-
Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.
XCOM 2 pretends to like you before kicking you in the groin
- Thread starter Indy in the Fridge
- Start date
So I've played base XCOM 2 on Easy mode cause I'm a fucking scrub and I hate challenge (usually).
I'm gonna take a gamble and do my first playthrough of WotC on Normal difficulty at least but I just wanna know if the WotC soundtrack is good enough that I should pick it over Enemy Unknown's OST cause I LOVED XCOM:EU's OST.
I'm gonna take a gamble and do my first playthrough of WotC on Normal difficulty at least but I just wanna know if the WotC soundtrack is good enough that I should pick it over Enemy Unknown's OST cause I LOVED XCOM:EU's OST.
This game---;lkjas;lkfjsad;lkfnma;lkne4m;lkn;aslkmdn;alkn;flkh;flhkj
I played through it at release but never went back for any DLC despite having bought the season pass. Played Chimera Squad recently and it stirred up a deep need to return to XCOM 2, so I've been at it for the last week or two (everything I was missing ended up being...6 bucks).
I did Ironman on my original run but I think the stress of that experience is what turned me off from replaying it...told myself I'd just do a casual run with saves this time. The funny thing is this safety net has made me play a lot more fast and loose but it's still been a near-perfect run so far, granted it's just normal but I only had to restart one (fairly early) mission.
I'm constantly impressed with how well it's balanced...even with timed missions, Chosen ambushing you, accidentally triggering enemy pods, there's usually a way to salvage the situation so I always play it out even if it seems hopeless. I constantly keep fucking up and think this will be the time I have to load a save...and somehow keep pulling through, because the game gives you so many great tools. I definitely prefer this barely controlled chaos compared to EU/EW where you spend most of the time slowly creeping forward being as safe as possible. The Resistance order stuff to tone down the timed missions also went a long way towards making the game a more relaxed experience. Though there's something to be said for a turn based game that gets your pulse racing.
And yeah, Mimic Beacons are MVP, I always bring at least one.
I did Ironman on my original run but I think the stress of that experience is what turned me off from replaying it...told myself I'd just do a casual run with saves this time. The funny thing is this safety net has made me play a lot more fast and loose but it's still been a near-perfect run so far, granted it's just normal but I only had to restart one (fairly early) mission.
I'm constantly impressed with how well it's balanced...even with timed missions, Chosen ambushing you, accidentally triggering enemy pods, there's usually a way to salvage the situation so I always play it out even if it seems hopeless. I constantly keep fucking up and think this will be the time I have to load a save...and somehow keep pulling through, because the game gives you so many great tools. I definitely prefer this barely controlled chaos compared to EU/EW where you spend most of the time slowly creeping forward being as safe as possible. The Resistance order stuff to tone down the timed missions also went a long way towards making the game a more relaxed experience. Though there's something to be said for a turn based game that gets your pulse racing.
And yeah, Mimic Beacons are MVP, I always bring at least one.
Realistically, the first few months are the hardest - Honestly, I think the alien 'level up' background process is paced out better in XCOM:EU/EW, where it's less of a wall if you're not prepared.
Regardless, surviving long enough to unlock the full 6-person squad and/or a few sergeant and up ranks is key to survival - Teeechnically, there's a (especially in non-Wotc) a generally 'optimal' build order for your buildings to consider to help facilitate this, but early abuse of grenades, swords (if you go the blademaster route) and other 'guaranteed' damage-type skills/weapons will always be key to early survival, as is balancing out moving with not activating more pods than you can handle versus the incoming timer.
The other big thing to keep in mind is the avatar project counter - certain missions will either reset it entirely or give you big swathes off, but you need to be making new resistance contacts similar to Satellite production in EU/EW.
Because point blank shots can miss even in reality, and because in a turn-based game what you see is an abstraction where you are supposed to imagine various factors at play, like characters moving out of the line of fire?
Not to mention that it remains an incredibly rare event even in the game.
