XCOM: Enemy Within to expand Enemy Unknown
2K Games have today announced an official expansion for their well-received reboot of the XCOM series, entitled XCOM: Enemy Within.
Adding extra content to fit into the existing campaign, the expansion promises new abilities for soldiers – specifically mentioning cybernetics on chest, eyes, brain, skin and legs, and a mechanised exoskeleton; new weapons and equipment to be researched and created in the foundry, as well as a new alien material to be acquired and worked with; new alien types to fight, and new tactical challenges to fight them in across 47 new maps; and new multiplayer maps, units and abilities.
However, while the additions sound promising, the delivery may possibly leave a bad taste in the mouth for existing players. The expansion will be available for PC, Mac, 360 and PS3; for computer owners, Enemy Within will be available as an expansion pack, requiring players to already own Enemy Unknown, and will cost $29.99 [approximately £19.10 - presumably being more realistically £19.99 on release].
For console owners though, the new content will be released as XCOM: Enemy Within – Commander Pack – a stand-alone collection with the original game, the new expanded content and two previously released DLCs, the Elite Soldier pack and Slingshot Content pack. This is to be released at $39.99 [£25.47 at current exchange rates], but despite not costing much more than the computers’ expansion this version may be a harder game to sell – specifically, with Enemy Unknown‘s content included, the original game is rendered obsolete. For players who bought the original release, especially if they then also bought the DLCs included in Enemy Within, being expected to pay again for the same content may be a bitter pill to swallow.
An announcement video has also been released, linked above.
XCOM: Enemy Within is due for release on November 12th in the US, and November 15th internationally. Further details regarding content are promised soon.