A new class has been revealed for the PC exclusive XCOM 2, the PC exclusive sequel to the excellent XCOM: Enemy Unknown that launched a few years ago and revived the ailing strategy game franchise. It’s called The Chryssalid, and it’s going to come into play in very interesting ways.
“The chryssalid is very much still one of the alien occupiers of Earth. They are against XCOM. They will never become a part of your army,” lead producer Garth DeAngelis told Gamespot, confirming that the chryssalid won’t be joining your side outside of multiplayer games.
Discussing their inclusion, he said, “We had to have them come back. They’ve been a staple of XCOM, harkening back to the original UFO defense. A couple of decades have taken place since you lost in Enemy Unknown. A lot of the enemies have evolved. Now, the chryssalid, they’re a little bit too crazy of a species to integrate human DNA into them, but they have evolved. They’ve received some upgrades. What they did in Enemy Unknown, is they implanted XCOM with something that would then breed another chryssalid out of them, if you remember. It was a pretty terrifying sequence. Design said, ‘How can we make this crazier?'”
He also talked about how they can be used in the game’s multiplayer mode. “It’s pretty straightforward. We’re pretty excited about giving the players the tools for everything they encounter in the game. Then you can make your dream team. They will have costs based on the units that you choose, and then you’ll have some chances with soldiers who select different abilities and items at different costs. Things like the chryssalid, you’ll be able to include that in your loadout, and then use burrow, and if you kill somebody with a chryssalid poison, you can then choose to multiply. You’ll have more chryssalids. That sort of stuff is intact.”
XCOM 2 launches on the PC later this year.