Long War 2, an ambitious, large-scale mod, on the horizon for ‘XCOM 2’

By Steven Petite Published January 5, 2017

The developers behind the XCOM 2 free add-ons “Alien Pack,” “Perk,” and “Laser Pack” have been working hard to bring out more new and exciting content for Firaxis’ popular strategy game.

Pavonis Interactive, previously known as Long War Studios, is working on a large-scale PC mod called “Long War 2,” according to a new post on the XCOM official website.

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Fans of the PC versions of XCOM: Enemy Unknown and XCOM: Enemy Within will likely remember the original Long War mod. Unlike most mods, Long War was an all-encompassing refinement. The mod, released in beta in 2013, tweaked almost every facet of the game, from the nuances of the campaign to character classes to weapon customization and more. Like many mods, Long War started as a fan-made project, but after receiving unprecedented critical acclaim, widespread downloads, and even praise from Firaxis, the core developers banded together to create a formal studio. “Long War” moved out of beta in late-2015, and has been played by over 500,000 unique players.

Details are sparse on both XCOM’s official site and the newly launched Pavonis Interactive, but if Long War 2 manages to implement even half of the refinements seen in the original, the upcoming mod will certainly be a welcome addition to the already stellar tactics game that we awarded a perfect score upon its release.

Long War 2 does not currently have a timetable for release, but we expect updates in the next few weeks. As with all of Pavonis Interactive’s XCOM franchise mods, Long War 2 will almost assuredly be free, as it is not official DLC from Firaxis Games.

Pavonis Interactive has been quite busy as of late. The Colorado-based independent developer is working on their own extraterrestrial strategy game, Terra Invicta — possibly explaining the company name change. The project is currently in pre-development and eyeing a future Kickstarter campaign.

We will provide more concrete information on the progress of Long War 2 as it develops.

Steven is a writer from Northeast Ohio currently based in Louisiana. He writes about video games and books, and consumes…

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