Will We Ever Get X-Com 3? (And Do We REALLY Want It?)

X-Com 3 has been on the wishlists of turn-based tactics games fans since X-Com 2: War Of The Chosen. Jake Solomon, the former creative director of Firaxis Games and the X-Com series, recently talked more about his future plans. This stirred up a lot of the old sentiments, and made me think about the changes Firaxis has had since X-Com 2, and if we will ever see X-Com 3.

So will we ever get X-Com 3? I think the bigger question is do we REALLY want X-Com 3? The state of modern AAA gaming and the games industry as a whole gives me some doubts, and on top of that Firaxis is not the same team it was when it gave us X-Com and War Of The Chosen. This video talks about my thoughts on Jake Solomon, Firaxis Games, and how I believe X-Com 3 will look if it ever actually releases.

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#xcom #firaxis #xcom2 #turnbasedtactics

[OceanNyan]

There is a 97% Chance of getting an XCOM3. *RNG* MISS. Guess we aren't getting it.

[bwalya]

The chances of XCOM 3 being a live service too high that i dont want it

[shayliakara]

As someone with over 12k hours in XCOM 2, it was because of mods. I don't know if X3 could do any justice compared to what mods already do. The modding community is so strong that they could make X3, if they wanted to. I talk to modders all the time, and the things they can do with this old game is just amazing. If you have never played XCOM 2 modded, you are missing a lot. Covert Infiltration changed the game to the point that I cannot even play it without it. MOCX makes it so you have XCOM enemies that use same tactics as XCOM. More enemies than Firaxis ever made. Strong modders like RustyDios, Reshi, MrCloista, RealityMachina, ShadowX, Deadput, FeartheBunnies, Aero, Iridar, and Kexx, as well as so many others that I cannot put them all here. They make XCOM2 what it is today, and I know if X3 happens, it will have a lot to try and simulate or make better. Because if its not as good as modded X2, it will fail.

[MrMpa]

I’d love to see more XCOM but I don’t trust any modern game developers. Do it right or don’t do it at all.

[redpilledman]

I'd love an XCOM 3, but I don't know what they could change or add to make it much better than Xcom 2. One thing I would like to see is them bring back the horror/mystery aspect from enemy unknown. Xcom 2 is great for gameplay but I have always missed that creepy and mysterious feeling from EU. But even if we don't get an XCOM 3, Xcom 2 with mods is one of the most repayable games I have ever played. So many things you can. You can have 100s of hours with the base game, and then countless more with mods. Not to mention the original games from 1997, and terror from the deep. Gems in their own right as well. Absolute master pieces as well. And the game from 2012 that got me into Xcom, Xcom EW.


TLDR: I want Xcom 3 if it's done well, but don't know where the franchise can go from here.

[gunnergoz]

I really want to see XC3, but don't care about the social/relationship side that seems to be the popular trend in games these days. Give me chains of command, leadership ratings, morale, specializations and personality quirks/strengths/shortcomings, but stay away from card play, zombies and superhero antics.

[Subject_Keter]

I feel like someone needs to grasp the horns and make their own stuff.

No one can do it "right" but do it properly and you may just claim the Throne.

[CarlWheatley-wicl]

Honestly, that core XCOM2 experience is a licence to print money. Bit of a mystery why so many imitations have failed to nail it but it may indeed come down to the absense of that OG team. There really is no need to change much aside from the obvious improvements to graphical fidelity and (especially) optimisation. Whatever may be coming our way, it won't be anytime soon.

[BeresVonSaladir]

I am a lot more attached to my squad members in XCOM 2 than the heroes in Midnight Sun despite them being just randomly generated characters with no special dialogue.

[Zuriki]

The indie scene is going to come in and fill the XCOM vacuum. We already have series like Xenonauts which is a throwback to the classic 90s XCOM, and there's Mars Tactics coming which is a homage to the XCOM reboot style of gameplay. It's been long enough that people are getting hungry for more XCOM like experiences so I anticipate that we'll see a few more indie offerings soon.

[celdur]

Death only matters if the characters can develop relationships. Imagine having a survivor from a 1st and second generation squads, now you are in your majority 3d and 4th gen with a jagged veteran from the 1st one with appropriate dialogue. RPG story telling is endless with that kind of high stakes on board. It requieres good writers though

[allclevernamesgone]

I would love to see it. Firaxis clearly knows what they are doing in regards to the strategy of the series in my wet dream, I would love a game of xbox 2's strategic depth paired with the writing of obsidian!

