XCom2 vanilla or straight into War of the Chosen?

[Arkanius]

Topic title question.

I'm finally up for some more Xcom, I loved Enemy Unknown and I've been playing some Bureau lately that made me itch for some strategy gaming once again.

I've noticed recently that Xcom 2 had a giant DLC and that it integrates directly into the main campaign. Isn't it better to buy the base game + DLC and start with War of the Chosen ? Or will it be too overwhelming, even for previous players of Xcom ?

 

[TeenageFBI]

It's probably worth a vanilla playthrough to see what changed in WotC. It's practically XCOM 3.

I sure wish Firaxis would fix a controller bug in the PC version though. Entering some customization menus bugs out my controller so that pressing a direction on the d-pad a single time results in double-input. I can replicate it 100% of the time but I simply have no way of reporting the bug to Firaxis. I guess I'm hoping that someone from the dev team reads this,

 

[ShadowSwordmaster]

Play vanilla first.

 

[Evolution of Metal]

Do you want to replay the same campaign twice?

Spoiler

No you don't

DLC makes the main game better, simple as that. The only reason to play the base game if don't want to buy the DLC.

 

[electricblue]

I'd go straight into War of the Chosen. You'll miss some stuff but nothing major or great. WotC is probably the best tactical turn based game ever made, certainly the one that has pushed things forward in an interesting direction.

 

[GrantDaNasty]

War of the Chosen adds several new mechanics and concepts to existing XCOM 2, but the main campaign is still the same. TL;DR - You should run through WOTC, and treat it as a Hard-mode for the 1st half of the campaign, after you get over that hump, it's easy-street

 

[xrnzaaas]

Afaik War of the Chosen hasn't been on any sales on the PS4 and only had a small discount on PC. I'd buy the base game with the (previous) DLC's and enjoy it for the time being. It'll still be A LOT of fun and besides the game encourages multiple campaigns.

 

[edo_kid]

I'd go straight into War of the Chosen. You'll miss some stuff but nothing major or great. WotC is probably the best tactical turn based game ever made, certainly the one that has pushed things forward in an interesting direction.

Click to shrink...

What a shame that the PS4 version is completely broken, i really would like to play WotC. :(

 

[OldLogos]

I just started playing again after a few months break and got the expansion. It definitely seems harder with the new Chosen enemies, but they also give you some great tools to deal with them. I'd say play with WotC because you'd be missing out on new gameplay elements.

 

[Weebos]

If you're only going to play through once use the expansion, if you will play through at least twice I would start with vanilla.

 

[xrnzaaas]

What a shame that the PS4 version is completely broken, i really would like to play WotC. :(

Click to shrink...

Huh? That's not good to hear. What's broken exactly if I may ask?

Nvm, googled a bit and after what I saw I will be holding back with the PS4 purchase until the expansion is really cheap. Disappointing. :(

 

[kiriku]

I jumped straight into War of the Chosen (coming from XCOM + Enemy Within). It is kind of overwhelming at first, lots of new or changed systems from the first one... but I got used to it and didn't have too much trouble getting through the campaign.

 

[Son of Liberty]

I'd say WotC, it's a meaty expansion that adds so much to the base game.

 

[piratepwnsninja]

WotC adds so much to the experience that I'd say just start with that.

 

[jon bones]

War of the Chosen for sure. It's such a complete package and god damn is it good.

 

[kyle mechlachlan]

I bought the entire thing and started it and I definitely felt a bit overwhelmed, but it seems fun. It's weird to think of the campaign without the Chosen stuff because it seems to integrated.

 

[raphaelr]

Huh? That's not good to hear. What's broken exactly if I may ask?

Click to shrink...

for me it´s horrible load times (4-6mins from boot screen to loading into mission),
choppy framerate on most missions that gets even worse on missions with the lost
crashes during missions (coupled with the load times this is just a kick in the nuts)

example from boot screen to horrible perfocmance during mission to crash (~14mins)

i stopped playing when they said the fall patch would be out soon for consoles

Spoiler

that was about 4 months ago

great game, but a chore to play on ps4

 

[SarcasticRobot]

If you're going to do both start with vanilla. If you're going to do one, WOTC definitely adds content but also makes the game easier in my opinion (easier/lots of ways to slow the aliens progress, your soldiers become way OP), so factor in your appetite for a challenge, as I feel the consequences are much more severe in vanilla (which I like).

Also, do both. They're both worth it and amazing. One of my favorite games ever.

 

[edo_kid]

Huh? That's not good to hear. What's broken exactly if I may ask?

Nvm, googled a bit and after what I saw I will be holding back with the PS4 purchase until the expansion is really cheap. Disappointing. :(

Click to shrink...

And the worst part is that there's no patch on the horizon to fix things.

 

[johancruijff]

Do you want to replay the same campaign twice?

Spoiler

No you don't

DLC makes the main game better, simple as that. The only reason to play the base game if don't want to buy the DLC.

Click to shrink...

What

That's the basic hook of XCom, replaying it over and over and over

_____________________________________

Go with the base game, with tutorial and all.

Then expansion

Then start raising the difficulty

Then start making your own rules for the game

 

[Alexandros]

What platform are you playing on?

 

[Vex]

What makes WotC so much better than vanilla? As someone who has beaten vanilla's ass, I was wondering if I should jump in again.

Anything actually new? Or is it just some extra scenarios and 1337 armor/sunglasses?

 

[alosarjos]

As far as I know, with the War of the Chosen campaign, they reworked a lot the engine and the game runs way better. Sadly that rework didn't come as a free update for he vanilla

Gameplay wise, I would say go for Vanilla first, but I'm actually waiting for a good deal to play it with the performance patches...

 

[NattyBo]

I put like 85 hours into vanilla, this thread has been helpful in helping me to decide whether to get WoTC (I am, whenever it goes on sale). Nice to hear that performance improves in WoTC.

 

[TC McQueen]

What makes WotC so much better than vanilla? As someone who has beaten vanilla's ass, I was wondering if I should jump in again.

Anything actually new? Or is it just some extra scenarios and 1337 armor/sunglasses?

Click to shrink...

New classes, new story mission, a bunch of new mission types, challenging boss enemies that keep coming back until you go into their lairs, new ending cutscenes, TNG voice actors, an in-game poster maker, new grunt enemies, in-game option to know if moving will put you in line of sight of enemies, better performance on PC...

There's a ton of changes in WOTC that are massive improvements over vanilla.

 

[BlackJace]

No real reason to hold back on the expansion, except maybe for the fact that newcomers will be pretty overwhelmed at the amount of system to learn/manage.

 

[Arkanius]

Thanks for all the feedback

My plan is to do an Ironman playthrough, mostly once because I have other games planned for April forward. So I wasn't very keen on doing two playthroughs, at least for now.
I would be up to go through Vanilla if WoTC was impossible to understand without prior experience though.

By the way, planning to play on PC, sometimes with a controller (for when I'm chilling in the sofa)

 

[Alexandros]

Thanks for all the feedback

My plan is to do an Ironman playthrough, mostly once because I have other games planned for April forward. So I wasn't very keen on doing two playthroughs, at least for now.
I would be up to go through Vanilla if WoTC was impossible to understand without prior experience though.

By the way, planning to play on PC, sometimes with a controller (for when I'm chilling in the sofa)

Click to shrink...

Skip straight to WOTC then, it's a much better experience.

 

[Vex]

better performance on PC...

Click to shrink...

...!

 

[whiskeyjack-YT]

Umm, old topic, but I'd rather not start a new one for this:

The game runs quite abysmally on my PC. What gives?

Sporting an 1080ti, 8700k, 32ram

 

[TsuWave]

Edit - didn't see the necro post and was replying to OP

 

[Yossarian]

Does the strategy layer open up a bit? I played about 6-7 missions and it felt very handholdy.