Even completely untrained rookies tend to have an 85% chance or more in these circumstances and that becomes pretty soon a steady 100% every time your soldiers have a couple of levels under their belt.
Back to the topic, I can't stress enough to the OP how much of a better game XCOM 2 becomes when you add War of the Chosen on top of it.
In fact, I started two distinct threads in the last two years or so where I spent dozen of posts discussing the game in general and praising that expansion, more specifically.
The more I go back to play XCOM 2, the more I realize it may very well be one of my all times favorites.
Not even sure what I'm expecting or hoping to achieve by starting this thread, but I was just replaying this game in the past few days and the realization dawned on me. I enjoyed the first Fireaxis reboot to a fair extent, but I had some criticism about how they managed some parts of the game...
www.resetera.com
PSA: XCOM 2, the greatest tactical game of modern times, is currently on an outrageous 92% discount sale on Steam
Just in case you missed all your past chances to be touched by greatness, the game is now at its cheapest historical price on Steam. Of course, 4 bucks is just the entry level, because no self respecting tactical fan should miss the chance to grab the expansion War of the Chosen as well...
www.resetera.com
At this point I have something like 20+ campaigns completed in the game, ranging on the entire spectrum of challenge from Vanilla Veteran to WOTC Legendary/Ironman and I still can't get enough of the game. I complete a playthrough, wait a few weeks doing other stuff and at some point the urge to enjoy another ride comes again.
On the topic of difficulty, it can't be stressed enough that there isn't anything that the game throws at you that you shouldn't be consistently and reliably be capable to handle if you have the knowledge of the mechanics and know how to leverage it.
If anything, ironically enough, the very first missions where you are handling a bunch of inexperienced rookies and squaddies are the ones where things can occasionally take a brutal/unfair turn, but even then there's a lot an experienced player can do to mitigate unpredictability.
Past that early phase, you can basically play entire missions hardly ever having to rely on any chance below a 90% and you can get away completely unharmed even from the occasional fuck-ups where you activated more enemies than anticipated.
For example here's a couple of missions I recorded during my recent last playthrough:
Last edited:
OP
OP
Because point blank shots can miss even in reality, and because in a turn-based game what you see is an abstraction where you are supposed to imagine various factors at play, like characters moving out of the line of fire?
Not to mention that it remains an incredibly rare event even in the game.
Even completely untrained rookies tend to have an 85% chance or more in these circumstances and that becomes pretty soon a steady 100% every time your soldiers have a couple of levels under their belt.
Back to the topic, I can't stress enough to the OP how much of a better game XCOM 2 becomes when you add War of the Chosen on top of it.
In fact, I started two distinct threads in the last two years or so where I spent dozen of posts discussing the game in general and praising that expansion, more specifically.
The more I go back to play XCOM 2, the more I realize it may very well be one of my all times favorites.
Not even sure what I'm expecting or hoping to achieve by starting this thread, but I was just replaying this game in the past few days and the realization dawned on me. I enjoyed the first Fireaxis reboot to a fair extent, but I had some criticism about how they managed some parts of the game...
PSA: XCOM 2, the greatest tactical game of modern times, is currently on an outrageous 92% discount sale on Steam
Just in case you missed all your past chances to be touched by greatness, the game is now at its cheapest historical price on Steam. Of course, 4 bucks is just the entry level, because no self respecting tactical fan should miss the chance to grab the expansion War of the Chosen as well...
At this point I have something like 20+ campaigns completed in the game, ranging on the entire spectrum of challenge from Vanilla Veteran to WOTC Legendary/Ironman and I still can't get enough of the game. I complete a playthrough, wait a few weeks doing other stuff and at some point the urge to enjoy another ride comes again.
On the topic of difficulty, it can't be stressed enough that there isn't anything that the game throws at you that you shouldn't be consistently and reliably be capable to handle if you have the knowledge of the mechanics and know how to leverage it.
If anything, ironically enough, the very first missions where you are handling a bunch of inexperienced rookies and squaddies are the ones where things can occasionally take a brutal/unfair turn, but even then there's a lot an experienced player can do to mitigate unpredictability.
