I'm pumped for the Terror From the Deep expansion, which I assume the glowing trench in the ocean was a hint towards. Either that or XCOM 3.

After the amount of bullshit that last mission pulled, I was just happy to have it over, plot weirdness aside.

Yeah i agree with basically every point you've made. I'm disappointed too, mainly from the narrative (again with the "we're testing-tinkering with humanity because there is a big mysterious evil out there!" from the ethereals). And i wish they put some more meat to the last few story missions; i felt like the plot was arbitrarly rushed because they didn't know what to do.

I think the same also about the intel-for-tactical bonuses mechanic from the tower mission. They could have used it for more missions outside that one, adding a form of tension between if you wanted to use that resource for the strategic part of the game or for the missions one.

The only real positive i can think is that with the spawning randomized waves in the final room it was a bit more interesting than the final room from the first game.

(ah also, an avatar bugged on me and disappeared from the game leaving me to fight endless waves, had to replay the final bit -_-)

I enjoyed the ending, but then again, it played out differently for me. And I don't mean it in the sense that we played the game differently, but that my guys from the tower mission were available for the other mission too... so none of my guys got locked out. So yeah, i think that why my opinion of the second to last mission is so different from yours. I really enjoyed sneaking around, and avoiding most of the enemies in that map, and also the intel part before it started.

As for the last mission, the horde mode ending was annoying at first, when it was just 1 or 2 waves, and really fun when i had to deal with 4-5 waves. I had saved up most of my AoE items, and well... it was just fun to use them.

The story in the end was ok. The build up, with your contact in the shadow group dying, well... that got to me, not sure why, i just liked that character a lot. Next, I didn't mind that the focus during the last mission being on the commander and not the squad members since all of my characters are custom made ones, after people I know. So they all already had personalities/story, since i based them off real people. Lastly, the whole aliens running/fighting a bigger enemy alien thing, reminded me of falling skies (TV show) and was rather generic. Hopefully the next XCom (which looks like it will be a Terror from the Deep (as Mirado already mention)) is more original story-wise.

Overall I had a lot of fun with the ending. The gameplay was great, but could have been better. The story did its job, but felt generic for the most part (the build up was better than the pay off).

Loved it.

The Advent Tower mission should not be a problem at all as long as you have some backup dudes just in case, as you should. If you didn't have backup soldiers that's totally on the player. You can also just take injured soldiers into last mission if so desired.

Didn't have any problem with the Avatar, I mean he is directly your Avatar, literally; you are not him, just controlling him, so the tactical control with the rest of the squad makes total sense, especially since that is what you were doing in the freezer for 20 years in the first place. He is not a live dude, so again I had no issues with a literal hunk of meat being directly controlled by you taking any spotlight. My dudes are still what carried that mission.

The last fight itself? Awesome! It's exactly what the previous game lacked, and exactly what I wanted, an all out giant blaze of glory firefight. Boom, boom, pew-pew!!! So satisfying to let loose with your entire arsenal.

And that's by far the most important part of Xcom for me.

The plot is kinda whatever, like it was in Xcom:UE, no surprise there, this isn't the studios best suit. I do wish there was at least a bit extra revealed as I agree it was kinda just the rehash of the last ending.

The Terror from the Deep teaser was cool tho.

I agree with you 100%. I loved the game, but man does it NOT stick the landing. In addition to the points you made (which were excellently articulated) I had HUGE problems in the final room of the final mission with line of sight bugs. Multiple instances of soldiers not being able to see enemies adjacent to them, of projectile weapons not being able to move through clearly open areas, even one weird bug where a panicking solider ran onto unpathable terrain and was unable to move off of it afterwards.

Like I said, I had a great time with the game, and I'm already gearing up for another playthrough, but holy hell was that finale a disappointment.

@lackingsaint

i think your critique makes a very good point- there is a large lack of emphasis on your personal squad, and they could have done much more to put them front and centre. all we really get is that flash of a cutscene where they're at attention in hallway before the final missions. a smarter way to handle it would have been something akin to the defend-the-avenger mission- have the aliens attack with a new unit type- maybe they board the avenger in mid-air- and then it's all hands on deck to take the fucker down!

i will say, however, that i wasn't disappointed by the ending- ESPECIALLY given the narrative expectations from the last game. i just don't expect good narrative from xcom- it's not really a priority for firaxis, clearly- so while i do appreciate what's there (i especially liked the scene where the spokesman gets found out), i never expected xcom to deliver any kind of satisfying conclusion whatsoever.

what they DID deliver (which i would argue is of the UTMOST IMPORTANCE) is a hint at MORE XCOM- which is all i want, really.

