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[TempAcc]

Yea, if anything it makes sense in-universe, since the aliens aren't an invading force anymore and are currently trying to charm the human race into believing they're their benevolent rulers/saviors. Hell, if I had to do the same thing and had the option of radically changing the looks of my troops, I'd investigate the native's myths and legends and then redesign my troops to look like the good guys in their stories.

[scriver]

And also the article literally points out that that's the case.

[Egan_BW]

EU floaters were mutons minus legs plus jetpack. These look like humans minus legs plus jetpack.

[scriver]

They still are, they just come in a Greek Angelic packaging now.

[Rolan7]

Yeah they make a lot of sense from a PR perspective.  And in the (NewCOM) canon, floaters were just Mutons with excessive invasive cyborg parts.  The aliens have had a lot of time to refine the tech, and they already have plenty of thugs.  They're imitating our gods, or at least the ones we made statues of.  "Oh that's their ideal form?  Twist the Doomed Clan into that shape."

Theoretically they could have used Thin Men for this, maybe.  But I think a living statue has more impact than a fleshy replica, and also there seem to be limits to the Thin Man's imitation.  Even the speaker had some remaining characteristics.  I think they'd have trouble looking chiseled instead of lanky and wrong.

_{These are our snaketits, let us have this}

[Egan_BW]

Seems more likely that they're just humans given a floater treatment than mutons made to look exactly like humans.

[i2amroy]

I don't know about you, but the up-close of that "human body" makes it look a lot more like an armored shell shaped like a human than anything fleshy to me. I'd be willing to bet if you cracked open that armor youd find the same disgusting amalgamation of flesh and tech that we've all grown used to. This very much looks like a case of "throw a pretty piece of armor over the top of them" instead of any sort of genetic manipulation; those are bolts in his stomach armor for goodness sake.

[Sonlirain]

I don't know about you, but the up-close of that "human body" makes it look a lot more like an armored shell shaped like a human than anything fleshy to me. I'd be willing to bet if you cracked open that armor youd find the same disgusting amalgamation of flesh and tech that we've all grown used to. This very much looks like a case of "throw a pretty piece of armor over the top of them" instead of any sort of genetic manipulation; those are bolts in his stomach armor for goodness sake.

Those might still be bolts put on a brainwashed (gene therapy screwed?) human body.
Honestly Gene therapy seems like the answer to the question "Where did the faceless, archons, vipers come from?"

The mutons seem more humanlike (cept the berserker. He's more like the hulk now).
The vipers posses pointless human features.
And now you have the archon who looks like a ripped guy encased in alien alloys.

Also note the name in the link.
"xcom2_archon_hero.jpg"
Hero? I'f he's an alien and therefore our enemy how can he be a hero?
My guess is that the game will have a massive plot twist that lets you recruit some would be aliens after "debrainwashing" them... and those might just be the mystery class.

[Rolan7]

The mutons seem more humanlike (cept the berserker. He's more like the hulk now).

*she
But yeah, I think meld and genetweaking has introduced a bunch of human DNA into the alien soldiers, and that explains a lot.  I'm mainly assuming that the floaters are still mutons because they used to use mutons.  Having humans inside would be an appropriately dark twist.
With the amount of plating and surgery though, I don't think we can tell just by the shape.

Edit: Also if you wound them, they gain a melee ability.

[scriver]

Sigh, if you would only read the article that was posted, you'd see what the case is:

As witnessed during the invasion in XCOM: Enemy Unknown, the aliens unleashed hordes of Floaters to attack and subdue the human population; however, the aliens quickly found out that humanity did not respond well to the Floater’s horrific marriage of flesh and robotics. Something had to be done.

And so the Archon, an evolutionary step forward, was born. Archons were designed to be more regal and present humanity with a god-like visage

They're floaters.

Additionally, any wounded Archon will enter a frenzied state enabling them to melee attack nearby operatives

Sounds like the Muton, doesn't it?

Also this below. Recognise the movement pattern?

I don't know about you, but the up-close of that "human body" makes it look a lot more like an armored shell shaped like a human than anything fleshy to me. I'd be willing to bet if you cracked open that armor youd find the same disgusting amalgamation of flesh and tech that we've all grown used to. This very much looks like a case of "throw a pretty piece of armor over the top of them" instead of any sort of genetic manipulation; those are bolts in his stomach armor for goodness sake.

I'm going to assume both: they're floaters genetically modified to be less Corprus-esque in order to make them fit into said armour.

[Sonlirain]

Sigh, if you would only read the article that was posted, you'd see what the case is:

As witnessed during the invasion in XCOM: Enemy Unknown, the aliens unleashed hordes of Floaters to attack and subdue the human population; however, the aliens quickly found out that humanity did not respond well to the Floater’s horrific marriage of flesh and robotics. Something had to be done.

And so the Archon, an evolutionary step forward, was born. Archons were designed to be more regal and present humanity with a god-like visage

Seems like they can be either mutons or humans then (note than ground mutons got a dose of human DNA so things might be pretty blurry when it comes to deciding what's under that armor... especially if it resembles mince meat mixed with a metal chair that accidentally fell into the industrial mixer at the alien factory).
It might be even a case of Bio Drones from TFtD where SOME (not all) had human brains inserted into them.

For all we know so far humans are disapearing and it's the aliens fault.
The fact most aliens are gaining human features suggests genetics at work but what happens with the lost humans?
Getting genescrewed into Archons, Vipers and Faceless is the most logical answer so far.

[Rolan7]

My guess is the disappeared become ADVENT troops, and probably the faceless.  With others being analyzed and disposed of (they have plenty of humans), I think that accounts for the disappearances just fine.  I don't think the vipers are supposed to be human, just snehks with stolen human genes.

[scriver]

The fact most aliens are gaining human features suggests genetics at work but what happens with the lost humans?
Getting genescrewed into Archons, Vipers and Faceless is the most logical answer so far.

If we ignore that their info releases have said Archons are "evolved" (very likely not literally but forced through gene modification) Floaters and that Vipers are Thin Men without the flesh suits. I'll give you that there is no info about the origins of Faceless that I know of.

[Aseaheru]

I think I remember reading somewhere that that was a totally new thing they made up for this...

[Teneb]

The fact most aliens are gaining human features suggests genetics at work but what happens with the lost humans?
Getting genescrewed into Archons, Vipers and Faceless is the most logical answer so far.

If we ignore that their info releases have said Archons are "evolved" (very likely not literally but forced through gene modification) Floaters and that Vipers are Thin Men without the flesh suits. I'll give you that there is no info about the origins of Faceless that I know of.

I doubt they'll release any info (pre-release) on the aliens that are completely new, like the Faceless.

So they've shown the new version of the sectoids, thin men (vipers), mutons, berserkers, chrysalids and floaters. Robotic ones like the cyberdisk aside, which newcom aliens are we missing other than the ethereals themselves?