The New Upcoming Games Like Xcom 2

Turn-based strategy and a war against aliens. While not the first to touch on or combine these concepts, XCOM 2 was among the biggest names pushing the turn-based genre forward.

But that was in 2016. In our wait for the series' third iteration, here's a few upcoming games that harken back to XCOM.

11. Wasteland 3 (Releasing 2020)

Wasteland 3 Gameplay Trailer

Wasteland 3 – hey, come back. Just hear me out on this. Don’t think about Wasteland 2. Instead, picture a polished, turn-based Fallout 3 with a revamped and well written dialogue tree.

Wasteland 3 is shaping up to be that and more. You start the game as the sole survivor of Team November, a Ranger squad dispatched to the icy Colorado wastes. Oh yeah, Colorado is now a snowy wasteland, where survival is a dubious prospect at best and a happy outcome isn’t yours until it’s already happened.

You’ll face difficult moral choices and make sacrifices that will alter the world completely. You can even get a friend to play with you, but, while you can play without them, your choices will affect each other now, too.

Well, at least we won’t need to make a fire for camp tonight.

Wait... Is there bullet drop or can I not aim?

10. Phantom Doctrine 

Phantom Doctrine Gameplay

Phantom Doctrine is a turn-based strategy game set in 1983, in the dead heat of the cold war.

This time, there’s a difference: global conspiracy.

To control the world, nation shall be pit against nation, leader against leader, and you, as the leader of a shadowy organization known only as the Cabal, are doing your best to stop this cold war from getting heated in this alternate history.

Say hello to my little friend.

You’re surrounded. Come out with a bullet in your head.

9. Overland (Fall 2019)

Overland Gameplay

Overland feels like there’s a game over hovering around each corner. As you lead a group of desperate survivors across a desolate, post-apocalypse wasteland, discovering new stories along the way, you’ll be confronted with the reality that the world as you know it is gone. And, unfortunately, tough choices must be made when resources are so scarce.

You might only have the space in your car for one person, and any others will be left to die. Spending resources on saving a life might cost another. Will your morals survive the apocalypse, or will your people?

Note: Still in its early access stages but still fun and regularly getting updated.

It’s a long road home. Especially because you don’t have a home.

Oh yeah. There are monsters, too. Because of course.

8. End State (Coming Soon)

End State Gameplay

A beautiful mix of XCOM and Rainbow Six, End State drops you into a chaotic Eastern Europe where you are controlling your own, ragtag mercenary team committed to combatting modern terrorism.

Clashing militia groups, private security forces, and criminal organizations are all pushing their agendas among the chaos. Your task – and you have no choice but to accept it – is to gather intel on terrorist networks operating within the region and track down their leaders.

Locate leads, gear up, and get going; otherwise, you may not have a home to come back to.

Alright, so there are 3 of us, and… how many of them?

Got you! Oh, there’s two of you…

7. Phoenix Point (Release Date: Sept 2019)

Phoenix Point Gameplay

Well, this one’s made by the creator of XCOM, and it has a thrilling story, too. But every story has a backstory. In the year 2022, an unusual virus was discovered in melting permafrost which excited the scientific community. It had a massive genome – only 1% of which matched anything in existing databases – and scientists couldn’t wait to find out what kinds of discoveries would arise from studying the contents of this Pandora’s box.

Within a decade, the seas were transformed into something wholly alien, and the mutagens began to invade the land through an airborne, microbial mist, killing and mutating indiscriminately. By present day, the human population has been decimated; survivors gather in isolated havens spread throughout the world, controlled by a few, secretive, ideology driven factions.

You control one cell of the Phoenix Project – a worldwide organization designed to be activated when the world is in peril – but a single cell can’t save the world. Regardless, there’s work to be done, soldier.

Note: Still in development. Things will change, so keep an eye on it.

You know that shield is pointed the wrong way, right?

You jump good.

6. This is the Police 2

This is the Police 2 Review

Law enforcement? No, you are the damn law. You run the sheriff’s department, manage your cops, investigate, interrogate, and incarcerate, make tough decisions, and try to keep yourself out of prison in this story-driven mixture of adventure and strategy, set in the cold border town, rife with violence, known as Sharpwood, where people know their neighbors by name and faithfully keep to their traditions, no matter how barbaric those traditions may be.

