I actually wrote a completely different review of X-COM 2 over four years ago, and never published it. I never will, since it was incredibly poor quality and I am a professional with standards. So I'm writing a new review for XCOM 2 and doing it better than I did originally, if only to do this game justice. So with that out of the way, let's begin.
So what is XCOM 2? Well, it's the sequel to XCOM: Enemy Unknown, which in turn is a reboot of X-COM: UFO Defense. From what I understand the whole franchise was published by 2K Games, but only the "modern" XCOM games were developed by Firaxis. This game got a pseudo-sequel spin-off game titled XCOM: Chimera Squad. While Firaxis has not currently said anything official on the matter, rumors are spreading that a hypothetical "XCOM 3" game is in the works. Even though Firaxis is currently working on a licensed strategy game titled Marvel: Midnight Suns at the moment. That much is public knowledge. Anyway, the concept of the franchise is simple. You play the role of the leader of a private military organization called XCOM, which is dedicated to protecting humanity from extraterrestrial and supernatural threats. Basically, think of XCOM as being the unholy love child of S.H.I.E.L.D. from the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the Men in Black. Unfortunately, the only game I have played is XCOM 2, so I cannot speak for the quality of the other games in the series.
XCOM 2 takes place 25 years after the events of the bad ending of XCOM: Enemy Unknown, but don't worry, you don't need to play the first game to understand the story so long as you know the basic concept (bad guy aliens took over Earth, take it back). But let's do a more detailed recap anyway, for prosperity's sake. In XCOM: Enemy Unknown, XCOM mounted a secret war against these psychic aliens led by these creatures called the Elders. In that game's bad ending, XCOM fails to stop the invasion from becoming public, and the Commander (that's your character, by the way) is kidnapped by the aliens. 25 years later, the aliens, now calling themselves ADVENT, have successfully taken over the entire planet. Every global superpower either surrendered to protect their people or were destroyed outright for resisting. But the dream is not dead, for a small group of rebels (most of whom are either survivors of the first game's war or are said survivors' now grownup children) plan to rebuild XCOM from scratch. But every rebellion needs a Commander. So Central Officer Bradford (who was your second-in-command before everything went to the pits) mounts a rescue operation to save the Commander, who was being psychically tortured this whole time, forced to relive the war over and over in a loop for 25 whole years. How the Commander is even sane at this point is beyond me. What's worse was that ADVENT was using your character's military genius to augment their own soldiers, hence why the rebellion struggled to gain any real footing prior to your rescue.
The rescue op is actually the game's tutorial, walking you through the basics of combat. XCOM 2, like all other games in the series, is turn-based. You move across the map on a board-like grid. Every character in the game has two actions they can perform. They can shoot, move, reload, or use a class-specific skill or ability. Unless an ability explicitly states that it requires both action points, you can use your two actions in any combination you like. You can move and shoot, shoot and reload, use an ability and run away, move twice, or any combo you'd like. The blue outline pictured above shows everywhere the currently selected soldier can run to, using only one action. Moving your cursor outside that outline brings up a second, yellow outline. This shows everywhere you can run to if you use both actions. If you end your turn directly behind certain objects in the environment, you will get a cover bonus. This bonus will make you harder to shoot and reduce the damage on enemy attacks. How much of a cover bonus you get is based on the size of the object in question. A bench for example only provides a half-cover bonus, so it won't protect as well as, say a wall or the side of a truck. Make sense? I hope so, this game can get pretty complex pretty fast, but that's honestly part of the charm.
