X-COM: ALLIANCE PREVIEW

WHAT? X-COM 5 ALREADY !!!

It's time to wake up and clip-on your plasma rifles! Microprose is already working on a new X-COM. This new game will supposedly take place between the second alien war and the deep space occupation of the 60's (2060 that is). But this time, the game is not a flight sim. or a tactical combat; it is a shooter.

We play as a soldier leading a salvage squad to Cydonia to recover supplies from the final battle of the first X-COM (the first organization). Along the way, the ship is sucked into a wormhole, and into the middle of a battle between two alien species. As one of only a handful of soldiers aboard, we must investigate the alien vessels, recover and research artifacts, and lead small groups of soldiers into the alien structures as we search for a means of returning home.

X-COM Alliance is using Epic's Unreal engine (the first-person action engine of choice at t his year's E3).The ability to command other soldiers in Alliance gives it a slight strategic edge over your typical run-and-gun shooters. Whether this new direction for the series will be accepted by X-COM fans, however, will remain to be seen. The fans already thought that X-COM Apocalypse and specially X-COM Interceptor would ruin the X-COM saga. Apocalypse turned out to be another great hit for Mythos and Microprose. Now Interceptor is still to be seen. Soon.

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New Info!! This is from Microprose's press release:

The year is 2062. X-COM is returning to the ruins of the alien invasion base at Cydonia on Mars. Their mission: to search for any technology overlooked at the end of the first alien war fought in X-COM UFO Defense™ (released as UFO Enemy Unknown™ in Europe). As X-COM reaches orbit around Mars, an abandoned dimension gate flings them 60 light-years from Earth into the middle of a war between X-COM's original foes and a race called the Ascidians. Attempting to return home, X-COM allies join with the Ascidians to defeat the alien threat.

X-COM Alliance is a first-person point-of-view action game that plunges the player into the X-COM universe to take on the alien threat. The explosive battles take place on numerous unique 3-D worlds in a 15-mission fight to kill the aliens and find your way back to Earth. Utilizing a new and exciting view of combat, in which you can also see the first-person view of up to four troopers in your X-COM strike team, the player commands an X-COM squad as they fight their way to the enemies' home world to prevent the decimation of their allies, the Ascidians. On board the X-COM ship, the Patton, the player controls the resources scavenged from the alien craft during combat missions, handpicking squads and arming them with the latest technology researched from both alien and human technologies.

Screenshot 1 Screenshot 2 Screenshot 3 Screenshot 4

X-COM Alliance is currently scheduled to ship in the first half of 1999.

X-Com: Alliance, X-Com: Apocalypse and X-Com: Interceptor and related material are copyrights of MicroProse