There’s police violence, gang violence, wanton violence … smugglers, gangs, and screaming populists call this town their home. Hand in hand with the savagery, an air of despair continuously thickens, suffocating hope. It’s one hell of a job for you, the new sheriff. Good luck.

How many of us are really needed to stop some heavy petting? Oh? All of us?

Hit him! Oh, he had a friend… crap.

5. Space Hulk Tactics

Space Hulk Tactics Gameplay

A squad of Terminator Space Marines or a horde of deadly, alien Genestealers. Both awesome, right? Well, a faithful, turn-based adaptation of the board game Space Hulk, set in the Warhammer 40,000 universe, Space Hulk: Tactics is bringing a unique twist to the cult classic formula: you can play as the Genestealers.

You have the choice of battling your way through two, distinct, narrative-driven campaigns: leading a Blood Angels squad or taking control of the Genestealers. So now, not only can you command badass marines, you can control aliens that tear through badass marines. Being the marines isn’t the same, either.

Given a fresh new spin in the form of the unique Card system, there are now more ways to customize your squad before a match and allow you to turn the tide of battle with powerful abilities. Oh, and there’s asymmetric multiplayer. October can’t come soon enough.

My little friend is a bit heavy-set, if you know what I mean… My gun is big, dammit.

Burn, baby, burn. Oh, you’re not my baby…

4. Gears Tactics

GEARS TACTICS Gameplay Trailer (E3 2018)

In an attempt to bring more brutality to the turn-based tactical genre, Microsoft is giving us Gears Tactics. Like Halo Wars, Microsoft looks to turn the Gears of Warfranchise into a strategy game, and this looks as though it’ll be just as successful.

You take control of multiple COG soldiers and fight off the Locust in a familiar yet none-too-typical fashion. It has no mention of any of our familiar Gears of War characters, but that’s because this is a prequel, leaving them to mold the story as they please. Couldn’t tell you more if I tried, as Microsoft hasn’t given us an update on this one, yet, but be on the lookout for the new, turn-based adaptation, XCOM: Gears of War… I mean, Gears Tactics.

There’s but a single downside, and that’s only for some: Gears Tactics will be released on Windows 10.

Didn’t your mother teach you not to peek?

Wretched fools.

3. Warhammer 40,000: Mechanicus

Warhammer 40,000: Mechanicus - New Footage + Game Information

The flesh is weak, but we will endure the wait until this game is released. Hail the Omnissiah! The Adeptus Mechanicus are getting their video game army debut as another new, turn-based experience comes to the Warhammer 40k macrocosm.

Fight off Necrons as you spend 30 instances preparing for what lies beyond. What exactly lies beyond? Well, that’d spoil your weak, human flesh rotten.

Just us against this rotting world.

I feel targeted. Or maybe I’m just paranoid…? No, I’m being targeted.

2. Valkyria Chronicles 4

Valkyria Chronicles 4 Gameplay

The bonds of your allies, the weight of their trust, and the sacrifices you all must make. That is the test you face in the year 1935 EC amidst the war of the split European factions, the Empire and the Federation.

The Imperial army dominates the Eastern Theater, forcing the Federation to launch Operation Northern Cross, a last-ditch effort to tip the scales. This is a tale of a bittersweet adolescence: the failures and triumphs of young hearts struggling to find themselves amidst the chaos of the battlefield, in all the not-turn-based glory you can imagine.

Bonus points: Everyone can experience this one, as it’s coming out on Xbox One, PS4, Switch, and – you guessed it – PC.

Please keep missing point-blank shots.

I hope this is as easily done as it is said. I know it won’t be, but I can hope.

1. Xenonauts 2

Xenonauts 2 Gameplay

If you want a game like XCOM – the OG XCOM – this one is definitely it. At a glance, you might mistake it for a sequel or updated throwback to the original XCOM from the 90’s, what with its pre-combat loadout choices, alien enemies, air-dropping soldiers into combat, etc. Sure, it’s technically the sequel to the acclaimed Xenonauts from 2012, but… just look and you’ll see.

However, while it might appear to be a simple reskin of 90’s XCOM, Xenonauts 2 puts work into deepening its system and turning it into something distinct from its obvious inspirations. It’s been fleshed out rather well but is still in its alpha stages of development.

Regardless of that, though, the current – and free – build of Xenonauts 2 should make any long-time fans of XCOM more than a little nostalgic.

You guys sit back and overwatch. Corporal Chadster is going in.

Please give me more than a shirt to go fight aliens. Or I quit.

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