GamesStrategyXCOM 2: War of the ChosenXCOM’s greatest DLC was almost a Battletech-style mech expansion before the game’s camera scuppered it all: ‘Our camera angle is not meant for 30 foot mechs, apparently’When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
GamesStrategyXCOM 2: War of the ChosenXCOM’s greatest DLC was almost a Battletech-style mech expansion before the game’s camera scuppered it all: ‘Our camera angle is not meant for 30 foot mechs, apparently’When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
(Image credit: Firaxis)
XCOM 2 is eight years old, somehow, which was as offensive for me to write as it was for you to read. And if you ask me, it’s still Firaxis’ high point as a studio. That’s really saying something: Those guys made Sid Meier’s Pirates, after all, but I’ve never loved one of the studio’s games so much as I loved its endlessly inventive guerilla warfare sim.
It was fantastic, but apparently it was all the product of an ad-hoc pivot. Ina post on Twitter, XCOM lead Jake Solomon recently explained that the expansion was originally conceived as a kind of XCOM-meets-Battletech thing, adding great, stomping mechs to the game that your troopers would be able to ride on, alongside “customizable interceptors and air combat.”
The project was originally codenamed “Ozzy” (as in Ozzy Osbourne, as in heavy metal), and seemed like a swell idea right up until someone at Firaxis tried to actually put one of those gargantuan mechs into the game. The designers “couldn’t see shit,” says Solomon, at which point they realised XCOM’s camera “is not meant for 30-foot mechs, apparently.” That slight issue, combined with issues with the mechs’ pathing and other quibbles, necessitated a change of tack.
Naturally, the team chose to enlist the help of the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation, which is also what I do whenever I have an article deadline looming. “SO… quick pivot to a Nemesis style enemy, and the voice cast of Star Trek: TNG,” said Solomon, “and the rest is history.” Or, you know, the rest is agood review in PC Gamerand an eternal place in my heart.
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