X-COM: Alliance

X-COM: Alliance is a cancelled PC game by MicroProse. It was to be a first-person shooter.

Plot
You are the commander of a team of scientists lost in space. Your ship, the UGS Patton, was set course for Mars, but gets warped far away. You then find yourself in a conflict between the Ethereals and the Ascidians.

This game is set a few years after X-COM: Terror from the Deep.

Gameplay
The game hade a few depatures from traditional FPS games. For one, you can collect cash to upgrade weapons and technology. Other X-COM mainstays are present like psi-abilities, and UFOpedia.

You fight alongside a squad whom you can give commands to. You can take three squad members with you on missions. This made the game play more like Rainbow Six.

Multiplayer was included, featuring co-op, deathmatch, and capture the flag modes.

Development
X-COM: Alliance went through two development teams.
 * 1995-1999: MicroProse UK, Chipping Sodbury, England.
 * 1999-2002: MicroProse US, Hunt Valley, Maryland, USA.

The game was built on a modified Unreal engine.

Cancellation
X-COM: Alliance was cancelled in 2002 due to delays. In 2000 the team were directed to develop X-COM: Enforcer. Hasbro went out of business shortly after and Infogrames canned development.

Timeline:
 * 1995: development conceived as X-COM 4, game is self-published by Microprose
 * 1996: development starts by the UK studio
 * 1998: game is unveiled to the media, publisher is now Hasbro Interactive
 * 1999: development switches the the US studio, game shown at E3
 * 2000: game delayed as US team works on X-COM: Enforcer
 * 2001: publisher switches to Infogrames
 * 2002: game cancelled by Infogrames