“Xcom 2: War of the Chosen” lead producer Griffin Funk revealed their methods in designing the main stars of the expansion: The Chosen. These guys were the mini-bosses that players face in random missions in the game with the installed expansion DLC.
There are three Chosen aliens that have their own abilities and skills. The first one was the Assassin that mainly used her blade. The second one was the Hunter that mainly used his sniper rifle, while the third one was the Warlock that used a lot of psychic powers.
The Chosen were created to tie two stories of the game
Funk revealed that The Chosen was actually created to connect the two stories of the video game. These two stories were the narrative of the campaign and the personal stories of the players. They have tried different kinds of methods to advance both of these stories, but it was hard to do.
If one of the stories was advanced too quickly, the other story would be gone and the experience would be of low quality. With these new adversaries, they have naturally advanced both stories because these mini-bosses existed in both parts in the game.
These alien bosses would interact with the players and every action will depend on their decisions, which made them involved.
They also had their own personalities and ideologies that affected the whole story.
Engaging all the way
The lead producer of “XCOM 2: War of the Chosen” discussed that they wanted the players to have opponents that would engage them along the way. Compared to the Elders in the vanilla version of the game, The Chosen taunted, hunted, and interacted with them from the start.
These mini-bosses were like playing together with the players as they advanced the narrative of the story. When players make upgrades for their soldiers, they were also doing the same.
The Chosen were created like the XCOM soldiers
Funk revealed that the development team created these mini-bosses in the same way as how they created the classes for the soldiers.
They wanted these characters to be more powerful with different combat styles that would make them fearsome. In this way, these opponents were unique and fun to play against.
Having strengths and weaknesses made them different
The lead producer also said that creating such major enemies in a game had a risk of having the same characteristics like personality, face, and more. They were glad that this was a big and dynamic game with numerous ways to inject customizations. The major factor of making these enemies unique was their procedural Strengths And Weaknesses that can be altered as the story goes on.
Check out the "XCOM 2: War of the Chosen" Inside Look: The Warlock Trailer here: