X-COM 2

[Clayton]

There are definitely those times where you walk into a hornets nest.

Or how about when you shoot at something that you think is pretty safe and suddenly half the world is alerted to your presence?

3 snipers seems something of a stretch. They don't move and shoot well. 2 together is pretty fun though.

The issue was Mind Control. When you mind control someone deep in the enemy flanks, it acts like one of your units and immediately pushes the fog of war waaaay back and triggers everything.

3 snipers was too much but my best grenadier (Philip J Fry) was injured from the previous battle and generally speaking 2/3 of my soldiers who die are rangers so that class was fairly depleted. I could have waited a couple of weeks and had a more balanced squad but figured that Easy could be accomplished any old way.

 

[Clayton]

As a final grade, I'd give this an A- on the PS4.

Great in every way except for issues with loading, slowdown, crashing (only PS4 game I've had crash multiple times) and the frustrating feeling you get you realize that you rushed your way into a mission thats too difficult and you're about ready to get half of your team wiped out unless you restart the mission. But thats a PC game kind of mentality for you and the actual team based structure of the game is absolutely fantastic and the best of its kind on consoles by quite a large margin.

 

[PatsFan2003]

The issue was Mind Control. When you mind control someone deep in the enemy flanks, it acts like one of your units and immediately pushes the fog of war waaaay back and triggers everything.

Interesting. I wouldn't think of that. I hate mind control by the enemy. Not only do you suddenly have another enemy attacking you (and one less of your own), you can't really attack it because you'd be killing one of your own. A solider you can save if you work quick enough. Forget that if any of your soldiers panic they'll attack it as an enemy.

3 snipers was too much but my best grenadier (Philip J Fry) was injured from the previous battle and generally speaking 2/3 of my soldiers who die are rangers so that class was fairly depleted. I could have waited a couple of weeks and had a more balanced squad but figured that Easy could be accomplished any old way.

Oh yeah. There are plenty of times I've thrown rookies into the fray just because all my best soldiers are in the hospital. Those that survive often get back out there so I can build depth...

This is all why I see both X-Com games as top notch games. There are so many things you need to deal with to do well or even survive or the games can get out of hand. For a shooting game.

 

[Clayton]

Interesting. I wouldn't think of that. I hate mind control by the enemy. Not only do you suddenly have another enemy attacking you (and one less of your own), you can't really attack it because you'd be killing one of your own. A solider you can save if you work quick enough. Forget that if any of your soldiers panic they'll attack it as an enemy.

I ended up losing 2 of my Sniper to mind control on that last part of the final mission. Usually I had a way around it but that final mission was totally botched and I just powered through and took my losses. It actually wasn't the worst thing in the world as the mind control characters almost always move and they were just firing pistols at my other characters.

I ended up putting and keeping Mindshields on my Specialist class characters. I think I was using Mimic Beacons on my Rangers. Extra Grenades on my Grenadiers. Anti-Mech ammo on everyone else.

Now that I've beaten it, i'll probably try to play a new game on Hard for a bit just to see how far I can get.

 

[PatsFan2003]

I ended up losing 2 of my Sniper to mind control on that last part of the final mission. Usually I had a way around it but that final mission was totally botched and I just powered through and took my losses. It actually wasn't the worst thing in the world as the mind control characters almost always move and they were just firing pistols at my other characters.

I ended up putting and keeping Mindshields on my Specialist class characters. I think I was using Mimic Beacons on my Rangers. Extra Grenades on my Grenadiers. Anti-Mech ammo on everyone else.

Now that I've beaten it, i'll probably try to play a new game on Hard for a bit just to see how far I can get.

Yeah it IS the last round after all. Unless you can carry them over to the next game it doesn't matter.

Mimic beacons are great.. I spread them around but extra grenades on Grenadiers and medic kits for the specialists.. I love the specialty ammo especially the area weapons if I equip a specialist with special armor

 

[PatsFan2003]

So has anyone gotten the War of the Chosen DLC?

