Marvel have made some pretty great games over the last few years. Spider-Man and its sequel, Miles Morales, were some fantastic open-world titles; Marvel's Avengers was a decent multiplayer shooter and now we have rumours of a new XCOM style game.
This could see the central team of heroes fight against the baddies, with a 60% chance of missing every shot.
XCOM is known for intense micromanagement, hard gameplay and some really interesting upgrade systems. This formula has found itself working in strange places. If it can work with Mario + Rabbids, anything can. These are the games we want to see get the XCOM treatment next.
Table of Contents
Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon
Tom Clancy games are well known for their tactical nature and over-the-top jingoistic background.
For this reason, it feels like a perfect fit for this formula. Controlling teams of new soldiers, all with their own unique gear and classes, you could take some insurrection or fight a global power.
This could really get into the nitty-gritty with tactical perks and gadgets and each squad member could have their own movement style, favouring certain terrains and battlefields. Where the sniper might be accustomed to climbing, the medic may be best at traversing tight spaces.
What could make this combination even better is a nice multiplayer mode. Two players could take a team each and fight their way through a war-torn battleground. With plenty of customization and brutal gameplay, this could be a perfect fit.
Resident Evil
Hear me out on this one. Resident Evil is a franchise known for some pretty terrible spinoff games.
They have put so much money into generic shooters like umbrella corps and the underdeveloped Mercenaries 3D, it's time to try something totally different.
An XCOM style mode could work great in Resident Evil. You could control a group of S.T.A.R.S members, locking down an area, only to discover it’s much bigger than you once thought.
Boss battles could have you lead your members out or attack key weak spots on the same turn and the puzzles could now take place over multiple levels in multiple areas.
You could have a story where your players are split up, much like Leon and Claire are in the second game - you could see and help your other members but they aren’t together just yet
Mass Effect
Mass Effect is a game all about managing your squad, building your relationships and choosing the renegade option on your second playthrough.
Using biotic powers to control the battlefield and all the cast to control the narrative, a Mass Effect game could work really well to make you value every member and not just the two you bring on missions.
It would make the romance options a little more like Sims than Mass Effect but getting to fully control your story could be one of the best aspects of the game. Your moral decisions could actively shape your crew so each playthrough is a little different - how Mass Effect should be.
The Witcher
The Witcher universe has been to a lot of places over the last couple of years. Two very distinct card games have come out between Gwent and Thronebreaker, and a new mobile game next year promises first-person combat. This shows CDPROJEKTRED are very willing to take the world in strange new directions.
An XCOM style game could work really well in this universe, having the player control Witchers hunting down big creatures or armies. The more close combat-centric world of The Witcher could work to make a truly unique spin on the formula.
Not only this but the theming of the story could fit together to have you control different witchers in different locations who have to join together to fight some big bad army on the horizon. They could all have their own personality and powers to use that combine together to make something big and powerful - a perfect fit for the universe.
Elder Scrolls
I was going to say Fallout here but 1 & 2 do get pretty close to this formula so Elder Scrolls works for similar reasons.
The weird world and writing combined with great monsters and tonnes of lore make this an appealing franchise to work from. Things like Elder Scrolls Online and Elder Scrolls Blades prove the team are willing to work on something a bit different.
Combining the quest system of Fallout and Elder Scrolls to the gameplay of XCOM could result in a game as addicting as it is brutal. This being said, fans would be even madder to see Elder Scrolls 6 take a backseat.
Minecraft
Minecraft Dungeons proved a couple of things for the Minecraft franchise. It proved it’s able to do something weird and unexpected and it proved it could do it well.
This could have a very similar appeal to the pretty great Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle by grabbing a hard formula and making it palatable to all ages.
The world is filled with all kinds of bad guys to take on and having that struggle between pillagers and villagers could be an interesting backdrop for the gameplay.
It could implement base building systems with your own village as you have to defend from pillagers and attack the root of all evil in the land. Or you could just kill pigs or something.
Something New
Although exploring old franchises and spinning them on their head is always interesting, it would be nice to see some genuine creativity come out of the woodwork.
The formula XCOM uses works and we know that. It would be nice to see a whole new franchise try this out for itself and make something new. The original XCOM worked so well because it dominated in a market filled with shooters and RPGs. Maybe it’s time to let something new take the wheel.