10 Things Firaxis Should Do To Make Xcom 3 Epic

Updated:

27 Apr 2016

Could these 10 features make XCOM 3 one of the greatest games of all time?

Gamers worldwide have united in their love for the XCOM series, everyone's favorite alien invasion simulator since 1994. Especially since the franchise reboot in 2011's XCOM: Enemy Unknown, it has gained more and more in popularity. The recent XCOM 2, while released to critical acclaim, has faced quite a few problems concerning its launch.

We still love the game anyway, of course, and it's definitely a solid product. That being said, there is a wide variety of things developer Firaxis could do to make sure that the next entry in the XCOM franchise is something truly legendary.

1) Make Sure there Aren't any Performance Issues

XCOM 2 at the time of its launch was plagued with performance issues. Framerates dropped and froze aplenty, even for players with the best of PC gaming rigs. Battles were marred by graphical bugs and glitches.

Everyone who played the game when it launched experienced these problems, and everyone can relate to how annoying they were. People took the Internet with their complaints, injuring the game's reputation. Firaxis needs to make sure a repeat of this doesn't happen. A smoother launch would really help the series gain in popularity.

Recuperating from performance issues.

2) Make the Final Battle Awesome

The final battle in XCOM 2 was... underwhelming, to say the least. It certainly wasn't difficult. Even on Legendary difficulty, it was neither a great challenge nor very awesome. It didn't really feel too different from a regular mission. Nothing really shone about it. It wasn't action-packed, wasn't impactful, did not shine.

Well, what could the developers do to improve upon the final battle? It would be amazing if for the ending confrontation, we could bring our entire legion of soldiers to battle instead of the standard squad of 6.

Sort of like the ending of Mass Effect 2, where your entire cast of companions had to work together on the same mission and would live or die depending on your choices. It gave your actions true weight. A single mistake could cost countless lives, and your team is depending on you to get them back home safe.

The AI would scale to match the amount of soldiers we brought along with us on the mission, and we would have to dedicate ourselves to controlling each of their individual movements in a huge battlefield. Everything would be tense. The scale would be large. You would truly think that the fate of the human race was at stake - and that moment would define the epicness of XCOM.

The Avatar Project.

3) Strengthen the Emotional Bond between Players and Soldiers

A common criticism attributed to the recent XCOM games is that, while the appearances of your soldiers can be customized a lot, there's nothing really that can be done about their... substance. All of your soldiers act the same, talk the same. They are devoid of personality and character.

Because of this, the game can sometimes feel shallow when the soldiers you recruit, become close to, and eventually lose don't really have any depth to them. They don't have characters, really, or backstories, and it's hard for the player to bond and really care about them.

The gameplay would really be enhanced if they worked to create a strong bond between players and their soldiers. “I don’t care if this soldier dies” should be a thing of the past.
Each soldier should have their own individual personality, voice, and dialogue, making each of them a human being that the player can truly care about.

Brotherhood.

4) Have at Least 20 Different Combat and Death Animations

Another element of the game that can make the experience seem shallow is the repetitive nature of combat and death animations that can play while you're on a mission. Right now, the amount of animations that can play in battle is pretty limited. There should be 20 different combat and death animations at the very least.

We don't want to see soldiers attack or enemies die in all the same ways every single time. Variety combat scenes is a vital ingredient - a necessity - for immersion. Better detail and more variety in character kill, death, attack, cover and dodge animations would truly make the battlefields of XCOM feel more alive. They should have unique voice effects for each animation.

Fight and die.

5) Add "Legendary Soldiers"

A great concept to add to the XCOM franchise would be that of so-called "Legendary Soldiers." There should be a few special soldiers, maybe 3 or 4, that you can have a chance of recruiting, but must complete a difficult chain of missions to obtain.

These soldiers would be special Legendary characters with their own personalities, backstory, and voices. They would have more powerful and unique abilities compared to regular recruits, and could even have their own unique gear.

Any XCOM playthrough would be made much more exciting if a player was given a chance to obtain a Legendary Soldier, and recruiting these soldiers into your ranks would boost the morale of the whole squad.

