

20 people found this review funny 0 146 people found this review helpful20 people found this review funny

Recommended 1,052.6 hrs on record

Got this during the Humble Bundle sale for only $12. This is actually my first intro into the XCOM franchise and Turn Based SRPGs in general.



There are actually two games here separated into layers. You will first be introduced to the Tactical layer. In this layer you control forces on the ground in a traditional turn based approach. Ideally you complete the mission without sustaining casualties or any wounded. Enemies also drop bonus loot which can be used later in the Strategy layer. The enemy organizes into what are called pods. Each pod contains a variable amount of enemies who will patrol the map when outside of the fog of war and gradually close on your squad's position. In most missions you have what is called concealment. With concealment you can move within visual range of squads as long as you don't enter the enemy aggro distance. This is useful for setting up ambushes or trying to stealth around the enemy entirely.



In the beginning you will encounter two main enemy types: Sectoids and ADVENT Troopers. Sectoids are an extremely dangerous early level enemy that can use psychic abilities. This power causes them to either mind control your unit or cause them to panic. A panicked soldier will often 'hunker down' but sometimes they'll run into a less advantageous position and take a shot at the enemy, often missing. They have also been seen committing friendly fire and blowing themselves up with grenades. Long story short: ♥♥♥♥ Sectoids.



The second primary enemy type is the ADVENT Trooper. They're you're typical alien sci-fi military grunts with their own rank and hierarchy. At the lowest rank you'll get standard Troopers. They're annoying but usually go down in 1-2 hits. Then you have ADVENT Officers. These guys can ruin your day if you let them. They can throw explosives and command forces to focus fire on individual squad mates, incurring critical hit bonuses if they hit.



These two enemies will make up the bulk of the forces you encounter during your campaign, while where are several different species all with their own unique abilities. As a Commander your task is crowd control, assessing the relative threat level of your enemy and adjusting your tactics accordingly in a dynamically changing environment.



Another awesome aspect about the game is the environment. All levels are procedurally generated at runtime. Various elements in the levels are also destructible. Need a quick exit? Have the right explosives and you can make that wall disappear. No need to run through an enemy squad to break for the extraction point. You can mold the environment to your tactical advantage.



Next is the Strategy layer. In this layer you equip your troops, purchase soldiers / equipment, research tech and expand your on base facilities. It's also where you get to play doll- err, I mean customize your soldiers. You have a wide array of customization options available from the bat. You can self insert into yourself and friends into the game and watch in horror as they're brutally murdered by an army of ADVENT mall ninjas while you get hugged to death by a well endowed lamia. There are countless mods available on the workshop that add additional weapons, cosmetics and classes. This is arguably one of the most powerful selling points as it tremendously increases replayability.



The game encourages you to do this as it also reinforces a desire to take care of your troops. If you sustain too many casualties morale will decrease. The lower a soldier's morale, the more prone they are to panic. When a soldier's morale is too low your only real option is to dismiss him from active duty as he becomes too much of a liability. If a soldier dies you can save them to your character pool. The game automatically does this when you create a soldier. So when you start a new campaign you'll find familiar faces reincarnated as different classes.



The game pressures you to advance in the story with a Doom Counter. Completing critical missions sets back the Doom Counter while letting them go on progresses it. You progress in the game by flying your mobile base to different regions of the globe and contacting the local resistance cells in those regions. From there you learn the location of alien facilities which you can assault to advance the story. To win you must stop the alien's Avatar project before the Doom Counter fills up. This forces you to focus your efforts. You may feel an urge to research everything and build an uber squad, but you'll often be forced to focus on specific areas of research because of constrained resources. I initially hated this being a completionist, but now I love it because it encourages decisive action.



Of course, the game isn't without its flaws.



My roots are in the arena shooter genre rather than traditional table top RPGs, which is the school that this game was developed in. The concepts of dicerolls and RNG can be frustrating at times. If you're observant enough you'll notice a brief twitch as your soldier appears to aim as to deliberately miss a shot which can be rage/cringe inducing- especially when it happens four times in a row. A rule of thumb is that anything less than a 100% chance should be treated as a 50% chance. This is a game that can screw you even when the odds are in your favor, but that's XCOM, baby.



There is also a nasty bug in the vanilla game due to threaded navigation mesh generation where enemies can get flanking shots to members of your squad with no LOS, which can easily ruin a playthrough. This happens because different parts of the mesh are generated on different processor threads. The community overhaul Long War 2 mitigates this at the expense of longer load times, but I'd recommend you beat the base game at least once before ever considering LW2.



The vanilla pod reveal mechanic is also annoying. In most missions your squad starts concealed. This means they have to move on a tile within the enemy's aggro range to trigger them. Once you aggro a pod you become visible to all pods in visual range. The fog of war has a hard edge meaning taking a single step forward can immediately trigger an adjacent pod. In general you don't want to fight more than one pod at a time, but this can make it very difficult not to do so. There's also what's referred to as a 'line of play'. This is an arbitrary point in the level where all pods will begin to converge on your location. If you're lucky and quick you can slip through them and stealth a run, but this is nearly impossible in vanilla XCOM 2. One of the worst bugs by far however is aggro range calculation. It seems to do this individually for each soldier you select. So what can end up happening is you'll move one soldier just outside the enemy aggro range, then move another soldier before the game can recalculate the aggro distance for that soldier. By the time you click you've stepped on an aggro tile. RIP.



TL;DR



Pros

- Fun B-movie sci-fi plot

- Lots of customization

- Mods

- High replayability



Cons

- RNOhMyGesus

- Enemy may land impossible to hit shots killing your best soldier

- Dodgy aggro range calculation

- Sectoids

- Sneks

- Stun Lancers





This game has captivated me as a fan of shooters. I've discovered a new interest for tactical and logistical planning. Having already poured several dozens of hours into the base game and even more into Long War 2, I can say that if you're a fan of military sci-fi shooters and SRPGs then definitely give this a try. This was a steal for $12. If you're lucky it'll also enhance your sex life as you discover how much of a masochist you really are.



You may be the Commander, but by the end of your first playthrough ADVENT will be Daddy.

( ͡~ ͜ʖ ͡°)