XCOM 2 Tactical Legacy Pack announced

Six years ago, Firaxis pulled off the impossible with XCOM, re-envisioning a DOS classic – next week, they’re celebrating this feat with the Tactical Legacy pack for XCOM 2: War Of The Chosen. It’s pure fan-service of the less-sexy kind (unless Carapace armour turns you on, in which case fly your freak flag high), featuring old favourite equipment and environments used in a new series of tactical mini-campaigns. Better still, it’ll be initially free to owners of War Of The Chosen. It’s out next week, October 9th. Check the reveal trailer below.

The DLC will add a new main menu option – the Legacy Hub. There you’ll find Legacy Operations (four short mini-campaigns – all tactics, no strategy), a Skirmish mode that lets you set up custom battles, plus offline versions of War Of The Chosen’s hundred challenge missions. Legacy Operations are set between the end of XCOM 1 and the start of XCOM 2, telling the story of how Bradford and pals got the band back together. They’ll feature old and new equipment to fill in blanks in the timeline, and some familiar remixed environments.

Because Firaxis don’t like to waste effort, all the new equipment and map segments introduced in the Legacy Operations will also be integrated into the War Of The Chosen campaign once the new ops are completed. More ways to shoot aliens, and more places to shoot them in – it’s all good. Last of the features is the option to pick from three different soundtracks. XCOM 2, XCOM 1, or a new soundtrack ‘inspired’ by X-COM: UFO Defense. From the little clip of it we hear in the trailer, I’m almost certainly going to be picking the third – heroic sci-fi action synths for me.

This is a lovely little send-off for XCOM 2 and I can’t wait to dive back into the game to play through the new missions. The only thing I have left to grumble about is that Firaxis never brought back Pavonis Interactive to adapt their Long War mega-mod to War Of The Chosen, although perhaps modders have already worked that out – I’ve been out of the commander’s chair too long. Now, how about a sequel announcement?

The Tactical Legacy Pack launches next Tuesday, October 9th, and will be free to anyone with XCOM 2’s War of The Chosen expansion until December 3rd, growing a price-tag later. Firaxis have dumped a few more details on Steam here.