News

XCOM: The Board Game is a physical adaptation of the strategy classic, and you need an app to play it

App-y days

XCOM: The Board Game is a physical adaptation of the strategy classic, and you need an app to play it

There's an XCOM boardgame coming out. Now before you start squalling about how boardgames don't fit in your pocket, this one requires you to download an app to actually play it. Plus you can fit a couple of boardgames in a bag for life, so that totally counts.

The game is from Fantasy Flight, the company responsible for the Gears of War, StarCraft, World of Warcraft, and Doom boardgame adaptations. It also makes Netrunner, Blood Bowl: Team Manager, and Descent. So it's good.

The XCOM boardgame looks to be a big ol' bundle of chits, pieces, cards, and slightly smaller cards. The twist is a lot of the game is controlled by the free-to-download app.

It essentially organises the invasion, picking new strategies based on the information you put into it. So I guess you could cheat if you wanted, but that's not in the spirit of things.

This isn't the first time FF has done something app-y. The company has released digital dice-rolling apps for its Star Wars and Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay games, as well as a number of adaptations of physical boardgames.

XCOM: The Board Game will hit shops and internet retailers in the fourth quarter of 2014. You can get some more info on the game by clicking right here.
Harry Slater
Harry Slater
Harry used to be really good at Snake on the Nokia 5110. Apparently though, digital snake wrangling isn't a proper job, so now he writes words about games instead.