Long War Team Reveal XCOM 2's Launch Day Mods
Mod me good
XCOM 2 [official site] is pretty flipping great, is Wot Adam Thinks. But should you fancy tinkering with that fine formula, a few mods will be available when the game launches on Friday, thanks to the Long War folks teaming up with Firaxis. Now we've heard what these mods are and no, they haven't made Long War 2. Instead, you can expect things like a new weapon class and squad leader perks. They're small additions, not massive changes, but I'll be curious to see how they affect things.
Long War Studios spilled the beans to our chums Eurogamer in a video interview.
One mod adds submachine guns, a bit like Long War's. Soldiers with SMGs can move further than if they were carrying an assault rifle and are more difficult for aliens to detect, but do less damage - it's a tradeoff. The team also made a new "miniboss" enemy, the Muton Centurion, who has extra abilities "helps the aliens as a team." Humanity can get extra help from Leadership perks, a new progression track giving soldiers abilities to boost their whole team - but only one Leader can be on any Squad. I like/dread the sound of anything risking me over-investing in one particular soldier.
Here's Eurogamer with Lumpkin and Firaxis's Jake Solomon to chat about mods:
All and sundry will be able to play with mod tools and make their own, of course. From the sound of things, getting the Long War folks in early was helpful for us all, as they pushed for some changes that'd make modding easier.
Will we see a Long War 2? It doesn't sound like it's planned, but they're not ruling out making more for XCOM 2 either. Long War Studios are working on their own game too, mind, a grand strategy game about defending Earth from alien invasion.
Friday, yeah? I'm pretty jazzed.