XCOM

''XCOM'' (originally called ''X-COM'') is a science fiction video game franchise featuring an elite international organization tasked with countering alien invasions of Earth. The series began with the strategy video game '' X-COM: UFO Defense'' created by Julian Gollop's Mythos Games and MicroProse in 1994. The original lineup by MicroProse included six published and at least two canceled games, as well as two novels. The ''X-COM'' series, in particular its original entry, achieved a sizable cult following and has influenced many other video games; including the creation of a number of clones, spiritual successors, and unofficial remakes.

A reboot series was published by 2K Games, beginning with the strategy video game '' XCOM: Enemy Unknown'', developed by Firaxis Games and released in 2012 to critical and commercial success. It was followed by the prequel '' The Bureau: XCOM Declassified'' and the sequels ''XCOM 2'' and '' XCOM: Chimera Squad''.

Games

Original ''X-COM'' games

The ''X-COM'' core series consisted of four main games published by MicroProse: '' UFO: Enemy Unknown'' (also known as ''X-COM: UFO Defense'', PC and Amiga in 1994, Sony PlayStation in 1995), '' X-COM: Terror from the Deep'' (PC in 1995, PlayStation in 1996), '' X-COM: Apocalypse'' (PC in 1997) and '' X-COM: Interceptor'' (PC in 1998). The premise of the franchise is that an alien invasion beginning in 1999 prompts the creation of a clandestine paramilitary organization codenamed X-COM (an abbreviation of " Extraterrestrial Combat") by a coalition of funding nations. The player is charged with leading this force and tasked to secretly engage and research the alien threat. The sequels, against new alien invasions, are set underwater (''Terror from the Deep'', set in 2040), in a futuristic megacity (''Apocalypse'', set in 2084), and in space (''Interceptor'', set in 2067 and making it a prequel to ''Apocalypse'').

''UFO: Enemy Unknown'', featuring a turn-based ground combat system, remains the most popular and successful game in the series, having been often featured on various lists of best video games of all time. The first sequel, ''Terror from the Deep'', was quickly created by MicroProse's internal team; based on the same game engine and used largely identical gameplay mechanics. ''Apocalypse'' took several new directions with the series, introducing an optional real-time combat system and shifting the aesthetics to a retro-futuristic style. A spin-off game, ''Interceptor'', constitutes a hybrid of a strategy game and a space combat flight simulator.

After ''Interceptor'', Hasbro Interactive purchased MicroProse, acquiring its studios and the ''X-COM'' brand. There were talks of ''X-COM'' toys, comics, and even a cartoon show. A budget range, turn-based tactical play-by-mail multiplayer game '' Em@il Games: X-COM'' was released in 1999. In 2001, Hasbro published '' X-COM: Enforcer'', a poorly received third-person shooter loosely based on the events of ''Enemy Unknown'', marking a low point in the series. The ''X-COM'' games were also released as part of four compilation releases: ''X-COM (Collector's Edition)'' (1998), ''X-COM Collection'' (1999) and ''X-COM: Complete Pack'' (2008), as well as in ''2K Huge Games Pack'' in 2009.

At least two more major titles have been planned for this series. One of them was '' X-COM: Genesis'', a real-time strategy and tactics game "going back to the roots but in full 3D." Another was '' X-COM: Alliance'' (also known as ''X-COM 4'' and the project ''Fox Force Five''), an ''Aliens''-inspired mix of strategy game and first-person perspective tactical shooter, using the licensed original Unreal Engine. However, both of these projects were cancelled after ex-MicroProse Hasbro Interactive studios were all shut down in 1999-2000 (with ''Alliance'' being later abortively reactivated in 2001-2002 before being quietly cancelled again without any official announcement). Terry Greer, a former senior artist and head of game design at MicroProse UK, disclosed: "We'd also discussed other avenues for future games including time travel, retaking the solar system (with interplanetary distances playing a significant role in recruitment and resources), and resistance movement concept where you had to fight back after the world was taken and humanity was totally under the alien yoke."

