Oh, I still haven't played XCOM1 (I played the original though). I wonder if I should go directly to XCOM2. Any advice?
"Wer Visionen hat, sollte zum Arzt gehen." - Helmut Schmidt
I found XCOM1 repetitive as hell and get bored with it quickly. The premise and mechanics were good, but there's only so many times you can play the same (not very interesting) handful of missions on slightly different maps before it becomes dull.
If they're doing the same thing again with XCOM2 I'll pass, otherwise I might consider picking it up in a sale. Maybe.
When the sky above us fell
We descended into hell
Into kingdom come
Hoooo I played the original too, one of my favourite games back in 1994. Played every version since.
XCOM: Enemy Unknown is ~ 15 Euros on Steam. Maybe pick it up and give it a go - if ya like it still then XCOM2 is along similar lines.
~
According to the reviews, there is longevity to the game, moreso than with Enemy Unknown.
From IGN; ... one of XCOM 2’s biggest strengths how it resists your efforts to fall into repetitious patterns. By comparison: after the first real-world month or two of XCOM: Enemy Unknown, it became apparent that anyone who intended to play it for that length of time would have a base build order down to a science, know exactly what to research when, and memorize the best routes through the pre-built maps and have an idea of where enemies would appear on them. XCOM 2 defeats most of those assumptions by introducing randomness throughout its campaign, so that you can’t count on the route that took you to victory one time to deliver you to the same results the next.
We'll see. Have it installed now so will have a couple of hours today and more over the weekend.
I bought the original XCOM in a double box with MOO 1. At first I thought, meh, I have to pay for another game I don't want just because XCOM wasn't available alone in the shop. Months later I learned to love MOO as much as XCOM.
"Wer Visionen hat, sollte zum Arzt gehen." - Helmut Schmidt
Will it ever port to consoles?
Brevior saltare cum deformibus viris est vita
Played for a few hours so far, initial impressions are good. You feel a sense of tension right from the get go and almost every mission has you on a short clock. Judging from my first few battles where I pushed forward a little fast and paid for it the normal 'veteran' difficulty setting seems a bit more difficult than the original.
Team was to small to do a multi platform release and while they aren't opposed to it, they have done interviews where they said they aren't going to throw away resources on either console. I take that to mean that they aren't interested in attempting it unless Sony or Microsoft cut them a sweet deal/check.
"In a field where an overlooked bug could cost millions, you want people who will speak their minds, even if they’re sometimes obnoxious about it."
It's decent. First AAA game in a while I haven't regretted buying. I tried playing commander or whatever the third difficulty was my first game, I think I pushed forward too fast, or maybe RNG just hates me, because I hit a wall on a mission that featured a cyber-thing, a muton, a mech, a shieldbearer, and two advanced stun guys, all right on top of my drop site, while I was still in starter armor and only one of my weapons had been upgraded. It was the first time I saw those last three I listed.
Restarted on veteran (or whatever the second difficulty was) ironman, and that's been going a lot better. A few close calls, but no deaths. Although I think I over-compensated; I think I'm nearing the end of the tech tree, and I've only done one story mission so far.
Spoiler:
Yes it's certainly tougher than Enemy Unknown / Enemy Within.
You aren't eased into facing new and tough enemies. Right from the very first mission you get psi sectoids who can mind-control. Whereas in Enemy Unknown you didn't get these until the final stages.
The countdown clock on missions which have a time limit is tight. I usually get my evac completed on either the penultimate or the very last turn.
I find myself having to save on most turns, and reload frequently.
I started a completely new campaign to put into effect what I'd learned after running into trouble in my first campain. I found it necessary to build the Troop training GDS room as soon as possible, and increase squad size. Makes a considerable difference having >4 troops on missions.
If I go back up to the difficulty level that kicked my ass the first time, I'm probably switching back to wuss mode.
I'd even recommend against it on a first play-through. My first game wasn't ironman, and the most frequent cause of save-scumming was a death due to a new mechanic/behavior I wasn't previously aware of, and all my errors just sorta built on each other until even scumming couldn't really save me. Learning the game in ironman could get quite frustrating.
I think I backed myself up into a corner.
