XCOM 2 screenshots showcase Small Town maps, suburban homeliness with bonus alien killing

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XCOM 2 isn’t out yet and I’ve been rolling around on the floor petulantly about it for at least a month. Like the easily placated child that I am, Firaxis have been releasing various articles highlighting different areas of the game you’ll get to fight for, around, in and on. The latest is the Small Town areas that exist around the cities taken over by ADVENT and their alien masters.

We’ve got so many picks for the best strategy games we can outflank you easily.

Along with some lovely screenshots you can see in the official post, Firaxis detail what makes this area different from elsewhere, both thematically and tactically. They’re regions inhabited by those who haven’t quite bought into the lifestyle promised to them by ADVENT, but still want to be close to the cities for work, protection and all the rest. It’s a more familiar setting to recognisable modern day life, old houses and open layouts rather than the packed, futuristic cities.

ADVENT patrols to keep the peace and there’s much larger distances between pieces of cover, based on the screenshots, versus the cities. Equally there’s more cars to hide behind and buildings to enter than the Wilderness that was shown off earlier this week.

The environments themselves look beautiful, but graphical fidelity isn’t what I’m worried about after XCOM, it’s how it all fits together. For me, Enemy Unknown had far too many ‘Bethesda bugs’ – dodgy animations, people shooting through walls, bugs when it came to noticing enemies and systems that didn’t quite hold up under the strain. It’s all polish on an otherwise excellent game, but I hope they’ve found the time for it this go round, particularly after the delay. We’ll know more soon.