Should I play XCOM 2 without the expansion?

With XCOM 2 being free in PS+, is it worth going through it without owning the expansion first?

I remember hearing a lot of negative things about the game when it released, so I figured I'll give it a pass. But when the expansion came out, I saw a lot of high scores and praises for it.

So, is the vanilla game good, or is the smarter thing just to wait for a sale on the expansion so I won't sour on the core game?

I would actually argue the opposite, that on a first run all the added systems and events from the expansion is too overwhelming. A lot of the negative reaction to Xcom 2 around launch was how it was such a buggy technical dumpster fire on PC. They've mostly rectified that, but I don't know about the console ports

Most of the negative reaction to the initial release was about it being a technical mess, stuff they have largely patched since. The vanilla version is solid, so I'd give it a couple of playthroughs. The expansion is mighty extensive and adds so much to the base game that you would better appreciate the changes/improvements by being familiar with the game's systems/mechanics. It really does make the vanilla version feel undercooked in retrospect (in a way I weirdly appreciate). And if it is your first time playing through XCOM 2 you will be overwhelmed if you go all in on the expansion.. Speaking from PC experience, unsure about console performance. It's free though, so give it a shot.

I assume the PlayStation version is better but the question I would ask is, "can I play XCOM 2?" There was a free weekend on Steam recently and it would not run at all for me.

That being said, if it's free, why not give it a shot? If you like it enough for one playthrough you may want to get the expansion anyway and if you don't then you just saved yourself $40.

I've only played it with the expansion, and I can't recommend it enough. I'm sure vanilla XCOM2 is fine, but War of the Chosen is fantastic and it adds so much.

Even though it seems like the superior XCOM 2 experience, the expansion was intended to be played after completing vanilla XCOM2.

The expansion is fantastic, but might be a little too difficult and overwhelming for a first playthrough. Honestly I can see arguments for both sides. But I still encountered quite a few bugs while playing the expansion, including one time where the game just never ended an enemy turn, which meant I had to restart the mission 40 minutes in. That was really frustrating and of course I did a way worse job on the mission the second time around. But the game was still an enjoyable experience and I recommend it to anybody that enjoyed the first game.

I played it on PC with the reinforcement pack and had a great time with it (no War of the Chosen). Without the reinforcement stuff I'm sure it'll still be fun, as those just added some new missions, cosmetics, and some awesome bosses that randomly invaded missions. I imagine it'd just be more straight-forward XCOM, as it's the bosses that really throw a wrench in things.

Gonna play through it on PS4 myself, as the loading times + performance on my PC were terrrrrrrible.

Didn't they say that they wouldn't be patching vanilla X-com 2 unless you have the dlc? It was FUCKED on ps4 pre-dlc and only got ok afterwards.

Anyway, if you can get it working it is great, but extremely difficult....even morese than the first game. Like, even easy was really stressful.

I played through vanilla about a year after release on the PC and had a great time with it. Even as someone who would like to think of himself as being fairly proficient at the first reboot, there was a good amount of challenge with just vanilla and I think if I'd jumped straight into War of the Chosen I would have been way overwhelmed.

I definitely think it's worth playing without the DLC. It might actually be easier to get into because the DLC adds layers of systems and difficulty/stress. I had a great time with the game before the DLC came out.

ABSOLUTELY! So I did this relatively recently (within the past 6 months). I ended up playing two full play through without War of the Chosen before now doing my third play through with WotC. I think only one play through with the base game of XCOM 2 would suffice but it absolutely should be done. WotC is fantastic and makes it feel like a whole new game.

XCOM2 since then has become one of my favorite games. If you really want to get into XCOM2 I highly recommend a play-through of the first game before WotC.

Yes. It's fantastic. I would say, play for a few hours, see if you like it and then consider getting the expansion

If you liked Enemy Unknown I would definitely get War of the Chosen. If you never played it or just aren't sure, feel free to play a bit in vanilla. I think base XCOM 2 is pretty fantastic, on console and PC, so don't worry about it.

War of the Chosen is best at adding more interconnecting systems to the strategic layer, and adding one-off missions and additional gear/abilities to tactical combat. It's generally a nice, denser experience than base game.

Yes, of course. The game runs great on XB1X, and it's a very good game in its own right. Play for free, and learn the game; there's a lot going on. Beat it on normal and get the dlc's, they're good too. Need more challenge, and having a great time w/the game, then get the expansion. Personally, XCOM 2 is in my top three games of this gen, so I'm pretty biased, but you owe it to yourself to try it for free at least.

I assume the bugs have been mostly fixed. If I remember correctly, there was a weird thing where WOTC was a different executable, as if XCOM 2 was being left behind in favor of the new, shiny PC version. I could be talking out of my ass, but I thought I heard something about how there were major improvements to XCOM 2 that were only going into WOTC. I imagine consoles don't have this issue, since those versions came out later and stuff like that.

What I will say is, as someone who only played the expansion, the changes they put into WOTC are really great. The not-Nemesis system is fun, the modifiers on missions spice things up, and the factions add a new element to the game. I would only play WOTC and any mods related to that game, since it would feel weird to play an XCOM 2 that didn't have those features.

So, I've logged a few hundred hours of XCom 2 on the PC but given that it was free on PS+ last month, I decided to check out the console version. I decided to start a Legend Ironman run on a whim, thinking that I would probably die pretty quickly. 40 hours later, I had a squad full of colonels and I was about ready to tighten the noose on advent..

Then, about 5 minutes ago, I got a forced crash to desktop and a corrupted ironman save file. Ha, go figure. I guess the console version is still broken.

I've finished original XCOM:EU 2 or 3 times with and without the expansion EW. I don't think the extra systems are as confusing as people are suggesting. You are playing xcom you just need to read a few more things. In XCOM2 war of the chosen makes the campaign easier (especially if you turn off integrate dlc, a real badly communicated option that just eliminates tutorial/intro missions) because it gives you way more options to handle the strategic game and powerful new troops. I've crashed out of XCOM2 vanilla 2-3 times and only ever finished with war of the chosen. I never understood or got a handle on managing avatar progress until I had more options to slow its progress in WotC. The Chosen make things more interesting rather than harder, you've got way more options to deal with them and all their strengths and weaknesses are spelled out on screen and mission timers pause while you fight.