I'm still digesting the game having just finished it on Commander, but I can't believe how lucky I got at the very end. I Executed the last two Avatars one round after another while they were at full health. That, plus I went into the final room with a Mind Controlled Gatekeeper at full health, then Mind Controlled a Berserker once the fight started. Almost felt a little like cheating. The ending did feel like it was missing something, though. In the last cutscene I almost expected to have one last fight in the Avenger itself. Oh well.

@iansavage I had the same line of sight problems in the final room, man was that frustrating. There were times when I know my sniper should have been able to see five or six enemies but I was only able to target one of them. Actually, I think every single one of my soldiers had some kind of LOS problem during that fight.

I loved the Advent Tower Mission. I get why some people might find it cheap to suddenly be back to a smaller squad, but it was kind of neat to be back to only having a squad of four. The Intel mechanic for the mission was really cool. I wish they had used it for more missions given I was swimming in like 300 Intel around that point, so I went on a shopping spree at the Black Market before the mission and still had enough to get all of the bonuses there. That being said, I can understand why it might frustrate the player if one or more of their troops are wounded for the final mission thanks to it. But the game does kind of warn you ahead there won't be time after it, and it wasn't that difficult of a mission. Plus you can bring wounded troops into the final mission.

The last mission itself takes after the first game in that it is janky as hell. lol Fortunately, it didn't bug out completely on me. Yeah, the story is generic as hell near the end, but that's XCom for you.

The Commander's Avatar was a little lame, but it was a good way of balancing the insane difficulty of the final mission and the fact some people might get to that mission with a squad not really ready for it. You can just about get to the final room using a hacker and the Commander alone if you're clever enough. Boy did I love everything that went on with a hacked Sectopod in that first area from my run. But I was about a turn away from that last room becoming about impossible when I realized my shotty Ranger had a clean run at the final Avatar. At that point, I was just praying that killing him would end the mission. They had just warped in 3 Mutons, 2 Gatekeepers, and an Andromedon on me that turn. It was both a step up from the first game in a lot of ways and also something which I can totally get a player walking away from feeling it was cheap. I need to feel how it plays on a second playthrough when I would hopefully be smarter about saving my explosives up for the final room.

I am betting next expansion subtitle is Enemy Below/Beneath.

It was alright, nothing special. A typical save the earth style plot but the last mission was interesting, except for the performance just tanking for no reason.

It was ok? Bummed for sure about not getting to use more than six dudes on the final mission, especially since I only had one of the avenger defense missions in my campaign (no idea if you are even able to have more than one)

Still really enjoyed my time with the game when it was not crashing to all hell, and excited to do another run in a couple months with some mods/excited to see what the expansion does

Well. I am exited for X-COM: Terror from the Deep 2. At this point the Tower mission was not a problem with a squad of 3. My Hacker to controll a few mechs, a sniper and my Psi-Demigod. I think I got a flawless on this one.

The randomness of the Avatar teleports is a bit annoying. I was about to get overwhelmed, but then the last Avatar ported next to my "Fan Fire" Sharpshooter.

i scraped through with a 40% to hit shotgun shot from my ranger who was the last man standing, next time i play im building a psi lab i had to put my mind controlled sniper down

FIN

The story is nonsense the whole way through so 'whatever' on the narrative front.

The tower mission feels odd in that they bring that intel mechanic and limited team mechanic out of nowhere just for that single mission. I didn't bother with any of the intel options, as there's obviously a more difficult full scale mission coming right afterwards so I figured I'd save my intel for that... then they promptly dropped that mechanic again. Still, both mechanics seem quite interesting and perhaps they should have made more use of them throughout the campaign for the sake of variety.

