To be fair, he’s not wrong the original X-Com can become a mess of stats and units very quickly. Upon playtesting, Jake and the team came to the realization that the time unit system - and by extension the variety of attributes for units - was just too cumbersome to bring back as they were.
The famous “time units” which dictated all the actions a squaddie could do in a turn were on display. Early versions of the game mirrored the original’s focus on RPG stats and values for how troops operated. In videos and interviews, Jake Solomon (Creative Lead on XCOM) spoke about how they originally approached making XCOM. To understand the difference between Firaxis’s take on XCOM and other tactical strategy games, you need to grasp one important concept.
This year, I’ve been able to play a variety of tactical strategy games, and I can finally put into words why I feel XCOM and XCOM 2 just don’t work for me from a design perspective.
