A flamethrower that burns around cover (but may be exhausted) is also a perfect weapon for a mech. (I couldn’t see if the three others behind me also were stifling laughter.) The MECs’ skills are blatantly obvious, not the least of which is the “kinetic strike” that does 12 damage and comes with some hellacious animations. It makes enemy mechs a constant problem until you can take that little bastard out, and they’re either well back of the mech or parked right next to him, meaning eliminating him is usually a multi-personnel operation.Īnanda Gupta, the lead designer for Enemy Within, was next to me, offering some advice but, I suspect, secretly judging my missteps. A Sectoid Commander out in the dirt field buffed a Mechtoid there with a psionic shield, which is a perk they get and you don’t. Straight away I managed to dash into a flanked position with my assault, and in the turn that followed discover a nasty surprise in the barn, the Mechtoid, which is basically the aliens’ answer to your MECs.
I had a full squad of six, two of them MEC troopers and the other four all “gene-mod” soldiers of each standard class. My mission was a garden-variety alien abduction, taking place in about June on the game’s calendar, set on one of the new maps, a farm. I’ll tell you how it all worked in combat. You can catch up on the specifics in Kirk’s preview here. Though Firaxis says we’ve only seen a portion of what’s on the way, plenty already has been revealed for Enemy Within which, true to Firaxis’ M.O., will layer on a ton of extras to lure you back to yet another playthrough of last year’s game, which itself was one of 2012’s biggest award-winners.
In my playthrough at PAX I lost both my MECs, thanks to upgraded enemies that still present a harrowing threat no matter how much tougher you think you are. When you can’t take cover (but you can provide it), and you have a flamethrower, a re-usable super punch, a big gun and health up the ding-dong, your decisions with the MEC trooper - one of several new toys delivered by the Enemy Within expansion coming in November - should be pretty simple, amirite? Stompy-stomp, shooty-shoot, smirky-smirk.