Telltale Games Meets XCOM

A scene from my Volunteer Audition Tape

A while ago I was farting around and playing some old Gameboy Advance games, trying to get into Tactics Ogre: The Knight of Lodis again and looking around at other Tactical RPG games when I came across Rebelstar.

By the same guy who created XCOM/UFO, Rebelstar tells a story how a bunch of kids and a handful of adults have begun their fight against their alien overlords, the variety of whom take away anybody over the age of thirty for some unknown reason. The story itself is pretty good and the system, while a little convoluted, was pretty schmick. But lord did it make me want that corner looking feature that XCOM 2012 has.

The other thing I've been thinking about lately is Borderlands 2.5, aka Tales From The Borderlands, by Telltale Games.

The premise of it is that it's like a Choose your own Adventure book, where you're offered prompts and your options can dictate how the story can go. I've played the demo and had some laughs out of it.

So, with my love of XCOM, and the fun of a good story game, I would love to see XCOM 1.5: The Volunteer. obviously this is inspired by the designers saying that everyone's volunteers are alive, and they disappeared before the ship imploded.

So I can only wonder what happened? Did he travel to another temple ship? Or another alien base? Or has he just landed in the middle of the ocean and makes his way to the closest shore to find himself exhausted and amongst an EXALT cell?

How about rollover? I had a pretty tanked out Volunteer, with Gene Mods, armour, medals for his bravery... its hard to imagine that he would suddenly forget all those effects. Sure, lose his gear, they can be replaced. His armour would be near impossible to tear off. So what would be the go? He rolls up on the beach, radiation poisoning starting its crippling effect due to long exposure to plasma, and he has nothing but the PSI Armour on his back. His mind still reeling from the effect of teleportation, he sees others and hides, not knowing who they are or what their intentions may be. Military outfits, not too strange for the coast of... well anywhere at that time.

But hey, maybe they're secretly part of EXALT! He receives their help and passes out, and next thing you know you're forced to go track down your old commander in his living room while he's drinking mountain dew in his trackky dacks. OOOHHH OMINOUS!

But a little story could be fun! Then let that roll over to XCOM 2, why not.A while ago I was farting around and playing some old Gameboy Advance games, trying to get into Tactics Ogre: The Knight of Lodis again and looking around at other Tactical RPG games when I came across Rebelstar.

By the same guy who created XCOM/UFO, Rebelstar tells a story how a bunch of kids and a handful of adults have begun their fight against their alien overlords, the variety of whom take away anybody over the age of thirty for some unknown reason. The story itself is pretty good and the system, while a little convoluted, was pretty schmick. But lord did it make me want that corner looking feature that XCOM 2012 has.

The other thing I've been thinking about lately is Borderlands 2.5, aka Tales From The Borderlands, by Telltale Games.  Well actually, Telltale Games' games in General.

The premise of it is that it's like a Choose your own Adventure book, where you're offered prompts and your options can dictate how the story can go. I've played the demo and had some laughs out of Tales from the Borderlands.

So with my love of XCOM, and the fun of a good story game, I would love to see XCOM 1.5: The Volunteer, inspired by the designers saying that everyone's volunteers are alive.

So I can only wonder what happened? Did he travel to another temple ship? Or another alien base? Or has he just landed in the middle of the ocean and makes his way to the closest shore to find himself exhausted and out of the frying pan and into the fire?

How about rollover? I had a pretty tanked out Volunteer, with Gene Mods, armour, medals for his bravery... its hard to imagine that he would suddenly forget all those effects. Sure, lose his gear, they can be replaced. His armour would be near impossible to tear off, I assume. So what would be the go? He rolls up on the beach, radiation poisoning starting its crippling effect due to long exposure to plasma (THAT SHOULD HAPPEN), and he has nothing but the PSI Armour on his back. His mind still reeling from the effect of teleportation, he sees others and hides, not knowing who they are or what their intentions may be. Military outfits, not too strange for the coast of... well anywhere at that time.

But hey, maybe they're secretly part of EXALT! He receives their help and passes out, and next thing you know you're forced to go track down your old commander in his living room while he's drinking mountain dew in his trackky dacks. OOOHHH OMINOUS!