The Long War is, far and away, the most popular mod for the 2013’s XCOM reboot. It’s a pleasant surprise, then, to learn Firaxis has partnered with its developers to have something similar available for next months’s XCOM 2.
If you’re not familiar with The Long War, the short version is that it’s a much harder version of XCOM. Was Iron Man, which prevented players from having multiple save files, not enough? The Long War was for you. The mod added classes, missions, and generally speaking made the game more complicated.
Downloaded over 500,000 times since its original release in early 2013, XCOM‘s own developers have long sung The Long War‘s praises.
“It’s unbelievable what they did,” said XCOM lead producer Garth DeAngelis to IGN. “The Long War was my go-to recommendation when our hardcore fans would come up to us at shows and would say, ‘I beat Impossible Iron Man three times. I want more.’ There’s absolutely an awesome challenge there for you.”
All that Firaxis has said is The Long War developers are working on “multiple mods” for XCOM 2 that will launch with the game, and more details are coming at a PAX South panel on January 31 at 5:30am AEDT (January 30 at 1:30pm ET). It will be livestreamed.
If I had to guess, the mods will focus on making the game more difficult.
In addition to these XCOM 2 mods, The Long War developers recently announced they have decided to collaborate under the name Long War Studios and launch a Kickstarter for a brand-new strategy game called Terra Invicta. There aren’t many details about Terra Invicta, but there’s a short synopsis on their site:
An alien force has arrived in the far reaches of Solar System and begun probing Earth’s defences and building an invasion fleet. The player must assemble a council of scientists, politicians, military leaders and operatives who can unite Earth’s squabbling nations with the ultimate goal of taking the fight to the aliens in the high ground of outer space.
Sounds a bit like XCOM, no?
Comments
15 responses to “Firaxis Hires ‘The Long War’ Modders To Make Mods For XCOM 2”
Can’t wait for either of these. This and the division are still my most anticipated games of 2016. Still wanting console release for this game however. Love playing xcom from my couch
Probably won’t happen, good chance XCOM 2 will get an iOS/Android port though. Console version just didn’t sell enough apparently.
I knew it wasn’t coming out on consoles yet, but I hadn’t heart that XCOM: EU hadn’t sold enough, and can’t quite believe it.
If true, it basically means that either:
A) Selling ‘well enough’ for console is grossly distorted compared to selling ‘well enough’ for PC, or…
B) There is something very wrong with console owners, if they didn’t all immediately purchase a copy of 2012’s best game of the year. (Yes, even if that meant buying it twice, because they already owned it on PC. Like I did.*)
* This should not be used as some kind of outlandish claim that I am any way biased in my opinions of XCOM.
I think XCOM Enemy Unknown may have come out around the same day as Dishonored which may explain why it hasnt sold as well as it should.
I bought it on console, because I had been told the console version was excellent.
I traded it in and bought the PC version, because it just didn’t feel right with a controller…
Maybe they heard similar stories enough times that they decided not to bother?
Agreed I bought it twice also
Believe it when I see it. Firaxis rehash every game under the sun. Rather than make civ beyond earth which was a joke. Money would have better been spent on console version of xcom 2 :p and who the fuck wants to play xcom on tablet. I’m sure they are out there but why…
Oh! Actually, XCOM on tablet is better than it was on console somehow. The controls/UI work so much better. There’s practically no loss of fidelity either. I was crazy surprised. You should try it sometime, if you can. I heartily recommend it.
It’s the best thing I’ve got on my ipad.
I will so do that 🙂
(Yes, I know I just admitted to owning XCOM on three platforms. This should not influence anyone’s evaluation of my earlier opinion.)
Assuming these mods will be free (no reason they won’t be) it’s a pretty cool thing Firaxis are doing. Hiring a team to make free content for a game, sounds good to me.
I’m actually hoping this XCOM 2: Long War will be the Enemy Within of this iteration, and I won’t even hesitate to pay for that if that’s what they’re planning.
Really? I wouldn’t complain if it was, but I wouldn’t expect it. I mean, EW was a LOT of content and a major mechanics update.
EW did yeah, but from what I’ve seen in XCOM 2 there’s a LOT there already potentially, and a Long War tune-up I think is perfect for it. But if they were able to make an EW style of expansion with this despite what XCOM 2 already has, I’d be very impressed.
Long war did do major changes to modify the experience, like larger fighting with larger squads, XP for pilots so there’s more suspense for trying to shoot down tough ships, do you risk that last 1HP for the kill or save your pilot? Each class was split into two subclasses (If memory serves) and the aliens hit you harder, sooner, so it wasn’t so straight forward to go to A, beat aliens at A, then come home. Sometimes it had to be “Cut losses cuz they threw heavy mutons at this location and I’ve only got assault rifles still, I’m getting destroyed!” so you had to make choices to keep your team alive to fight another day.
If they’re employed, doesn’t that make it a first-party source, which in-turn makes it not a mod?