[sebastianstark]

The ending of "Xcom2" teased what I thought would have been an awesome "Xcom3". I still hope it gets made. It promised to offer a new direction that would have kept the game feeling "fresh". Maybe it will be made by a different studio or creative team, but I hope it doesn't just become a missed opportunity.

[DeadCardinal]

There’s still passionate and creative developers out there and perhaps still with Firaxis. But Firaxis is under 2K and TakeTwo so… Hopefully! HOPEFULLY! The suits see what Larian accomplished with Baldur’s Gate 3 and go for that approach. But I’m being naive in thinking that :/

[warwolf]

As someone who is very much invested in the new XCOM games (I've run several RPs set in X2 setting, and are in the process of writing two fics in the world, plus I've played the game many times), I too would rather have xcom die on a high note, than be run into the grond like Halo, Mass Effect and countless other titles turned over to a new team.

If there is to be an XCOM 3, I'd like it to be a narrative continuation of XCOM 3, which should include mechanics. In X1 and X2 the "scale" of the game did fit the narrative relatively well, where in X1 you were a covert, underfunded UN organization, and in X2 you have a single resistance group, which thanks to the Avenger can spearhead the liberation efforts, but you lack a structured, government level support. In the context of the post - victory world, such approach would not make sense.

The Earth was liberated, so you have a access to milions of possible recruits, assistance from countless new city states and nations which would reappear after the defeat of advent. Naturally however, some of those nations would be at odds with one another, or with you (XCOM). And on top of that the problem of merging society between the sheep who lived in the city centres and the 10% or so of people who lived in the wilds and independent settlements.

The enemy which is hinted at in XCOM 2 is also.. much more serious that Ethereal Collective ever was. From what we can gather, aliens had pretty much no off - Earth holdings and their invasion fleet revolved around one mother ship (the Temple Ship), which btw moved on before events of XCOM 2. And the enemy which pursuded the Ethereals, is mentioned to have destroyed the homeworld of said species, and with other planets. And more importantly, Ethereals were fleeing from it, and as wotc revealed, still decided to flee Earth as soon as possible once Avatar was complete. This means the enemy narratively should be significantly more dangerous than Advent and Ethereal Collective.

Technology should also have improved, so it makes zero sense for XCOM not to begin with plasma and magnetic technologies, as well as entry into space technologies, and potentially colonization of other planets and systems.

With the following, we have the perfect landscape for 2 types of games: a 4X strategy, similar to Terra Invicta, where you have to coordinate the assets provided by different nations to stage a global defence, or a political simulator.

The problem is, both would require good writing to pull off, something that I do not think Firaxis has an experience, or writing team to do. X2's world and writing was good enough (especially if you consider potential of unreliable narration, and the Asaru theory, which fixes all the issues with the narrative), but it was largely a skeleton, and relied on headcannon to fill the blanks in it - something that won't be possible to do in the post - war world. A shift to grand strategy would also be a big change in identity of the series

[davidasteed]

XCOM is an immortal PC game franchise that was fantastically remade and implemented. Iron-man mode XCom is one of the few games that made me care about my soldiers. The only character I remember now from all of 100s of hours of XCom is the first senior officer I lost. That battle had felt like a symphony up to that point: bold moves that eviscerated all of the bad dudes save one pathetic near-dead floater.

Then instantly, with a single enemy act, the whole day transformed.

Mary "Wednesday" Wilson, my goto Assault finisher...dies to a floater grenade from the very maximum range after finishing off three Chrysalids that were about to eat some bunched up fresh meats who got themselves out of position. The very last enemy, on its very last act, at its max range, with it's minimum damage potential.


She died for the rest of the squad right in front of them. I went to the in-game bar something like twenty times to hoist a whiskey and deal with the post-trauma in-character issues. I role played the commander's experience: mentally wrote the letter to her parents, faced the troops at the morning-after reveille, tapped her successor. And returned to the bar, usually saying little to the troops in those brief visits. They knew I had their backs. They also knew why I was there.



The "superpowers wielded by unique characters with pro voice actors" path that XCom2 took at the very end DLC was effectively a dead end...once XCom soldiers are voice by Michael Dorn and company, and are nearly too important to the game experience to "just die"...what's left? Yup, someone suggested "let's make an entire XCOM-alike game with bespoke heroes so important that we really can't have permadeath"?. In a time when people are clearly dead tired of men-in-tights superhero toyz? Oops.

In "XCom3: Depths of Vengeance" I could have played as a contender. I could have been someone's commander. Instead I'm just a bum, which is what I am, let's face it.

[Sorain]

If asked 'How do we do an XCOM 3?' This is what I'd suggest to them.

