XCOM: Enemy Within DLC (EU2012)

On August 3rd, Producer 2K revealed during Gamescom 2013 a new DLC for XCOM: Enemy Unknown called XCOM: Enemy Within. It will be available also for consoles and has a release date of November 12th, 2013. There are more surprises coming according to the producers.

List of details revealed on August 21st on this [1], along with these articles [2], [3]:

The Meld

• The Meld containers need to be captured quickly (it will self-destruct) and it will be present in most maps.
• The Meld can be used to create either Mech Troopers (a new class) or to genetically increase any class abilities (including Mechs).
• 2 new base facilities: Genetics Labs and Cybernetics Labs

Gene Mods

• Alien Autopsies will reveal genetic modifications ("Gene Mods") for your soldiers.
• Gene Mods can apply to the following categories: Brain, Eyes, Chest, Skin, Legs, with 2 options available for each (and that can be swapped at a cost)
• Brain: Neural Feedback (damages an alien attempting mind control but doesn't reduce its chance) or Neural Damping (soldier immune to panic, becomes unconscious if enemy manages to MC it).
• Legs: Muscle Fiber (a soldier can climb walls without a Skeleton Suit) or Adaptive Bone Marrow (limited health regeneration for wounded soldiers).
• Chest: a double heart ability to protect your soldiers from death.
• Skin: a type of stealth skin that turns your soldiers invisible.

Mech Trooper

• Mech Troopers can be created from any soldier but they'll lose all abilities they previously had.
• Mech Troopers have MEC Suits which can be damaged and need to be repaired.
• Mech Weapons: Minigun, Railgun and an energy weapon, along with a Flamethrower, Proximity Mines and a Grenade Launcher.
• Mech Abilities: Shock-Absorbent Armor (starting ability); Collateral Damage (allows to target terrain), a high powered Melee attack, Damage Control (which reduces the damage taken for one turn), Cover & Squad Healing abilities to protect and heal other soldiers.

New Aliens

• Aliens also have two Mech versions, including the Mechtoid (Sectoid Mech version). The Mechtoid can fire twice in a turn and Sectoids can mind merge with it and give it a damage reducing shield (but it won't die if the merger is killed).

Class and Weapons Changes

• Two new grenades: Needle Grenade (after researching Chryssalid Autopsy), with a big blast radius but doesn't affect enemies in cover; Stealth Grenade, provides allies with a invisibility paint. Another report mentions also a Poison Grenade.
• Reaper Rounds gives ballistic weapon a bonus to Critical Hit chance.
• Assault's Close and Personal is now called Up Close and Personal: gives a free shot when within 4 tiles of an enemy.
• Support's Covering Fire now fires before the enemy uses its weapon.
• Sniper's Snap Shot aim penalty reduced from -20 to -10.
• Sniper's Squad Sight only gives Critical Damage if Headshot is used.
• Support's Deep Pockets now gives twice as many charges to Grenades, Arc Thrower, Medikits or any other item with unlimited uses.
• Foundry upgrade that gives all classes the ability to use twice an item.

Gameplay Changes

• Flanking system has been reworked with Aiming Angle: the closer you get to flank an alien, the more its cover bonus declines (works also against your soldiers).
• Critical bonus of stealth attacks reduced from 100 to 30.
• Saving a game will reset the RNG seed for the shots.

Interface Changes

• New Second Wave options.
  • Non-cover aliens (Mechtoid and Sectopod) have a 50% chance of firing at your soldiers on sight.
  • Randomize all Class abilities sets. You may have Heavies with Lightning Reflexes and Squad Sight.
• There will be an inventory button to strip away all items from a soldier ("make item available").
• You can now personalize your soldier's voice according to its nationality (French soldiers can speak in French or any other language) using the available audio packs for the current language editions.
• There's an option to shut up Drs. Vahlen and Shen.

New Maps

• Maps: some maps have been "tweaked", some to address exploding cars issues and to add Meld containers.
• The old and new maps will be mixed together but the game is set so that you'll see more of the new maps during a gameplay.
• There's now at least two new map settings that deal with crashed UFOs in a destroyed city and in a Farm.
• According to this Polish article, there will be 47 new maps.

Multiplayer

• You can now edit your squad on offline mode.
• 8 more maps for Multiplayer.

Unrevealed Features

• The Enemy Within trailer [4] now has a new version that includes a brief glimpse of a new symbol.