XCOM 2’s post-apocalyptic setting is marked by a nerve-wracking atmosphere of desperation that only heightens the tension. Twenty years after humanity’s shocking loss of the war played out in 2012’s excellent XCOM: Enemy Unknown, we’re now fighting to stop a decades-long alien occupation of Earth. It’s a thematically very appropriate scenario for a game that initially pits you against a superior alien force with a squad of four to six, and it’s the perfect setting for unpredictable, tactically deep, and addictive combat.

As before, XCOM’s dangerous turn-based tactical combat demands that you get attached to your customizable characters (most of whom were created by IGN staff in the character editor), knowing full well that mistakes and bad luck will cause you to fail each mission, or that could kill them for good. As with Risk, Monopoly, Warhammer, Poker, and other games where luck matters, players usually emerge victorious. Deciding how and when to upgrade and use each soldier’s skills, crossing your fingers and hoping for the decisive shot to land, creates nonstop moments of suspense, triumph, and tragedy.

Think of it this way: If you played Russian roulette with six shots and one bullet, your chances of survival are five out of six, or 83.3%. That’s pretty good… but you’d have to be pretty nuts to risk your life for a 16.6% chance of having your brains blown, because that happens a lot more often than you’d like. But in XCOM 2, you’re asked to take the same, or sometimes even worse, risking the lives of your soldiers almost every turn. You might think your shots are 80% likely to hit… but 1 in 5 times they aren’t. You need a plan B in case something happens. Otherwise, you can’t complain when the time comes. You’re dead.

It’s one thing not to die the first time you play – you’re almost guaranteed to die, as you fall into countless unknown traps. Especially if you play on anything above normal difficulty (which I did most of the time – normal or veteran) that’s a “no.” – easy for those who know XCOM). However, one of XCOM 2’s greatest strengths is how it resists attempts to fall into repetitive patterns. By way of comparison, after the first month or two in the real world of XCOM: Enemy Unknown, it became clear that anyone who intended to play it for an extended period of time had the basic building sequence perfectly understood down to the last detail, and knew exactly what to explore. When you have the best route through the pre-designed map memorized, and know where enemies will appear on the map. XCOM 2 disproves most of these assumptions by introducing randomness into the campaign, so the path that led to victory once may not lead to the same outcome next time.

Similarly, weapon modifications, soldier stat boosts, special ammo and grenade types, super powers, bonuses to cover continents with resistance networks, and more are randomly selected every time throughout the 20-30 hour campaign. Do you get the incendiary grenade that’s perfect for nullifying enemy special abilities and dealing sustained damage? Or the poison rounds that deal steady damage but impact accuracy? Or the tracer rounds that increase accuracy in addition to other upgrades? You can’t rely on anything, but you do get something. It’s a constant challenge having to adapt to take advantage of what’s available.

The same goes for the high-quality, procedurally generated maps and the wealth of mission types. You’ll be attacking or defending, saving or killing VIPs, or blowing things up, without knowing in advance where your targets are or where your enemies are. Some missions have turn timers, forcing you into risky maneuvers and hasty retreats. I wouldn’t say I lost a mission because the maps weren’t fairly laid out (though I’m sure there were some routes that were difficult to get through, thanks to the use of explosives).

And since most missions start in secret, keeping your squad hidden while you prepare a deadly ambush is a different kind of new challenge, with potentially big cinematic payoffs. Stealth is an interesting concept, because it’s basically what the aliens in XCOM 2 tell us: “Come on, good luck.” Essentially, it’s a simple system. When you start a mission, the enemies don’t know you’re there. Move or fire within a certain radius. And that’s usually easy, unless you charge in without looking (I’ll admit, I’ve done that sometimes). But if you’re careful, you can put all but one squad member on overwatch mode around a group of enemies, attack the highest priority target, and watch in glorious slow-motion as your squad (hopefully) destroys them. In Massacre Dissected, you don’t suffer any of the typical overwatch penalties.

However, enemies seem designed to compensate for the advantages of stealth, as some enemies have abilities that make them much harder to kill if you don’t kill them in the first round. Advent Shieldbearer is the best example of this. If he survives and isn’t neutralized, he activates a power that gives himself and all surrounding allies an energy barrier that can absorb significant damage. You absolutely need to be careful about who you shoot first, as it can make a big difference in who survives when the enemy strikes back.

And sometimes when you kill two of the three aliens in a group, the last one wisely retreats and teams up with another group nearby. This is great. Not only does the AI ​​show a rare will to survive, but it also teaches you something to remember when fighting: don’t leave any survivors, otherwise the next fight may be more difficult.

For example, the Specialist’s ranged hacking and healing abilities make the Specialist stand out perfectly, providing an interesting risk-reward opportunity, especially against robotic enemies. Expanding these abilities through weapon upgrades is also great. I combined the Sniper’s killzone ability with a high-capacity ammo mod that lets me fire an incredible six reaction shots in one round.

But considering what they offer, they don’t seem overwhelming. Some of these aliens are downright vicious, and the AI ​​usually knows how to use them effectively, especially on higher difficulties. It’s also fun to play in head-to-head multiplayer.

