Xcom 2 ?
- Thread starter eissa
- Start date
A sword doesn't run out of ammo though.
But yeah, I'm not a huge fan of Reaper either.
I'm running a game on a higher difficulty now, so I hope I'll run into it eventually.
Also, seems like quite a lot of things change between playthroughs, even the continent buffs for instance.
Ilosar
Vault Fossil
I'd say XCOM2 isn't that much more complex, but it gives you loads of options. The sheer number of utility items, abilities grenades, ammo types, special weapons and such means that you a lot of freedom to customize and min-max your soldiers. You can bring in 2 Sharpshooters, but one of them could be a critical hit machine with Talon rounds that uses the Spider/Wraith suit to get to high ground and deal lots of damage but is useless at close range, or you could have a gunslinger (which gets loads of free attacks) equipping Bluescreen rounds and an EMP bomb that can turn a pair of heavy MECs into scrap metal by his lonesome and put a very serious dent in even a Sectopod. Your Psi operative could be mostly a CC and support monkey, using Stasis on big targets, Inspire on squadmates and Insanity on mooks, or a nuker that can use Null Lance and Soulfire to deal a serious blow to anything in the game, or Dominate an Andromedon for loads of acid-spewing fun. Equip your stealthy Ranger with an EXO suit so that he can use a surprise flamethrower hit on unsuspecting enemies, or give him a Wraith suit so that he can pass through a wall, shotgun what's on the other side, then use Implacable (free move after a kill) to pass through the wall again to safety. The possibilities are very numerous.
The Advanced Warfare Center's random perks are also really cool. Nothing like a grenadier that has Salvo (using a grenade first doesn't end your turn) and Run and Gun, making him able to toss a grenade, move, then toss another one or fire his weapon all in one turn. Seriously, by the mid-late game most of your your soldiers will almost be using using abilities and items more often than they shoot their gun.
The strategic layer also has more choices to make, mostly in the early game. Whereas in EU satellite spam was key, here you can choose which building to go for first, when to expand, when to consolidate with relays, which rumors to pursue if there are several, which Dark Event is the most dangerous to you, etc. I am also constantly strapped for supplies which didn't happen previously.
All in all, it seems to have an amount of options easily comparable to Long War, which was a gigantic mod to a game that had an expansion, yet XCOM 2 is vanilla so far. I can't imagine how many more toys they will give us to play with in the coming months/years.
The Advanced Warfare Center's random perks are also really cool. Nothing like a grenadier that has Salvo (using a grenade first doesn't end your turn) and Run and Gun, making him able to toss a grenade, move, then toss another one or fire his weapon all in one turn. Seriously, by the mid-late game most of your your soldiers will almost be using using abilities and items more often than they shoot their gun.
The strategic layer also has more choices to make, mostly in the early game. Whereas in EU satellite spam was key, here you can choose which building to go for first, when to expand, when to consolidate with relays, which rumors to pursue if there are several, which Dark Event is the most dangerous to you, etc. I am also constantly strapped for supplies which didn't happen previously.
All in all, it seems to have an amount of options easily comparable to Long War, which was a gigantic mod to a game that had an expansion, yet XCOM 2 is vanilla so far. I can't imagine how many more toys they will give us to play with in the coming months/years.
vdweller84
First time out of the vault
In terms of atmosphere,which one is better? For example, some people consider that Civ V is more immersive than Beyond Earth because it pulls stuff out of the entire world's history and not out of some alternate future with alien scenery/technology etc. I mean XCOM needs to have aliens but what about the surrounding atmosphere of the game? Does it feel grounded/real or it feels like some Independence Day spinoff?
Ilosar
Vault Fossil
Well, in the first few missions of the game you're going to kill psychic aliens with swords and destroy their robots by launching acid grenades at them. To say nothing of the endgame where you get very shiny toys to work with. So I wouldn't say it's grounded, no. Which is fine by me, XCOM has always been about fighting alien bastards with every tool at one's disposal. The series wouldn't be nearly as fun if it tried to play like a more realistic and grounded military simulator. I want my sniper to use a grappling hook to zip on top of a building then shoot a hulking 2 story tall alien in the face with his plasma rifle.