Past that early phase, you can basically play entire missions hardly ever having to rely on any chance below a 90% and you can get away completely unharmed even from the occasional fuck-ups where you activated more enemies than anticipated.
For example here's a couple of missions I recorded during my recent last playthrough:
This is very helpful. Thank you.
I'll keep pushing forward and see if it entices me to buy the expansion. WotC seems to be highly regarded based off a lot of these responses.
I want to love this game, but that difficulty wall they introduce and feeling of helplessness really turned me off. I know if I stuck with it I'd get better and it wouldn't be as big a deal, but it happens so soon it didn't have me sucked in enough yet to make me want to go through it.
Just a heads up, that's a valid strategy for you too.
If you pop a pod (discover a group of enemies wich then "activate") and consider it's not a good situation for you, if you fall back, next turn it'll be the aliens trying to advance without knowing where your soldiers are (or if they're on overwatch 😏)
Its just an infuriating waste of time for me. I just couldn't get into xcom 1 or 2. I usually love SRPGs but these games annoyed me more than anything else
xcom 2 just kicks you in the groin, repeatedly. it doesn't even lulls you in some false sense of security.
It is I loved it, just finished the campaign a few weeks ago after over 100 hours and I will definittely be starting a new campaign soon. Also once you get a good idea of all the mechanics and classes and get that lovely Psi Op class the strategic possibilities just open up.
What they really need is a custom miss animation for super-close-distance where it's a combo of your soldier panicking and the enemy dodging. Would look a lot less ridiculous.
Yeah, but XCOM.
Either your solider is a crack shot shooting through an open door, through the building, and out a window to hit the enemy, or somehow misses despite the enemy's face touching the gun. Near misses aren't in the XCOM vocabulary.
WotC arguably makes the game easier, if occasionally a bit more complex to keep track of.
I think I might be wasting too much time getting to the black site? Maybe I'm bungling when it comes to the contacts. I think I've been holding back making contacts for fear that I'll be overwhelmed by the chosen. I feel like I'm close. Like I'm winning the battles but losing the war.
WOTC flattens the difficulty curve IMO, it does not make the game harder per se.
That's basically it. People take tens of 90% shots per mission, occasionally they miss one or two every twenty or so aaaand... What do you know? Minutes later they are on the internet bitching that "IT WAS TOTAL BULLSHIT" regardless of the fact the outcome tends to match perfectly the statistical probability.
Honestly, I've never had a problem with XCOM hit chances. If anything I remember them being pretty high since I was pretty consistently landing 80% (or even 70%) shots and rarely missing. I've only played on the normal difficulty so maybe the chances are lower on higher difficulties, but personally the hit chances never gave me any issues.
Much like Fight Club, the first week your body is a wad of cookie dough- by the end of a month's time of playing, you'll be swatting Sectoids like the punks they are. 😎
OP, I have had a crummy afternoon and this thread brought a huge smile to my face and several belly laughs. Well done with the gifs, this is a perfect post!
Got back into Xcom 2 and just had by first nut hit, had to attack a outpost to lower their progress, it was going great, flawless even, got in planted the bombs and then a group of tanky enemies come from nowhere and then 3 dropships of heavy armored enemies while I was dealing with the first group due to a bunch misses, most of which were 70%+. No one died, but I need more recruits now :(.
I love this thread. I love X-COM. I could read about it all day. It's a game I know I will never stop playing, I'll always just keep coming back to it.
lol i play on the easiest level and i still lose dudes. some of the harder encounters, like the reveal of certain enemies, like, i won, but i know at my level i'd have real problems at medium
If you're talking about X4 charge missions, what I like to do for them is use concealment to get into a position so that I can plant the X4 Charges and escape in a just one turn. This won't always be possible to do in one turn though (especially if enemies are patrolling the X4 charge room) but I personally found this strategy to be pretty good.
If you're playing WoTC you can solo a lot of these X4 missions with Reapers due to their special concealment ability and high movement.