The rescue op/tutorial is scripted so that two of your soldiers will get killed off by the end, leaving Central Officer Bradford, starter-character Jane Kelly and yourself as the only survivors. And this is where the XCOM franchise's infamous reputation comes in. This game is hard. Because it's a roguelike. It's difficulty is a selling point. But most importantly, if any one of your soldiers' health hits zero, they are dead, and will stay dead for the rest of the game. Even if you win the battle. The only saving grace is that you can eventually unlock an upgrade for your soldiers called "Stay With Me" which will allow your soldiers to survive one lethal attack with a single hit point remaining (Stay With Me works only once per soldier, per battle, so any lethal attacks after that first one gets blocked will kill). So you have to accept the possibility that one wrong move, one bad strategy, or even just a stroke of bad luck can take away your favorite characters, FOREVER. Is it stressful? Yes. Is it fun? For me, the answer is yes, because I live for that kind of high-stakes strategic combat. It makes your close calls more meaningful, and your losses sting more than they would have if this game was easy. You can adjust the difficulty at the beginning of each playthrough, but keep in mind that it cannot be changed after the fact. If you go in on easy mode (called Rookie mode here) and decide the game is too easy, well too bad, you're going to have to start a whole new playthrough if you want to change it. A major inconvenience, but again, this is a roguelike. But I personally like the high-stakes nature of XCOM 2. It results in some awe-inspiring moments that sometimes feel straight out of an action movie. I still remember this one incident when my Sharpshooter (basically a sniper) got knocked off a three story building and barely survived the fall with one hit point remaining (meaning one more attack from anything will kill), only to get attacked by a very dangerous enemy type known as a Lancer. Despite having every possible advantage, every possible opportunity to kill her, the Lancer somehow missed his attack, and my Sharpshooter was free to limp to safety while the rest of the squad gunned the Lancer down. The mere knowledge that had things played slightly different, my Sharpshooter would be dead where she stood, that's the real magic of XCOM. You care about your soldiers, either because you made them all yourself, or because of scenarios like this. You know these guys aren't invincible. You know that all it takes for one of your soldiers to go down is one mistake; one missed shot, one wrong turn around the corner. Yes, even a stroke of bad luck outside of your control can wipe away your whole squad. The best you can do is prepare for the worst, and pray it never comes to pass.
The soldiers you use, with the exception being Jane Kelly since she's a premade character, are randomly generated and customizable. You can create your own characters and put them into the game, changing their skin tone, gender, hair, facial features, fashionable accessories (such as sunglasses and masks) and even their language/accent, nationality and personality. There's even a biography option, letting you write custom backstories for all of your characters. I love this system. It's simple, but allows for some distinct character designs. My Ranger (a laid back and carefree Australian woman with a wolf tattoo and stylish headband) didn't look or act anything like my Specialist (who was a stoic British man who kept his hoodie up to hide his scar-covered face). And when you're making four-to-six man teams, you want them to be distinct from each other. And if your characters survive a certain number of missions, they can get tattoos and battle scars to show how far they've grown since joining the rebellion.
Every soldier in your rebellion is assigned a class. Classes determine what kind of weapons and abilities a character can use, but when leveling up your squad (done by completing, or at least surviving missions and killing enemies), you're always given a choice between two new skills. Because of this, two soldiers of the same class might have radically different fighting styles because took different sets of skills while they were training. While the skills can be mixed and matched to your heart's content, some skills are meant to be used in conjunction with others. For example, Rangers get to choose from a list of skills that enhance either their stealth abilities or their swordsmanship. The Blade Master skill for example boosts the power and accuracy of all of your melee attacks. Blade Storm allows your Ranger to make a free melee attack at any enemy that runs towards you. And yes, the Blade Storm ability does receive the damage and accuracy boost from Blade Master. And then there's Reaper Stance, where a Ranger can get a free Action every time they kill an enemy with a melee attack (meaning, so long as you keep killing with melee attacks specifically, your Ranger can keep their turn going essentially forever). Again, if you plan on using Reaper Stance, you might as well grab Blade Master to make your melee attacks deadlier. The other classes are balanced this way as well. Well, except for one.
The Psi Operative is the most unique class in the entire game, and is completely overpowered once it gets going. And yes, this one class is such a show stealer that it needs its own section in the review. This class is not available right away, but once you build a Psi Lab for your base (more on that later) you can start training your soldiers into becoming Psi Operatives. Now, this class has two main gimmicks. The first is that you have access to all the crazy psychic powers that ADVENT has been using the whole game, letting you give the aliens a taste of their own medicine, so to speak. And the second, which makes this class potentially better than all others combined, is that you don't need to put your Psi Operative in any real danger to level it up. You see, the Psi Operative can continue training from within the safety of the Psi Lab as long as you want with no penalty. Leave them in the Psi Lab long enough, and they can eventually learn every single possible skill that is available to them, all without even once setting foot on the battlefield. The other classes have to spend (in-game) months, sometimes years being beaten and hardened by the brutality of warfare to become powerful. The Psi Operative just has to soak in a funky psychic jacuzzi for a few weeks to not only reach that same level of power, but surpass it. Psi Operatives don't abide by the rules of the other classes, and are obscenely strong because of it. It takes a great amount of restraint and discipline to not just turn every available recruit into a Psi Operative and run several teams of just Psi Operatives once the option becomes available.
