XCOM 2

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After watching TotalBiscuit's preview based on a 12-hour demo version of the game some press members were given, I'm very enthused about playing the new XCOM game. It's worth a watch if you have an hour - he avoids story spoilers and goes into a lot of detail about the new features.

There is a ton more depth and customization than the previous instalments. Day one purchase for me.

 

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XCOM 2 will have some of the best modding support we've seen in recent years available to anyone who buys the base game:

• Visual Studio Isolated Shell
• The unreal editor that was used in the development of XCOM 2
• Script Source Code
• 50GB of assets

source

 

[Davros]

50GB of assets

OMG!!!

 

[Kyyla]

That sounds pretty promising. I haven't been keeping up since I was ultimately disappointed about how shallow the first remake was. No replayability at all. All the remake did was make me want to see the first X-Com with just new graphics..

 

[Malo]

Full physics-correct high detail alien porn within 30 days

 

[ArcticCircle]

I've watched Beaglerush twitch videos and it seems that Xcom 2 shares same weakness as previous entry. After hard start (first mission, first terror mission, maybe escort scientist mission), you just roll thru early-mid game without any issues, no matter if it's legendary, custom legendary (increased mob health and group size), ironman... It's shame that they just can't seem to find a way to fix that issue. I expect some late game BS encounters that'll mess up your fav soldiers but at that point you're already so far ahead in tech, new trained recruits and resources that it probably don't matter.

 

[Kyyla]

I watched the Totalbisquit video and combat looked as boring as ever. Damn maybe I'll skip this then.

 

[Rodéric]

I found XCOM to have a number of flaws, one of them is that I just can't deal with two rolls, one for hitting and one for damage, it seems so obvious to me (as I do in my RPG rules) to use the success margin as the basis of damage, it also means that moving into a better position (higher chances) will necessarily lead to better results, which is much better. Of course you can still have belove critical hits so that even if you have a low chance of success you still manage to do a lot of damage.

(Success margin = roll - % chance of success, when >= 0)

 

[Rootax]

Just preloaded it via Steam. Can't wait !

 

[Deleted member 13524]

I watched the Totalbisquit video and combat looked as boring as ever. Damn maybe I'll skip this then.

IMO, turn-based combat always seems boring when you're not the one playing the game...

 

[Kyyla]

IMO, turn-based combat always seems boring when you're not the one playing the game...

I can see what you mean. I guess the problem for me was that XCOM wasn't in any way a sandbox game with emergent, random stuff happening. It was purely on rails. Even the combat consisted of using all the available skills in order. There were also major annoyances like free alien movements, aliens dropping from the sky, no actual calculations for cover, angles etc when shooting.

It lacked the essence of what I loved about the original

 

[Deleted member 13524]

I can see what you mean. I guess the problem for me was that XCOM wasn't in any way a sandbox game with emergent, random stuff happening. It was purely on rails. Even the combat consisted of using all the available skills in order. There were also major annoyances like free alien movements, aliens dropping from the sky, no actual calculations for cover, angles etc when shooting.

It lacked the essence of what I loved about the original

The scripted missions where you had to e.g. protect someone or retrieve an item really did have all those problems (on-rails, aliens dropping from the sky, etc.). For what it's worth, I also think those missions were a bit annoying. But the procedurally-generated missions didn't have any of that, as far as I remember. In fact, I think the later missions on the large alien spaceships reminded me of the original game a lot, in terms of difficulty and planning needed (the first game's resource micro-managing needed to get there is a whole other beast, though).

 

[tabs]

This game is brutal. In a good way though. Already on my third attempt. Each campaign has been quite different thanks to the variance in available missions and the missions themselves have plenty of random attributes.

I enjoyed XCOM:EU enough to complete it once and then not pick it up again. I'm loving this game though. Gameplay / design wise it is strictly better in every way I can think of. Even the way I lost to the aliens on my second playthrough was really well concieved and enjoyable (no spoilers). It's certainly harder than it's predecessor, even at the fairly low 'veteran' difficulty.