''OpenXcom'' is an open source re-implementation of the first game in the series intended to fix all the bugs and enable modding. ''OpenApoc'' is a similar open source project for ''X-COM: Apocalypse''.

New ''XCOM'' games

In 2010, 2K Marin announced they were working on re-imagining of ''X-COM'', relabeled as ''XCOM''. It was described as a tactical and strategic first-person shooter that would combine elements from the original ''X-COM'' alongside a new setting and viewpoint while keeping some main concepts from the original game series. The setting received a complete overhaul, now based in the early 1960s, with the original XCOM organization being a secret U.S. federal agency. Originally planned for 2011, the game was repeatedly redesigned by different studios before being finally released in 2013 as '' The Bureau: XCOM Declassified'' for Windows, OS X, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

In 2012, Firaxis Games (led by MicroProse co-founder Sid Meier) announced the development of a Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 strategy game '' XCOM: Enemy Unknown'', a "re-imagination" of ''UFO: Enemy Unknown'' with real-time strategic view, turn-based combat and destructible tactical environments more in vein of the original ''X-COM'' game and set in a more contemporary setting than the ''XCOM'' game by 2K Marin. ''XCOM: Enemy Unknown'' was released later that same year to critical acclaim, winning multiple "Game of the Year" awards. ''X-COM'' creator Julian Gollop hailed it as "a phoenix rising from the ashes of the ''X-COM'' disaster," saying that "it’s amazing that after 20 years, a brand that had gone so badly in the wrong direction has finally been put right." It was also ported to Android, iOS, OS X, Linux, and PlayStation Vita.

In 2013, Firaxis released a downloadable content for the base game ''XCOM: Enemy Unknown'' titled '' XCOM: Enemy Within''. It was made available on Steam (which requires ''Enemy Unknown'' to play), as well as for iOS, the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 (those versions are standalone and do not require ''Enemy Unknown'').

In 2015, Firaxis announced a sequel, ''XCOM 2''. It was released in 2016 for Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, OS X, and Linux (Later ported to several other platforms, including the Nintendo Switch, but not iOS). Its expansion, '' XCOM 2: War of the Chosen'', followed in 2017. The next game in the series, '' XCOM: Chimera Squad'', was released in April 2020, for Windows. Unlike the global scale of previous games, ''Chimera Squad'' focused on a specific city, giving the player control of a diverse squad of humans and aliens. The game introduced several changes to game mechanics, such as replacing randomly generated and customizable squad members with preset and unique soldiers, and utilizing "interleaved turns" (mixing turn order between the opposing teams during combat) instead of a team-by-team turn system.

Julian Gollop's unofficial games

'' The Dreamland Chronicles: Freedom Ridge'' was a game for the PC and PlayStation 2 by Julian Gollop's Mythos Games (creators of ''UFO: Enemy Unknown'' and ''X-COM: Apocalypse''), claimed to having been "essentially a remake of the first ''X-Com'' with 3D graphics." ''The Dreamland Chronicles'' was canceled in 2001 and Mythos Games soon ceased to exist.

'' Laser Squad Nemesis'' is a 2002 low-budget PC turn-based tactics game developed by Gollop's next company Codo Technologies and very similar to the turn-based Battlescape combat system of the first ''X-COM''. In 2005, Codo Technologies and publisher Namco also released '' Rebelstar: Tactical Command'', a Game Boy Advance turn-based tactical role-playing game that too was reminiscent of the early Battlescape system.

''Phoenix Point'' is a strategy and turn-based tactics video game for Windows, and OS X that has the open world, strategic layers of the ''X-COM'' style games of the 1990s like ''Enemy Unknown'' and ''Apocalypse'' together with the presentation and tactical mechanics of the more recent Firaxis reboot games. The game was developed by Gollop with Snapshot Games, an independent game studio in Bulgaria. ''Phoenix Point'', described as a spiritual successor to ''X-COM'', was released in December 2019.

