"but qwepir you hate everything"Holy forget are you guys hyped because I'm hyped. XCOM Enemy Unknown has been announced to be getting an expansion pack called (surprise surprise) Enemy Within, adding new maps, enemies, equipment, upgrades, and even a new class (a minigun-wielding soldier wearing a massive powered exoskeleton). Needless to say this is going to be a pretty big update, coming from the same guys who brought us the Gods and Kings and Brave New World expansions for Civilization V, and with it will come a bunch of minor gameplay tweaks and such but you don't care about that do you.
ENEMY TYPES:
So far, there have been two new aliens confirmed, and they are:
THE MECHTOID
A sectoid wearing a mech (who would have thought), this beefed-up midget also appears to be carrying a pair of heavy plasma weapons. They will have a truckload of health (though not as much as a sectopod), can be buffed by their frailer fellows to have a damage reducing shield, and start showing up around the time sectoids would stop appearing in the base game.
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THE SEEKER
A brand new alien breed (or possibly machine) with a brand new AI to allow it to perform fancy new hit-and-run tactics. This thing will apparently come with a cloak and prefer to hide once discovered, coming back to harass you once you get in a fight with other aliens you've encountered. They possess a unique strangling attack that takes multiple turns to execute, but will immobilize the victim in the meantime. All this put together means your squad-sight snipers are no longer completely safe from harm.
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Of course, the Aliens aren't getting all the new gadgets, but to get your hands on your own you'll need to build two new base facilities: The
Genetics Labs and the
Cybernetics LabIn the Genetics Labs, Alien Autopsies actually become useful. By dissecting their corpses, you learn more about the genetic modifications the aliens use on their own soldiers, allowing you to come up with your own. There are five different slots you can modify; brain, eyes, chest, legs, and skin. Some examples include Neural Feedback, a brain mod which damages an alien attempting to mind control your unit; Mimetic Skin, which lets a soldier that ends their turn in heavy cover turn invisible as long as they weren't spotted; and Boosted Muscle Fiber, a leg mod which allows your soldier to leap to locations which would ordinarily require a grappling hook or ladder to reach.
During the invasion, it is said Dr. Shen took one look at the Mechtoid and angsted about how inhumane it is. Then Dr. Vahlen slapped him, took control of the engineering team, and put them to work making some of that for us. In the Cybernetics Lab, you build the Mechanized Exoskeleton Cybersuit for your MEC troopers. With the lab built, you can take any existing soldier, lop off their limbs, and order them to hop into one of these colossal powered armor suits. Since this is a new class, they will lose any perks and training they had from their old class. Due to their size, they cannot take cover, but they are capable of bringing the heaviest weapons to bear. While your regular footsoldiers will have to make do with simple toys like assault rifles and shotguns, the MEC trooper can carry miniguns, railguns, flamethrowers, and grenade launchers (though not all at once). Certain subclasses of the MEC trooper even get a "Kinetic Strike Module", which allows you to rocket-punch the aliens just like in your favorite mecha anime or summer film.
However, these new toys are not able to be purchased with mere credits or alloys, and will require the use of a new resource altogether: Meld. Meld canisters are going to be found in two containers per mission, one in a wimp spot and one in a manly spot. They also self-destruct after a certain amount of turns have passed, destroying the meld inside and burning the face off of any poor sod nearby when it goes. So it looks like you're going to have to do away with the whole move-overwatch-move-overwatch nonsense if you want to build yourself some power armor and gene mods.
Teaser trailer narrated by Optimus Prime or some stuff (here's the logo that flashes for a brief second)Gameplay demonstrationInterview with a dev guy by TotalBitchclitRock Paper Shotgun interview"Security Breach" TrailerEnemy Within will be released November 12th for 30 dollars on PC and Mac, and 40 on consoles since it comes on a disc with the DLC for the base game.