The proper end mission is 'ok', but it's kind of a throwback to the beginning of the game in that it's designed to burn through your reliable consumables and put you back to largely relying on luck again by the end. I thought I was going to lose when the two soldiers on my left flank both fell at the same time (one to mind control, the other to two long distance shots in a row through cover). Eventually I got some damage on the last 2 avatars (with that huge range AOE your avatar gets) and luckily they both decided to teleport away from their massive army and right in among my remaining troops where they could be finished off easily.

Overall, I think 3/5 is a fair score for this game. It has masses of technical issues and, to my mind, it has significant gameplay issues as well.

That last fight was a lot harder than I was expecting. Alas, my Sharpshooter Jeff Gerstmann went down with 1 Avatar to go (and it was almost dead at that stage).

Managed to pull off a pretty sweet set of moves to kill the last Avatar. Everyone was struggling, the Avatar had about 9 health left but had moved to the very back of the map with everything in its way.

My Ranger, and best soldier, Big Boss was panicked. Luckily I managed to use (for the first time in the game I might add) my Specialist's ability (I can't remember it's name - the one that removes negative effects). Big Boss becomes calm. He had just enough movement to Slash the Avatar. Bullshit graze/dodge - took off 4 health. Avatar relocates right near.....Psi Operative Dan Ryckert!

Dan had already used his move for the turn, but had an action left. Soulfired that fucken Avatar. Victory baby.

That was cool. Can't wait to do it again.

@jimbo: I got a similar glitch in the last level...

The first mission in the ending felt pointless, it was neither challenging or interesting. The second mission felt similar to the final mission of XCOM 1, but this time there wasn't a singular enemy you could just snipe off.

Can't say I cared that much for the ending. But I am really excited about the implication of Terror From the Deep 2 :D

I thought I was the only one to get the bizarre colour glitch, Mines started when I used a psi skill and it dissipated after a while. Wasn't the end of the world.

@pedanticjase: Here's another screenshot I took (this was taken before the other image):

From the looks of it, the issue seems to stem from the psi-connector. It's obviously supposed to lead to the alien that's being controlled, but it's leading to that generator thing, which is where all the glitchy mess is coming from. It could possibly relate to some confusion caused by the sheer amount of enemies that can appear during that end sequence.

BTW, exiting the game and reloading worked to remove the issue.

@beachthunder: That is bizarre, I got a similar visual glitch at the last level as well, the only visual glitch I got while playing. It was after an Avatar did a large Psi AOE, the screen looked like some one was waiving red and yellow flashlights at the screen. As far as the story goes I thought it was fine, as usually you apply your own story to the game and mine involved a fierce team of XCOM soldier fighting and dying. For every one XCOM soldier they kill, we kill a dozen of theirs. Sort of felt like a good WW2 story where the skirmish was pointless and bloody but the losses and camaraderie of every soldier. Taking hits for another soldier when they were lower in health, making a run for the sole purpose of activating enemy over watch so another soldier can make their way to the enemy. As far as the actually story and cinematic moments, I did enjoy the bit where the Councilman pulled out a gun from under the table and started unloading on an Advent raid team.

@jimbo: @beachthunder:

I had the same weird visual glitch. It was a little immersion breaking but a quick reload fixed it.

Here are my thoughts:

• That commander death scene was pretty awesome.
• For the Tower: I LOVED the smaller squad dynamic as it forced me to really change my tactics and decide exactly what utility items I couldn't live without. By that point in the game I was grossly OP though and I literally made it through the mission without a single nick. I would have preferred if they'd put some harder enemies on that mission. I'd have liked to see my sniper, support, and ranger take on a gatekeeper or a sectopod.
• I liked the touch of them showing your entire army saluting as you approach for the final mission. I agree with the OP that I half expected them to bring back the Longest War / Defend the Avenger mechanic where you have access to more than just your normal team. It was actual kinda disappointing that they didn't
• For the base assault, it was reaaaaal long and pretty mentally exhausting experience for me personally. I had been breezing through missions regularly at that point but man, shit went pretty bad in that last room. It's pretty much a DPS race where you need to kill as many guys as possible as quickly as possible, but for some reason I was getting some really shitty rolls which led to me having to fight a bajillion dudes at once. Two of my guys got mind controlled at one point and I was pretty sure that I was done, but I somehow pulled it out. Phew. Very satisfying.
• Other than that, the story points were kinda meh. A little too V for Vendetta for my tastes, but oh well, I wasn't expecting much in that regard.

