As Matt and I took our seats in what looked to be a small 1950′s kitchen, we had no idea what was in store for us. We were at the hustle and bustle of a loud E3, but this quiet and quaint kitch was completely different than anything we had seen previously at the 2K booth. This was XCOM - the new first person strategic shooter from 2K Marin Studios. How does it stand up to other games in 2K’s lineup? Find out after the jump.

We were shown XCOM by none other than Martin Slater, 2K Marin’s Studio Director. He started by saying just how much the team is big fans of its predecessor game, but want to take XCOM and the overall experience to a whole new level.

Fans of the original X-COM (hyphen included) know that the story of the original game is set in a 1950′s post-war America. This new game is no different. It’s the perfect America. The land of Pleasantville, cats getting stuck in trees and black and white “Leave It to Beaver” on the huge tube TV. Marriages consist of two and a half kids, a dog, and they don’t get divorced. These citizens are blinded to what is going on secretly behind the scenes, ultimately putting their faith in a government who can do no wrong. But something is going wrong. Something alien.

You play the role of William Carter, the head agent for XCOM. XCOM is an organization created by the American government to gather research, information from police reports, sightings and investigate alien attacks to fight the unknown.

This 1950′s idyllic America that people love so much is being ripped apart by an alien invasion.

Our first glance at the game out in the field shows a very classic America setting. If you have ever seen Pleasantville or the Sandlot you know what I mean. Everything included from this time period was meticulously put together with care. The house design, decor, clothing, music and even the 1950′s lawnmower were all perfectly recreated in the game. 2K Marin should know about this time period, the studio has got some experience with this art scheme. You’ll remember that they have put us in the depths of Rapture twice around 1949.

We were shown the classic XCOM base that fans of the original would surely love. I just thought it was a base inside an airplane hangar. In this base you’ll be notified of suspicious activities by your team, posting these events on a big map of the US. These could range from chances to gain Allerium (I believe that’s how you spell it), an alien substance used to power the technology and weapons, money, or research items. Also you’ll get emergency calls that play out similar to the creepy and haunting audio logs you find littered around Rapture. Basically, you are looking to the board for what you need at the time, and it’s up to you figure out what lead to follow. Choose the wrong one, and Sally from Kansas gets killed from the aliens.

After getting into the game for a few minutes, 2K Marin has no doubt sprinkled a few hints of Bioshock into XCOM. This is not a bad thing by any means. 2K is most known for creating deeply strategic gameplay with its long history of shooters, but ones which also tell a compelling story. You use a research camera plucked straight out of Bioshock to take photos of alien artifacts, dead bodies covered with alien matter, and any mysterious activities to learn from them. Research is a the new key element to XCOM. You’ll take photographs to take back to your base to gain intel from them and gain an understanding of what is going on. Then you’ll use that knowledge to build weapons and fight against the alien threat.

We made our way with our team via a few subtle gameplay hints and sound effects to find a house that had been attacked by the aliens. Searching around the front door area finds us face to face with a woman covered in some sort of ectoplasmic residue. Take a picture of her dead body for research on the shag carpet and move on. We enter the house to see a small black blob scurry across the floor and we give chase. Dishes crash and a woman begins to scream from upstairs. She’s in trouble. We gotta get up there. Racing up the stairs and into the bedroom we see the blob over next to the window, the woman in the opposite corner frightened. The blob makes a few hesitant moves and then lurches onto her face with tentacle like arms reaching out from its body. Shotgun blasts scream into the suburban air and we open fire blowing the alien to bits. The alien is on the ground, but the woman is dead. The shotgun did nothing. The blob is stunned from the buckshot, but its throbbing brain is sucking the dissected parts back into itself to reanimate. Time to break out some of those special XCOM weapons.

A few of the intel created weapons were shown off next, with one of them being called the “Blobatov”. This was a clear sphere which looked to have some sort of black oil in it and a detonator device. Maybe something like a clear thermal detonator (if you are a Star Wars fan)? It was basically this clear grenade filled with napalm to destroy the blue blob alien found in the house. It’s the only way to be sure those blobs are disintegrated and won’t come back. We used the alien technology we brought along to attack it and defeat it. The Blobatov burned the blobs till there was nothing left. Awesome!

The other weapon was an even better surprise to me. A lightning gun. This looked absolutely amazing in the demo, and it was an alternative way to make quick jelly out of those blobs. It literally does what it sounds like, it shot fucking bolts of lightning. It reminded me of a few weapons used in Rapture. Slightly out of the realms of the real world, but really freaking cool you didn’t even care. I don’t know how else to describe it, other than my notes saying that “the lightning gun looks amazing.”

To finish off the demo we were treated to seeing one of the kick-ass alien weapons going off: the Titan. This appeared in the sky as we ran back to our car. It started out as this sort of monolith hovering in the air, but morphed into this sort of all seeing eye and began raining hellfire from up above, disintegrating anything that stood in its way. A member of our team went up too close and started shooting it with a shotgun like an idiot, but we got a research picture of him evaporating. Say cheese!

With a well known studio like 2K Marin taking the reins of a beloved franchise like X-COM, one can have some doubts. Personally, I look forward to seeing what they do with this Bioshock formula and how they can take it to other games. It’s worked in previous titles for sure, and they have the chops to tell a compelling story while still giving us the first person shooter gameplay we’ve always wanted. XCOM looks to have that deep story we want with equally deep, strategic gameplay. Everything this gamer needs for a day one purchase.