Please support Game Informer. Print magazine subscriptions are less than $2 per issue
Fantasy Flight Bringing XCOM To The Tabletop This Year
The melding of digital and tabletop isn’t a new phenomenon, as anyone who has played Scene-It or one of the many VHS-based “interactive board games” will recall. As tablets become more common though, the experiences have started to mature.
We’ve seen the blend of these two mediums in titles like Harebrained Schemes’ Kickstarted Golem Arcana. Now, 2K Games, Firaxis, and Fantasy Flight are taking advantage of the concept for XCOM: The Board Game.
In addition to the board, cards, and pieces representing UFOs, Interceptors, and XCOM troops, the game is managed in part on a tablet (or via an online tool). The free app is responsible for executing the alien invasion and responding to your actions. The idea is to create an feeling similar to the critically lauded XCOM: Enemy Unknown without exactly duplicating it.
It also enables a team of players to tackle the game at three different difficulty levels. The concept takes the cooperative nature of games like Arkham Horror, which use a system of card draws and “programmed” enemy movement, in a new direction.
Each player will take on a unique role: commander, chief scientist, central officer, and squad leader. Each takes on a specialist role, responsible for part of the team’s operations.
Fantasy Flight will release the game at retail during the holiday season this year. For an in-depth look at the game, check out a preview in the September 2014 issue.
I’d like to ask you to support Game Informer’s continued coverage of games with a subscription. For less than two dollars per issue, we mail you a full year of 10 print magazines, each with cover stories and preview features filled with exclusive details about the most exciting upcoming games. We profile and interview game creators. We look back on the rich history of gaming, and we celebrate what’s next.
Here on the website, we offer much of our content for free, including game reviews, daily news, videos, event coverage, and more – all with minimal ads.
We do so with a small editorial team, alongside contributing paid writers from around the world – over 65 individuals from 9 countries around the world, just in the last couple of years.
It’s not possible without support.
In a time when game makers and games coverage have faced hard struggles and layoffs, the future of this 30+ year magazine and community is at risk. Our new standalone magazine subscription is the number one way you can keep us alive – and we believe you’ll get a pretty fantastic gaming magazine in your mailbox every few weeks for your trouble.
Thank you.
