XCOM 2 - A Prequel Novel

Rock, Paper, Shotgun informed us a while ago that there will be a prequel novel for XCOM 2 that fills the gap between the upcoming game and XCOM: Enemy Within.

I… Uh. Erm. Must be polite. As much as I love it, I don’t know if I’m into XCOM/X-COM for the fiction? Like, at all? It certainly didn’t work for me when they wrote a tie-in book for the original 90s game. But, here we go. XCOM 2: Resurrection is a whole damned novel which explains what happened between XCOM 1 and XCOM 2 – i.e. how the aliens ended up in charge of the Earth and besties with humanity. I feel like an introductory cutscene might have been enough to explain that, but then again I’m pleased that XCOM is clearly enough of a success that it’s getting spin-offs.

Here’s the blurb:

“XCCOM: Resurrection tells the story of Amar Tan, a promising recruit in the barely-hanging-on guerrilla resistance network that still dares to combat ADVENT outside of Gulf City. Amar and his squad find their lives irrevocably changed one day when they stumble upon an SOS signal from an enigmatic man who claims to know a secret that could change everything. Can Amar and his squad survive encounters with Sectoids, Chryssalids and scores of ADVENT troopers hell-bent on stomping out all resistance?”

You can find out on November 10th, a date which I suspect means a whole lot of people at Insight Publishing were shouting “you basts!” at 2K when they announced that XCOM 2 was delayed until February.

Resurrection’s author is one Greg Keyes, who’s previously written licensed Elder Scrolls, Star Wars and Babylon 5 novels in addition to his own fiction. History really is repeating itself. Anyone ever read any of his stuff? Any good?

You can pre-order the novel here, but you know the rule by now, don’t you?

Thanks Eye