Going to give in and get this game finally, but I wanted to get people's opinions on what difficulty to play first?

I would start classic, normal was appropriately difficult for the first few missions but once you start leveling up your squad, the game quickly becomes very easy.

The panic in the council countries are harder to manage in classic. The combat is a little too easy on normal. So depends on your strengths I guess.

Got my ass whooped in classic mode,and I just lost my first normal Iron man game so Id say normal.

@allworkandlowpay: I honestly thing that this game is best played on Ironman Classic, but that comes with a huge caveat: Are you ok with losing? If you're not ok with potentially putting hours into a game and then watching it spiral into a loss, don't play on Ironman Classic. If you want a legit challenge, play non-Ironman Classic and reload if you screw up too badly. If you don't like losing or having to make tougher base-level decisions, play Normal.

I would go with normal first and get your feet wet, switch to classic if you find it too easy. Be warned though classic can go south real fast... started yet another ironman game and in the first mission my entire squad wiped after one guy got insta killed by a crit even though he was behind full cover, then the squad chain panicked and shot each other to death.

I played about 50% of the way through on Normal, and then restarted on Classic once I had a good feel for the game. The Ironman option is really really stressful. It really makes everything very stressful. Fun, but man that one screw up is going to make you so mad when it immediately autosaves after.

If you've played the previous games, definitely classic all the way. Normal will be mind-numbingly easy by the end.

If you haven't played the old games, then it's more of a toss-up. I'd say start on normal, and you can always bump it up in the middle of the game if you like.

But you might just want to leave classic for your second playthrough. Also, don't buy this game if you're only planning on playing it once.

Normal , at least for the first few hours, then if your a Badass start again on classic, then least you know how everything works and how to manage yourself with what you build towards and how to handle panic across country's and gear you research and outfit for. Its still fun on normal even if you do end up in some case's murdering the enemy when you have a bunch of vets and good equipment and can still save classic for second go through.

The start will be hard no matter what you pick, but normal will get very easy after a few months. I went normal on my first playthrough and only lost one soldier and no nation. I even got the cheve for having my sniper be on every mission for the entire campaign. Squad sight is OP

Just play Normal if you're going Iron Man mode, because Classic will surely destroy you with that mode on. If you're planning to not add Iron Man, then Classic might be good, even though you might fail the first time, learning the game and some extra tricks, you'll come back stronger and enjoy your second attempt way more. It is really addictive.

@Funkydupe: I'm a Civilization player, I'm used to putting hours into a game and losing.

I understand it's a campaign with a beginning, middle and end. Is the game random and interesting enough for multiple playthrus?

@allworkandlowpay: Good to meet a player that can enjoy some trial/error gameplay. Yes, but a tip for you: Do not blindly research what your scientists want you to. Think it over. It usually makes the aliens more aggressive finding the humans (aka your guys) have discovered certain secrets of theirs. The scientists just want to get to the bottom of the chest of secrets right away, its in their nature. The game is driven by both obvious and not-so-obvious milestones, and the aliens escalate their operations accordingly. This can change depending on what you decide to do in your game.

It is absolutely random enough to play more. I haven't seen the same map yet. If you do encounter the same maps, keep in mind that the maps have randomized enemies and enemy placement depending on where 'you're at on several levels, like research progress' in the game. Like I said earlier the gameplay is addictive, in a way similar to the original. It can be incredibly unfair and frustrating too, also similar to the original.

@Funkydupe: also, interogate aliens as soon as you can, it gives you a research bonus for some tec

I think that if you've played a long campaign, say on Classic mode (which seems to be a generally favored difficulty setting), you might not want to immediately jump into a New Game of XCOM. Not because the game was bad. With regards to the replayability value, it might become one of those games you revisit once in a while because it has fun gameplay.

I am on ironman normal and yesterday I failed the very last mission. Was very relieved to see you are allowed to restart that one on ironman.

As a counter to people saying normal is too easy, it was just perfect for me. Got all the way to the last mission on ironman on my first go, but I felt it was a challenge throughout. Plenty of deaths, only had one max level guy left for the last mission.

Go for Classic regardless of whether you've played any XCOM games before. I've seen quite a few people say they got really far in Normal and felt disappointed that it was too easy. The people who don't like Classic and ditch it for Normal usually do so after just a few missions. So with Classic it's easier to quickly ascertain whether it's unsuitable for you and restart, whereas with Normal you just get into a groove of steamrollering stuff.

I went with Classsic to start with and felt out of my depth. However I was lenient with myself for the early missions and reloaded a lot while I was learning. As I got accustomed, I cut back on most of the reloads. Now I'm quite far in the story, with a lot of triumphs, a lot of failures, and a lot of great battle stories. I still have no idea if I'll be able to complete the game on this run through because the strategy layer is very delicate. So I think Classic was perfect for me.

My first playthrough was on Normal Ironman. I tried Classic Ironman initially, but kept getting absolutely destroyed. I finally decided to crank the difficulty down, as I wanted to stick on Ironman (in my opinion the best way to play the game, as it increases the tension an absurd amount), but I also wanted to have a chance to learn the game and how to best play tactically. Do keep in mind that (as long as you don't mind potentially losing out on some achievements) you can adjust the difficulty on the fly, so if you want to start on normal and increase it to classic because you find it too easy, or vice versa, it's easy.

If you want to enjoy it do Normal. Once you get done then up the difficulty if you want to. I personally can't stand playing past Normal as it's just one long series of BS one shot kills out of nowhere after another.

I went with Normal. For the most part, I actually found that pretty challenging - although, towards the end, all remaining countries were permanently at minimum panic; also, some missions were incredibly easy (a mission near the end of the game with 9 regular sectoids vs. 6 ultra-powerful soldiers).