XCOM 2 is coming to Steam this November as a PC exclusive, complete with snake-headed mutant enemies and a new post-invasion setting that places the poor human race even further into the role of unfortunate, plasma-gunned underdog.
Given the success of the previous game’s run on consoles, it’s something of a surprise that developer Firaxis has chosen to release the sequel, at least initially, solely on PC.
“When we looked at what we wanted to do with the sequel, we had all these very, very ambitious goals,” creative director Jake Solomon told IGN in a recent interview. “To do that, we had to use all of our studio expertise … and our expertise here is PC. That’s our home, and that’s where we’re really comfortable.”
Lead producer Garth DeAngelis goes on to explain that due to the relatively small team working on XCOM 2, it made sense to focus development on a platform that they were all comfortable with. Anyway, the cobbled-together, chimeric version of the Unreal 3.5 Engine that the team is using for the sequel would be a severe pain to port to other platforms.
PC players can expect an enhanced UI that caters specifically towards those using a keyboard and mouse – in fact, the game won’t actually be playable with a controller at launch. “It will certainly be recognizable, but there isn’t one UI widget that’s the same,” says Solomon.
All this will be music to the ears of PC gamers who (wrongly) accused XCOM: Enemy Unknown of being dumbed down for consoles. XCOM 2 is coming to the PC this November. I’m giddy with excitement.
