5 – Weather and Lighting
Weather and day/night effects are all the rage in gaming these days. Not only does it flex the graphical muscles of your game but it can add a layer of depth to your gameplay. Imagine fighting in a sandstorm or thick fog which decreases the vision of your units, requiring special equipment to navigate and locate enemies. Or a night time fight, where you can only see enemies with your flashlight. The night fights are sure to illicit a jump scare or two.
4 – Explaining What Research Does
I, like so many other people, was confused on what research was required to make X armour or X weapon. The descriptions of what you were researching and what they would lead to was very unclear, much like real life. Thankfully this is not real life and an accessible tech tree would save a lot of headache. Most people Googled tech trees rather than mapping it out themselves anyway, so implementing one in-game just makes sense.
3 – Make Scientists Useful
A good segue from the tech tree discussion is the implementation of scientists; you know, those nerds that do your research… Yeah they’re useless in Enemy Unknown. Scientists and laboratories for that matter did not matter in EU, only delaying your research slightly if you didn’t have any. Engineers were a requirement as certain projects required a minimum number and cash is always important for buying new equipment. Scientists were an afterthought and need better implementation this time around. Think about this, you would rather risk sending a country into panic mode than take the scientists as a mission reward.
2 – Lone Wolf Missions
You could always send one soldier on a mission, but that most likely would be suicide. A great way to change the pace of combat would be to introduce levels designed around lone wolf missions. These missions could include sneakily grabbing Intel from alien bases without getting caught, or fighting your way into a stronghold Rambo style. Better yet, the mission could involve You, the commander of the resistance, captured by the aliens and breaking out of your prison cell. Firaxis has already teased that your own back story as a commander would be more involved in XCOM 2 this time around and making a character representing yourself would only be fitting. You don’t just sit behind a desk and give orders, you can fight too.
1 – Naming Your Squad
Now I’m not just talking about individuals’ names, I’m talking about squad names. Much of the fun of XCOM is role playing in your own mind, coming up with back stories for your soldiers, personalities, relationships, etc. A small but nice touch would be being able to assign your favorite soldiers to custom squads and being able to name that squad however you like. When a particularly difficult mission comes up and you need your aces, you can call out, for example, “Avengers assemble!” and that squad will be up and ready to go.
I cannot wait for Firaxis to give us another gem in the series and it won’t be long til we get it. XCOM 2 is slated for February 2016 and I’m prepared for another few months of sleepless nights.