X-COM: Alliance is a cancelled video game in the X-COM series. The game was developed by two different teams of MicroProse developers (first as a subsidiary of Spectrum Holobyte, then Hasbro Interactive, and finally Infogrames Entertainment) between 1995 and 2002. It had the player assume the role of commander of the militarized scientific mission lost in space during the aftermath of X-COM: Terror from the Deep.

Unlike other games in the X-COM series, most of which were strategy games, Alliance was a first-person shooter. It was described as having strategy, adventure, and role-playing elements. the game was repeatedly delayed and put on hold, before eventually becoming vaporware; it was eventually cancelled in 2002. Since then, it had numerous build versions leaked online.

Gameplay

thumb|left|A promotional screenshot from the version shown at the [[Electronic Entertainment Expo|E3 1999]]

The gameplay of X-COM: Alliance would emphasize team management and tactics. Through the first-person perspective, the player would assemble and lead squads through a series of story-driven missions with various primary and secondary (optional) objectives. Teams of up to four members would be selected from a pool of soldiers, scientists and engineers (and later also friendly aliens). Each team member would have different skills as well as their own unique abilities, voices, personalities and attitudes, and was supposed to be acting differently from the others even if put in similar situations. The characters' speech, movement, and combat effectiveness would also rely on their emotional state, influenced by their individual personal traits and conditions such as their surroundings and levels of morale and fatigue.

Plot

The game takes place in the year 2062 (22 years after the events of X-COM: Terror from the Deep and five years before X-COM: Interceptor), when the research vessel UGS Patton, with a crew of top scientists and engineers and team of X-COM soldiers, travels to a site of the former alien base at Cydonia on the surface of Mars to retrieve alien artifacts and establish an Elerium mining facility. However, the Patton goes through an unexpected dimensional wormhole gateway and ends up stranded 60 light years from Earth, finding the alien invaders from UFO: Enemy Unknown to be engaged in a war with a new alien race, the Ascidians. The crew of the Patton joins forces with the Ascidians, and the alliance gives the game its name. Eight other new alien races were going to be introduced too.

Development

thumb|Screenshots of the distinctive 2D (strategic) and 3D (tactical/shooter) sections in an early (before 1999) version of X-COM: Alliance

The concept for the game was originally conceived in 1995.

In April 1999, when "much of the foundation work had already been set," Chris Clark became the new lead designer and Chris Coon was lead programmer on the project; Dave Ellis provided game design advice, helping to coordinate elements such as the featured weapons and alien races for canon compatibility between Alliance and the other X-COM title in development, X-COM: Genesis. The game was supposed to use the heavily modified Unreal Engine, featuring skeletal animation, motion capture, a completely different AI, a new sound system able to store and playback large amounts of speech, and a DirectMusic-based dynamic music system. Julian Gollop, main designer of X-COM: UFO Defense and X-COM: Apocalypse, said MicroProse had problems to make the game's engine to work properly. In January 2000, producer Martin DeRiso stated that the game was "60–70%" complete. After Infogrames Entertainment bought Hasbro Interactive, the game was postponed again because of the departure of a key team member (responsible for the implementation of the game's innovative AI system). Infogrames created an official website in February 2002, only to pull it down a few days later. The game was ultimately aborted in 2002 without any official announcement. Gollop commented: "X-COM: Alliance was in development for a long time. How the development got screwed up, I don't know. As you're probably well aware, quite often games companies start and you're going for a long time and it just doesn't happen."

Reception

Early versions of Alliance garnered very favorable responses from several video game publications, including GameSpot's "Best of E3 (Sequels)" award in 1998 and IGN PC's "Best Action Game of E3" award in 2000. GameSpy called it "the most ambitious game we've seen at E3" and "the pinnacle of tactical gaming, a new high-water mark that'll bust through established game genres," and PC Zone called it "a serious contender for 'game of the year'" in 2000.

Further reading

  • A development account and design documents for the original version of X-COM: Alliance shared by Terry Greer, a senior artist and head of game design at MicroProse UK.

See also

  • The Dreamland Chronicles: Freedom Ridge
  • XCOM, a first-person shooter game that was later turned into third-person tactical shooter The Bureau: XCOM Declassified

References

  • Alliance X (GameSpy coverage)
  • X-COM Alliance at GameSpot