Other media

Literature

Two ''X-COM'' novels have been published based on the first game in the series: Diane Duane's ''X-COM: UFO Defense - A Novel'' (1995, ) and Vladimir Vasilyev's ''Enemy Unknown'' (1997). The reboot series' novel is titled ''XCOM 2: Resurrection'' by Greg Keyes and was published in 2015, bridging the plots of ''XCOM'' and its sequel. In 2017, a second novel was published with the title ''XCOM 2: Escalation'' by Rick Barba.

MicroProse's manual/documentation writer John Possidente also wrote three short stories, "Decommissioning", "Manley's Deposition", and "Moray in the Wreck", taking place between the events of the first two games in the series. More recently, ''X-COM'' co-designer Dave Ellis and artist Jon McCoy released a free online tribute digital comic titled ''Deep Rising'', with music created by ''X-COM'' composer John Broomhall.

Board game

A board game entitled '' XCOM: The Board Game'', designed by Eric M. Lang and based on the 2012 reboot, was released on January 28, 2015, by Fantasy Flight Games.

Intellectual property rights

The trademark for the ''X-COM'' name was filed on May 25, 1995, by MicroProse Software. According to Julian Gollop, "They wanted us to do a deal where we would sign over any rights that we might have in return for some cash plus a high royalty on ''X-COM: Apocalypse''. They more or less insisted on it, otherwise they were threatening to cancel the ''Apocalypse'' project, so there was a lot of bluff involved." Following the acquisition and subsequent merger of MicroProse with Hasbro, the X-COM intellectual property (IP) was also transferred to Hasbro Interactive on August 19, 1998. Due to financial difficulties, Hasbro Interactive was sold to Infogrames Entertainment SA on January 29, 2001. As part of this transfer, the ''X-COM'' IP was legally transferred to Infogrames on December 21, 2001 (shortly thereafter, Infogrames was renamed Atari SA). In 2005, Atari SA transferred several IPs to Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. and ''X-COM'' was transferred with them on June 12, 2005.

The X-COM IP is currently owned by Take-Two and its subsidiaries; by 2007, first rumors emerged that Irrational Games (who are owned by Take-Two) were developing a new'' X-COM'' title (this game eventually became ''The Bureau: XCOM Declassified''). In May 2007, 2K Games (a subsidiary of Take-Two) inherited the ''X-COM'' franchise and re-released ''Terror from the Deep'' on Steam. In September 2008, ''UFO: Enemy Unknown'', ''Apocalypse'', ''Interceptor'' and ''Enforcer'' were also re-released as downloadable titles. 2K Games' ''XCOM'', which had been in development since 2003 (prior to the IP acquisition), was finally completed and released in 2012.

Inspired titles

Because of the series' popularity, various other developers have created spiritual successor games similar in theme and tone of the ''X-COM'' games (sometimes called "''X-COM'' clones"; Julian Gollop also himself called turn-based tactical game genre in general as "sons of ''Rebelstar''" in a reference to one of his earlier games). The level to which they borrow from the original series varies.

