Games worth discovering

Xcom 2, my personal favourite turn based game.

3K View2024-02-29

Price: $60 (Frequently on sale for $4) PC / Console, $15 USD on Mobile (Collection)

XCOM 2 Collection

9.5

Disclaimer: this is a review based on the Console and PC versions of the game. While this review can serve to help garner information on content for the mobile version, things such as optimization and opinions come from gameplay on the Xbox One and PC versions.

My Qualifications for this review x3:

Hello my dear viewer and welcome to another review, if you are new here, I bid you the most humble of welcomes, I am as always your most humble reviewer, Delta the Wolf.Today is a review on one of my current addictions, Xcom 2. This review may be a bit biassed as I do really like the Xcom series, but as per usual I will keep my own personal biases to a minimum to help you decide if this game is for you.

Introduction/Story Synopsis:

Xcom 2 is a Turn based Strategy game made by Firaxis Entertainment and published in 2016. It is the direct sequel to Xcom 1/EU where you play as the Commander, one of humanity's “greatest,” tacticians. Unlike Xcom 1/EU where you played as Xcom who at the time were Earth’s final hope against the Alien invader, here you play as “Xcom” who are now just a guerilla faction fighting against Advent the alien occupier of Earth after their failure two decades ago during the events of Xcom 1/EU.

Xcom 2 follows the normal Unique blend of turn based strategy and base management common in Xcom-like games; however, the strategic map has been majorly toned down since 1/EU.

Gameplay:

Xcom 2, unlike most Xcom-like games, primarily focuses on turn based combat, in fact the combat is the biggest strength of Xcom 2, without War of The Chosen, but today we will not be diving into the beast that is War of the Chosen as it is for all intensive purposes, a completely different game. So without further ado, let us start with combat.

Note: I am leaving out some details to avoid spoilers.

Combat:

Xcom 2’s combat consists of the tried and true methodology of Turnbased games where you control your own team of soldiers and take turns with an enemy AI until you beat out the AI. Your soldiers don’t start weak in this game unlike most Xcom-like games, which makes it a perfect introductory to this sub-category of turn based strategy games. The main frustration of Xcom 2 mostly comes from the shot RNG, which is technically supposed to be in your favour on low difficulties, but however, your troops can still miss on 85-90% accuracy, leading to many broken keyboards. That being said on lower difficulties AI suffers an accuracy disadvantage leading to Xcom 2 generally feeling perfectly balanced… Until your entire squad misses every shot despite all of them having flank and over 80% cover, followed by Advent forces one shoting all your units… eh hm, overall, I’d give combat a 7/10.

Progression,

visible mods: Anthro Cosmetics Redux, Loadout Manager

Note I play modded WOTC, not all equipment or customization available at base.Xcom 2’s progression is great, like Xcom 1/EU your soldiers and any soldiers you recruit until a certain point of the game will start off as basic rookies, after they complete a combat operation they will get a class. There are four classes in Xcom 2 with two specialisation trees each, you can freely change between these two trees, like for example you can have a specialist with a medical bot from the support tree that knows how to hack enemy units from the combat tree.Armour and weapon progression come from research like in most Xcom-like games, most armour and weapons you research are treated as squad upgrades until you get to provings ground projects, leading to far less headaches on managing who gets what until endgame, leading to another point towards Xcom 2 being perfect for beginners. Overall I would give the progression a solid 8/10, the progression generally feels meaningful save for some abilities that feel completely useless.

Base building and the Global map,

note screenshots from WoTC

I won’t be going in depth on the base building until I review WoTC, as base building is rather simple in base Xcom 2, most of the base building you will be doing will be related to progression, such as the Shadow Chamber to progress the main quest, the Guerilla School to get more units to throw into the fire, a Proving Grounds to make endgame armour, and then maybe, just maybe, an infirmary because you got annoyed by healing times. You can get through the game building nothing else, it is expanded, and made more important in WoTC with the Resistance Ring and the actual need to explore the world, but we are not reviewing WoTC, overall, base building gets a major 3/10. It is definitely good if you are new to Xcom-like games, as there is far less to worry about outside of progression, in fact if you are new I would actually highly recommend you play Xcom 2 before WoTC as it will give you a hand for the basics, so with that being said, if you are a new player, this is an honest win you, 5/10.

Xcom 2’s world map is also simplified to a fault, until you get WoTC there is not much to do on the world map, unlike similar games like Xenonauts and Xcom 1/EU where you had to manage an air defence force, Xcom 2 you don’t have to worry about such things. The world map in Xcom 2 mostly serves as a way to reach missions, collect resources, and well, to waste your time, this seems like as an about as good time as any to recommend the “Stop Wasting My Time” series on the Workshop, Xcom 2 is a very, overly cinematic game. Overall, this is also good for new players, but compared to other Xcom-like games, it removes a lot of depth. For new players this may be a 4/10, but if you like the Xcom-like category of games, yeah, 2/10.

Maps,

This is just a quick mention to the maps in the game, in the base game the map variety is alright, there are definitely enough maps to make the game feel fresh on at least one repeat run, though you may want to get map packs after your second or third run. WoTC does expand the map variety adding more city maps and even some more wilderness maps.The maps are generally very dynamic leading to some very unique strategies, such as destroying walls to make a route to Evac when rescuing an VIP or destroying an enemy's cover. You can use this feature to collapse the floor from under enemy forces causing them to fall.The maps are very good, definitely quality over quantity, overall, 10/10.

