FA+
Shop
XCOM 2 Review - Coil Me Up You Scaley Bitch!
10 years ago
General
Posted from my Steam Account Review:
The short of it is that XCOM 2 is the successor XCOM: Enemy Unknown needed, though not without needing some spit n' polish.
Story was never the series strongest points, but they do give a creative twist at the start, changing up all you knew and did in the first games to really give perspective on your situation. However, don't expect superior writting. While the story about it is passable, it still rings loud with the script of a B-Class Sci-Fi movie, however, it does flow well with the game as you play.
The gameplay, however, is the real meat of the product, and from what I've seen, it's got quite a bit of juicy detail, though some of the game's features have been streamlined, for better or for worse, all rolled into a ball of Risk vs. Reward for your efforts. For starters, the general gameplay of squad tactics and turned based combat has not changed one bit. However, some new tricks have been tossed in to improve gripes from the last game. Gone are the missions where you start by inching forward with overwatch every few steps till you stumble on a pod and trigger them into cover. Unless a mission is designated loud, your team will always jump into a Concealed Mode, which makes them invisible to the enemy, letting you scout areas, set up ambushes, and prepare for your next step. Pods (term for enemy groups) won't scatter to cover upon revealing, however, now pods won't stick around and wait for you either. Pods now patrol maps carefully, and can walk up on your team if you're not careful. This can change your game plan dramatically, and let you start a faster approach at the start.
Timers are now a bigger thing in XCOM, as some missions will require you to complete the mission in a set number of turns. Often in short, fast paced missions. This can turn to a bit of a gripe for some players as they have become more prevalent. However, unlike claims I've heard, I've only run into so many, usually 40% of my missions are timed, the others stand with standard rules. This has been my personal experience though, and while, yes, I have lost missions to those timers, I can't say they are unfair. Your mileage may vary, but I found them tense, and sometimes enjoyable.
Maps now are procedurely generated now, so no more set locations for the 'best spot' for certain classes. This does, however, lend to unpredictable situations that can both make or break a strategy. However, on occasion, maps can end up in a whole 'guaranteed lose' situation, but that's the name of the game to the RNG gods.
The map system has also undergone an overhaul. Instead of rolling the clock waiting for things to happen, you'll be jumping point to point to access locations for supplies, intel, and other random rewards, while also juggling these matters with sudden alerts, guerrilla tactics, and 'Dark Events' variables thrown in at random that increase the difficulty, but can be countered selectively. Much like the panic attacks, you pick and chose a target for Dark Events, you can counter one, but you will have to survive through the others. On that same breath, Panic is gone, instead gauged by an overall gauge for an endgame event, once full, you have 20 days to drive it back down, or lose. Thankfully, watching countries and the Satellite rush are negated here. There are plenty of opportunities to drive back the end game event, but again, risk vs. reward, you may want to allow it to progress to gain benefits you really need.
Outside of gameplay there are a ton of features to toy with, with a large range of customization for your soldiers, to even creating pools of these characters folks can share, hire, and deploy; streamlined base building, though this can annoy folks, it does make planning out your constructions easier while working with limited resources; and lastly, being able to lock soldier's language to their country (though there are fewer voices than Enemy Unknown, but this may change).
Now the downsides. Sadly, out at launch XCOM2 was released poorly optimized. While I did get it to run well enough on my rig, there are FPS issues, as well as graphics matters that were not addressed immediately, but these will likely see patches in the weeks to come. Others may be put off by the jarring difficulty curve that comes from timers and enemies this time around compared to EU, you will be challenged, you will fail missions, and you will lose soldiers. There are also issues with collission and obstruction, enemies shooting through walls, and attacks landing where they really shouldn't can cause a lot of frustration. Lastly, the save game gripe from EU was never addressed, instead piling in tons of autosaves and other saves into one window, making it hard where you want to restore your game.
All negatives aside, the game has just launched and will likely see patches soon to address everything from optimization to obstruction mechanics. Give it a week or two.
All in all, after 30 hours in, I want to do more. With open modding support, hours of fun gameplay, and a lot more strategic thought, the game is definitely hitting up there among the top rated games of 2016 in my book. However, the difficulty curve and changes prove that Firaxis is looking for a specific niche of gamers, not for a broader audience.
In short: I highly recommend this game, but its not a game for everyone.