Spoiler:
Still having a great time of it though!
So, some learnings I got from my first failure and current game:
Spoiler:
edit:
Ways the enemy cheats:
Last edited by Wraith; 02-11-2016 at 01:32 AM.
Yup lost another mission I'm done with that play run... started over. Very interesting how it gave me a new starting location and a new mission to do. That's pretty awesome.
BTW you ever play the co-op board game X-com? That's a fast paced crazy game run with an app.
I've been playing and I'm not liking it so much. I don't care for the change in thematics where unlike previous games we're not just desperately struggling but on the run, and I don't like the timers. They make everything feel like a terror mission.
Last night as I lay in bed, looking up at the stars, I thought, “Where the hell is my ceiling?"
One of the big complaints about the original x-com was the slow sniper crawl to victory. Putting timers on requires you to take risks, sometimes scary ones. Yes you can constantly re-load if you aren't doing man mode but that's kind of silly. Note: Not all operations are timed and the inclusion of the stealth portion I felt was really good.
I wasn't as slow and cautious as the slow sniper crawl but I'm not one of the fast and aggressive players either. Here's the thing though, you could engage in the fast aggressive play all you wanted in the earlier game. It came with greater risks and losses, just as it does now, but you could do it without guaranteeing failure. Here if you try to do anything but that, you are indeed guaranteeing failure. This iteration forces a play-style me that I don't like and I am not comfortable with, while the former merely encouraged one.
Last night as I lay in bed, looking up at the stars, I thought, “Where the hell is my ceiling?"
If you really don't like the timers, go to the Workshop button on the launcher and download a mod. There are two that I know of:
Mod 1) Gets rid of nearly all timers save for some story missions
Mod 2) Increases the timer by 2 to 4 rounds.
Just don't forget to enable the mods after you downloaded them.
My tips:
- Repeat the proving ground project "Experimental ammo" until you get armor piercing ammo. This bypasses up to 5 levels of armor.
- Grenades shred armor which helps if you haven't got armor piercing ammo.
- Try to hack everything. You may get some nice boni on the strategic map and if you're really lucky you may increase your soldier's hacking skill. Nothing better than to go rampaging through the enemy crowd with their own mec unit.
- The Advanced Warfare center is useful if you get it at the beginning - this allows every soldier to have one additional skill (randomly chosen but usually very useful). However, this random skill is located at a random, predetermined rank. Which means that if your soldier is already at or above this rank, he won't get the bonus skill anymore.
When the stars threw down their spears
And watered heaven with their tears:
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the lamb make thee?
The only mec unit I've managed to hack was next to useless (retaliation mission and it had one ammo left, and for some reason it wouldn't let me reload) but I've had much joy from hacking turrets. Last night I went after an alien installation, hacked a turret, and an advent patrol which hadn't seen it climbed up to the roof one square away with it on overwatch. The slow-motion animation of it turning toward the advent officer's head as he came up the ladder was just beautiful.
Last night as I lay in bed, looking up at the stars, I thought, “Where the hell is my ceiling?"
The mimic grenade is great, too. The enemy will focus that one over all else.
When the stars threw down their spears
And watered heaven with their tears:
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the lamb make thee?
I think the mimic grenade actually needs to be toned down.
Last night as I lay in bed, looking up at the stars, I thought, “Where the hell is my ceiling?"
My 2nd run has been MUCH better. Got mag weapons and good armor before tackling the first dark site. Massacred the enemy with the upgrades. I've also found a lot more respect for the combat protocol for the drones. Rips apart things like turrets and their 2 armor heavy mechs. Rocking and a rolling with 5 engineers able to man comms and get ahead of the 8 ball pretty well now. 15 hours played so far - and very enjoyable. Anyone who has been on the fence should really think about getting it.
Just finished the game again this time on Iron Man Veteran (normal difficulty). Psi Ops ridiculously overpowered, knowing that ahead of time made the game rather cake.
Now debating about getting War of the Chosen at the end of the month or giving Long War 2 a try. Long War 2 is a fan mod that is getting some nice reviews with a deeper level of strategy than just base build and tech selections. Larger squads to start with, I kinda worry that it will become too tedious though. Has anyone tried it yet?