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[Chiefwaffles]

Eh. The XCOM EU story was pretty weak. Throughout the entire game, it feels like the aliens are desperately trying to conquer you. Then suddenly you capture them and they cackle and go "AHAHAHA I PLANNED FOR THIS" before you kill them.

XCOM2's taking a nice approach. A "what if" scenario versus making the player's victory completely meaningless. I like how someone earlier put it, in that you're really just righting saves that you lost in. You already won those games; time to win your lost games.

[Grim Portent]

Eh. The XCOM EU story was pretty weak. Throughout the entire game, it feels like the aliens are desperately trying to conquer you. Then suddenly you capture them and they cackle and go "AHAHAHA I PLANNED FOR THIS" before you kill them.

XCOM2's taking a nice approach. A "what if" scenario versus making the player's victory completely meaningless. I like how someone earlier put it, in that you're really just righting saves that you lost in. You already won those games; time to win your lost games.

Eh, the plot ain't bad. It's basically just them trying to drive you to adapt and innovate, presumably because their own experimentation can't test everything they want, then getting a pleasant surprise when it actually works for once, then getting an unpleasant surprise when we shoot them in the face rather than ask for lessons on using our psy-powers.

It's a bit like a teacher hitting you with a stick until you learn to make a gun, then being surprised when you shoot them with the gun they made you build, but with more melting people down into green sludge.

[Aedel]

Guys, the engineer says AT THE VERY BEGINNING of XCOM "From what I have seen, if the aliens were intent on conquering Earth there's not much we could do to stop them. They must have something else in mind."

Do we really believe they only brought ONE ship? Really? Who plans an invasion including a single starship? The whole first game was the aliens putting humanity to a test, one which we have passed. XCOM2 is the direct result of humanity passing the test. Why would they bother building a society on Earth if we had failed? They'd just harvest what they could and move on, glassing the planet.

Because XCOM EU is apparently not a thing in XCOM 2. Unless IGN pulled something out of their ass or misunderstood Solomon, humans lost the war before psionics, lasers, anything. They just got annihilated before the Temple Ship was even a thing to XCOM. Dunno why the ethereals are acting like this to humans instead of treating them like how they treated sectoids and mutons.

[Rolan7]

We don't really know what the Sectoid and Muton worlds are like, but I bet they were similar to Earth once.  (Crysallids and Ethereals are parasitic freaks)

Humanity seems to be special, though, because we genetically have the potential to fulfill the Mysterious Overlords' plan.  Psi-capable, yet tough and resourceful.  Hence their reluctance to just bomb us to oblivion, they want a new slave race for their coalition.  As many test subjects and soldiers as possible, possibly even replacing the sectoids and mutons eventually.

Another thing the UFO:Aftermath series did was establish a really good reason for what the alien invaders were doing (at least two, actually).  In the NewCOM series we don't even know who the Ethereals are serving, and their motives appear to be "enslave a perfect soldier race".  Which is a decent motive, but eh.  I wouldn't mind finding out that the Xeno Conglomerate is fighting some other empire, and really *needs* a few billion human psi-soldiers ASAP.  20 years isn't long for space warfare, depending on the level of FTL.

[Shadowlord]

I'm detecting shades of Earth: Final Conflict all up in this speculation.

[My Name is Immaterial]

I wouldn't mind finding out that the Xeno Conglomerate is fighting some other empire, and really *needs* a few billion human psi-soldiers ASAP.  20 years isn't long for space warfare, depending on the level of FTL.

As I understood it, the Ethereals were a failed attempt at uplifting from an even greater being and there was some vague implied something that they were preparing for. Based on the species they were uplifting and how they were adapting them, my money is on a war of some kind.

[Quartz_Mace]

While I do find it odd that IGN is saying that XCOM got curb stomped early in the war, it really felt like EU/EW was setting this all up from the beginning. They may have easily misinterpreted something.

In fact, I'm not even sure if this XCOM is the same XCOM. According to what they've revealed a "new force" is rising from the edges of civilization where aliens have less influence, called XCOM, so maybe this group isn't the same XCOM, explaining why they don't have the tech or the research, that or it being lost would also make sense.

Man, I really hope they do a full reveal of the story leading up to XCOM 2 to clear any discrepancies.

[Aedel]

While I do find it odd that IGN is saying that XCOM got curb stomped early in the war, it really felt like EU/EW was setting this all up from the beginning. They may have easily misinterpreted something.

In fact, I'm not even sure if this XCOM is the same XCOM. According to what they've revealed a "new force" is rising from the edges of civilization where aliens have less influence, called XCOM, so maybe this group isn't the same XCOM, explaining why they don't have the tech or the research, that or it being lost would also make sense.

Man, I really hope they do a full reveal of the story leading up to XCOM 2 to clear any discrepancies.