Commercial games

* '' Abomination: The Nemesis Project'' is a real-time tactics / action game developed by Hothouse Creations and released by Eidos Interactive for the PC in 1999 that has been touted as "''X-COM'' meets ''Day of the Dead'' in real-time."
* ''Aliens versus Humans'' is a ''UFO: Enemy Unknown'' clone for the iPhone, iPad and Android. Gollop highlighted it an example of "indie remakes" in his "X-Com legacy" chart.
*''Guardians: Agents of Justice'' was an unreleased game by Simtex and MicroProse, which was described as "a superhero version of ''X-COM''."
* '' Incubation: Time Is Running Out'' is a turn-based combat PC game that was considered to be "what ''X-Com Apocalypse'' should have been". It was developed and released by German company Blue Byte in 1997.
* ''Isomer'' was an indie strategy game project, currently abandoned, that was also heavily influenced by the ''X-COM'' series as well as other games such as ''Dwarf Fortress'' and ''Minecraft''. It blends realtime strategy combat with world exploration and sandbox gameplay.
* '' UFO: Aftermath'' is a 2003 single-player PC strategy and real-time tactics game which was heavily influenced by the ''X-COM'' series and used elements of the Mythos Games' canceled ''The Dreamland Chronicles''. It was created by Czech company ALTAR Interactive and published by Tri Synergy.
** ''Aftermath'' was followed by two sequels: '' UFO: Aftershock'' in 2005 and '' UFO: Afterlight'' in 2007.
* '' UFO: Extraterrestrials'', a PC strategy / turn-based tactics game that is an unofficial sequel to the ''X-COM'' games, developed by Czech developer Chaos Concept and released by Tri Synergy in 2007.
**The follow-up game, ''UFO2Extraterrestrials: Shadows over Earth'' was originally supposed to be released in Q4 of 2012, but as of 2021 has no official release date. It still remains in development simultaneously with ''UFO2Extraterrestrials: Battle for Mercury'' which is announced to launch Spring of 2021.
* ''UFO Online'' (unrelated to ''UFO Online: Fight for Earth'') is a free-to-play, tactical MMORPG that is available only in Russian.
* ''UFO Online: Fight for Earth'' is a Steam and browser-based massively multiplayer tactical game. Gollop called it "actually more a clone of ''Incubation''." It can be played in the free-to-play system using a micropayment system to generate revenue.
* ''Xenonauts'' is a PC strategy game by British independent studio Goldhawk Interactive, again heavily influenced by the ''X-COM'' series. It is being marketed as a Cold War-era (1979 instead of 1999) re-imagining of the original ''UFO: Enemy Unknown'' and an answer to 2K's ''The Bureau: XCOM Declassified'' which alienated some of the ''X-COM'' fanbase due to its FPS-based gameplay. The game missed several release dates, but was finally released in June 2014.
** ''Xenonauts 2'' is currently in development.

The franchise was also referenced in the ''Civilization'' series of strategy video games that had partially inspired ''X-COM'' in first place. The original game received an unofficial sequel in the 1997 expansion set ''Civ II: Fantastic Worlds'' for MicroProse's '' Civilization II'', in a scenario set on the Phobos moon of Mars. Firaxis' ''Civilization V'' features a unit type named XCOM Squad.

Fan games

Fan-remake projects for ''UFO: Enemy Unknown'' have included ''X-com - Last Hope'' (a mod of ''Half-Life 2'' released in 2006), ''UFO: The Two Sides'' (development halted in 2011 due to copyright issues), ''UFO: Cydonia's Fall'' (canceled in 2012), ''X-COM: Origin'' (canceled in 2013), and ''The Rebel Squad'' (an also defunct project by Sam Liu).

* '' UFO: Alien Invasion'' is an open source, cross-platform, 3D strategy / turn-based tactics fan game heavily influenced by the ''X-COM'' series.
** A similar open source game, but which never left a pre-release phase (last updated in 2011) was ''X-Force: Fight for Destiny''.
** Another, ''Project Xenocide'', was aborted in 2010.
* ''Xenowar'' is an open source, simple tactical game for the Android and Windows.
* ''X-Com: Tactical'' is a board game reproducing the squad tactics element of the first game.

See also

*''Laser Squad'': a science fiction tactical game by the original creators of ''X-COM'' and an immediate predecessor of ''X-COM'' (''UFO: Enemy Unknown'' originally began development as ''Laser Squad 2'').
* ''Rebelstar'' series: precursor games to both ''Laser Squad'' and the ''X-COM'' series, also created by the same developers.

References

External links

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XCOM Commanders: Jake Solomon and Julian Gollop interviewed
at Firaxis Games
Enemy Unknown: An X-COM Retrospective
at GameSpy

{{X-COM

2K Games franchises
Fictional paramilitary organizations
Take-Two Interactive franchises
Video game franchises introduced in 1994