For example, one mission involved capturing a VIP and taking him and my squad to the extraction zone. I was so use to the slow, methodical one tile at a time push that I kept failing mission in the beginning. However there are more mission types that involve timers, which for an XCOM veteran made me very uncomfortable. Pulling off a successful overwatch trap is very satisfying and is a welcome addition to the series. This installment adds “Concealment” to some missions, where your soldiers are invisible to the paroling enemy and it is up to you engage. A veteran player such as myself is still trying to figure out the optimal build path, so there is still much depth in the system.Ĭombat is the biggest change in XCOM 2. However, overall I believe strategy layer benefits from these changes and may be more fun for newer players to get in to. It certainly straddles the line between “streamlined” and “dumbed down”. This change could be considered “dumbed down”, however in EU you were left to the RNG gods to give you a good tile make up. Facility building has also seen an overhauled there are fewer building slots and you don’t have to worry about adjacency bonuses as they can be upgraded.

This serves as a replacement for country panic, which was more terrifying in EU, but almost made you feel helpless and at the mercy of the game RNG.

In order to counter the win condition, you must assault key structures on the map, halting the aliens progress to victory. Though some of that sense of freedom is diminished by the ever ominous “Avatar Project”, the alien win condition that almost takes precedent over any other threat. The game wants to give you a sense that you have some control in what you do. In its place is a holomap where you move your ship around to gather resources, access the Blackmarket, select regions to make contact with and select mission to carry out. First is the removal of the hologlobe, which previously served as the turn timer when moving forward. XCOM 2 overhauls the base management on so many different levels. XCOM is a turn based strategy game that can divided into two separate but equally important strategic parts: base management and combat. Though not next gen quality, it is still several steps above its predecessor in both graphical prowess and style.”

Xcom 2 pc controller