The story does have some pretty bleak events happening, but it never truly dwells on them. XCOM are definitely the heroes liberating Earth from evil aliens and the oppressive government that serves them, unless the ending throws a curveball at you at any rate. Some of the alien designs can get pretty spooky, like the Faceless and Gatekeeper, though. Then on the other hand you have the Andromedons who look like they came out of Bioshock.
vdweller84
First time out of the vault
Yeah I wasn't talking about the gadgets in the team's disposal but more of the world around them. Is this alternate future Earth a convincing setting?
Ilosar
Vault Fossil
They don't do that much with it, to be quite honest. You got the standard trappings of oppressive government; propaganda, omnipresent surveillance raids on civilian dissenters, checkpoints with armed soldiers everywhere. The storyline reveals further similarities with some real-world dictatorship,s thematically at least, but they never go in-depth with how the world works. They do mention several times that ADVENT keeps order because its cities offer relative safety and its gene therapy clinics offer unprecedented medical advances, but the only time you go to a city you shoot the place up so you don't see any of that.
The game does center on its guerilla theme nicely; you start most missions in concealment since you are on the offensive, you are always strapped for ressources, you need to counter enemy projects, your gear looks cobbled together until you upgrade it, you and your allies are hunted down, and in a touch I liked there are holographic wanted posters of your soldier's mugs all over the city maps. They even react to it if you put them right next to it.
Personally, I don't care that much, it's not an RPG and I'm not really here for story and immersion. I think that as a general theme, it works better than the standard alien invasion of past X-COM and XCOM games. Bu they probably could have done more with it.
What do you guys think? How does the combat in XCom2 compares to Jagged Alliance 2?
Sn1p3r187
Carolinian Shaolin Monk
Hmmm I've thought about that myself there. There's a bit more micromanagement for JA2, and honestly I'm a bit more used to the AP system so I'm a little bias there.
Ilosar
Vault Fossil
And campaign complete after 42 hours of play, albeit I rushed the late-game a bit. I usually don't devote so much time to games, but real life being slow at the moment + me loving this game helped.
Anyhow, my impressions stand; the bugs and poor optimization are the only real black marks on a game I fully enjoyed playing from start to finish. It's Enemy Unknown turned up to 11 with pretty much literally every single aspect improved. Deep strategic layer, more fast-paced, interesting and varied tactical battles, decent if unspectacular story, clever gameplay elements (such as the godsent that is the line of sight indicator) and already promising modding potential makes this something I will probably continue playing for years just like its predecessor.
I'll echo what SuAside said, and warn everyone to bring their fully upgraded a-team to the final mission. The final boss fight is absolutely brutal, and while I lost no one in the end, I won by the skin of my teeth with every single squad member below half health, no medkits remaining, and basically only thanks to a lucky crit from my Sharpshooter and the endless utility offered by my trusty Psi Operative, Carrie. Still, even accounting for the difficulty spike it's a step up from the Uber Ethereal in EU who fell over in a single turn to any half-decent squad.
I'm going to start another campaign sometime soon, perhaps on Legendary because from what I saw it's less unfair than Impossible in Enemy Unknown, and the campaign duration is extended in that difficulty mode. I'm sure as hell not going to even try Ironman, I get frustrated by bullshit RNG too easily.
Anyhow, my impressions stand; the bugs and poor optimization are the only real black marks on a game I fully enjoyed playing from start to finish. It's Enemy Unknown turned up to 11 with pretty much literally every single aspect improved. Deep strategic layer, more fast-paced, interesting and varied tactical battles, decent if unspectacular story, clever gameplay elements (such as the godsent that is the line of sight indicator) and already promising modding potential makes this something I will probably continue playing for years just like its predecessor.
I'll echo what SuAside said, and warn everyone to bring their fully upgraded a-team to the final mission. The final boss fight is absolutely brutal, and while I lost no one in the end, I won by the skin of my teeth with every single squad member below half health, no medkits remaining, and basically only thanks to a lucky crit from my Sharpshooter and the endless utility offered by my trusty Psi Operative, Carrie. Still, even accounting for the difficulty spike it's a step up from the Uber Ethereal in EU who fell over in a single turn to any half-decent squad.
I'm going to start another campaign sometime soon, perhaps on Legendary because from what I saw it's less unfair than Impossible in Enemy Unknown, and the campaign duration is extended in that difficulty mode. I'm sure as hell not going to even try Ironman, I get frustrated by bullshit RNG too easily.
eissa
Artanis "Altáriel" Nerwen Nos Finwe
ZigzagPX4
The Swiftness of the Ranger
I save scum so much the commander is canonically a prophet in my game at this point.