Reviews are calling it, The... Best.. XCom... Ever


https://xcom.com/buy#xcom-2/xcom-2-war-of-the-chosen/united-states/digital/steam

 

[UTKipp1]

So has anyone gotten the War of the Chosen DLC?

Reviews are calling it, The... Best.. XCom... Ever


https://xcom.com/buy#xcom-2/xcom-2-war-of-the-chosen/united-states/digital/steam

I enjoyed one of these games a lot. I hope it's cool.

 

[Clayton]

So has anyone gotten the War of the Chosen DLC?

Reviews are calling it, The... Best.. XCom... Ever


https://xcom.com/buy#xcom-2/xcom-2-war-of-the-chosen/united-states/digital/steam

I'll probably pick it up here in about a month. Its next on my list of games to play once I get done with Destiny 2.

 

[PatsFan2003]

I'll probably pick it up here in about a month. Its next on my list of games to play once I get done with Destiny 2.

Same here. I'm thinking a little drop in price would be nice first.

 

[chf]

Heh. I bought a steam download card for $50, and the game is like $55. I had 2.35 in credit on my account, so now I gotta go buy another $20 steam card for 2.65. (I avoid using my cc's online like the plague.)

But it looks really good. I kinda worry about how irritating the random 'boss' foes are this time around, since they were a fucking pain in the ass after the last dlc (mind you the armour you could build after beating them was almost ridiculously good.)

I'm going to play through on normal with the new rules, and then once they get the 'long war,' setup working with the new content, I'll do that as my final au revoir to the game.

 

[chf]

So anybody else try the expansion? As expansions go, well worth the money. Sure, it's built on the bare bones of the X-2 game, but the combat is pretty much new, with so many new units and battle mechanics.

Now that I've kinda' got the mechanics and strategy down though, I'm finding even a playthrough on normal to be a bit of a cakewalk. Instead of getting all these dire alerts as the alien progress bar fills up with red, I get them with the alien progress automatically damped down to zero by my sabotage side missions.

So I'm thinking that yep, a playthrough on the 'no save' level is probably in order. The early/mid game is going to be a bitch, but at least you're going to have the outcome in doubt.

 

[PatsFan2003]

So I did get the expansion and yeah it's real good. Love the new solider types you get from the new factions.

The reapers are way cool sharpshooters and recon units.

 

[chf]

Heh. So i finally got around to trying the game on the 'Ironman' setting. Tried it on the legendary level first, and gave up about 10 missions in. Settled on playing the normal difficulty, but with Ironman enabled. For those not familiar, it only gives you one save, so when a veteran soldier gets scorched by a lucky shot, or you screw up leaving one in light cover and they die, you can't just load your last save and play that part again.

Fuck me sideways.

I was getting all cocky, had finished off the first of the three 'bosses,' had most of the best weapons and armour developed, and was able to keep the countdown clock under reasonable control.

I try the mission to kill the SECOND boss (the one with the sniper rifle who can summon troops), I get just a wee bit rushed in the leadup to the boss fight, and one of my best equipped Rangers (with the shotgun and katana from Boss #1) dies a stupid death.

I'm thinking, Okay, I've still got five colonel or major level vets, I can still do this.

Manage to kill boss two the first time, destroy his restoration panel, but he ressurects with FULL health, and then starts to summon hordes of troops as well as tranq darting my soldiers.

ALL FIVE of my highest ranked vets take a dirt nap. Plus I lose all their armour and weapons and upgrades.

Not sure I'm going to win this game.

Anyway if you're looking for a challenge, Ironman, even on the standard level is tough sledding in the mid/late game.

Anyone else play Ironman?

 

[Clayton]

Heh. So i finally got around to trying the game on the 'Ironman' setting. Tried it on the legendary level first, and gave up about 10 missions in. Settled on playing the normal difficulty, but with Ironman enabled. For those not familiar, it only gives you one save, so when a veteran soldier gets scorched by a lucky shot, or you screw up leaving one in light cover and they die, you can't just load your last save and play that part again.

Fuck me sideways.

