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XcOM 2 opinions.
10 years ago
OkAY now that I managed to log in about 24 hours into this game over period of a weekend I think I'm qualfied to talk about what i like and don't like.
THE GOOD/COOL
Customization: Okay so soldier customization has been expanded to insane degrees. The original and EU/EW let you do greta deal of customization, names/Callsigns, race, faces, hair, even armor apperaance and colour and voices. Well 2 expands on that and then some. You can give your soldiers little bios, change thier gender and nationality (So if you wanted a full squad of Zimbabwean women mopping up cheesy aliens you can!). You can customize voices and it even comes with prekacged accents. Indivdual armro parts are customizable. You can even change your soldier's eprosnaility, affect thier stance and even thier lines.
It's fun to spend a good hour tweakinga single soldier to your liking and wtach as they get butchered the next mission.
EXPANDED GAMEPLAY: Gameplay it lot more complicated and hectic and refelcts that in the narrative. late Game EU/EW once you realized how to proceed had you as a well funded elite teamReady to crush the enemy invaders. Here's scrapping by and racing against time. There is lot more happening in the Geoscape.Likewise tactical missions have expanded, randomized maps and objectives.
DESTRUCTIBLE ENVIRONMENTS: You're encourage dto use more explosives now as the maps can be wreaked even more.
NEW CLASSES: i missthe old ones and MECS, but the new classes feel like nice, guerilla deriations of the original four. I was bit ragey about them looking more specialized but reloading does not end your turn. Also gremlins are cute.
VERY PRETTY/MOD Support: this game looks gorgerous and feels tense. Likeiwse Mod support really helps, as it sorta killed EU/EW since the game made ironman too fucking buggy to actually try.
THE BAD/THE IFFY
SO MUCH GOING ON: While it's nice the Geocape was built up more, it creates problem where you're overloaded even early on with the tutorial on. You really got to get used to the game's many, many moving parts.
THE RNG IS A BASTARD SOMETIMNES: this game relies on the RNG a lot. However while stuff like randomized missions are a thing, sometimes it can bite you in the ass in unexpected ways. My thrid Blacksite mission had my Squad Spawn ON TOP OF A SECTOPOD I shit you not. And thankfully it waz sthe only enemy that dropped in on us. It also feels a bit like sometimes even being careful you can suffer a party wipe. A few missed shots and lucky mindspin, a guy guying, a guy panicking, and getting flanked and ina single turn I'm down three guys. Look i understand it's XCOM but even the original gave me like, 8-20 guys. EU/EW rarely felt this unfair.
OH DEAR GOD BUGS: Currently the game is less then optimized. I figured it might have been just me as my computer is about 3 years old now, but I'm not the only person whose complained. It tend to get the most slow down after a fresh load booting up. Also load times are long and frequent.
All in all aside from my miss givings and while not perfect, XCOM 2 a banging sequel and feels fresh and fun. I've had so much fun with it already. I imagine people will be playing it for years to come and it feels like much, MUCH betetr sequel then TFTD was back in the day.
(As much as I adore TFTD's aesthetic greatly)
THE GOOD/COOL
Customization: Okay so soldier customization has been expanded to insane degrees. The original and EU/EW let you do greta deal of customization, names/Callsigns, race, faces, hair, even armor apperaance and colour and voices. Well 2 expands on that and then some. You can give your soldiers little bios, change thier gender and nationality (So if you wanted a full squad of Zimbabwean women mopping up cheesy aliens you can!). You can customize voices and it even comes with prekacged accents. Indivdual armro parts are customizable. You can even change your soldier's eprosnaility, affect thier stance and even thier lines.
It's fun to spend a good hour tweakinga single soldier to your liking and wtach as they get butchered the next mission.
EXPANDED GAMEPLAY: Gameplay it lot more complicated and hectic and refelcts that in the narrative. late Game EU/EW once you realized how to proceed had you as a well funded elite teamReady to crush the enemy invaders. Here's scrapping by and racing against time. There is lot more happening in the Geoscape.Likewise tactical missions have expanded, randomized maps and objectives.
DESTRUCTIBLE ENVIRONMENTS: You're encourage dto use more explosives now as the maps can be wreaked even more.
NEW CLASSES: i missthe old ones and MECS, but the new classes feel like nice, guerilla deriations of the original four. I was bit ragey about them looking more specialized but reloading does not end your turn. Also gremlins are cute.
VERY PRETTY/MOD Support: this game looks gorgerous and feels tense. Likeiwse Mod support really helps, as it sorta killed EU/EW since the game made ironman too fucking buggy to actually try.
THE BAD/THE IFFY
SO MUCH GOING ON: While it's nice the Geocape was built up more, it creates problem where you're overloaded even early on with the tutorial on. You really got to get used to the game's many, many moving parts.
THE RNG IS A BASTARD SOMETIMNES: this game relies on the RNG a lot. However while stuff like randomized missions are a thing, sometimes it can bite you in the ass in unexpected ways. My thrid Blacksite mission had my Squad Spawn ON TOP OF A SECTOPOD I shit you not. And thankfully it waz sthe only enemy that dropped in on us. It also feels a bit like sometimes even being careful you can suffer a party wipe. A few missed shots and lucky mindspin, a guy guying, a guy panicking, and getting flanked and ina single turn I'm down three guys. Look i understand it's XCOM but even the original gave me like, 8-20 guys. EU/EW rarely felt this unfair.
OH DEAR GOD BUGS: Currently the game is less then optimized. I figured it might have been just me as my computer is about 3 years old now, but I'm not the only person whose complained. It tend to get the most slow down after a fresh load booting up. Also load times are long and frequent.
All in all aside from my miss givings and while not perfect, XCOM 2 a banging sequel and feels fresh and fun. I've had so much fun with it already. I imagine people will be playing it for years to come and it feels like much, MUCH betetr sequel then TFTD was back in the day.
(As much as I adore TFTD's aesthetic greatly)
I'm also going to chime in with the popular TIMERS ARE BS argument
Like, I can tell /why/ they put timers in, but it seems like artificial difficulty. I'd have preferred they upped the challenge in different ways
Maybe bring back prone, crouch, walking, running and sprinting options for greater tactical control, than arbitrary timers
Yeah it felt artificial in EW. And sometimes it doesn't make much sense? Like maybe the timer only starts once your concealment is broken?
Like I get the insurmountable force thing but sometimes the game forces you into bad tactical positions. Like having your covered destroyed bya Sectopod so you push into the fog of war...and trigger a pod of two Sectoids and goddamn GATEKEEPER.
Thankfully it's more forgiving than EU was, where you could be happily walking along and with your last turn trigger a party wipe
But there are still those moments where you're in the middle of a fight and something burns down or breaks and all of a sudden you're dealing with five more patrols xD
I'm also happy for the armor system since you can exploit it too, and it makes more sense for tough enemies while not being That Buff Sectopods got in EW.
I am also super glad tehre's more ways to deal with robotic enemies now. Bluescreen rounds and EMp grenades area lifesavour with delaing with Advanced MECS and Sectopods, lemme tell ya Jenny!