Ilosar
Vault Fossil
Hey now, I only reload if some really bullshit RNG happens. If it's my fault I let it slide.
For instance, there was that one time where I flashbanged a Sectoid and Lancer, and they proceeded to both crit 2 different soldiers in heavy cover with their guns, killing them. I just can't accept that sort of thing, I played correctly and I lost two soldiers because of infinitesimal chances.
I ended up losing 7 soldiers in my campaign (the 2 bozos in the prologue not included) and I accepted it. But sometimes the RNG is just too cruel a mistress.
Xcom2 has it's moments 
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Irwin John Finster
Sonny, I Watched the Vault Bein' Built!
REALLY liking the new XCOM so far. Lots of little options make this very likeable - the amount you can customize your characters is great. There is practically more RPG in this game than Fallout 4 now. Even the main story is better so far and certainly less cringe-inducing.
So far the only negative about XCOM 2 that I have seen is the same thing everyone else says: performance is not so good but I can run it at 60 FPS (except the cutscenes) just fun with the right settings. I imagine performance will be fine after patches.
So far the only negative about XCOM 2 that I have seen is the same thing everyone else says: performance is not so good but I can run it at 60 FPS (except the cutscenes) just fun with the right settings. I imagine performance will be fine after patches.
I am curious, can you actually turn off those cut-scenes?
Irwin John Finster
Sonny, I Watched the Vault Bein' Built!
You can disable the "Action cam" which is those mini-cutscenes during turn-based gameplay, but I don't see an option for the actual movie style/story cutscenes. You can still press ESC to skip cutscenes I've seen so far.
ZigzagPX4
The Swiftness of the Ranger
I'm assuming you don't mean the movie cutscenes that advance the plot, since those can be skipped by tapping ESC. The action cameras that go slo-mo and zoom in down on the action or shot can be disabled, yes, but I've never personally found them to be annoying. Is it just an old school thing to prefer staying in isometric view for the entire game? It's not wrong, I'm just curious.
I've been working through XCOM 1 in Iron Man mode, and honestly? You can hedge against RNG. Although I can't run XCOM 2 because of aforementioned horrid optimization, it really does seem like the same tools still work.
I found very early on that the utlity vest items and explosives in the early game are huuuge. Because they are not RNG, they are deterministic buffs. They give the hp bonus that lets a soldier survive a bad hit and explosives generally guarantee kills on your turn. If they can't fight back they can't get lucky. Wrecking the loot is a very very small price indeed as extra insurance. Trivial long term buffs are not worth the certitude of knowing that everything can be murdered the very turn that you spot them. Heavies, in particular, have absurd long range indirect fire. (And having two "recoiless rifles" in the original is hilarious fun. Fuck your walls. Fuck your cover. Fuck your swarms of squishy enemies.)
HP is very easy to underestimate in hardcore or rogue-like games, but Jesus Christ, do they ever make a difference. And judging by the Wiki, there are a lot of vest items indeed. Either wrap everybody on your team in them or pack enough explosives and extreme prejudice to go along with it.
I found very early on that the utlity vest items and explosives in the early game are huuuge. Because they are not RNG, they are deterministic buffs. They give the hp bonus that lets a soldier survive a bad hit and explosives generally guarantee kills on your turn. If they can't fight back they can't get lucky. Wrecking the loot is a very very small price indeed as extra insurance. Trivial long term buffs are not worth the certitude of knowing that everything can be murdered the very turn that you spot them. Heavies, in particular, have absurd long range indirect fire. (And having two "recoiless rifles" in the original is hilarious fun. Fuck your walls. Fuck your cover. Fuck your swarms of squishy enemies.)
HP is very easy to underestimate in hardcore or rogue-like games, but Jesus Christ, do they ever make a difference. And judging by the Wiki, there are a lot of vest items indeed. Either wrap everybody on your team in them or pack enough explosives and extreme prejudice to go along with it.
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Yes. Pretty much. It's my personal preference, and I am pleased to hear that you can actually disable it. I've seen it in gameplay videos, and I find it very very iritating. But like I said, that's me. It would totally frustrate me in the game.