XCOM: Enemy Within - The Mechtoid

The 2K Developer Blog has posted information about the Mechtoid one of the new enemies in XCOM: Enemy Within.

When we decided to add mechanized cybersuits to the XCOM arsenal, there was little doubt the aliens would get a new mechanized unit as well. We discarded the idea of doing a “light” mechanized pass on several aliens while keeping their animation sets; this didn’t distinguish the new mech elements enough. So we had to pick one, and settled on the Muton. The Muton seemed like a natural choice; culturally very attracted to impressive armor and firepower, and occupying a bruising front-line combat role. But as we kicked the idea around it made less and less sense. Mutons already wear distinctive heavy armor; the mech elements would have to be very exaggerated if they were to make sense visually. And mech elements would simply add to the Mutons’ strengths. Why not mechanize an alien who really needs it?