Lamplighters League is a Game Pass marvel coming for XCOM’s crown
According to Harebrained Schemes co-founder Mitch Gitelman, I was the first non-playtester and developer to play the Shadowrun Trilogy team’s newest strategy game, the pulpy 1930s Lamplighters League. Looking up at a screen at the Xbox loft in San Francisco during GDC 2023, I was engrossed by the blend of real-time stealth and XCOM-like turn-based combat, and I was grinning from ear to ear the whole time.
When I figured out you could wait safely in long grass for a patrol to walk past explosive crates surrounded by oil – with all the enemies, interactables, and items placed randomly in each level – and took out four guards at once, I laughed. I later found out that Gitelman and the rest of Harebrained Schemes cheered behind me as they watched this happening, because I’d just unwittingly proved something the team had been worried about when showing off their newest game for the first time; Lamplighters League absolutely rules.
On top of getting an hour of hands-on time with Lamplighters League myself, I also sat down for an interview and hands-off showcase with both Gitelman (left) and game director Chris Rogers (right), who took me through a mid-game mission and showed off the in-game systems. Both were probably as hungry as I was while waiting for lunch, but it didn’t stop us from getting down to brass tacks with the recently revealed Lamplighters League.
If I’m being deliberately reductive, Lamplighters League immediately made me think of the Firaxis XCOM reboot: the UI and visual language were instantly familiar, and a few mechanics from throughout the series, especially XCOM 2: War of the Chosen, appear in this rip-roaring 1930s pulpy adventure.
That’s not to say Lamplighters League isn’t original, it’s actually
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