XCOM dev diary reveals the motives behind 2K's reboot

2K Marin's XCOM FPS reboot may look nothing like its top-down strategy ancestors, but according to its developers there's a lot of the old XCOM still lurking beneath its surface. Watch now as 2K explains why taking the franchise to street level makes sense, and how it plans keep some of the series' elements intact in this new developer diary.

“XCOM is a really beloved franchise, and it's one that personally means a lot to me,” insists Jonathon Pelling, XCOM's lead designer. “It's a game that I treasured years and years ago, so it's super exciting to be able to come back and reinvigorate the franchise with a new entry that really adheres to the tennets of what made the original game so special.”

Justifying the genre swap, he adds: “Our telling of XCOM is an original story. It's about experiencing the origins of this organization from a really zoomed in and boots-on-the-ground perspective. We really wanted to make you feel like what it was like to be one of the squadies in the original game, and not the all-knowing top-down commando.”

Whether or not you jive with 2K Marin's vision, it's clear the studio is intent on honoring XCOM's roots. Being a business with bills to pay, it's also intent on bringing new fans into the fold, and that means appealing modern console players who – if we're being honest here – don't exactly line up in droves to buy top-down turned-based strategy games. It's a tricky balance to strike, and it will ultimately alienate more than a few XCOM die-hards. Still, isn't it better to have a modified XCOM than no XCOM at all?

Sep 23, 2011

Matt Bradford wrote news and features here at GamesRadar+ until 2016. Since then he's gone on to work with the Guinness World Records, acting as writer and researcher for the annual Gamer's Edition series of books, and has worked as an editor, technical writer, and voice actor. Matt is now a freelance journalist and editor, generating copy across a multitude of industries. 

Latest in Strategy
Kingmakers
Kingmakers is a strategy game about taking on medieval armies with a gun, but its devs thought the giant mech was too much
Dwarf Fortress
Dwarf Fortress devs "apologize for destroying your food-based economies" after nerfing meal prices: "Didn't realize so many of you were living that way"
Screenshots of Civilization 7 for review
"Everybody's in competition with Civ": Lead Civilization 5 composer has been in the "volatile" gaming industry for over 20 years and thinks new IP is only getting harder to make
How to heal units in Civilization 7
How to heal units in Civ 7
Civilization 7 diplomacy
How Civ 7 diplomacy works using Influence
How to trade in Civilization 7
How to trade in Civ 7 and set up trade routes
Latest in News
inZOI Character Studio screenshot showing a young woman with short black/pink hair, black cat-like ears, and a black blouse with a bowtie
The creator of upcoming life sim Inzoi says he was "recklessly brave to even think about creating a game of this scale"
Rise of the Ronin
A year after its PS5 launch, Rise of the Ronin debuts on PC to "Mixed" reviews and performance complaints: "Stuttering on a 4090 is just... no"
Rise of the Ronin's photo mode offers some wonderful shots
On the heels of Rise of the Ronin's PC launch, its director says there's a "significant" amount of Japanese Switch gamers: "I am closely watching how this will change with the release of Switch 2"
Stardew Valley Castle Village mod
Stardew Valley Expanded creator is building an "even more ambitious" mod with a whole new city and "dungeons inspired by The Legend of Zelda"
Dino Crisis 2 art showing a young woman and man back-to-back amid tall green grass, both with their weapons drawn
Dino Crisis gets a fresh trademark filing by Capcom, but it might not mean the 26-year-old survival horror franchise will get a new installment like fans expect
Cujo
Netflix is making a brand new adaptation of Cujo, the infamous Stephen King book about a killer dog