2K Games announced today that XCOM: Enemy Unknown, the highly anticipated action-strategy game from Firaxis Games, will include a unique multiplayer game mode featuring a one-on-one deathmatch against another player for the first time in an XCOM game. Players will be able to pick a squad of soldiers, aliens or even combine a squad of both unit types to create the ultimate mixed squad to command in battle.

"Throughout the history of the XCOM series, players have acted as the world’s last hope against the alien invasion," said Jake Solomon, lead designer of XCOM: Enemy Unknown. "With the multiplayer mode in XCOM: Enemy Unknown, gamers can finally find out what it’s like to command alien units and unleash extraterrestrial destruction on Planet Earth or defend it with a squad of XCOM soldiers and alien allies."

Multiplayer in XCOM: Enemy Unknown draws on the gameplay, tactics and strategy of the single-player experience without making any direct ties to the narrative, offering a standalone opportunity for gamers to enjoy the XCOM universe. Players can mix and match both alien and soldier units to comprise their squad, outfitting soldiers with dozens of armor types, weapons, items and class-based abilities for thousands of possible loadout combinations. These dream squads of up to six units are built using a point cap that can be scaled for players to fight in small skirmishes all the way up to epic battles. Matches can be modified by point limit or time limit per turn. Just like the single-player experience, the fog of war will conceal your enemy’s units until you encounter them on the battlefield, creating the tense anticipation that is the hallmark of the XCOM series.

XCOM: Enemy Unknown will be available for Windows PC, Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and PlayStation 3 computer entertainment system in North America on October 9, 2012 and internationally on October 12, 2012. XCOM: Enemy Unknown is rated M for Mature by the ESRB.