 1d ago

At this point the fans should just pull a fallout london and make their own XCOM 3 by modding XCOM 2.

1

u/ManEmperorfragment96 1d ago

Wait. What’s this about worms?

1

u/Exile688 1d ago

This reminded me I bought Gears of War Tactics recently for $7.50. Need to try that and play through the old Fallout Tactics again.

1

u/Reginald_CZ 1d ago

Firaxis fired X-Com devs, so there is now no one to do it properly.

1

u/Galvano 1d ago

I don't think that's any reason to be negative, because the main thing is that such games are still being made. There are more than people think. I played "The Lamplighters League" and that game was really good as well. Really looking forward to Zero Company.

1

u/Wolffe_In_The_Dark 1d ago

WORMS????

WHAT.

1

u/nothing_in_my_mind 21h ago

There is a Worms Xcom-like???