@onced: Exactly. This is the artificial difficulty that I take issue with. Rather than design an inherently tense game Firaxis just coerces you with a time limit to force you into playing an strategy game with an arcade FPS mindset. With every mission I am more and more filled with buyers regret.
I'm finding that it sucks frankly and that none of the difficulty arises from the same reasons that the original Microprose Xcom was challenging. Rather than feeling like you're outmatched technologically by a superior race from space, I find that I feel outmatched because the designers couldn't find a better way to make the game difficult. Post-concealment breakage when I discover aliens, they get to move. When aliens discover me, they get to move AGAIN. Hell the aliens get to move when I'm in the middle of my movement if I happen to stumble across a new aliens quad. In the original Microprose Xcom you feel like both sides on the battlefield adhere to the same basic game mechanics and only one will survive. Here it's clear just as in the first Firaxis Xcom one side is inherently stacked even from the first mission. And I still cannot for the life of me, just like in the first Firaxis Xcom, figure out when the hell I actually have line of sight cover or pretend "shield icon" cover as was introduced in Firaxis' first release. Overall I find that taking a break from this game is incredibly easy when compared to some of the more recent game releases like Darkest Dungeon or MechWarrior Online. I frankly found more fun in Xeronauts.
In addition, after playing a rescue mission with a turn limit the story goes that when the limit hits zero alien reinforcements arrive. Ok, fine then, let the fucking reinforcement aliens arrive and let me fight them on my way to evac point. Instead what happens is when the alien reinforcements arrive the mission automatically ends and all the units outside of the evac point are considered KIA. This is stupidly executed given that the game, according to the quicklook EX, actually has missions when alien reinforcements arrive and you get to fight them. Why not just let a player play? I have a feeling I won't be finishing this one.
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