XCOM puts narrative first

2K Marin is playing to its strengths with XCOM: story telling.

"We came to realise that our studio has a strength in its storytelling and narrative abilities," creative director Jonathan Pelling told RPS.

"[Jordan Thomas] is a relatively recent addition to the project and he’s been an absolute treasure as far as the narrative is concerned in the game. What we really want to do with XCOM is tell the origin story."

Pelling commented that the game had always been planned around a "big" and "compelling" central story, with offshoots for those looking to build their team's resources.

"Our goal is to tell a really interesting story through the main thread, so there are a lot of really great set pieces to encounter along the way; but within that, there are grades, if you like," he said.

"There’s a primary storytelling environment, and there’s other side-missions are not going to be as highly scripted in a narrative sense as the main missions themselves."

Nathan took a look at XCOM at E3. The game is based on a series of tactical turn based titles, but seems to be going in a Mass Effect-like first-person direciton this time aorund. It's due on PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in March 2012.