This game is a masterpiece.
Bold words for a video game? I don’t care. That’s how I feel. It is SO good.
I’m a huge fan of these games and have been since the original 1994 Gollop creation – XCOM: Enemy Unknown. I played Enemy Unkown repeatedly over the years, until the resolution just fell too far behind the times, but I still wistfully consider a play-through sometimes. I played Laser Squad Nemesis* far too much for a long time too. So, disclaimer: If you aren’t a big fan of this kind of game, you might not be as monumentally impressed with it as I am. If you are, I expect you to love it. For context, I’ve got 60 hours on the game at the time of writing, and just completed it on veteran difficulty and will have a crack at commander difficulty next. (edit – holy shitballs! Cdr difficulty smashed me flat in 3 months of in game time. The spokesman isn’t upset. Just disappointed :sadface)
*Not an XCOM game but a play by email turn based shooter by the Gollops, in much the same vein
I think the newly released XCOM2 by Firaxis, takes the crown (and no bloody unkillable lobstermen like the original sequel). Like Firaxis’ Enemy Unknown re-imagining, it “feels” like the original XCOM. Enemy Unknown was a great game and this is a game standing on the shoulders of that giant, which itself stood very tall on the shoulders of the original nineties giant.
XCOM2 is NOT an easy game. It will punish laziness and poor choices hard. Very hard during the early stages, while your troops are still green, slugthrower weilding monkeys. Rule one of XCOM – Never don’t be in cover. Rule two of XCOM – NEVER don’t be in cover! Rule three of XCOM – Burning cars make a poor choice for cover (BOOM! – Oh, I forgot about that. Bother). Actually, even non burning cars aren’t that great as cover, since they can easily take enough damage in a turn to go from showroom condition to exploding mondeo of death before you can get your guy or gal away from it.
If you like to breeze about and feel superior without putting much thought into playing a game, then move along brother, XCOM is not for you. If you love the sense of glory from beating a tough mission because you made the right decisions at the right times (and RNG didn’t just hose you too much) then come on in, the water’s lovely.
It’s beautiful to look at, but gameplay is king and with ancestry like this, XCOM2 has it in spades. Contrary to some people who are complaining that the newly introduced timers, on some missions, are too hard, I think they pitched them spot on. They give you a hurry up. They don’t let you just overwatch leapfrog up the map at your leisure. They force you to take risks that you don’t want to take. But they are completely do-able, usually without losing anyone. Just not easy. I thought they were a really good addition and perfectly judged. This is a moddable game though, so already some people with apparently no self esteem have created options to extend the timers, if you want to wimp out and join them.
Another excellent addition is the concealment mechanic, allowing for ambush of enemy forces. These are really satisfying when they work as you planned.
But this is XCOM, so sometimes everyone misses, and your ranger ends up with a chryssalid in their face. These are not so satisfying, especially for the poor bugger on screen who now has alien venom running through their veins, turning their body into a gestation pod for another giant bug. “MEDIC!”
I was surprised at how much I liked the customisation of the soldiers. I held off for a while, partly because it seems a bit pointless early on, when it’s very easy to lose people, then later because it seemed like the kiss of death to customise a trooper who was more advanced. Far too tempting for Fate I thought. XCOM being XCOM, it’s never too late to lose someone, especially with the timers pushing you to take a riskier option from time to time, as Col Jennifer “Bones” Simpson discovered on a train assault, one bright autumn afternoon. “Doctor heal thyself” stops being an option when you’re a plasma burn riddled corpse. But hey, colouring people in turns out to be fun, makes them easier to recognise on the field, and is done well enough here to lend some further depth to the game.
The story is gripping. It really engaged me and moved at a well judged pace, with top quality voice acting and production. The events of the last twenty years leave a grizzled, scarred and greying Central Officer Bradford from the previous game to facilitate for you. I found him much easier to respect this time around. He clearly hasn’t spent those intervening decades fighting from a desk, and I bet he’s had to tell more than one punk, “You weren’t there man. You don’t know!” in that time. You can never truly change a man’s soul though, so he still nags like an old woman when you are trying to rescue civilians, but the aliens keep shooting them in the face.
I was impressed too with all the new soldier classes. Every one has the capability to bring valid utility to the party. If you think they don’t then take a step back and look at how you can use them. You are missing something. Also, XCOM now comes with swords. Swords are awesome. Swords that set aliens on fire are really awesome.
The drip feed of new enemy types as the game progresses is excellent. They made a really good job of regularly adding a new bad guy that makes you think “What on Earth is that? I wonder what it does? OH MY GOD IT’S KILLING MY BEST TROOPS! NOOOOO! NOT MAJOR BOB! WAAAH MAKE IT STOP!” (I’m looking at you Andromedon) – Welcome back to XCOM, Commander.
There are a couple of minor niggles that will be fixed; the camera position is sometimes a bit wonky for overwatch shots and the like, and the missions can take a long time to transition to/from the Avenger. But really, nothing that affects gameplay and very, very minor in light of the rest of a spectacularly good game.
In short – Firaxis, great job. A million out of ten. I had to wait twenty years and put up with some truly execrable dross that dared carry the XCOM name, for a worthy successor to the originals, and you did it. Twice. Do it again! Do it again!
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