It's a shame it's so ridden with camera bugs, particularly when something kills your guy off screen and you've no idea what happened. A friend struggles to run it without the game completely locking up every hour or two - though I've not had that. Despite the issues I'd still recommend it highly. I've somehow put 25 hours into it already.

A few things seem unexplained, such as debuff effects and what they actually do, but by and large most information is readily available in game.

 

[Cyan]

I am currently playing whenever I can, and totally addicted, to Silent Storm, which I got at GoG, and don't have XCOM for now, but this is an excellent thread to keep track of XCOM 2. I just hope they publish it at other places other than Steam, and to get it on a sale. Plus I am not sure my laptop can run it softly.

 

[I.S.T.]

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2016/02/11/xcom-2-performance-fix/ For anyone having issues. Don't have(Or want) the game so I cannot verify how these work, or if they work.

 

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Just completed it on Veteran difficulty with a lot of save reloading! Thoroughly enjoyable. The last mission is insane. Don't know how I'm going to do it on Ironman, but it will be done. Looking forward to my next play throughs already. No more save scumming for me now I have a handle on the game.

Psi troops are definitely worth it this time around, though all the classes are very well balanced. A friend is focusing on mass grenadiers and doing well with that strategy while I barely used them at all. Started out with mainly rangers supported by a couple of snipers then got more balanced with specialists, and in the final few months two fully trained up psi ops. Mind controlling your enemies is lots of fun when you get to see and use all their various abilities.

There are already a dozen or more mods out on steam workshop. Looks to be the tip of the iceberg. There's plenty you can adjust yourself in the config files too, such as increasing the squad size to a ridiculous amount and tweaking enemies stats. Can't wait to see some bigger mods down the line.

Each turn feels like a new puzzle to solve. Hugely addictive.

 

[ArcticCircle]

A friend is focusing on mass grenadiers and doing well with that strategy

Heh, no wonder he's doing well as they are totally broken and all game balance goes out of the window.

* Mobs are close together when you you first see 'em. You open with granade and now you have severely damaged alien group left.
* Granadiers first tier talent is either blast padding (tanking) ir shredding (destroying enemy armor)
* Granadies destroy enemy cover from great distance. Cover is the main issue between getting successful hit or missing badly
* Are you hurry in a mission and something is in your way. Blow hole to the wall and run to your objective saving 1-2 turns.
* Give shredder granadier weapon upgrade "stock" and you'll never miss (all classes can use this but works best with shredder). Also remove enemy overwatch at the same time
* Most missions have only 3-4 enemy pods. You'll have enough granades. If you run with 3-4 granadiers, you'll faceroll just about everything.
* Mines... let's not talk about mines as they are even more broken then in Enemy Within.

Mimic beacon is single most broken item in game, especially since there are so few enemies and enemy pods in each mission. Even if you have horrible round where everyone miss those 90+% shots (except granadiers of course since they can't miss a granade, unlike in original Enemy Unknown and Terror From the Deep), throw a mimic beacon and all your squad survives. If you run with two, you'll most likely never take damage.

 

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Well no wonder I thought the classes were balanced as I hardly used them.

I did take a single mimic beacon on most missions, but later on they die to just a couple of shots (they have HP and the baddies start hitting pretty hard) so I didn't find them overpowered. Early game though they pretty much negate a single 'bad turn', which I think is fine.

I used a proximity mine once, mid to late game. It wounded but did not kill three enemies. Not sure what's broken about that.

Looking forward to running round with a squad of grenadiers on my next play through! Should be lots of fun. I'm not convinced they could handle the final mission though.

Giving a shred weapon a stock sounds like a good idea. I'll use that next time, thanks. BTW if you grenade everything you don't get loot.

You can get armour which lets you literally run through walls. I think the designers factored that kind of play into the equation.

Overall most things seem OP in this game, yet it can also feel brutally difficult. I think that's great. As a predominantly single player game if you find a strat that makes the game 'boringly easy' for you then simply don't use it and enjoy the game again. There are a wealth of options.