LATEST CHATTY HEADER

Here's how this is gonna go down.

- Just to mess with us, the mandatory tutorial is going to be a rail shooter where an FBI agent encounters some aliens. Leads to a crash site somehow. There he encounters an XCOM team. XCOM is a secret UN thing like before but even less powerful and very decentralized -- Only rich nations have XCOM bases, and they share research and intel but otherwise act independently. Part of the plot is uniting them, and in-game this is represented by gaining more bases, and eventually the ability to choose locations and build them from scratch.

- Base screen is a globe map, otherwise pretty similar to the old games. Hire and fire scientists, engineers, and soldiers, plan research and production, buy gear and equip dudes, standard stuff.

- Standard missions (crash site investigations, whatever else) are whatever they are. Your FBI guy always leads the troops personally. Work it into the tutorial that he was a former infantry officer or something, and now for some reason he's in charge of the US XCOM project. At this point, they can really do whatever they want, but I'm thinking a heavy Rainbow 6 influence but less hardcore.

- Some research will open special missions. These are sometimes solo sometimes not, can vary from almost all plot to sneaking to helicopter fights to more or less normal squad tactical combat. Of course success advances the plot and brings more powerful aliens to the party.

- Eventually, if you can learn the enemy's secrets before they crush you, just maybe you can find a way.... X-COM, Bitches!