Scene-By-Scene Analysis of the 2011 XCOM Trailer.
First things first.
One, a disclaimer: I don't work for 2K Games. I'm just a fan of the X-Com series who's been keeping an eye on this ever since he read a blurb about it in OXM a couple years back.
Two: If you haven't watched the trailer in its entirety, go watch it here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8YzbQFSkN4 (Go ahead. I'll wait.)
Okay, now that you're finished watching the trailer, let's start with the analysis.
Part One: Teletype and Photographs (http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=W8YzbQFSkN4#t=8s)
Obviously, the teletype is there to relay information about whatever missions you'll be undertaking.
Here's the full text of the teletype message from the trailer:
5-12-62 DEPLOY XCOM DIVISION.
CLASSIFIED MATTER OF NATIONAL SECURITY.
REPORTS OF WIDESPREAD VIOLENCE, UNEXPLAINED DEATHS, AND GEOLOGICAL ANOMALIES IN AND AROUND ELKHART, INDIANA.
USA UNDER ATTACK FROM WITHIN.
DEPLOY XCOM DIVISION IMMEDIATELY.
SAFETY OF POPULATION IS PRIMARY CONCERN.
USE ANY MEANS NECESSARY.
This, to me, sounds like a classic X-Com terror mission - aliens are attacking a town, and it's your job to stop them. What makes me think this is a terror mission is the following phrase:
SAFETY OF POPULATION IS PRIMARY CONCERN.
Another key phrase in the teletype message:
USE ANY MEANS NECESSARY.
In other words, capture the aliens if you can - but if you can't, don't hesitate to kill them.
Now for the photographs. The first batch of them is of civilians killed by an alien attack.
In this group, we have what appears to be a woman who was hanging her laundry out to dry, a man who was inside a building of some kind, and another man who was attacked while playing golf (note the golf-club bag that's on the ground next to him). All three victims have something in common: a black residue on their bodies, and some kind of black vapor drifting up from them.
Now, if you watched the 2010 version of the trailer, you'll recognize these as the hallmarks of a blob attack - which confirms that the blobs from the first trailer will most likely be appearing in the final game.
The second batch of photographs appears after the teletype spits out the phrase USA UNDER ATTACK FROM WITHIN. These victims, however, are very different from the civilians in two important ways: one, they're soldiers, and two, they do not share the characteristic goo-smear-and-vapor indicators of a blob attack. Instead, there are scorchmarks on their uniforms. This means that a different type of alien engaged them, most likely with an energy weapon of some kind. (This becomes abundantly clear at 33 seconds into the trailer, when the camera pans over another group of soldiers who were slaughtered by the aliens, and at 39 seconds into the trailer, when the camera pulls back from a third batch of soldiers who suffered the same fate.)
As for why we have photographs of the victims of alien attacks? My theory is that they'll provide valuable clues to the scientists who are studying the aliens and their technology - clues as to the various effects of the alien attacks, and how to protect yourself and your men against them.
Part II: "The Enemy Is Among Us" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=W8YzbQFSkN4#t=41s)
44 seconds into the trailer, we have a soldier who's reading through a book that he's found in part of an army encampment. At the opening of the tent, there's a dead soldier, and there's another one slumped on the ground next to a table. There are also a whole bunch of papers scattered around the floor of the tent, and the closer of the two dead soldiers has a gaping starburst wound in his chest that's very similar to one seen in the second batch of dead soldiers.
More important, though, is the single living soldier. Why is there a strange blue glow emanating from his eyes? Something's not right here . . . but we'll get back to that in a bit.
In the next few scenes, we see the following: storm clouds gathering over a movie theater, strange lightning arcing through clouds gathered over a schoolhouse, and some kind of energy burst that hits the ground behind a low sandbag wall in front of the schoolhouse - which, shortly afterwards, is revealed to be the method by which the aliens deploy themselves to our world, as a squad of four bipedal creatures comprised of block of polished onyx start running towards the sandbag wall from the impact site.