One criticism I will make of the game's combat is that the way accuracy is calculated is rather odd. Basically, XCOM 2 does not calculate the accuracy of your weapon by distance. It instead calculates it by the following factors. Whether the soldier taking the shot can physically see the target, whether or not the target has any kind of cover bonus, the soldier's own Aim stat, any kind of accuracy bonus granted by being in stealth (or using a weapon with a scope attached), any kind of Dodge stat that the target may or may not have and finally, whether or not you have a flanking bonus (shooting from the side or from behind). Because of this, you get odd situations where point-blank shots defy the laws of physics and somehow miss their target completely simply because something in the calculation was in the target's favor. Basically, moving closer to your target will NOT boost the accuracy of your next shot, but doing things like flanking or destroying enemy cover with explosives will.
Combat and character customization are only parts of the game, and the last major component of the gameplay is the base management. You see, the rebellion is based inside a mobile fortress known as the Avenger. The Avenger has several rooms flooded with debris and wreckage. You can spend a few in-game days clearing the rooms out, and then build various facilities to further aid your squads. These facilities include an infirmary (which speeds up the rate at which soldiers recover from injuries), the aforementioned Psi Lab (which is used to create and train Psi Operatives), and Communication Relays. What do Communication Relays do? They allow you contact additional resistance groups across the globe. Which is important, because not only do resistance groups provide resources and potential recruits every month, but they will offer additional missions and operations that your existing soldiers can go on. Another thing to keep in mind about base management. Your resources are limited. The main currency of the game is Supplies, which represents everything a
But naturally, most missions aren't as simple as "kill all bad guys." They usually have some kind of additional objective to work on. These can be anything from escorting a VIP to an evacuation point, to hacking a computer, to rescuing a group of rebels trapped in the middle of an ADVENT purge. The vast majority of the missions introduce some kind of time limit to encourage the player to be more aggressive, which is a design choice made in direct response to a criticism of Enemy Unknown. You see, in that game, the best, most optimal strategy was to sit in a corner of the map and play very cautiously and defensively. There was nothing stopping you from doing so and and as such, "turtling" (as this tactic was called) was the safest way to start any and all combat encounters. The enemy had to fight on your terms, not theirs, and you had the advantage of getting better terrain bonuses (such as high points for Snipers). But because of all the time limits in the vast majority of XCOM 2's missions, you basically have no choice but to be aggressive and push your advantage whenever possible. Heck, the entire campaign itself is on a time limit, since you only have so long before ADVENT completes it's mysterious Avatar Project (which will eradicate all human life). You can buy XCOM more time by attacking Alien Facilities. Alien Facility Raids are pretty much the only mission type that are NOT timed in any way, so you can be as cautious and defensive as you want for once. How much time you buy is dependent on how long that specific Alien Facility has been running. So it can add anywhere between a week to a year depending on how long you let that Facility run.
But ADVENT isn't sitting on its laurels while you're out building up a resistance force, for they will improve their own forces over time. Gradually introducing newer, more advanced enemy types. Such as the Vipers, snake women who can immobilize your soldiers by constricting them, or the Archons, angelic cyborgs that fly around and attack from above. There's a plethora of different enemy types, and not only do they all look distinct from each other, but each type requires a different strategy to deal with (Vipers let go of their victims if they get blinded by a flashbang, Archons are free target practice for Snipers). And then there's Dark Events, where ADVENT can place an upgrade on preexisting enemies or hamper your squad out of combat in some way. You can stop these Dark Events by taking on Guerilla Ops, but there will always be at least two Ops available, and you only have enough time to attempt one. So it winds up as a "pick your poison" mechanic where you have to learn which Op stops which Dark Event from happening, figure out what you can live with them getting away with, and prioritize the Op that would counter whatever the more dangerous Dark Event is. Like the Dark Event that makes new recruits 25% more expensive to hire is really mundane next to the one that lets them add twice as many enemies to all mission types. Or the one that lets them speed up the progress of the Avatar Project.
