XCOM: Enemy Unknown PC Details Emerge

Long-time fans of the XCOM series have sure been worried about what many see as the “consolization” of the series in the upcoming XCOM: Enemy Unknown. It seems these fears can finally be put to rest, now that it has been confirmed that the PC version of the game will not only embrace the modding community, but will also feature a distinct UI separate from that of the console versions of the game.

“The idea is that there is the ability for modability,” Lead Designer Jake Solomon told
PC Gamer. “It won’t be anything that we’re committing to for release, but it’s very very easy using Unreal titles.”

When asked whether the UI in the PC version of the game would be similar to the UI for the console versions, Solomon answered with an emphatic “no” (six “noes”, to be exact), stating:

We have a team that’s doing the PC UI, and there are some elements where it can make sense to use the base, like when we have menus and things like that, but our tactical UI is a standalone PC tactical UI. And so we have a PC tactical UI that we’re working on that is distinct, because obviously mouse driven with a tactical game – being able to select objects of interest – as opposed to a gamepad, where you’re cycling through objects of interest. No, no, we definitely have PC and we plan and we have UI that’s unique.

Though they can now be put aside, concerns regarding a broken UI on the PC are certainly understandable. When another new title in a formerly PC-only series, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, launched last year, PC gamers across the internet bemoaned the game’s broken UI. It was, they claimed, clearly optimized for consoles and hardly navigable by mouse.

So go ahead, XCOM fans. You can now take a breath and relax. Or you can go back to complaining about how the XCOM reboot should be a turn-based strategy game. I wouldn’t blame you.