HomeNews
Firaxis' Jake Solomon says even he gets frustrated when he misses a shot in XCOMReturning to XCOM, the Marvel’s Midnight Suns director says he “felt the ghosts of everybody everywhere looking over my shoulder”
Returning to XCOM, the Marvel’s Midnight Suns director says he “felt the ghosts of everybody everywhere looking over my shoulder”
Image credit:2K Games
Image credit:2K Games
Anyone who’s played one of Firaxis’XCOMgames in the last ten years will have a story about missed shots. Shots that, even with a 90% chance of hitting their target, still end up going wide and punching a hole in your carefully laid plans. In the moment, they induce feelings of white hot injustice, but for many, they’re an integral part of what makes XCOM, well, XCOM. Looking back on his time makingXCOM 2, however, Firaxis' creative director Jake Solomon tells me that he, too, now feels the pain players have felt for close to a decade.
“It was really interesting for me to return back and play XCOM a couple of years ago, and man, when I missed shots, I was unbelievably frustrated. I felt the ghosts of everybody everywhere looking over my shoulder,” he says.
Hands On - Marvel’s Midnight Suns Is Shaping Up To Be A Super Powered Tactical RPG | PC GameplayWatch on YouTube
Hands On - Marvel’s Midnight Suns Is Shaping Up To Be A Super Powered Tactical RPG | PC Gameplay
I was speaking to Solomon as part of myMarvel’s Midnight Suns preview, Firaxis' next turn-based tactics game that’s releasing on October 7th. Solomon is heading up that project as well, but the key difference between XCOM andMarvel’s Midnight Sunsis that the latter won’t have any kind of hit percentages. Instead, all attacks are guaranteed, and after playing the game for four hours during my preview session, I’m happy to report that this style of combat not only gives you greater command of the battlefield, but it also lets you pull off some properly rad combo attacks with your trio of superheroes.
This isn’t a reaction to XCOM, mind. You’re playing as a group of superheroes after all, and superheroes don’t miss. But having now made both XCOM and what Solomon refers to as an “opposite XCOM” with Marvel’s Midnight Suns, he offered some surprisingly candid insights into the merits and flaws of both types of game when I asked him which one was more fun to make.
“So, it’s not that it’s better or anything, but it was really interesting for me to return back and play XCOM a couple of years ago, and man, when I missed shots, I was unbelievably frustrated. I felt the ghosts of everybody everywhere looking over my shoulder, but I was unbelievably frustrated, and it did make me appreciate the fact that in Midnight Suns it’s still very deep and very tactical, but there is a [sense of] like, ‘Okay, I can jump into this.'”
Somehow, I feel better knowing that even XCOM 2’s director shares in the same pain we do when playing their game. Next time I miss a 95% hit shot, I’ll just think back to this chat and go, “Yeah, me too, Jake, me too.”
You can read more of what Solomon has to say about Midnight Suns in my extensivehands on previewwith the game, including how its card-based battle system works, and how Firaxis are incorporating extensive RPG elements into the game’s overarching strategy layer between missions. It’s a thrilling mix, and Marvel’s Midnight Suns continues to be one of mymost anticipated games of 2022. I can’t wait to play it in full when it launches on October 7th.
