said MicroProse had problems to make the game's engine to work properly. The game, set for a Q4-2000 release, was pushed back again in August 2000 to "sometime in the year 2001." In January 2000, producer Martin DeRiso stated that the game was "60–70%" complete. However, the project was put on indefinite hold in late 2000, when the Hunt Valley studio was redirected to begin work on the much less-ambitious X-COM: Enforcer, using some resources from Alliance. In January 2001, Alliance had supposedly resumed development, and its new release date was set to the third quarter of 2001. After Infogrames Entertainment bought Hasbro Interactive, the game was postponed again because of the departure of a key team member (responsible for the implementation of the game's innovative AI system). Infogrames created an official website in February 2002, only to pull it down a few days later. The game was ultimately aborted in 2002 without any official announcement. Gollop commented: "X-COM: Alliance was in development for a long time. How the development got screwed up, I don’t know. As you’re probably well aware, quite often games companies start and you’re going for a long time and it just doesn’t happen." Reception Early versions of Alliance garnered very favorable responses from several video game publications, including GameSpot's "Best of E3 (Sequels)" award in 1998 and IGN PC's "Best Action Game of E3" award in 2000. GameSpy called it "the most ambitious game we've seen at E3" and "the pinnacle of tactical gaming, a new high-water mark that'll bust through established game genres," and PC Zone called it "a serious contender for 'game of the year'" in 2000. Further reading A development account and design documents for the original version of X-COM: Alliance shared by Terry Greer, a senior artist and head of game design at MicroProse UK. See also The Dreamland Chronicles: Freedom Ridge XCOM, a first-person shooter game that was later turned into third-person tactical shooter The Bureau: XCOM Declassified References External links Alliance X (GameSpy coverage) X-COM Alliance at GameSpot Action role-playing video games Cancelled Windows games Multiplayer and single-player video games Strategy video games Tactical shooter video games Unreal Engine games Video games set in the 2060s Video game sequels XCOM