And you want to know the best thing about all this? XCOM 2 has some post-release DLC (downloadable content) that further changes up the game. Sometimes, to the point that XCOM 2 with DLC feels like a completely different game than it does without DLC. To explain the DLC simply, the first one is titled Anarchy's Children. This one adds additional hair styles and outfits to customize your characters. That's it. Frankly it's the simplest DLC of the bunch and unless you somehow aren't happy with the options already provided, this DLC can be safely skipped over. After that is Alien Hunters. This DLC adds three new bosses, all of whom are crazy superpowered versions of fan-favorite enemy types from the base game (so Vipers, Archons, and Berserkers). These bosses, known as the Alien Rulers, have a chance to show up randomly in every mission. They have a literal mountain of health (and more than enough firepower to send whole squads to the infirmary, if they survive at all), but any damage dealt to them is permanent, so if you run into them in future battles, they'll start with less health. Your reward for defeating the Alien Rulers is some custom weapons and armor that emulate their abilities. This DLC is pretty neat, but it makes a hard game even harder, because you know, super bosses that can show up randomly on what should be a relatively chill mission can be a real problem. After that is Shen's Last Gift, a DLC that adds a new story mission that exists to bring closure to Lily Shen, the mechanic whose dad was killed back in Enemy Unknown. It adds a new soldier class, the SPARK. The Spark is a remote controlled robot, and is the textbook definition of a Jack of All Trades, Master of None. It fights primarily by using watered down versions of the other class's abilities, and mostly exists to fill gaping holes in your team after you've suffered a significant casualty.
And last but not least is War of the Chosen. This DLC gives a massive overhaul to the ENTIRE CAMPAIGN. New enemy types and bosses to fight. New soldier classes to play with. A new intro cinematic that explains how Bradford's resistance cell managed to track down the Commander. A new poster mechanic that allows you to make nifty propaganda posters Uncle Sam style to encourage people to join the rebellion. A new fatigue system that forces you to rotate your teams around so that everyone is trained up equally, instead of you power-leveling the same handful of soldiers you started with. New rebel factions to try and ally with, each with their own intricate cultures, lore, and philosophies. There's a new bonding mechanic where two soldiers become soulmates (whether this means they're a romantic couple or just best friends is up to your imagination) and receive a wide variety of bonuses and abilities when they fight together. There's also a new mechanic that lets you send your soldiers on solo missions that they'll do automatically while the rest of the rebellion is doing something else. And those new bosses I mentioned? They are the Chosen, the strongest aliens ADVENT can throw at you. They update their strengths and weaknesses with every encounter, forcing you to try a new strategy to take them down every time. War of the Chosen is massive, and to be honest, it changes so much of the original game that it makes you wonder why Firaxis didn't release War of the Chosen as a separate game entirely. Seriously, with just some tweaks to the overall plot, War of the Chosen could very well be the fabled "XCOM 3" in and of itself.
In terms of presentation, XCOM 2 is a good looking game. Now, it doesn't have a crazy art style and it isn't so hyper realistic that you could mistake it for real life. But the animations on your soldiers and especially the ADVENT aliens themselves are very clean and polished. I like how whenever you deal the killing blow to an alien the game switches from its usual isometric camera angle to give a more cinematic view of the attack. And the cinematic camera angles can give some downright breathtaking scenes. Imagine, one of your soldiers is badly wounded and about to die, and one of the ape-like Berserker type aliens comes barreling at your weakened soldier. But your Sniper was in Over-Watch, and they flip their rifle around and shoot the Berserker right between the eyes, causing its skinless body to tumble and flop like a pathetic fish from the momentum of its charge, and saving that wounded soldier's life. This sounds cool on paper, and the cinematic angle switch makes it even more impressive. There's also some little details that I adore, such as when attempting to shoot through a window your soldier will smash the glass with the butte of their weapon before making the shot, or how if you move indoors but forgo stealth, you squad literally kicks the door down before charging inside. There are some visual oddities however, like the aforementioned physics-defying point blank shots that can still miss their target completely. But I think that's more on the mechanics of the game not really allowing point-blank shots to be useful in general than it is a fault of the animators. I will say that I did play on PS4, and I did notice some mild performance issues, namely the framerate would stutter occasionally. Never in the middle of actual gameplay, but whenever the game finished a loading screen the frame rate would notably dip before correcting itself moments later. I'm not sure if this a problem with the PS4 port specifically or if the game itself has frame rate issues. It's hard to tell when a game obviously designed with PC in mind is then brought to consoles. But over the course of my 70+ hour campaign the only major glitch I noticed was when my game crashed. Thankfully, I had several spare save files so I didn't lose much progress. I've been told by the XCOM fandom that it's always a good a idea to have multiple save files in case the game crashes.