You need a scenario in which the scale is relatively small in practice, but presents itself as large.
My solution to that would be to focus on a recon effort into the territory of that looming threat from the end of WotC.
Missions would be in the style of XCOM2 in terms of 'get in, do objective, get out before being overwhelmed'.
Strategic stealth (like covering up information about XCOM) would be a major factor of gameplay. Leaving bodies or gear behind would give the enemy more info on XCOM and Humanity. Think of it as being on the other end of XCOM 1's missions, you are the force striking with surprise, but the more your enemies learn about you the harder they'll ramp up.
Structuring the enemy as a hegemonic/feudal style empire would allow for a plausible limit to how much force/resources they could/would bring against the recon team.
Ultimately it would be framed as a first contact/information war, about the recon team learning more than the enemy does about humanity.
There would have to be a transition point in both narrative and gameplay terms from the skirmishing XCOM 1 and XCOM 2 fighting to a more open warfare situation.

I would essentially break the game up into 3 phases for this.
1. First Contact (Assault Recovery).
This is the XCOM 1 style raids to learn the lay of the galactic landscape, find the borders of ruler jurisdictions and get a handle on what the enemy tech is like. Enough info would convince humanity's governing council that we need to hit first and peace isn't an option. A soft failure state for this is the enemy getting enough info to do the same and launch it's own first strike. That would push you into a highly pressured phase 2 framed as stalling the enemies ability to martial to war while humanity scrambles to match them. The player is working with limited logistics and thus has strict budgets for this phase, but command encourages 'field requisitions'.
2. Preparatory Strikes (Sabotage before D-Day.)
This is the XCOM 2 style strikes on strategic assets and locations located during phase 1 and phase 2. Places with fortifications and guards, much faster enemy response times and the enemy's XCOM equivalent dropping in as a soft enrage timer to pressure you. Objectives would be less pass/fail and more margins of victory, so players need to balance the scale of damage done to the risks they're taking with their forces. Eventually either the time before humanity takes the offensive runs out or the enemy makes a major offensive move. The player again is working with what logistics can be spared (in part because you did so well already or because humanity is scrambling.) but now instead of sending stuff back to the core worlds it'd be put to use locally. (Oppressive regimes breed resistance and feudal style power players don't care where the deniable weapons come from.)
3. Open Warfare (Special Forces)
This would be the new, larger scale engagement setup, with linked missions in a branching pass/fail setup as this elite team hits targets to shift the tide of bigger battles that simply wouldn't be meaningful to try and implement directly on screen. If you've seen LW2 style raids with lots of defending settlement NPC's vs lots of aliens, you know why that needs to be avoided. Depending on how the overall strategic situation is going, the player may have wide latitude to throw around munitions like confetti. (If they're doing well.) If they've been having a rough go of it, more desperate mission types and tools come into play. (Release this engineered plague into the atmosphere system of a vital fueling station that has non-combatants is an example of something you wouldn't see if things were going well.) The phase would be a tug of war for territory and resources, with the player not directly making strategic decisions at scale, but given latitude to intervene anywhere they see fit. (Either because they've done so well, or because higher ups are too busy bickering to clamp down on them.)

The endgame states would be either the collapse of humanities frontier colonies closest to the enemy (opening up a 'what if that went poorly?' sequel or expansion and leaving narrative space open.) or the ending of offensive operations in this border region with conquest completed. (opening up a 'what does the enemy do next and how does XCOM's elite strike force contribute?' sequel or expansion.)

A good chunk of a third game's challenge is giving a compelling framing for retaining the smaller scale and limited resources to work with. It's my opinion that this is surmountable, especially because we the audience are on board with such from the start. Would I like a 4x style game? Sure, but that is best fit for a spin off, not a mainline XCOM title. XCOM has always been about an outmatched force with limited resources made of all too mortal soldiers outfighting a foe that vastly outweighs them.

[littlelambchop]

Been a while since I've seen conversations about XCOM, might get back into it. Thanks

[Edwardlloyd]

I absolutely loved midnight suns. the amount of work that went into that game must have been huge because the social sim part of it was literally full of all the comic book stories that characters experienced over the years. as a longtime marvel fan that game was a blast for me. But I also adore Xcom. wish they continued with both midnight suns style games and xcom games.

[renashi]

I've played all of Fireaxis' XCOM series and for some reason I could guess how the XCOM 3 would go in terms of world building and story, especially after playing Chimera Squad. Rn I am very much looking forward for the series to use everything the have learned from Chimera Squad and put em into XCOM 3, with each operator consists of different alien races. I do have a lot of concerns with the game's direction since how most game development studios and producers are like nowadays.