XCOM 2

Overview

XCOM 2 is set 20 years after the events of the previous game. A future in which the human race has lost the war against the invading alien forces of XCOM: Enemy Unknown, and is now under their rule.

Despite releasing the previous game on PC and consoles, the developers originally stated that XCOM 2 will be exclusive to the PC and will include mod support. The console version was officially announced on June 7, 2016 and was released in September 2016.

Production

Since the release of XCOM: Enemy Unknown, the game's creative director Jake Solomon and his team have been working on a "must-have" list of key features, such high-fidelity characters and environments, better destruction, physically based rendering and the main feature procedurally generated environments and maps. Solomon wanted to include procedurally generated maps in the previous game, but due to restrictions such as time, resources and the limiting capability of console hardware, it was left out in the final game.

"It came down to a question of ... If we do this, if we do procedurally generated maps, they (engineer team) said that they were going to look like shit... It wasn't going to look like any of the other games. I mean, we're not trying look better than every other game out there, but it wouldn't have even looked comparable." - Solomon (2013), Polygon Interview.

Producer Garth DeAngelis has stated that due to the development teams size and their main familiarity being as PC developers, it made sense logistically to focus on a PC-only release.

XCOM 2 was developed on a customised version of Unreal Engine 3.

System Requirements

PC

Minimum

• OS: Windows® 7, 64-bit
• Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E4700 2.6 GHz or AMD Phenom 9950 Quad Core 2.6 GHz
• Memory: 4 GB RAM
• Graphics: 1GB ATI Radeon HD 5770, 1GB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 or better
• DirectX: Version 11
• Storage: 45 GB available space
• Sound Card: DirectX compatible sound card
• Additional Notes: Initial installation requires one-time Internet connection for Steam authentication; software installations required (included with the game) include Steam Client, Microsoft Visual C++2012 and 2013 Runtime Libraries and Microsoft DirectX.

Recommended

• OS: Windows® 7, 64-bit
• Processor: 3GHz Quad Core
• Memory: 8 GB RAM
• Graphics: 2GB ATI Radeon HD 7970, 2GB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770 or better
• Storage: 45 GB available space
• Sound Card: DirectX compatible sound card

Mac

Minimum

• OS: 10.11.2
• Processor: 2.4 GHz Intel
• Memory: 4 GB RAM
• Graphics: NVIDIA 650ti (1GB) or AMD 5770 (1GB) or Intel Iris Pro or better
• Storage: 45 GB available space

Recommended

• OS: 10.11.2
• Processor: 2.7 GHz i5
• Memory: 8 GB RAM
• Graphics: NVIDIA 700 series (2GB) or AMD R9 series (2GB)
• Storage: 45 GB available space

Linux

Minimum

• OS: Ubuntu 14.04.2 64-bit or Steam OS
• Processor: Intel i3-3225 3.3ghz
• Memory: 4 GB RAM
• Graphics: NVIDIA 650 (1GB)
• Storage: 45 GB available space
• Additional Notes: AMD and Intel GPUs are not supported at time of release. Nvidia requires 352.55 or newer drivers.

Recommended

• OS: Ubuntu 14.04.2 64-bit or Steam OS
• Processor: Intel i7 series
• Memory: 8 GB RAM
• Graphics: NVIDIA 960 (2GB)
• Storage: 45 GB available space
• Additional Notes: AMD and Intel GPUs are not supported at time of release. Nvidia requires 352.55 or newer drivers.