XCOM 2's Massive Expansion Is Just A Couple Of Months Away

E3 2017 concluded last week and most of us are probably still taking in all the information. One big announcement, which debuted at this year's PC Gaming Show, was XCOM 2's expansion called War of the Chosen. It's coming on August 29 and there's a lot of content packed into this expansion.

Based on Firaxis' track record, post content from them means new mechanics and content that would make it a fresh experience for veteran players. Here are the details for XCOM 2: War of the Chosen:

New Factions & Hero Classes: Three additional factions – the Reapers, Skirmishers and Templars – each with its own Hero class.
The Chosen: A deadly new enemy force that will kidnap, interrogate and kill XCOM’s soldiers. They can even invade the strategy layer and ravage XCOM’s global operations.

New Alien and Advent Threats: Adopt new tactics to counter a deadly new alien known as the Spectre, the explosive attacks of the ADVENT Purifier, and the psionically charged ADVENT Priest.

New Environments and Mission Objectives: Players can engage in wide-ranging tactical missions, from abandoned cities devastated by alien bio-weapons during the original invasion, to underground tunnels and xenoformed wilderness regions.

Enhanced Strategy Layer: Manage relations with factions while countering enemy operations from the Avenger.
Greater Customization & Replayability: Soldiers cultivate bonds with compatible teammates for new abilities and perks, while the SITREP system dynamically adds new modifiers to the tactical layer to make sure every missions provides a unique challenge.

Challenge Mode: New regular community challenges that rank players on a global leaderboard.

In an interview with Polygon,  XCOM designer Jake Solomon mentioned that War of the Chosen has enough features to be "the groundwork for XCOM 3".

During the interview, Jake Solomon further explained a few additions with War of the Chosen. A new mechanic called "Bonds" increase the level of depth when it comes to maintaining your squad members. New soldiers will have a compatibility rating and certain units will mesh well together or the other way around. As the Bonds increase within the battlefield, new skills will unlock for that soldier, but certain actions can decrease the compatibility with specific soldiers. For example - save a soldier he/she didn't like. Ouch, picky. 

There will be three new factions for us to play around with, and based on the trailer, there will be a ton of new voice lines and cinematics added into the game. 

XCOM 2 was a challenging game on its own and the content was enough to keep you up for nights on end. We didn't hear much from Firaxis but it's good to hear that they are continuing to work on new content for the XCOM franchise and that the wait for the expansion isn't so long. Let's just hope the launch for War of the Chosen will be a smooth one compared to the issues players faced during the release of XCOM 2.  

XCOM 2 was originally released on February 2016 on PC, but was later released on PS4 and Xbox One in September of 2016.  

XCOM 2: War of the Chosen will be out on August 29 on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. No price was given as of this moment.