| Platform | OVERALL |
|---|---|
| PC | 9.00 |
| Overall | 9.00 |
|
Xcom 2 is the full fledged sequel to the Xcom reboot by fireaxis. This is no expansion, xcom 2 brings all kinds of new ideas, increases the intensity and refines the turn based combat over its predecessor. The result is another fantastic strategy game from this storied franchise. XCom 2 takes place after the xcom group failed to defend earth in the last game. This unique twist allows the structure of the game to take a rebel like guerilla tactics approach than the usual earth defense angle of past games. Aliens have taken over our governments and have programs for human reform, they pretend to be aiding humans but secretly they are harvesting humans. Xcom now hides in a retrofitted alien spaceship and has to make contacts with various rebel groups across the globe. There is a doomsday counter counting down till the aliens complete their ultimate weapon which adds a whole layer of uneasiness as every move you make so wasting any time could lead to your doom. Every action takes time; making contact with a base, finding extra supplies, and of course all your research and development. Days go by and the aliens continue use to make headway, every week or so an event takes place adding modifiers to the game world which can make your life much worse like enemies gaining extra abilities. The only way to stop this is to take the fight to them. The tactical combat side of Xcom 2 fixes most of this issues with the remake, mainly how players would be able to hang back and just use overwatch. Most missions now have a turn timer forcing players into action. Each mission is now randomly generated and there is a far greater variety in the locations and mission types. Everything just feels better, the flow of the missions, the enemy variety and the abilities available to players. Now soldiers can fit into certain classes like scouts, snipers, grenadiers which all have their own skill trees of which you can specialize into one of two abilities trees. These abilities make the sting of losing a high ranking member hurt more than ever. High level characters with loads of abilities is a must for difficult missions. As the game progresses you need to make choices of what to allocate your time and resources into. Do you want to research that alien body that might lead to new armor or that alien weapon for new guns. Do you invest in a psi lab allowing any soldier to become a professor X like mind power agent of death through training or go for tactics school which grant team wide perks. It’s all very well balanced and there is always a steady stream of stuff to research and things to create. A lot of it has been streamlined even more than the remake. There are fewer stats to worry about, no more interceptors, loadouts are easier to manage, its basically been stripped to the essentials. This helps with game flow but man I miss having the depth of options from the original games which makes this seem like Xcom for babies in comparison. I did not enjoy the world metagame as much as the other xcom games but only by a small margin, the better tactical side more than makes up for it and if I had to choose one to improve its always the tactical side as that is the main gameplay. Limited turns, tougher enemies and more options to beat them all makes missions way more exciting. This is Xcom though so everything is still governed by the hidden dice roll. You can have a 95% shot chance and still miss the shot messing up an entire turn and putting your crew at risk. Most of the mechanics are the same as the last game, you have two actions per turn and taking cover is a big part of battles. The larger levels, breath of new weapons, skills and armor makes each battle more tactical. Still that damn dice roll can be a blessing and a curse, it sucks to have your beautiful plan ruined by the most unlikely miss. The opposite is true, the feeling of relief when that desperation low percentage shot is so great. Unpredictability makes Xcom what it is and it works best when you allow your men to stay dead. There is iron man mode that doesn't let you reload saves just in case you are tempted, I did not play this way, I find the game too unpredictable to have my first play have no way out of a bad spot. There are multiple difficulty modes and I found most of them to be easy. As I was playing I found out that deep in the Xcom community fans have broken down exactly what is happening behind the scenes on these modes. Apparently every difficulty mode except the hardest one actually cheats for the player, modifying dice rolls in the player's favor and making the enemy AI not play as aggressive. This means that the only way to play the game as fair as possible is to play at max difficulty which makes the game far longer. I found the difficulty below the hardest to still be too easy by the end and didn't want to jump to the hardest due to how it changes the meta game. Obviously there are many options and ways to play I just want to warn you read up on what these modes are to be able to choose what best suits you. Even with all the additions set strategies appear as the game goes on. Enemies that used to be a total pain become easy to dispatch. I wouldn't say the game becomes repetitive but after 30 or so hours missions don't hold the same fear they once did. This is partly due to the far better equipment and skills one develops but also from just learning good strategies. That said the final missions is huge and extremely hard, it's everything a final mission should be. The main story missions are also very well done, they pop up after certain research requirements are met and they almost always introduce a new enemy type, sometimes boss battle level ones that absolutely wreck any plan you had going in. When the game is bringing up new elements it is superb, but there is some repetition with the standard missions the deeper you go. In terms of performance Xcom 2 ran well for me but there are many complaints of how it shipped by players. Some framerate issues (its turn based who cares) and a few odd glitches appear but nothing substantial. The look of the game is very nice and the presentation of the battles is top notch. All the menus and commands are easy to understand and control. The story is even compelling with great voice work and good story beats. There is a lot to love here with the different ways you can challenge yourself, a game can last 20-40 hours. I didn’t explore it much but there is an online battle mode where you choose from humans and aliens to make a team and battle another player, it's neat but not really what I would spend my time on. This game is packed with great stuff, well worth your money. Xcom 2 does what a good sequel should do in that it doesn’t just do the same game twice. The switch from being the defenders of earth to rebels fighting the alien government really helps set this game apart from the rest of the series. The tactical turn based combat is the best it has ever been. All the elements are there and it makes Xcom 2 a great game any fan should play immediately. For me though it's still missing too much that the original old games from the 90s offered, the first remake I gave a pass but the second I was hoping to get more complex and in some ways it got more simple but better to play. It's a strange trade off, either way I had an absolute blast playing it, for sure one of the best games of this year. |
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Posted by Dvader Sun, 10 Apr 2016 00:06:22
Sun, 10 Apr 2016 14:43:37
Great review. I've never played an X-com game and find myself tempted to play the original. Or should I skip the original and go straight to two?
Sun, 10 Apr 2016 18:18:21
Which original remake or real original? Remake is really good and more of a true Xcom experience, I little easier too, better to start there.
Sun, 10 Apr 2016 20:00:34
Yeah, I was talking about the remake.
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