XCOM 2 - Interview @ the Escapist

The Escapist talked to XCOM 2 senior producer Garth DeAngelis about the game and how they plan to maintain the same sense of danger and urgency while making humanity the aggressors.

"If you let too much of the [alien progress] build, you'll eventually lose the game," DeAngelis told The Escapist. "The aliens are unearthing their ultimate plan." This system effectively replaces Enemy Unknown's Terror Track, with a key difference: Commanders can take proactive steps to sabotage alien efforts. Certain missions available in XCOM 2's strategy layer reduce the alien progress bar, earning you more time to develop the resistance effort. "There's alien facility missions that aren't on a schedule ... you can go and sabotage those facilities to mitigate loss."

That's not to say neglecting the alien's progress is the only way to lose the campaign. Now that XCOM's base consists of a flying Avenger unit, defending it from UFO attacks is paramount. "At a given moment, if your Avenger gets taken down by a UFO, and you fail that mission, it's game over for you."

Since these risks in mind, players constantly need to weigh the long and short-term consequences of each mission. Do you destroy alien facilities which slow their overall progress, or take on side missions that reward valuable resources and supplies? "You're constantly adjusting your plans," DeAngelis said. "You have all these different resources that the game is giving you... it may be elerium or supplies. So the faucet for those resources is missions - Systemic missions where you may go to a small town and have to hack a workstation, or you may have a Special Council mission in a city center where you have to neutralize an alien sympathizer. And if you succeed at those missions, you'll get a big drop of specific resources."

Thanks Eye.