![]() Instead, you gain a negligible amount, and the rest are dropped in a supply cache that you have to go retrieve yourself. Additionally, you no longer automatically gain a sizable chunk of cash each month. You’re required to reach out to them and build radio towers in order to access other continents and, ultimately, the story missions they have to offer. Instead of starting with the world’s nations at a base approval level, you don’t even have contact with them. The Geoscape, the world map meta-game, has received a huge overhaul. Roll with the punches, right? I hate save scumming. With only one turn until my victory is assured, ADVENT reinforcements arrive and murder him. I nearly reach the extraction zone with the VIP, smartly wedging him behind cover in between two of my best operatives. ![]() I had a mission go fairly well until the last turn, when I was attempting to extract a civilian. In fact, unlike most games (especially modern ones), XCOM 2 actively wants to kill you. Even the basic human-alien hybrid footsoldiers - the ADVENT - have a few dirty tricks up their sleeve. Thin Men, annoying but frail poison cloud-spewing human effigies, have revealed their true form: Vipers, a race of snakes which can grab your squad members from across the map and constrict them until staggered. ![]() The aliens have received some upgrades too, though: The Sectoid, the basic enemy alien from the previous game, is now basically a super soldier with the ability to mind control individuals in your squad or psychically resurrect any dead unit as a zombie. It makes for some interesting ambushes, where you’re carefully perching your snipers on roofs and on cliffsides, while your rangers are moving within melee range and your specialists attempt to get closer to the objective. You start most missions concealed, and are only revealed to the enemy if you fire a shot or walk into their line of site. It doesn’t become a chore, though, instead adding some much-needed tension to the early parts of a mission, especially with XCOM 2’s new mission setup. Every mission has a turn timer until forced retreat, at which point you lose the mission. XCOM 2 winds up portraying a far meatier narrative than that of Enemy Unknown, with far-reaching implications that old-school fans will find incredibly appealing. The commander - the player character - is essentially awoken from cryosleep and tasked by Central with once again leading XCOM against the alien threat. The invaders have occupied and essentially re-colonized Earth, turning it into a faux-utopia where resistance is dealt with through disappearances and silencing. “It looks like Firaxis is just making the same game again, but this time they’re adding swords? No, this can’t be happening.” Fortunately, not only does XCOM 2 tighten up the tactical moment-to-moment action of the original, but also manages to expand on the Geoscape meta-game which has become a staple of the series.Īssuming that humanity surrendered to the aliens from Enemy Unknown, XCOM 2 takes place 20 years after the events of the previous game. In spite of those things, it remains one of my favorite games of the last console generation (even though I played it on PC), and indeed one of my favorite games of all time. Then XCOM 2 was announced, and I got worried. It wasn’t without its problems, sure - the story was non-existent, ambushing enemies was impossible (literally), and I always got the distinct feeling that there weren’t more than one or two maps for each tileset. #XCOM 2 REVIEW MODS#Then, in 2013, Firaxis released an expansion to EU, titled “Enemy Within,” which introduced important and game-changing features like gene mods and mech suits. All told, it ended up being my game of the year that year, beating out Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning and Fez, both of which I thought extremely highly of. ![]() But from my memory of attempting to play UFO Defense XCOM was another creature: An unforgiving, bloodthirsty, hardcore beast, one which would feel no guilt or pity in ambushing your squad at the outset of a mission and murdering every last one. Of course, I love strategy games this is evident by the litany of reviews for real-time strategy games I’ve written for this very site. When XCOM: Enemy Unknown came out in 2012, I didn’t know what to expect. ![]()
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