Gamasutra released an interview today with Jonathan Pelling, creative director at 2k Marin, about the upcoming reboot of the X-Com franchise.  Now, as someone who looks upon the original game as something akin to a masterpiece, I am perhaps a little biased towards the conversion into an FPS.  That said, when I read things like this:

I think once the fans start to realize that this is a game that adheres to the core XCOM tenets — it may not be aesthetically the same, and of course it’s not a turn based tactical game anymore, it’s a first person shooter — but it still maintains that essential vibe, that fear and tension of going up against an unknowable enemy and being in charge, and running an organization, and making all the big choices.

…it can’t help but reinforce my feelings that these guys really have no clue what X-Com is actually about. To say that they are stripping away everything about the game – the setting, the overall story, and most especially the mechanics – and then claiming that they are going to “maintain the essential vibe” sounds like nothing more than weak marketing mumbo-jumbo.  Sure, if you view the “essential vibe” of X-Com as being about fighting an enemy and making choices, then, yeah… your new game will probably have that.  You know what other games have that?  LOTS.  If I distill Modern Warfare down to its “essential vibe” of fighting bad guys with guns, then please allow me to offer you my new Modern Warfare design: I’ve changed the setting to WWII, and made the whole thing turn based, from a “grand strategy” perspective.  I call it Panzer General, but that’s just a working title.

At any rate, this interview has done little to encourage me that 2k Marin are going to hit a home run here, but as the game isn’t out, I will have to reserve final judgment.  It may, in the end, turn out to be an excellent game; but that doesn’t mean it’s X-Com.