XCOM 2: FACTIONS

by Kevin J. Anderson, Michael Penick (Artist)

Human rebels fight to overthrow the alien occupation in this epic graphic novel based on the hit video game XCOM 2.

It’s 2035 and the war is over. For two decades, the alien invaders have lived side by side with their human conquests, preaching peace and coexistence, and slandering the human forces that fought to repel them. They think they’ve won the war. They think this planet is theirs. They think XCOM is finished.

They’re wrong.

Set in the action-packed world of XCOM and incorporating elements from the game, XCOM 2: FACTIONS expands the universe of the successful game franchise. Featuring sharp, dynamic artwork from top comics artists, this original story is the beginning of an exciting new comics series perfect for XCOM players and sci-fi adventure fans.

Genres: Science Fiction, Comics

64 pages, Hardcover

Published November 6, 2018

About the author

Yes, I have a lot of books, and if this is your first visit to my amazon author page, it can be a little overwhelming. If you are new to my work, let me recommend a few titles as good places to start. I love my Dan Shamble, Zombie P.I. series, humorous horror/mysteries, which begin with DEATH WARMED OVER. My steampunk fantasy adventures, CLOCKWORK ANGELS and CLOCKWORK LIVES, written with Neil Peart, legendary drummer from Rush, are two of my very favorite novels ever. And my magnum opus, the science fiction epic The Saga of Seven Suns, begins with HIDDEN EMPIRE. After you've tried those, I hope you'll check out some of my other series.

I have written spin-off novels for Star Wars, StarCraft, Titan A.E., and The X-Files, and I'm the co-author of the Dune prequels. My original works include the Saga of Seven Suns series and the Nebula Award-nominated Assemblers of Infinity. I have also written several comic books including the Dark Horse Star Wars collection Tales of the Jedi written in collaboration with Tom Veitch, Predator titles (also for Dark Horse), and X-Files titles for Topps.

I serve as a judge in the Writers of the Future contest.

My wife is author Rebecca Moesta. We currently reside near Monument, Colorado.

Reviews

[Jamie Roth · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fun, quick read that I recommend for fans of the series. It has some really nice art and adds some interesting lore and world building that I very much appreciated. My one criticism is that it is a little short for the price, but it is a nice looking, high quality hardcover.

[Afrodo · Rating 3 out of 5]

I get what this was going for, but it really didn't land for me.

The Reapers are portrayed mostly as a random group of resistance fighters, with little allusion to their far more stealthy and careful methods.

The story is all sorts of places. The Reapers team-up with XCOM remnants, they lead a mission together despite the Reaper's leader being apprehensive....and despite the fact that the mission was clearly faulty intel that lead them all into a trap resulting in the deaths of several Reapers, including a high-ranking one...it's considered a resounding success that makes the Reapers eager to work with XCOM again?

There's also the new expanded backstory of the Chosen, Hunter, which....feels weird. While the games did hint he was a former Reaper to some degree, directly tying him into Elena Dragunova felt like a strange take rather than one that added depth to his character. Especially since the scene where he's captured seems to imply he's a traitor at first, only to walk that back quickly after. Though a part of this might also come from the randomized nature of the game, where so much of the Hunters and the Reapers are randomized from a set. Kind of hard to buy that the Hunter had a set back story when I could be facing:

Dhay-Il Tessura, Grimlance in one game and then fighting Ref-Mai Dessurik, Darkstrider or Ref-Il Balladhur, Banewalker in another game. And you know, that's not even getting into the fact that Elena "Outrider" Dragunova is only a guaranteed Reaper if you have the tutorials on. So a bit of this hard-coded backstory will get lost on your average player.

There's also a couple typos throughout the book which is more than surprising to me. I get it's been a while since XCOM has been relevant, but misspelling scrutiny as "Scruitiny" is a rookie mistake auto-correct would have caught.

The book is also hard to read objectively. This might just be an issue with the Kindle version, but a lot of the text was oddly small for how busy the pages were and the zoom in feature had to zoom in to the point that I was able to start picking out individual pixels before I could comfortably read it.

All in all, not a terrible reason, but it is one that I think needed a lot more work before it saw the light of day.

[R.C. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book for those who like the War of the Chosen expansion. The art is really great, and the story is functional, though short. Mostly I was interested in the lore and backstories (Mox, Elena, Volk, and the Hunter) introduced. Bradford, Tygan, Lily, and Betos also make appearances. As others have mentioned, it's pricey for only 60 pages, but if you're a Skirmisher or Reaper fan, it's a fun diversion.

[Richard Shank · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun quick read! Feeling hyped to play xcom again. Good setup into the game story. Art and panels were great and well done. Coherent plot with a few twists, but rapid pace typical of comics.

[Caleb · Rating 4 out of 5]

I Really liked the story and how it tells how the reapers are related to xcom and how xcom knows them in the start of the video game XCOM 2 War of The Chosen

[Balazs Bognar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short, but great reding for XCOM fans

Great background story on some of the key characters from XCOM WoTC. Could have been a more detailed and longer though...