Missions,

Finally, we get to missions, should this have been sooner in the review? Definitely, is it too late to fix that? My answer is I don’t care, woof. Anyway in all seriousness, in Xcom 2 there are a multitude of mission types, we will start with the most common.Guerilla missions are the missions you will be conducting the most during your playthrough of Xcom 2, these consist of Recovering an Item, Hacking a Workstation, Destroying an Alien Relay, or Protect a Device. A major issue with guerilla missions is that all of them but Protect a Device are timed to 10-15 turns, making the missions artificially short and forcing you to rush them. Hacking a Workstation, Recovering an Item, and Destroying an Alien relay are all the same and generally just consist of bombrushing a location. Protecting a Device is my personal favourite of guerilla missions as it is definitely the most unique one, with the only timer being how long it takes the aliens to destroy the relay, leading to this being one of the most dynamic generic missions.

Council missions are monthly missions, they are even more simple than Guerilla Missions and I shan't waste your time too much with them. Rescue and Extract a VIP are relatively the same, both are timed with a 8-12 turn timer, in Rescue you are rescuing a VIP from prison or a prison truck, then immediately running to an evac point generally near the place you extract them from. In Extract a VIP you are just running a city map generally to an Evac point. Both of these missions offer a lot of dynamic strategies where you can blow holes into buildings to make yur job easier. Finally for Council missions you have the true rebel forces mission, it is a shame this isn’t more prevalent in the base game, Eliminate an Enemy VIP, I don’t need to elaborate on what this entails, you just go in, kill a general and his unit, and leave.

Supply raid, honestly, I don’t even want to review this mission archetype, other than one I won't mention due to spoilers, this is the absolute worst. So this review doesn’t have much bias, let us just skip this.Alien Facilities I will save for the WoTC review which should come in the future.And finally, the most annoying mission type, it is honestly a good mission type, but it happens near monthly in WoTC, in the base game, it is rare luckily, the mission we are talking about of course, is Retaliation/Haven Assault. Retaliation takes the place of Alien Terror missions from Xcom 1/EU, your goal, to defend civilians during an active assault on resistance. Aliens will target the civilians over your troops, there is no timer, but at least six civilians need to survive.. Depending on your luck with what enemies spawn, this is either a cake walk or Sisyphus rolling a stone up a hill. This mission will get your blood pumping or annoy you, I won't spoil it much, as it is definitely something you need to experience to understand.

Overall, the missions have some issues, but they are mostly good, 8/10.

Customization,

Yes, there is a bit of fashion sim in this game, no I won't review it.

DLC:

Today I will only be reviewing Shen’s Last gift, as it is the only DLC I have played in recent memory other than WoTC which will get it’s own review.

Shen's Last Gift, (Part of Reinforcement Pack, $19.99 US PC/Console. Frequently on sale for $10 USD.)

Shen’s Last Gift consists of one mission and the Spark’s, your own mecs. The mission is honestly one of the best in Xcom 2, if not a bit overly long especially if you were not geared for it. The level design is good, the enemy design good, and the banter from the main antagonist and protagonists of the DLC during the mission sets it apart from any mission in the game.. It can be annoying though. The mission also doesn’t really have any replay value. I won’t get into it much to not spoil anything.

Now for the Sparks, Shen's last gift. The Sparks fill in a role that was definitely missing in base Xcom 2, mechanised units. The Sparks are a small bit useless without mods, only having a handful of weapons and a pretty eh skill tree revolving mostly around using them as shields for your units, early to mid game they can dish out serious damage though.Would I recommend Shen's last Gift off sale? No. Would I recommend Shen’s Last Gift on sale? Also, no. I would suggest, as I will in the overview, buying the collection, the collection includes every DLC including WoTC and goes on sale frequently for $10-13, making it a great deal.

Overall, this DLC is a 7/10 due to just the mission alone.

Overview:

Would I recommend Xcom 2? Yes, highly. Xcom 2 is one of the best games in the somewhat modern sphere of turn based strategy games, while I would personally recommend WoTC more as it adds more depth to the game, Xcom 2 offers a better casual experience.Would I recommend Xcom 2 to new players? Yes, more than I would WoTC or any other Xcom or Xcom like game. Xcom 2s lack of depth in its off mission aspects make it perfect for new players.

Does Xcom 2 have good replayability? Yes and no, it is definitely not as replayable as WoTC, if you try, you can see everything in one run, unlike WoTC where there is some missable content. The dynamic nature of missions also offers some good replayability, though nothing compared to WoTC and modded WoTC.

I would also recommend not buying Xcom 2 off sale if you are on PC or Xbox, Xcom 2 collection frequently goes on sale for $10-13 USD. If you are really cheap and don’t care for the DLCs other than WoTC, which is honestly fair as Alien Hunters just serves to make the game harder with WoTC by adding three more bosses, Anarchy’s Children just adds cosmetics, and Tactical Legacy mostly serves just as a challenge pack, then you can get WotC+Xcom 2 for like $5.79 on sale.

In a similar vein I would not recommend it on Xbox or PS4 as it is missing modding, the Tactical Legacy DLC, and is unoptimized and unsupported.

I don’t have enough knowledge of the mobile version to know if I should recommend it or not.

Anyways,

That is it for me for today,

Delta. UwU

Sidenote: I typed 2000 words. In an hour and a half. For this review. WOOF >w>