https://youtu.be/aD3Fuws6nJI

In 2012, Firaxis released Xcom Enemy Unknown which helped breathe new life into the genre and successfully rebooted the classic UFO defense franchise. Now, 4 years later, Xcom 2 hopes to improve on all of the elements of its predecessor.

Taking place roughly 20 years after where the first game left off, and in an unusual sense for a sequel, Xcom 2 assumes you failed Enemy Unknown as it now takes place in a dystopian future where the aliens have conquered earth. Rather than defending the planet from UFOs, you’re tasked with bolstering resistance cells across the globe with your mobile, flying fortress; the avenger. This functions in the same way as your underground base from the first title, as you can upgrade it, add new facilities, as well as recruit soldiers while managing research and production.

The core concepts are similar to Enemy Unknown and you’re faced with a constant race against the clock since the aliens are developing something called the Avatar project. Certain missions will act to delay the progress of the project, but it's game-over upon its completion. There’s also dark events which can provide random modifiers and buffs to the aliens you encounter. Occasionally you’ll be prompted to complete guerilla missions which allow you to prevent a dark event but you’re unable to stop them all, as you’ll typically have to pick and choose which event is most pressing.

The world map functions similarly to Enemy Unknown. You’ll set up a base and will be able to scan the map for certain points of interest. Building radio relays in countries will increase your monthly budget, and continental bonuses make a return, adding some elements of strategy and planning. Upon scanning the map, you’ll frequently be interrupted to go on missions, which are all randomly generated with varying objectives. These objectives range from escorting an NPC, saving civilians, eliminating a target or killing every alien in an area.

The turn-based combat is what you’d come to expect from an Xcom game, death is permanent and your soldiers can still possibly miss a point-blank shot which otherwise has a 97% success rate. Stealth has been added, which can allow you to strategically place your soldiers and set up ambushes with overwatch, but a lot of the time you’ll feel rushed as there isn’t much time to complete the objectives in most cases. Taking one extra step is sometimes enough to alert enemies to your presence, so you really have to balance between moving cautiously and completing a mission as fast as possible. That element of randomness can be a detriment, as sometimes a civilian could block a ladder and thus seal off the only way up to a rooftop extraction, or a ridiculous amount of enemies could spawn directly on top of a transmitter you’re otherwise supposed to protect. Which leads to one major issue with Xcom 2, it’s extremely luck based and these random factors can cause you to fail a mission with very little control. You can recover from failed missions, but it does feel a little unfair and can be a major downer for ironman playthroughs in which you only have one save file.

The soldier classes feel a lot more fleshed out and distinct from one another as they all kind of blurred together in the previous installment. For example the Ranger is equipped with a sword which can absolutely devastate enemies in melee combat while the specialist has a drone that can hack hostile robotic units or support squad mates from anywhere on the map. The scientists and engineers play more of a role now as well. They’re actually named and can be individually assigned to different projects.

Xcom 2 also completely expands on the level of customization, giving a lot more appearance options for your soldiers. You’re also able to modify your soldiers’ weapons with various attachments as well as give them performance enhancing implants. While all of these customization options were quite welcomed, this resulted in some completely broken and overpowered combinations. For example, I had given one of my soldiers a superior repeater which gave him a 15% chance to instantly execute whatever target he was shooting at and as a result I was able to one-shot the hardest enemy in the game. The difficulty in general is kind of spiky, while the game initially starts off as challenging; it quickly becomes too easy upon developing certain technologies. Some better pacing would have greatly alleviated this issue because as it stands, it can switch from being so easy that it’s tedious to frustrating with little warning.

At first, there seems to be a greater variety of enemies present in Xcom 2. The majority of enemies you face are Advent troopers, human-like soldiers that support the alien regime, while more familiar aliens such-as sectoids function as lieutenants and are actually a greater threat than the previous games. The other aliens have also evolved over the twenty year gap between Enemy Unknown. Unfortunately you hardly fight them in the latter half of the game as you pretty much always face the same enemies over and over again at that point.

I also had some issues with the world map. It gives you so many optional areas to scan for additional supplies and personnel but you’re interrupted every two seconds to take part in another randomly generated mission. There are very few actual story missions, and the random stages can really get tedious in the latter half of the game. There’s also very little rhyme or reason going into the appearance of a stage. You could accept a mission in Africa only for there to be pine trees and snow on the ground, making no sense whatsoever. There are a lot of bugs present in the game as well. From graphical glitches, laggy animations and the odd crash.

Xcom 2 promised re-playability with its use of random stages but I would’ve honestly preferred handcrafted levels with more of a narrative. There’s also extra mod support this time around but most of the mods available currently are cosmetic or the odd weapon, which doesn’t really add anything significant to the gameplay.

The multiplayer from Enemy Unknown makes an appearance again but it’s even more of a throw-away mode this time around. You’re given even less customization options than before as you’re no longer able to choose the rank and loadout of human soldiers. The turns don’t play out simultaneously and can take an extremely long time as there’s quite a bit of additional lag between them. That combined with crashes and random disconnects make this mode barely playable.

The soundtrack is well done and changes to match the mood of the battle as well as the enemies you encounter. Unfortunately, there isn't much variety between tracks and it isn't as memorable as Michael Mccann’s soundtrack from Enemy Unknown who was probably too busy working on Deus Ex Mankind Divided.

Ultimately, Xcom 2 makes a very strong first impression but it was all downhill from there though, and towards the end of the game, I couldn’t wait to be done with all the randomly generated filler content. That coupled with an overall lack of pacing made it a bit of a disappointment. It’s an improvement over Enemy Unknown in some areas but a step-back in others. Xcom 2 is by no means a bad game, and will most likely improve with time; I was just expecting a lot more.

+ Strong Turn Based Tactical Combat
+ Increased Customization Options
+ Interesting Premise
+ Soldier classes and base management are more refined.

- Repetitive Gameplay and Filler Content
- Numerous Bugs
- Lackluster Multiplayer
- Not enough of an improvement over Enemy Unknown

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