@nevergameover: I just finished the last mission for a second time, and it is much more manageable on a second go. Still plenty long, which is why I still kind of don't like it. But knowing what to expect it is definitely easier. I found Mind Control on the Commander's Avatar and then using Stasis on whichever unit was Mind Controlled (for me a Gatekeeper usually) to prevent it from attacking when mind control breaks, pretty awesome. It definitely made things easier.

Also, I'm noticing that for that one final mission, I prefer to bring soldiers with different skillsets then what I tend to aim towards in the game otherwise. For example, for Grenadiers I found Holo-Targeting a lot better in the final mission than Heavy Ordnance. The mission is so long that while one extra grenade helps, you honestly want something more consistent than that. The innate defense on some enemies, not to mention the Avatars teleporting from cover to cover, makes Holo-Targeting especially useful. Similarly, Hail of Bullets beats Salvo quite easily. Because those pesky Avatars can be tough to hit and having guaranteed damage is pretty nice. Especially since it will also shred all the armor guaranteed because of it.

I had a Legend game going but put it on hold for Ironman Commander. Now that I finished that, I might just restart Legend on Ironman, because I do quite enjoy that mode a lot better.

Wait, can the Commander's Mind Control run out? I swear that mine had a pet Andremedon for about half the mission (great experience finding out the Mind Control immediately breaks when it goes into zombie mode!)

Yep, same thing happened to me. When its first phase died, the Andromedon Shell just stood there and did nothing. At the start of every turn it did some animations and made noises, so I thought it might still do something, but it never did. I was scared that it was going to wake up at some point and attack me from behind :|

BTW, Rock Paper Shotgun did a feature on the colourful glitches of the end mission.

@lackingsaint: It wears out after 4 turns. Seems unlikely you beat that mission in 8 turns.

I also had that weird graphical glitch.

Overall, I felt that the ending was pretty much the ending of EU but slightly better in all departments. It was pretty long, but I didn't find it as long and gruelling as the EU ending, partly because the game as a whole just encourages a slightly more forward-first style of play. I was moving forward during encounters a lot more, rather than finishing an encounter and then slowly moving forward. I think the map was maybe a bit smaller (most maps where) so it allowed for more maneuvering during battle, rather than relying on snipers.

I liked that it gave you an avatar, it was a fun thing to keep the game fresh at the end of that back half dwindling. It was like a little rickety prop holding up a slowly collapsing tent. With that said, for the veteran difficulty it was massively overpowered, and I found that it's void-rift equivalent was destroying a lot of the mobs.

The final room was challenging in a pretty exciting way. It seemed to pretty obviously be trying to avoid some of the mistakes of the first game, where all you really needed to do was sit a sniper at the front door and kill that one ethereal - both in the objective and just the design of the room.

And the story was ok, although it was a bit weird to have the speaker talking to you having just been mobbed between the two final missions. The caveat though is obviously that it is so much just a slight rewrite of the ending to the first game that it didn't have that great an impact overall.

The rooftop mission was weird though. When it started for me my whole team got the "concealed" notice 4 or 5 times, so I thought that maybe the idea was that you could get through the mission without losing concealment - but then they all lost it as soon as I took my first shot anyway so that was a bit of a shrug from me. It was also too easy really.

I guess I got a bug then? Because I Mind-Controlled that Andromedon before even reaching the human habitat area, and I never lost control of it until the first Avatar summoned a bunch of Chrysallids which promptly ripped him apart.

Narratively I thought it was really whatever. I didn't have any expectations anyway - my enjoyment of the game was straight gameplay and building my team.

I didn't run into any weird bugs either, luckily. By the final stage with the avatars though, I was certain I'd never beat the game. I had lost one of my best soldiers (tragically appropriate though!) and had used all of my big AOE attacks. Things were looking really grim until I got a super lucky Execution on a full health avatar.

@lackingsaint: Haven't heard of that bug. What difficulty were you playing on? Perhaps it is permanent on lower difficulties?

@zevvion: Apologies for the late reply. I played Veteran Ironman on my first play-through.