Latest XCOM: Enemy Unknown trailer pretends it’s an action game

Marketing is a weird thing. Everybody I know who’s excited for the release of XCOM: Enemy Unknown is feeling that way because it looks like it should capture a lot of the turn-based, tactical planning of the original. The tension of combing the landscape with your bare-bones squad; the thrill of taking an alien prisoner so you can develop something new in your research lab; the irritation when yet another well-trained soldier bites the dust.

Those aspects are difficult to put in a trailer. I understand that. But to just throw your hands up and say “screw it, let’s just pretend it’s some sort of action game” is a bit disappointing, and that’s exactly what this latest video piece does.

So here’s fair warning: ignore pretty much everything in this trailer. XCOM: Enemy Unknown is coming on 9 October to PC, Xbox 360 and PS3 – and (looks aside) it will share very little in common with the video below.

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