I was getting all cocky, had finished off the first of the three 'bosses,' had most of the best weapons and armour developed, and was able to keep the countdown clock under reasonable control.

I try the mission to kill the SECOND boss (the one with the sniper rifle who can summon troops), I get just a wee bit rushed in the leadup to the boss fight, and one of my best equipped Rangers (with the shotgun and katana from Boss #1) dies a stupid death.

I'm thinking, Okay, I've still got five colonel or major level vets, I can still do this.

Manage to kill boss two the first time, destroy his restoration panel, but he ressurects with FULL health, and then starts to summon hordes of troops as well as tranq darting my soldiers.

ALL FIVE of my highest ranked vets take a dirt nap. Plus I lose all their armour and weapons and upgrades.

Not sure I'm going to win this game.

Anyway if you're looking for a challenge, Ironman, even on the standard level is tough sledding in the mid/late game.

Anyone else play Ironman?

With the base game, the huge issues with Iron Man are going to be right in the middle of the game which is before your gear is fantastic but right when the game starts amping up. Even knowing what I'm doing and knowing what to equip, a mission like the one where you first find a gate and Gatekeepers while pushing off the hive it seems like a 50/50 proposition of getting a wipe regardless of how well you play just due to how easily that mission can get out of control.

I'm not willing to risk that much time and energy into a game to watch it fold that far in but I'm definitely not at a point in my life where I'd call myself a hardcore gamer.

 

[chf]

I'm by no means 'hardcore' either. Never bothered even trying to get halfway through any of the Dark Souls games. But yeah I agree, once you start running into some of the mech units (gatekeepers etc) and the archons, god forbid the freaking chosen, and the tipping point between success and failure is really small.

 

[PatsFan2003]

So anybody else try the expansion? As expansions go, well worth the money. Sure, it's built on the bare bones of the X-2 game, but the combat is pretty much new, with so many new units and battle mechanics.

Now that I've kinda' got the mechanics and strategy down though, I'm finding even a playthrough on normal to be a bit of a cakewalk. Instead of getting all these dire alerts as the alien progress bar fills up with red, I get them with the alien progress automatically damped down to zero by my sabotage side missions.

So I'm thinking that yep, a playthrough on the 'no save' level is probably in order. The early/mid game is going to be a bitch, but at least you're going to have the outcome in doubt.

This. As usual it took a while for those and the usual advancements to kick in so at one point with the progress bar wavering around 8 I thought I was going to lose. But once I started rolling it was no contest.

I like all the improvements in gear and opponents but I will need to ratchet it up to the next level. I'm still not sure I'm an "iron man" kind of player.

 

[chf]

This. As usual it took a while for those and the usual advancements to kick in so at one point with the progress bar wavering around 8 I thought I was going to lose. But once I started rolling it was no contest.

I like all the improvements in gear and opponents but I will need to ratchet it up to the next level. I'm still not sure I'm an "iron man" kind of player.

You'll definitely feel more of a sense of accomplishment if you give ironman a try.

 

[Clayton]

I've finally gotten around to the DLC and I'm playing through on Normal with no issues. There are a lot of things in the designs that 'point' the player to what they should be leveling but I like that you still have the freedom to tackle everything in your own way. The DLC gives the game a lot more density.

I'm naming all of my Xcom characters after Roger personas (the Alien from American Dad) and haven't had the need to save scrub yet. I did lose one of my characters when an alien pulled my Support character into an explosion and then the explosion took out the Alien and my character and the mission abruptly ended in success. The game is full of fun moments like that.

The new Factions are amazing and the Chosen give the game more personality. The Lost are something that I'm already a little 'meh' on but they do add variety. I just feel like they take about 2/3 of the special abilities in the game and make them look unattractive in order to focus on movement and shooting.

The game does appear to be a bit easier out of combat. I don't see that as a negative as it seems like I might have the initiative to try the harder difficulties.

 

[chf]

I haven't played this in forever. May be worth seeing what mod's are out there by now.

 

[Stakesarehigh]

X Com is one of my favorite feanchises. Haven't tried the DLC yet but did play x com 2 quite a bit