WRITER’S NOTE: This review is written from the perspective of someone that is new to the XCOM series, with a small amount of experience in tactical combat games. Initially, due to the game’s steep difficulty curve, the reviewer did not feel comfortable attaching a score with the review. It has since been updated to reflect changed thoughts and opinions through continued evaluation of the game.
The backstory is satisfactorily covered in order to catch up new players; a news-style introduction quickly catches you up with prior events, and opening character dialogue almost always explains the relationship between them and the Commander/player.
I cared for the characters and took ownership over the resistance, which increasingly troubled me as I felt doomed to fail them. Sadly, I wonder how many people will have the fortitude to see the entirety of the story, considering it’s intense difficulty.
The graphics are solid, the game runs relatively problem-free (minus the occasional frame rate stutter) and load times are pretty minimal.
Environments are well detailed and diverse, with each level feeling different from the last and demanding a different tactical approach.
The UI is quite ingeniously designed. It’s very intuitive and simple to find your way around. I particularly like the way it embeds itself in the game world at times as though it was something the characters could also see. Very clever.
I ran into only a few bugs, with animations not playing out or being delayed; nothing that impacted the progression of the game, merely the flow. More annoyingly some of the camera angles clipped through textures and, at times, made some exchanges of gunfire totally out of sight.
Let’s start with the good.
I immediately loved the style of gameplay. The turn-based, tactical style of combat heavily involves careful thinking and planning. Strategy is absolutely necessary (perhaps even more so than I am capable of) and results in some of the most engaging and tense turn-based combat I’ve experienced.
The enemy variants are fantastic, as are the assortment of classes, perks and loadouts you can select for your squad. I was given the sense – perhaps falsely – that there are a million ways to approach combat.
Impressive level design, varied attacks, verticality and destruction seemingly result in different and uniquely challenging encounters every time.
I was enjoying this tremendously until the difficulty ramped up exponentially with little warning or preparation.
Soldiers deaths on the battlefield are permanent. You can only recruit more back at base, assuming you have supplies spare, and they begin again at the lowest rank. It was particularly soul destroying to lose a soldier who had scraped through long enough to acquire skills that were coming close to rivaling that of the enemy’s.
I looked for someway to train or practice in a consequence free environment, against bots or the like, simply to train myself as a player, but no option was available. In game, as my ass was being handed to me, I looked for some way to retry or restart, but I had no such luck.
I had no option to barely achieve the mission objective and feel totally miserable returning with only 2 of my 5 squad members, both of whom were gravely injured and had to sit out of battles for sometime.
Maybe I screwed it up for myself by not managing saves better. Had I saved before every encounter and reloaded saves when things went badly, maybe I’d have had more luck. Mind you, levels did seem randomized each time.
Or perhaps my strategies were just sub-par. I’d refute that, but even if that were the case, I wish the game had given me a little more leniency. You do not get another go. Occasionally the game might throw you a bone, surrounded by a pack of snarling wolves.
XCOM 2 makes no apologies for its difficulty, nor should it. Let’s be clear, it’s not its difficulty that I’m faulting, it’s the manner in which it’s delivered. There’s no grind, no repetition, no death-respawn cycle, no second attempt.
Make a mistake in XCOM 2 and expected to get punished for the next few hours. Maybe that’s the game for you, I’m not sure it was the game for me.
Maybe I’ll try another campaign, ensuring to save before making any decision. Wish me luck. I’m gonna need it.
My first attempt at playing through XCOM 2 taught me a lot. Not only did I learn about the game’s systems and strategy, I learnt how painfully hard it can be at times.
Putting new skills and techniques into practise during my second attempt however, I gained something else; an appreciation for what XCOM 2 strives to be. XCOM 2 is equal parts challenging and brutal, but also suspenseful and ultimately, very satisfying and rewarding.
I wish the game gave new-comers such as myself a little more heads up – ultimately it is unfriendly to people new to the franchise in every way other catching them up with the story – but now I at least see the appeal.
Played right, XCOM 2 is an engaging, tense, well-paced and tremendously well designed tactical combat game that is rewarding enough at it’s high points to counteract the frustration of your low points.
View Comments
I remember the '94 original and your experience here pretty much mirrors what I went through with that game.
Glad I'm not alone. Thanks for the comment :)
As someone who is familiar with and loves Xcom - your review sounds exactly like what Xcom should be :)
Thanks Matthew! I thought that might be the case but it's reassuring to hear. I didn't want to do XCOM fans, or this game, a disservice simply because I had a troubled time with it.