Word of advice:
Do not, under no circumstances, buy the PS4 version of WotC.
It is a buggy mess and because of game breaking and save data corrputing bugs I still haven't managed to complete a paythrough despite numerous attempts.
And I say this as someone who loves X-Com 2, even though I only played it on the PS4.
Do not, under no circumstances, buy the PS4 version of WotC.
It is a buggy mess and because of game breaking and save data corrputing bugs I still haven't managed to complete a paythrough despite numerous attempts.
And I say this as someone who loves X-Com 2, even though I only played it on the PS4.
This is one of the funniest Ops I've read in a while lol
Lmao
OP
OP
Yeah, I completely forgot you can call in your own dropship, which is why it really went bad, as I was starting to walk around wondering where the EZ was, thinking it was clear and the game bugged out, when 1 of my guys got jumped by a group, so I had to basically save them, which is when it all went to shit with the Xcom fuckery. I really enjoyed it though, just have to hope nothing major happens while my team is out.
My first rule of XCOM is: take as much stuff with 100% hit chance as you can, especially explosives.
Since just one bad turn can complety break your team, it is really a game about being extremely careful and making sure you eliminate crucial targets every turn, to minimize risk. Grenades and Rocket Launchers are perfect for this since they give consistent damage and break cover. Snipers are also great and kinda OP once you get them high level.
Since just one bad turn can complety break your team, it is really a game about being extremely careful and making sure you eliminate crucial targets every turn, to minimize risk. Grenades and Rocket Launchers are perfect for this since they give consistent damage and break cover. Snipers are also great and kinda OP once you get them high level.
That's XCOM, baby!
I kinda hope they roll away from the wild swings model where either you alpha strike everyone or you get stuck in a protracted death situation, both on the tactical level and at the strategic level. The inverted difficulty curve is kinda annoying, there's near no challenge at the high end.
Chosen does improve it quite a lot though iirc, but I'm waiting on their next thing now. Chimera Squad I liked, even with the max party limit.
Good to see some old faces in here as well.
I kinda hope they roll away from the wild swings model where either you alpha strike everyone or you get stuck in a protracted death situation, both on the tactical level and at the strategic level. The inverted difficulty curve is kinda annoying, there's near no challenge at the high end.
Chosen does improve it quite a lot though iirc, but I'm waiting on their next thing now. Chimera Squad I liked, even with the max party limit.
Good to see some old faces in here as well.
It's even more harsh with the dlc. I played 2 through to the last mission where I just got destroyed no matter what I tried. Then I grabbed the dlc and was being torn apart in no time. I assume there's an optimum path to unlocking things that I can't seem to identify
Always wanted to try this
I can't convince myself to get it though. Mario vs. Rabbids gave me a lot of trouble and I have heard that is much easier than XCOM.
I can't convince myself to get it though. Mario vs. Rabbids gave me a lot of trouble and I have heard that is much easier than XCOM.
Eh, not really. The calendar keeps moving onward, and the aliens level up at a consistent pace. So every mission you do will also give them better stats, while also advancing a "the aliens finished their evil plan" timer that causes you to lose the game (you can do specific objectives to delay this timer; I'm honestly not sure if it's possible to tread water indefinitely).
I think the general consensus among experienced players is that the humans' leveling curve is better than the aliens', but that's for people who know what they're doing. Newbies who don't and are being inefficient with their build orders and losing too many levelled-up units (permadeath is a thing) can find themselves in a death spiral where the aliens become overwhelming and the campaign is a bust (or at least such an exercise in frustration that it's better to scrap it and start fresh, with lessons learned about which upgrades to prioritize).
I struggled in Enemy Unkown, but there came a tippong point where I was able to eek it out until the end. Maybe I just haven't figured out how to make it that tipping point in xcom 2.
I never had it as bad as that one bullet-timing, Matrix dodging Crit Man in that one video, but yeah, nothing is as bullshit as them. Even the Rulers and Chosen are less of a nightmare.
