XCOM: Enemy Within Preview

There’s a new hands-on XCOM: Enemy Within preview over at Kotaku, which offers some impressions on a combat scenario spiced up by the expansion’s additions. Here’s a couple of snippets:

Gene-mod soldiers, for whom some talents are innate, use their perks a little more subtly. In a few cases Gupta had to point out how these mods, available to all classes, build upon class-specific perks and traits to help me turn the tide in my favor. For example, super-legs on a gene-mod sniper will get a lot of attention they can propel him to the roof of a building without any climbing access but do not overlook the “mimetic skin” a fancy phrase for invisibility. There’s a specific way to use it.

For example, a sniper with mimetic skin who remains in full cover for one turn goes invisible, and remains cloaked if he moves to full cover (reasoning: there has to be something for his chameleon skin to mimic). He’s revealed only when taking a shot or moving into partial (or no) cover. Firing from a cloaked position delivers an enormous crit bonus, and this advantage is one way to keep you from parking a sniper atop an elevated position where cover, if it exists, is usually partial. (The new “Seeker” enemy also is meant to discourage camping with a squad-sighted sniper, but I did not see that enemy in my playthrough as Firaxis had yet to announce it.)

The other classes all have their modifications, ranging from improved vision (granting you a better shot after a miss) to a mind-control counterattack that shreds an alien attempting to take over a soldier. The assault class can be fitted for something called adrenal neurosympathy, which is a science-y way to say “roid rage.” This one-use characteristic is a real treat when paired with the class’s rapid-fire and close-and-personal traits. Now called “Up Close and Personal,” an assault with this perk gets a free shot on any enemy within four tiles. That came in handy inside the barn, after my first MEC was wasted by the Mechtoid, who may fire twice. With both arm cannons.

I’d sent my assault in there to clean out the Sectoid commander and his buddies, and when my roid-fueled double attack exhausted my shotgun ammo and still failed to bring down the Mechtoid (to hoots of “That’s XCOM, baby,”) I finished the job with a pistol. In fact, I got two pistol kills on Mechtoids with the assault. Ultimately, I prevailed (in “Operation Forgotten Skull,”) losing three soldiers (one a gene-mod support), killing 10 enemies, and capturing one canister of Meld.