Having talked recently about the boardgameliness of XCOM, someone was kind enough to point me in the direction of this beauty, bringing XCOM's particular brand of self-inflicted hell kicking and screaming into the physical world.
XCOM has the potential to be a great board game, so I hope it adequately translates the setting and the experience. The acid test for that, in my mind, is whether it has me and up to three other friends screaming, at the game and at each other, as we are collectively thrashed by a small pile of cardboard.
Just to ensure that the full joyous horror of XCOM doesn't manifest in the real world, Fantasy Flight are using a companion app (or alternatively a web tool, presumably browser-based). This could go either way. It will either be an absolute pain, imposing an unnecessary shackle on the flow of the game, or a positive innovation that improves the experience.
We won't know for sure until we get to play it, but from the way they've described the game, I'm not sure it's adding anything truly 'new', but let's wait and see - their suggestions of it teaching how to play are promising, though not enough to justify the app in its own right. If nothing else, it will provide a focal point - an object of hatred to hurl across the room when the going gets tough (which is less messy, I guess, than flipping the table). I may need to invest in a better iPad case, however.
Fantasy Flight generally does a great job on its board games, both in terms of polish and production value. It doesn't turn out perfect games all the time, but you can be pretty sure you'll get what you pay for so I have faith that if anyone can pull this off, they can. I look forward to yelling obscenities in their name - this will happen whether the game is good or bad, for different reasons.
XCOM: The Board Game will be released in or before the fourth quarter of this year.
