You might have heard -- rumors going all the way back to 2002 are finally true! Well...not exactly. 2K Marin Canberra -- not Ken Levine and Irrational Games (Bioshock) or Sid Meier and Firaxis (Civilization) -- announced their plans to reboot the famed X-Com series, but not as Julian and Nick Gollop's (the originators of the genre, beginning with Rebelstar Raiders in 1984) tactical, squad-based strategy game many of us love. Instead, the developer has opted to turn X-Com into a first-person shooter. Few other details are currently available.
Are you scratching your head? Did you ask: "What's this 'X-Com,' anyway"? Fear not! I'd like to take the Bitmob community on a journey through one of the greatest games ever made, X-Com: UFO Defense, by asking you to sign up and stop the planetary assault of spacefaring UFOs. You'll be a part of the ground force created to face the deadly aliens in combat.
Hit the jump for the details and how you can participate!
X-Com is a harsh, brutal game. It's notoriously unforgiving and difficult, even on the easiest setting. The player is tasked with running an internationally funded military organization -- the Extraterrestrial Combat Unit -- to fight off an alien invasion. In addition to running base operations, managing scientists and engineers, and directing interceptor craft to shoot down UFOs, the player must initiate ground investigations to fight the invaders and learn anything possible about the looming threat.
I can't do this alone, so I'll need a steady stream of fresh recruits to take on the alien menace. This is where you come in! Leave a comment below to sign up for X-Com. You'll be placed into the game as one of my soldiers, and I'll detail your exploits here every week.
You should also rest assured that your digital avatar is in good hands. I'm a veteran X-Com commander who still plays the 17-year-old game to this day. I've beaten it on superhuman, the most difficult setting, many times over, and I've even edited hex files in order to make it more challenging.
If you die in my care -- I'm sorry, but you'll be out of the combat portion of the game. I'll describe your last moments in detail, if that's any consolation. But lending yourself as a soldier isn't the only way you can participate, so you're not entirely out.
I'm also going to leave any research decisions up to you guys. I'll lay out all the options every week, and the most votes will win. Just leave a comment with your preference.
And one more decision that I'll leave to the mighty Bitmob community: If I'm ever faced with multiple mission options (i.e., a crashed UFO, a landed UFO, and a group of aliens terrorizing major metropolitan cities), I'll ask everyone here which they'd prefer I go to first. Missions are time sensitive, so going to one will likely mean foregoing the others.
The game will start this coming Monday, so you'll have today and the weekend to comment for things like research and mission choice. But feel free to sign up for combat at any time. I'll update the progress of base Bitmob every Friday, and you'll again have until the following Monday to leave comments for the strategy decisions. I'll also update the current week's post with existing recruits, perished soldiers, and chosen research and mission options.
I'll tag all posts with "Bitmob X-Com" so you can stay up-to-date.
Week one
This is what we need to do first. Since we're starting a new game, your research options are limited to laser weapons, medi-kits, and motion scanners. Where would you prefer I allocate our scientists?
You don't have any mission choices at the moment. We'll most likely head to a UFO crash site first, but the aliens may raid our base early if we're discovered. Hopefully, that doesn't happen so soon.
Don't forget to sign up in the comments for combat. I'll only be able to run this game as long as I have fresh recruits. If everyone perishes and the soldier pool is empty, it's game over.
I hope to see many of you on the battlefield. Bitmob needs you!
Update: April 20, 9:11 a.m. PST
Current recruits
- Jeremy LaMont
- Daniel Fecteau
- Alex Gagne
- Tyler Doan
- Kenn Quist
- James DeRosa
- Nathan Vig
- Frank Anderson
- Mark T. Whitney
- Jay Henningsen
- Lilly Palmer
- Thomas Billings
- Alejandro Moreno
- Adam Doan
- Lester Valdez
- Kevin Spillman
- Michael Pangelina
- Chris Davidson
- John Michael
- Guillermo Guitterrez
- Aaron Wegner
- Edgar Mena
- Rob Koulakjian
Research votes
- Laser weapons - 9
- Medi-kit - 6
- Motion scanner - 3
I'm glad to see such an enthusiastic first response! We have enough soldiers for our first ground squad, but we'll need more for our backup squad and base defenses. I may even draft Bitmob staff for the necessary cannon fodder if they don't speak up.
Laser weapons currently lead; a few of you didn't chose (and I have one vote for an option we don't currently have -- alien grenades), so please do if you'd rather our scientists study something else!