The short of it is that XCOM 2 is the successor XCOM: Enemy Unknown needed, though not without needing some spit n' polish.
Story was never the series strongest points, but they do give a creative twist at the start, changing up all you knew and did in the first games to really give perspective on your situation. However, don't expect superior writting. While the story about it is passable, it still rings loud with the script of a B-Class Sci-Fi movie, however, it does flow well with the game as you play.
The gameplay, however, is the real meat of the product, and from what I've seen, it's got quite a bit of juicy detail, though some of the game's features have been streamlined, for better or for worse, all rolled into a ball of Risk vs. Reward for your efforts. For starters, the general gameplay of squad tactics and turned based combat has not changed one bit. However, some new tricks have been tossed in to improve gripes from the last game. Gone are the missions where you start by inching forward with overwatch every few steps till you stumble on a pod and trigger them into cover. Unless a mission is designated loud, your team will always jump into a Concealed Mode, which makes them invisible to the enemy, letting you scout areas, set up ambushes, and prepare for your next step. Pods (term for enemy groups) won't scatter to cover upon revealing, however, now pods won't stick around and wait for you either. Pods now patrol maps carefully, and can walk up on your team if you're not careful. This can change your game plan dramatically, and let you start a faster approach at the start.
Timers are now a bigger thing in XCOM, as some missions will require you to complete the mission in a set number of turns. Often in short, fast paced missions. This can turn to a bit of a gripe for some players as they have become more prevalent. However, unlike claims I've heard, I've only run into so many, usually 40% of my missions are timed, the others stand with standard rules. This has been my personal experience though, and while, yes, I have lost missions to those timers, I can't say they are unfair. Your mileage may vary, but I found them tense, and sometimes enjoyable.
Maps now are procedurely generated now, so no more set locations for the 'best spot' for certain classes. This does, however, lend to unpredictable situations that can both make or break a strategy. However, on occasion, maps can end up in a whole 'guaranteed lose' situation, but that's the name of the game to the RNG gods.
The map system has also undergone an overhaul. Instead of rolling the clock waiting for things to happen, you'll be jumping point to point to access locations for supplies, intel, and other random rewards, while also juggling these matters with sudden alerts, guerrilla tactics, and 'Dark Events' variables thrown in at random that increase the difficulty, but can be countered selectively. Much like the panic attacks, you pick and chose a target for Dark Events, you can counter one, but you will have to survive through the others. On that same breath, Panic is gone, instead gauged by an overall gauge for an endgame event, once full, you have 20 days to drive it back down, or lose. Thankfully, watching countries and the Satellite rush are negated here. There are plenty of opportunities to drive back the end game event, but again, risk vs. reward, you may want to allow it to progress to gain benefits you really need.
Outside of gameplay there are a ton of features to toy with, with a large range of customization for your soldiers, to even creating pools of these characters folks can share, hire, and deploy; streamlined base building, though this can annoy folks, it does make planning out your constructions easier while working with limited resources; and lastly, being able to lock soldier's language to their country (though there are fewer voices than Enemy Unknown, but this may change).
Now the downsides. Sadly, out at launch XCOM2 was released poorly optimized. While I did get it to run well enough on my rig, there are FPS issues, as well as graphics matters that were not addressed immediately, but these will likely see patches in the weeks to come. Others may be put off by the jarring difficulty curve that comes from timers and enemies this time around compared to EU, you will be challenged, you will fail missions, and you will lose soldiers. There are also issues with collission and obstruction, enemies shooting through walls, and attacks landing where they really shouldn't can cause a lot of frustration. Lastly, the save game gripe from EU was never addressed, instead piling in tons of autosaves and other saves into one window, making it hard where you want to restore your game.
All negatives aside, the game has just launched and will likely see patches soon to address everything from optimization to obstruction mechanics. Give it a week or two.
All in all, after 30 hours in, I want to do more. With open modding support, hours of fun gameplay, and a lot more strategic thought, the game is definitely hitting up there among the top rated games of 2016 in my book. However, the difficulty curve and changes prove that Firaxis is looking for a specific niche of gamers, not for a broader audience.
In short: I highly recommend this game, but its not a game for everyone.
also, i can imagine this game turning into a sort of civilization game, sept it would be many people playing the same game to defeat an army of aliens