If you ever wondered what it would be like to live under the alien threat from X-com: Terror From the Deep as a civilian, I have a book for you. Now, things do not line up perfectly, since they are set in different time periods; 1950 in the book, versus 2040 in the game. There are other things as well since The Kraken Wakes (Out of the Deeps in the US) is not an official book based on the X-com brand – but I got to say, it’s comes pretty damn close!
Deep sea aliens
I will try to avoid spoilers as much as possible related to the plot, as I don’t want to reveal too much. It’s a really enjoyable read, especially if you pretend in your head that it takes place in the X-com universe – so, I don’t want to ruin any surprises if you decide to give the book a go. However, I will talk about some stuff that references the ending, and how that connects to X-com. I will put a notice when it happens.
The Kraken Wakes is written as a book with our protagonist Mike Watson writing down the events of the alien invasion from the sea. He chronicles the whole ordeal (which lasted many years) from start to finish from the perspective of a civilian reporter. Starting with the initial distrust of the news and the absurdity of what was being reported – the increased terror at sea with disappearing cargo ships, and following drastic governmental responses. The book itself it’s not very long, but it’s a slow buildup that follows the events of X-com surprisingly well. X-com is of course not mentioned since it’s not part of the book, but even so, it is easily explained considering X-com is a highly secretive organization, that now as a bonus has been mostly forgotten as the first alien war is only a faint memory. Yeah, some liberals have to be taken here, since in the book there was no “first alien war”, but the story still works overall.
You don’t get into any tactical battles in The Kraken Wakes, X-com-style, but that was part of the charm to me – to follow the events of TFTD through the eyes of a regular Joe on the street. How would you react? The daily sinking of ships, the sea turning hostile, and trade disrupted forever. The battle against the foes from the sky is only reported haphazardly because as time goes by, worldwide communications get more and more difficult. You will have to imagine that X-com in this part of the book is fighting a shadow war against the alien menace, in a very clandestine method. Whatever win for humanity that gets reported is always mentioned as local forces, or civilians taking up arms and fighting back to keep the secret of X-com. [Here comes minor spoilers!] During the happenings in the book, you do get these reports, from islands fighting back, etc, but in the grand scheme of things these are only minor victories. See, The Kraken Wakes is rather apocalyptic in the end, and I won’t say how it ends, but the outcome of it all matches what X-com: Apocalypse has to say about the second great alien war:
The last war has indeed proven to be an expensive victory. The contamination of Earth’s atmosphere and the devastating climatic changes that ensued, have affected everyone. Whilst many sought to leave Earth and colonise other planets, a self-sufficient, self-contained city was successfully constructed here on Earth and thrived under the hazardous toxic atmosphere that surrounded our home world. Mega-Primus has already become an important historical achievement.
X-com: Apocalypse manual
The statement here doesn’t match up one hundred percent, since there were a few conflicts between the ending on TFTD and Apocalypse for you guys who know your lore, but in the spirit of having an X-com novel, I’m willing to see through the fingers on this one. I don’t want to spoil more than necessary, because if you are an X-com fan like me, I want you to read it as “blind” as possible. As mentioned, it’s a fun read, even without imagining it’s part of X-com Terror From the Deep, but I must say, doing so really spurred my imagination and made it just a little more engaging. It makes me wish we got some serious novels in the setting, but alas.
Thanks for reading.
/Thomas
Tom's Gaming Blog 