XCOM 2

Despite how much I loved the original XCOM: Enemy Unknown, I only recently picked up XCOM 2 and its expansion, War of the Chosen. Two weeks and 60 odd hours later, I finally finished my first XCOM 2 campaign. While there is still some of that XCOM jank here and there, for the most part I loved my time with XCOM 2: War of the Chosen and consider this game to be even better than its predecessor.

Right off the bat, XCOM 2 drew me in with its alternate timeline where the XCOM project in the previous game failed. While you do spend a significant time fighting against alien monstrosities, you also face off against a large number of humanoid and mechanized units. Between the propaganda that contextualizes the post-mission results, the uniforms and iconography of the occupying force, Advent, and the images of happy humans welcoming our new alien overlords that appear during the loading screen, XCOM 2 feels more like an anti-totalitarian sim than anything else. Creating your own propaganda posters soldiers who share a bond or your squad after a successful mission and seeing them appear in the background in later missions is also a nice touch.

The meta game has also been improved over the original Enemy Unknown. Between how building items and facilities is more streamlined, flying the Avenger around the world to connect with resistance camps (as opposed to already having those connections with the Council in the previous game), running covert ops, and countering Dark Events (various perks Advent receives) and the persistently looming Avatar Project, XCOM 2 feels more like you are running a ragtag operation that is continuously progressing towards your ultimate objective.

In terms of the combat and strategic elements, XCOM 2 feels just as good, if not better than the previous game. At first, it felt like XCOM 2 is a little too aggressive. Going up against a psionic Sectoid during your second mission feels an escalation of sorts. Seeing a Spectre incapacitate and create a perfect clone of one of your soldiers for the very first time is a befuddling experience. On any given mission, a Codex can disable your weapons, forcing those affected soldiers to reload mid-battle, or a Viper can grab and ensnare one of your soldiers from across the map. There were plenty of times where I would feel bold during a retaliation mission and sprint somebody across the map to rescue a civilian, only to discover that person was actually a Faceless blending in with the crowd of people. Beyond these new enemies, XCOM 2 has many missions that have a time limit or a sense of urgency, which encourage you to pick up the pace and not just sit there and wait for the enemies to come.

The more time I spent with XCOM 2, the more I thought about how the game was encouraging me to try different play styles beyond the moving soldiers forward and overwatching approach. So a Viper grabbed one of your soldiers. I guess it is time to run up and shoot that alien in the face. Ok, a Spectre cloned the guy who has all of the sword abilities. Looks like you better stop what you are doing and go handle this situation before that copy starts stabbing everyone. That is not to say XCOM 2 feels reckless or it is no longer strategic. Your tactics, loadouts, squad chemistry, and, yes, RNG, still determines the result of your battles. However, it felt like the game consistently challenged me to think outside the box and take more of an initiative than I would otherwise. A few battles in particular may feel unfair, but I was often times more surprised about how I was able to recover from certain unexpected enemy encounters.

On top of this, War of the Chosen introduces the Chosen into the mix. After years of speculation and assumption, we finally have the first major game inspired by Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor's nemesis system. In addition to the Chosen running amok around the world and are capable of capturing your soldiers on covert operations, reducing supplies in a region, and more, these hero type enemies can appear out of nowhere during your missions. While I was trying to capture an Advent target, a Warlock appeared, spawning in six other enemies in the middle of my squad's formation. One time when my soldiers were rushing out in the open to save as many resistance civilians as possible, I suddenly had to deal with a Hunter, who was sniping at my squad from the other end of the map. Another time when I was in the middle of infiltrating a top secret Advent facility, an Assassin appeared, who had the ability to run up and attack my squad with a sword.

At first the Chosen seemed like a minor threat. While each of them have their own strengths and weaknesses, they initially feel like souped up Advent forces. However, the more I played the game, the more I saw how they could impact the meta game if they were left alone. Additionally, each month the Chosen level up and over time gain new abilities. For example, eventually the Warlock had the ability to summon aliens and raise psionic zombies. As if the term "psionic zombies" isn't enough, they also have the ability to explode upon death and put the Chosen into an impervious stasis. Also if any enemy forces died near him, he would regain health. On top of that, if any of my soldiers missed their shot, then he would gain a shield. Also, every time he did take damage, he would teleport to a different part of the map. Sometimes these abilities would stack in weird ways. For example, if you killed the minions he spawned in and he is nearby, he would regain health. One time when I shot him and he teleported, the Warlock triggered three reaction shots, all of which missed, all of which added to his shield. The first time I fought the Warlock, he was kind of a joke. Facing off against his more leveled up form in the middle of a timed mission made me think about how I had to take this guy out before he becomes even more overwhelming.

The last major edition War of the Chosen brings is the Sitreps, which are modifiers to certain missions. These can include an increase of a certain enemy type or having things like explosive barrels scattered throughout the map. The most notable Sitrep is the Lost, which are a third faction of zombie-esque creatures that never stop spawning into the map and attack any unit on sight. The Lost in particular spice up certain encounters and can make you play the game differently. While I never played vanilla XCOM 2, the new additions found in War of the Chosen and the Sitreps overall make the game better and certain missions more interesting.

Although I am overall very high on XCOM 2: War of the Chosen, it's worth mentioning this game is still impacted by bugs and an awkward camera. Many times the cinematic "Hey, there's a new enemy over here" view will be stuck in a wall. One time when I thought my game froze while I was hacking, the camera was actually positioned in a way that made me unable to see the options I could select. I had to reload a previous save when one time the slow motion view of a reaction shot wouldn't end. I've had enemies attack one of my soldiers, only to have the actual soldier and information box off screen, leaving me to guess what actually happened. Sometimes dead enemies would stand back up striking a t-pose. One mission where I successfully captured a target said after the fact that the person of interest was killed in action.

Overall most of my experience is based on annoyances, with only one or two actual game breaking bugs. My biggest complaint is how XCOM 2 could be snappier. For instance, certain actions take longer because a unit like a Specialist's Gremlin is flying around the map. Many times the game feels like it is queuing up actions. For example, when you take down a Chosen during a mission, there can be a five to ten second pause while the game loads up campy quib you don't really need to hear. As battles get more complex between being in control of more than six units, having many Advent units, and also fighting against the Lost or the Chosen, this waiting game problem can increase. Although I save scummed my way through parts of XCOM 2, seeing how this game can slow down and get weird, despite how I was running the game on a SSD with a computer that exceeds the recommended settings, I am personally now a little hesitant to start an Ironman game. While I truly enjoyed my 60 hours with this campaign, I can't imagine how soul crushing it would have been if I encountered a save corruption bug or one of these errors that made it impossible for me to progress through a mission.

Looking back on my experience, I'm not 100% sure how much my enjoyment is based on the original release of XCOM 2 or how much of it is based on War of the Chosen and the various stability improvements the game may have received over the past 18 months. Putting that aside, XCOM 2: War of the Chosen feels like the complete package that improves upon what I loved so much about XCOM: Enemy Unknown while adding enough gameplay mechanics and enemy types that create plenty of nerve-racking situations. This will be my go to game whenever I have that XCOM itch again or if I ever want to try an Ironman campaign or mess around with any mods like The Long War.