The most annoying problem with XCOM 2 is its tendency to have animation errors and annoying bugs. In most cases, they’re harmless but annoying. Aside from attack animations that periodically pass through objects, and Overwatch shots that hit their targets despite obstacles (as I learned to tolerate in XCOM: Enemy Unknown), there are very common instances where XCOM 2 will come forward or momentarily freeze after. When an attack occurs, it will go into awkward slow motion for 10+ seconds before you can resume firing. I’ve also seen specialists abandon animations entirely and just stand motionless while enemies take damage from expected attacks or move to new positions. Sometimes the buttons in the level-up interface don’t register, and you have to go to the soldier screen in the armory to select the skills you want.

But the most annoying thing is when no matter how much you adjust the camera, XCOM 2 doesn’t show you the floor of the building you want to see. That is, you can see the outline of a square you can move through, but you can’t see what’s actually there because the surrounding buildings aren’t sectioned off. Or you can’t see the top floor at all, just a rectangle floating in space. I also played the last mission without the shield icon that shows if you’re in full guard, half guard, or if you’re being flanked when you get into a new position. It’s only when it’s gone that you realize its value.

The issues come up so often that they shake my confidence that I’m being treated fairly. So I’m going to wait for a few patches before attempting an Iron Man run. The good news is that I’ve yet to see anything resembling the dreaded enemy teleportation glitch in XCOM: Enemy Unknown. (Unless it was intentional.)

So what about performance? Let’s just say I’m glad this is a turn-based game, because even with the recommended hardware above I can’t sustain 60 frames per second. The issue doesn’t seem to have anything to do with the action on the screen, as the issue is often most noticeable not in the middle of combat, but when six soldiers board the Skyranger dropship and head into battle. Of course, the tradeoff for this is that XCOM 2 usually looks great, thanks to highly detailed character models and textures, expressive animations, and creative creature designs. And the ability to blow big holes in buildings, especially while enemies are standing there, is awesome.

Big Picture Mode

The completely redesigned strategic world map is also more dynamic, offering more replay value than its predecessor. Your mobile base must stay one step ahead of the aliens by racing around the map from random locations, making contact with resistance cells in different regions, gathering supplies, and launching raids on the aliens. Race against enemies to build new facilities and breakthroughs to increase your victory tally, and destroy enemy structures to complete story objectives to force the enemy to retreat and buy you time. There are a lot of decisions to make here, including where to expand, what resources to look for, and which research projects to tackle first. But again, you’ll need to read the map and adapt.

Flying Carrier Bases don’t require you to care so much about your neighbors, so there’s less consideration for base building this time around. Rather, the variety here comes from the placement of energy nodes in the layout of captured alien ships, with special energy-granting tiles likely being accessible or placed last.

The big change is that engineering staff now need to be assigned to specific rooms and managed. They can speed up building times, accelerate progression such as increasing soldier recovery times or power. The important thing is that we see their names and faces from time to time, so even if they don’t have unique stats, they feel like people and not just numbers on a spreadsheet. Unfortunately, academic staff are not treated that way; they have names, but once recruited you never see those names again.

These names, like the rest of XCOM 2’s, can be drawn from a pool of custom characters, and I spent more than a few hours on this alone. The character editor isn’t the most flexible; there’s a very limited number of faces you can customize without sliders, body types are only tip-top shapes, and few accessories like hats and glasses. But I can customize. In general, I create something that at least vaguely resembles the person I have in mind. I can even set certain people to only appear as assassination or kidnapping targets, so I have a reason to create someone I don’t like. I can then save, reuse, export and import characters, and share my creations with others.

But it’s odd that XCOM 2 insists on mixing its own randomly generated characters into the recruiting pool, despite having a huge list of pre-made people. I created these characters because I wanted to play with these people, not random strangers. So it’s frustrating when your initial recruiting pool only includes a handful.

I hate to say “the modders will fix it,” but that probably applies to most of my criticisms of this great tactical game. Firaxis has promised a nearly unprecedented level of support for the modding community, including several mods available at launch, made by the developers responsible for the infamous Long War mod for XCOM: Enemy Within. Apart from the basic technical issues that Firaxis needs to fix, you can expect a wide variety of free post-release help available through Steam Workshop integration.

Xbox One and PlayStation 4 Versions – Updated October 10, 2016

If you like what I’ve said about the PC version, but don’t have the hardware to run it, be sure to check out the console versions of XCOM. 2. I didn’t use any mods, but otherwise it’s just as good as the PC version. This includes some framerate issues (especially when there’s fire on the screen) and screen tearing on both Xbox One and PlayStation 4, but since this is a turn-based game, it doesn’t affect gameplay, it’s just a visual distraction. In fact, I was expecting longer load times, but I’m very impressed with how reasonable they are. Also, the gamepad controls work just like they do in the console version of XCOM: Enemy Unknown, which means it’s pretty good. It’s not as fast as using a mouse and keyboard, but everything is within easy reach.

Verdict

With a focus on variety and replayability, this sequel answers most of my complaints about 2012’s excellent XCOM: Enemy Unknown and, aside from a few mostly cosmetic flaws, is a stunning work of art. With a new twist on the same great tactical combat, plus more unpredictable maps, random objectives and loot, XCOM 2 is a fantastic game I could spend hundreds of hours in.