In regards to sound, the music is pretty inoffensive, if somewhat forgettable. It can be heroic and triumphant at times, but notably, when a mission goes horribly wrong (either you fail the objective or the squad is wiped out) the victory music is silent, letting you and the surviving soldiers reflect on their mistakes and shortcomings. The sound effects are great, such as the sound of gunfire and the otherworldly cries of the various ADVENT creatures. The voice acting is generally decent. Bradford sounds exactly how you expect him to sound like; a hardened militaristic man who just wants this war to be over already. It's a shame that his mission banter gets rather repetitive. But out of all the important characters, my favorite in terms of voice acting is the Councilman. The Councilman is voiced by none other than Jon Bailey (who is most well known for his role as the Epic Voice Guy from Honest Trailers) and steals the show with every line. He portrays the Councilman with this deep, guttural baritone that is simultaneously intimidating and hypnotic. And because of his distinct voice, his compliments when you do well in the campaign feel more genuine than they do from everyone else. Likewise, his criticisms of you for performing badly are especially impactful since you really want to stay on this man's good side, and his voice conveys that sense of power over you perfectly. I also enjoy the banter between your custom soldiers. An especially nice touch is how the soldier's accent, mannerisms, and dialogue actually change based on their assigned personality and nationality. Like the way my laid-back Australian Ranger would coyly ask "Impressed yet?" after taking down a powerful enemy with a well-placed slice from her sword will never not be charming. Or how my bubbly and energetic German Psi Operative would cheerfully say something in actual German before blasting a poor schmuck's face off with her mind. But these custom voice lines also have the power to be heartbreaking, since the soldiers have special voice lines for just about everything. An enemy sniper narrowly misses the Medic by a hare? He yells out "I'm pinned down over here!" One of the aliens try mind controlling the Grenadier? He frantically screams "Get out of my head!" And yes, they even have special voice lines for when they get injured or are even killed outright.
In conclusion, XCOM 2 is a great strategy game. It can be rough around the edges at times, but its still an enjoyable experience. Just don't go in expecting a cakewalk. And remember, there's no shame in save scumming. But if you do save scum, you kind of owe it to yourself to at least attempt a legitimate playthrough one day. The game is very much a thrill ride at its core, and for those looking for a high-stakes roguelike, you can't go wrong with this one. But here's an interesting question. Would I recommend the DLC for this game? The answer is simple. If you really enjoyed what the base game has to offer, go for it. It's your money after all. But I would recommend doing a playthrough of XCOM 2 without War of the Chosen before playing a campaign with that DLC specifically. Not because it's a bad DLC (out of all of them I feel like it's the most worthwhile), but because it changes so much that it makes the base game feel more bare bones and watered down in retrospect. So XCOM 2 gets a "This close to Greatness!" rank from me.
I feel like I owe long-time readers an apology, really fast. Sorry for disappearing for almost two months without a trace. The truth of the matter is that I've been feeling burnt out. It's hard to work on this hobby of mine without motivation, and as such, I tend to put off working on the blog for perhaps unreasonable lengths of time. 2021 was my least active year in a while, and I have nothing to blame save for my own procrastination and self-doubts. With that being said, I hope you enjoyed the review.
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Great insight and perspectives about the character traits.☑
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