Now we cut from the exterior shots to a series of interior ones, set in what appears to be someone's house. A spiny flying alien swoops down and impales what appears to be an unfortunate civilian - I say civilian because he seems to be unarmed - while he's in a room that seems to have been turned into a hive by some of the blob aliens (note the black spears on the walls and the clusters of goo in the corners). A similar alien bursts through a wall, flying at the camera, and then we cut to a scene of another person being sucked into the floor by what appears to be an alien trap of some kind.
Back to the exterior shots, where a Titan (that's what the monolith-like creatures are called, according to what I've read) is assembling itself, using energy beamed from a portal above and - amongst other things - shingles from the roofs of buildings around it.
Now we have a scene with a new type of alien: it resembles a dish antenna comprised of glossy black panels, with a glowing orb where the focal point of the antenna would be. Another terror unit, perhaps, akin to the Titan and the blobs?
Part III: "We Need Humanity's Best" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=W8YzbQFSkN4#t=61s)
More interior shots: first of what looks like a briefing room, where XCOM agents - and it's nice to see that there are both male and female agents - are apparently being briefed on an upcoming mission, and then of two agents inside a helicopter, one wearing some kind of strange device around his neck while the other has something on his wrist and a strange metallic backpack and a metallic device that's wrapped around his lower left arm. (My theory is that the neck device is protective equipment of some kind - perhaps a force-field generator - and the backpack-and-wrist-device is a weapon. But what they are isn't important: what is important is that these are obviously the products of research into the aliens and their technology.)
Back to the exterior, where the helicopter banks over the movie theater we saw earlier in the trailer, oviously headed for a landing zone somewhere in Elkhart.
And now, combat! We have a squad leader ordering XCOM agents towards a building, another XCOM agent reloading his weapon, XCOM agents opening fire from behind one sandbag wall while aliens return fire from behind a second (and it looks like the aliens have their own version of a submachinegun, as well as a slower-firing energy weapon of some kind - but the energy-weapon wielder is summarily dispatched moments later), and what looks like another alien terror unit: a walking gun turret.
To me, it's looking pretty good so far - it appears that we're going to have squad-based combat in this game, much like we did in the original X-Com games. The big difference is that instead of being a commander issuing orders from afar, you'll be part of the boots-on-the-ground reaction force, actually getting up close and personal with the aliens.
A break from the combat, as we return to the base for a moment: first, we see an agent who looks rather frustrated, along with a blueprint for something on the table he's sitting at, after which we cut to a laboratory where scientists are test-firing a new weapon they've developed - and not having much luck hitting their intended target, if the burning wires overhead are anything to go by!
And back to the combat, as the squad leader fires some kind of weapon at a floating-dish alien. But instead of killing it, the weapon's projectile seems to suck it into a small black sphere that then falls to the ground. I can't say I didn't see this coming - if you're going to study an alien invasion force, you can't just dissect their corpses. You need to have live specimens to examine and interrogate as well. That was key to the original games, and it looks like it's going to be key to this reboot as well.
More combat, with the squad leader ordering the deployment of something against some aliens they're fighting . . . and that "something" turns out to be one of the floating dishes! To me, this seems to indicate that the floating dish aliens are some kind of support unit, and not a separate species of alien - a theory which appears to be held up when the squad leader orders the floating dish to open fire on the aliens they've currently engaged, to devastating effect.
And now we cut back to the tent from earlier. Uh-oh, that sodier with the glowing blue eyes has seen you, and he's coming straight for you . . .
. . . and now we know why his eyes are glowing: he's an alien in disguise! An interesting twist, that - could it mean that the aliens will actively try to infiltrate XCOM? If so, that could well set the scene for another element from the classic X-Com series: the base-defense missions, which were something that I both dreaded and enjoyed.
Well, that's the end of my little analysis. Hopefully my theories are correct, and the naysayers will be proven wrong. All we can do now, though, is watch, listen, and learn.