Deathmatch multiplayer to feature in XCOM: Enemy Unknown
By Alice Lynton on August 12, 2012 at 12:14 pm
XCOM: Enemy Unknown is a faithful followup to the strategy RPG action of the original games, but that doesn’t mean it hasn’t got a few modern additions. 2K has revealed a head-to-head multiplayer mode, in which players craft teams from a set resource limit and then battle it out turn-by-turn, with 90 seconds to make a move. You won’t be able to bring over your squads from the single-player campaign, but you will be able to play as aliens; naturally, none of this is canonical. XCOM: Enemy Unknown is expected in October.
Source: VG247
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Sounds interesting…
honestly though
if it means it would speed up release by even just a month, i’d take the game with no multiplayer…
unless it if it’s a COOP multiplayer…
then THAT, would be a different case.
This was pretty high on the list of features I don’t give a crap about and will never touch.
It could actually be an interesting feature. Not something I’d use either but it could be interesting nonetheless.
I think this’ll be cool. The ‘won’t give a crap’ comments started before ME3 multiplayer was launched, and we all know how that turned out.
but that’s the point though… this is adversary multiplayer
not coop
if it was coop multiplayer.. sure i’ll say there will be plenty of players for it
but adversary mode multiplayer? Turn based tactical?
I dunno man….
i dont know, worked with jagged alliance back in the day on dial up modems ;) till someone rang.
bronzed,
Frozen Synapse was pretty cool, it can be done.
I do agree that co-op would’ve been preferable though – ME3 style, not co-op campaign…. that just wouldn’t work.
I don’t see co-op turn based tactical working very well at all.
What happens if some noob doesn’t know what they’re doing and gets you killed?
Happened all the time in World in Conflict, and is why I stopped playing that game.
you can say that to every single multiplayer game in existence since like it or not that’s part of the risk of the team based multiplayer game and if someone fears that then get a friend to play with or someone who you know better than a random to play along with.
failing all that, avoid team based multiplayer in the first place.
Either way though, i am not exactly adverse to the idea… i am just not sure how much life such mode will have.
If it’s gonna be 1v1, then it’s essentially chess
If it’s gonna be team based adversarial, then i expect a lot of waiting time
No it’s very different.
In XCOM, you need an entire team to work in unison. Stuffing up a flank can kill everyone else.
In a game like Battlefield, you have far more autonomy, and can essentially go it alone.
under the assumption that everyone is on foot, that has some truth to an extent…
but when vehicles are abound, whoever has the best pilot/tanker/etc sitting in one that knows what they are doing tend to be the dominating force multiplier that can spell win or lose.
You play TF2, and no one spawns as a medic? Well then…
You can put that to every team based multiplayer game literally… even in one where your individual performance is very strong like fast paced CoD game, your teammates can very well spell the end for you and your team, they may be attracting attention to somewhere you’d really prefer they do not notice (ie: usually you).
Heck they may well just be an idiot and run into your line of fire and ruin your day…
Part of the package of such game really, we just get used to it… you get bad apples often, and some good ones when mingling with public players.
The list is endless,
Friendly fire, Running into your line of fire, Wasting vehicles or otherwise not knowing how to use them but taking them anyway, Ignoring class requirement needed to win, Ignoring objective, outright Trolling the team or assisting the enemy team…
Any game that gets you involved with other players, will have plenty of bad apples that you will notice when you play long enough, and either ignore or quit in disgust.
The difference in those games is that it is more dynamic.
Someone doesn’t go medic? Ok spawn as one in 2 minutes. No biggy.
XCOm games are more considered where important decisions at the start can have big ramifications.
Um.. If there was co-op why wouldn’t you just talk with the other player at the start of the game and you know, devise a plan between you? Wouldn’t that be the whole point of it anyway? Sounds a lot more fun than just doing your own thing and hoping everything works out between the two of you.
We used to play heroes of might and magic co-op and even though it took less planning than x-com, we would still make a plan between us and and consult each other with every idea so we could be as efficient as possible.
The ramifications are in fact directly proportional to the amount of effective influence they wield.
If the XCOM adversarial multiplayer for example was a team based fight, how much each of your team or their team memberscan affect yours depends entirely on how much power and influence each player carry relative to their team really.
Battlefield? Someone took the ONLY TANK around that is needed to break the choke point or he doesn’t know what he’s doing? Oh boy… he choose to SIT in a corner instead of engaging the choke point? Oh boy…
You go CoD which is about as ‘dynamic’ as it can get short of CHAOS really since you meet someone face to face and engage each other in time span of seconds from the get go, with ample players on each team..??? Yup they still can be affected the same damn way… Someone decides to call in the carpet bomber in an FF enabled server on the tiny Nuketown? well… have fun…
Like it or not, in team based mutiplayer game there’s always ways for other players to screw things up or outright troll someone that have an effect significant enough to make you lose or otherwise ruin your day…
It’s all part of the deal when having to face other ppl..
Some games try to mitigate the effect, and XCOM can do it too incidentally utilizing the various methods ppl have devised for that purpose, but either way it’s part of the matter we have to deal with.
What the hell are you guys talking about? It certainly isn’t XCOM anymore. Adversarial multiplayer is a great addition to the game. It is likely that it isn’t taking up more development time as the guys working on the network code are unlikely to be working on the sprucing up of other parts of the game (ie: balance & polish).
This is all an added bonus.
A little tip…
there’s no such thing as BONUS when it comes to AAA games where time and budget are controlled so tight.
Anything extra in time and resources, be it manpower or otherwise will come at the cost of something else that can be done by them. Especially something as extensive as a multiplayer mode which traditionally needed significant amount of both time and resource to balance properly (most dev NEVER even come close to it after years of work).
This is extra acute in adversarial multiplayer, in coop multiplayer some degree of imbalance are acceptable since they the negative impact they do to the gameplay is more limited… but an adversarial multiplayer amplify almost EVERY single imbalance, hence why they are so difficult to get it right.
I am going to have to strongly resist the temptation to put this game in my pants when it arrives. Desirous.
Still think multiplayer will be great.
But bronzed I have no idea why you are bringing up COD and Battlefield. What relevance does that possibly have. Bring up examples of other turn based tactical games. Frozen Synapse and mentioned above comes to my mind first and foremost. It is exceedingly excellent as a competitive multiplayer game. I see no reason that someone’s first reaction to this news is to instantly poo poo it.
I do as well… and hey maybe they thought of something great we never thought of before and maybe they do have the extra resources for it…
i’ll just keep my expectation down till then.
That was in response to the part before it… ie: That in any kind of multiplayer game you’ll face disruptive players from time to time and that was just part of the whole deal.
Matters not if it’s adversarial, or coop multiplayer.
Always a safe stance with any cherished IP.
Anyway, co op could still work – it would just require a squad per player spawning in isolated positions – you still need to equip your squad as a stand alone unit, as youll be alone at the start of the mission you can’t specialise too heavily. But good map design and balancing would still make inter-squad tactics viable, and variable difficulty would make player communication optional on easy and absolutely essential on hard – much like any good co op game.
I can see it working either way…. but I can also see it failing :)
I’m supprised no-one’s mentioned the obvious yet.
At least 2 of the fan remakes of xcom, which are quite well developed now – and free – have this exact same multiplayer mode implemented already.
The new xcom makers are most likely including this MP option to make sure the fan remakes don’t have extra features – so almost noone will stick with the free fan versions instead of buying the new one.