The image above belongs to its respective owner, not me
Today I will be reviewing a game that was released on consoles last year, XCOM 2. This game is a sequel to XCOM: Enemy Unknown (or the improved version of the game, XCOM: Enemy Within). As always, please keep in mind that there may be some Spoilers Below.
This game takes place several years after the events of the last game. As it turns out, even though the XCOM team was able to defeat the original alien invasion, the Earth was still lost, since they were just fighting the first wave of many. Now, XCOM is a resistance force that isn't publicly supported as they once were. The humans have embraced the aliens as their masters, and the aliens act as though they are here to make our lives better (and apparently the population has forgotten everything the aliens did during their initial invasion). Now it's up to the XCOM team to resist the aliens, along with settlements around the world, before it's too late.
This is a great game, a whole lot of fun, but my God is it difficult. Don't get me wrong, that's a good thing, I would be furious if this game was easy, but sweet Christmas is this game going to beat you to a pulp. It is, without a doubt, the most difficult strategy game I have ever played. It takes everything that was difficult from the previous game and kicks it into high gear. You will face giant swarms of enemies, sometimes against groups that are twice as large as yours (just in one section of the level). The AI is also a lot smarter in this game, going after your strongest members instead of the closest or most vulnerable. I used to always bring a rookie to bait the aliens with (sometimes they would survive), but now the aliens won't give them the time of day if they can see my other, stronger characters. Soldiers stay wounded longer, funds and resources are more difficult to come by, and you are really racing against a countdown to defeat the aliens. It is unforgiving. With that being said though, you have been given a few advantages on your side as well. You will start almost every level concealed, which helps you to set up an ambush. Your support character now has a drone that can heal or assist teammates who the character wouldn't be able to reach by running, and the shot-gunner now has a very effective sword they wield as well. One of my favorite additions is for the sniper, who can fire upon any aliens on the map that other characters can see (as long as it's a clear shot), giving them an incredible range. Still though, these boosts don't ever make it feel like you're in charge of the situation, it is always an up hill battle. It is a stressful game to say the least, but despite all of that I still found myself saying "just one more mission" every time I thought I should wrap it up. If you enjoy strategy games, this is one to put you to the test. For the truly insane, the game also offers an "Iron Man" mode, where you will be unable to load previous save files, saving is just for when you have to turn the game.
Outside of the changes in difficulty, there are a few other updates. The graphics are a lot better than the last game, there is a lot more variety when customizing your troops, and there are more options on how to pass time while the next mission approaches. You can use that time to collect resources, heal troops, unlock new areas, and the list goes on. While it is nice to have these options, it only makes the game more difficult, since this is the type of game where every action has a consequence. Collecting resources to buy new weapons and armor is great, but now this mission popped up and you have only one experienced soldier to carry it out since the rest of them are still wounded. Meanwhile, if you spend your time speeding up your soldier's recovery, they are likely going to end up in the same condition after the battle since you don't have any new equipment to assist them. Plus, you need to keep unlocking areas if you don't want to lose the entire game. There is also a wider variety of enemies in this game, though some of the aliens are just upgraded versions of the same enemies from the previous game. None of them are easy targets though, with even the most basic grunt being able to make a situation more challenging.
I think the only negative things for me lie more in the performance of the game rather than its design. The loading and reloading screens will take a good amount of time, with my highest wait time being almost 5 minutes. I found that I was keeping a comic book on standby to read while I waited for the load screens to pass, something that probably wasn't intended. The maps can also take a moment for the details to kick in once you move to see more of it. This doesn't end up changing the gameplay at all, it's just a cosmetic issue that can take you out of an otherwise totally immersive game for a moment. It will also take a moment sometimes for your characters to load up when you are going to customize them, but it's not more than 10 or 12 seconds at most. Outside of some delays in loading though, this game didn't have any faults as far as I could see.
Overall, this game is excellent, showing the world what a good sequel should be. It improves on everything that people had complained about in the previous game, plus some. The only thing keeping it from a perfect score is somewhat unreasonable loading times, but that shouldn't deter you from making the purchase. It can seem unfairly difficult at times, but only to the extent that you are now a small faction fighting a large ruler, so of course they can constantly bring in reinforcements. If you are looking for a game that you can breeze through in one run, stay away from this title. But if you are looking for a real challenge that will have you reloading the same mission over and over to try to not have everyone die, this is the title for you. It was certainly a great one for me. To be honest though, some of those trophies/achievements are ridiculous, take a look at them some time to laugh at the thought of even trying to get them all.
I give XCOM 2 a 9.5 out of 10
Sincerely,
The Bored Enthusiast
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