A Legendary Xcom soldier. The aliens' worst nightmare.

6) Introduce "Epic" Weapons and Armor

Akin to the idea for Legendary Soldiers, another cool addition to the chance and risk-reward aspects of XCOM would be that of "Epic" Weapons and Armor. These could be 3 or 4 unique pieces of weaponry or armor that you would only be able to obtain after completing a super difficult mission.

These weapons and armors would be equippable to only one soldier of your choice, and could be lost just like any other item should that soldier die and you are unable to extract their corpse. This feature would make the game more exciting. Imagine decimating numerous aliens standing in your path with your new “epic weapon” that deals 15 damage. Or taking multiple shots from aliens for no damage (for one turn) with that “special armor”.

Rocking a new outfit.

7) Give Us a Larger Variety of Aliens

In Enemy Unknown, we were subject to the sinister operations of 16 different species of alien soldiers. In XCOM 2, we have 18. For the next addition to the franchise, we ought to have at least 30 different creatures to face off with in the heat of battle, with around 7 of them being special, unique aliens that will make us shudder with fear when we see them.

Increased alien variety would make encounters much more unpredictable, and it would be more difficult to build a perfect team or to plan any perfect strategies. Always you would fear the next wave of enemies. You'd never know what would come pouncing at you next.

Alien activity.

8) Increase the Playtime

No one wants a good game to end too fast. When players love a game, they want it to go on and on and on. Some, until they're satisfied with their playthrough and want to bring it to a natural end. Others, they want games to never end.

XCOM is one of those games with little replayability. If you start a new game, it would be the same story all over again. Countless fans of the series would agree. To take advantage of this, Firaxis should extend the playtime of runs through the games in the series by 100 - 200 hours. The average time to complete XCOM 2 is about 60 hours; in XCOM 3, it should be 150 at least.

A game is always the most exciting during the first playthrough -when everything is new to the player and they are lost in that feeling of mystery and excitement, so it would be good to make that feeling last. To make the game even more amazing, milk that sense of excitement to every last drop.

The long war.

9) Make Soldier Skills More Customizable

The XCOM franchise has long adored its class system. Sure it's been tweaked throughout the years, and classes have been both added and removed, but all-in-all, the current mechanics of the franchise still depend heavily on the class system.

That's not a bad thing. Classes allow you to build a balanced team of soldiers to bring on missions. But we do feel the class system’s rigidity.

How about doing away with the class system entirely?

Allow players to customize each and every one of their soldier’s stats and skills how they want. Being that there are no classes, there will only be a long list of abilities to choose from when a soldier levels up.

A soldier would be able to learn Deep Cover, Kill Zone, and Medical Protocol if they wish.

This would allow for more creative skill combinations, letting players do cool things like combining "Run and Gun," "Chain Shot," and "Serial."

Skills and abilities under lock and key.

10) Give Us More Variety in Music

The music in XCOM 2 was alright. It all sounded just fine. Many of the tracks managed to convey the mood of the game. But after a while, players were quick to notice how repetitive the music really was. It became boring. Heartless. Inhuman like the invaders us commanders dedicate ourselves to fighting.

What the music in XCOM needs to is make us players feel emotion. A wide range of emotions, in all colors and intensities. There should be a larger variety of intense music playing when we're in the middle of colossal firefights, and sinister music playing when new and terrifying alien species are introduced for the first time. We ought to hear bright, beautiful fanfare when we complete missions, congratulating us for a job well done.

XCOM should be scored to its themes of endurance - of perseverence - and of resistance despite unfair odds. It's a better soundtrack, really, that could elevate this beloved series into gaming legend forever.

The excitement of survival.

Conclusion

Readers - and XCOM fans - of Gamers Decide, what did you think of our list of 10 things Firaxis could do to improve the XCOM series and make XCOM 3 epic? Maybe we forgot something vital to add to the mix, maybe there's something we overlooked about what changes can be made to the formula. Do any of you think you picked up on something we missed? If so, you better let us know.

All we want is for Firaxis's acclaimed series to reach even greater heights, and it's with the help of the community that that goal can be achieved.