Edge recently tracked down XCOM creator Julian Gollop for an interview about XCOM: Enemy Unknown, Firaxis's upcoming remake of his classic strategy title. With fans expressing no small amount of concern over yet another reinvention of their beloved franchise, it's fascinating to hear Gollop's perspective on the entire situation: the things he would like to see changed, the
First and foremost, Gollop acknowledges that any new XCOM game needs to be made more accessible to better suit the tastes of modern audiences. "In the early 90s of course you didn't have in-game tutorials or help, because it was all in the big thick manual. Today people do not read manuals, they expect the game to teach them how to play it. Which is fair enough."
But he's also quick to acknowledge one of the fanbase's biggest concerns, that "accessibility" will wind up meaning "oversimplification." "This is the major thing, but it doesn't mean you have to dumb anything down in the sense that the full complexity of the game would be eventually revealed to the player as he learns all the systems."
That being said, there are a few things that Gollop would like to see improved upon in the remake, even if he's not sure Firaxis will innovate too much.
"I'm guessing it isn't a hugely big-budget title, so I think they'll be sticking to fairly safe ground. I don't think there will be any technical innovations in their game engine. The innovations that would be interesting are the procedurally generated environments, a more sophisticated destruction model for the terrain, and the AI systems. If Firaxis can do all that, it would be great, but I suspect they're probably not going down that route, judging by the screenshots."
And as for 2K Marin's perpetually delayed FPS take on the franchise? Gollop's not a fan.
"I thought it was a great shame because it was going down the same route as some of the previous X-COM sequels, like Interceptor and Enforcer – in other words, going completely against turn-based combat. It was a bit disappointing from my point of view and for many fans of X-COM. "
XCOM: Enemy Unknown will be out later this year for the 360, PS3, and PC.