Excuse the greentext, but imagine this

>EU's ending is canon
>but they still got curbstomped weeks into the war without getting advanced stuff
>how?
>second war
>better gear
>we got stomped while using shitty plasma and shitty titan armor

Imagine the confusion and occasional rage.

[10ebbor10]

Well, they're going to do an indepth interview on the setting somewhere next week, if I recall correctly.

[Chiefwaffles]

I really only want a good story. Just something more than "Ethereals are enslaving humanity for genetic modifications and you expose their plot!" would be nice. Something new and unexpected. As stated previously, I'm fine with the "what if" canon. The same story from EU/EW overlaid on top of a post-conquered setting would just not be fun nor engaging.

[Neonivek]

I really only want a good story. Just something more than "Ethereals are enslaving humanity for genetic modifications and you expose their plot!" would be nice. Something new and unexpected. As stated previously, I'm fine with the "what if" canon. The same story from EU/EW overlaid on top of a post-conquered setting would just not be fun nor engaging.

Naw I am betting that what this game REALLY is... is a time paradox created either by the losing aliens as a last ditch effort to change the ending of the game...

OR the Survivor.

For example... Maybe! there really was a big bad alien armada coming (Say... Apocalypse' aliens) but outside the Xcom the earth really wasn't prepared for it. So he rewound history.

I doubt this game will be completely what if.

[EnigmaticHat]

I'm too am pretty sure they're holding on to some kind of plot twist.

Like, the volunteer is going to break into your dimension with a fleet of spaceships from an Earth that WON the war, or ADVENT is going to be surprising somehow, or the aliens' goals are going to be different than they were last time.

[Graknorke]

I was going to post a thing like what Neo just said, but it was rambling so I deleted it.
Time travel does seem plausible though. The Volunteer in some way interfered to prevent us from being the commander of XCOM, so that the aliens would steamroll Earth, and at the same time the kind of resentment that leads to an uprising would build up.
I'm not entirely sure how that would help to avoid the "lol curbstomp", perhaps by starting the process of converting large proportions of Earth into the super-soldiers that the etherials so much want? If they weren't forced into serving the aliens, then they could be a very valuable asset in protecting the sovereignty of Earth.

[Neonivek]

I'm too am pretty sure they're holding on to some kind of plot twist.

Like, the volunteer is going to break into your dimension with a fleet of spaceships from an Earth that WON the war, or ADVENT is going to be surprising somehow, or the aliens' goals are going to be different than they were last time.

You know...

I really didn't like their motivations last time. It was one instance where they honestly could have had no given motive and it really could have worked. Just hints.

I am surprised this isn't a continuation because it isn't like this dystopian future couldn't have been the natural consequence of the last game.

I was going to post a thing like what Neo just said, but it was rambling so I deleted it.
Time travel does seem plausible though. The Volunteer in some way interfered to prevent us from being the commander of XCOM, so that the aliens would steamroll Earth, and at the same time the kind of resentment that leads to an uprising would build up.
I'm not entirely sure how that would help to avoid the "lol curbstomp", perhaps by starting the process of converting large proportions of Earth into the super-soldiers that the etherials so much want? If they weren't forced into serving the aliens, then they could be a very valuable asset in protecting the sovereignty of Earth.

Maybe in this world the aliens took over all branches of the government in covert ops first.

But from the look of things the aliens saved the humans from some sort of disaster.

[Quartz_Mace]

While I do find it odd that IGN is saying that XCOM got curb stomped early in the war, it really felt like EU/EW was setting this all up from the beginning. They may have easily misinterpreted something.

In fact, I'm not even sure if this XCOM is the same XCOM. According to what they've revealed a "new force" is rising from the edges of civilization where aliens have less influence, called XCOM, so maybe this group isn't the same XCOM, explaining why they don't have the tech or the research, that or it being lost would also make sense.

Man, I really hope they do a full reveal of the story leading up to XCOM 2 to clear any discrepancies.

Excuse the greentext, but imagine this

>EU's ending is canon
>but they still got curbstomped weeks into the war without getting advanced stuff
>how?
>second war
>better gear
>we got stomped while using shitty plasma and shitty titan armor

Imagine the confusion and occasional rage.

Sorry I don't think that came out the way I meant it. I meant I found it odd that IGN said that XCOM never got advanced technology and is acting like the losing end is canon because the victory canon sets this up near perfectly with a bit of added narration between, so I find that odd. I understand that losing soon after the temple ship would still be early in the war and agree that the aliens were holding back to test humanity, I just didn't say it before because it's been said so many times in the thread now that I thought I implied it. I realize that I wasn't as clear as I meant to be, sorry. I just thought it was odd that IGN claimed we never got advanced technology, when losing it makes more sense.

Also, looks like there will be more in the tech tree, as I believe IGN mentioned magnetic guns and stuff, so that sounds cool. Fortunately, that'll probably be easy to mod if it ends up too simplistic in the base game.