Review: XCOM 2

In the end, the version of XCOM 2 available on either the Xbox One or PS4 is still, unavoidably, the second best crafted by the development team. The good news is that players who prefer their couch to their desktop won't be missing out on the quality of the experience, even if the level of polish takes a hit. And with every aspect of XCOM 2 contributing to the kinds of investment, tension, and stakes usually relying on players hunched over keyboards, glued to their monitors... well, being a couch potato may have never been a more stressful experie


The core thrill of seeing a squad erupt from 'Overwatch' to let barrages loose on an unsuspecting enemy is augmented by the new tweaks to Squaddie classes. The standards remain (Sniper, Grenadier, Specialist), but the 'Assault' class has been replaced with the fearless and furious Rangers. And before player assume the name means these fighters are ranged characters, realize that sprinting across a battlefield to unleash a sword attack point-blank has a distinct melee feel. The turn-based gameplay remains the same (although clearly increased in difficulty), leaving the fiction to inform the meaning of the mechanics - scrounging alien technology, attacking research centers and extracting assets - and in turn, letting the desperation of the campaign amplify the story ramificati


One of the three hero classes added in XCOM 2: War of the Chosen, the Skirmisher class consists of defective ADVENT soldiers that are hellbent to take revenge. These characters have some melee damage and low-ammo weapons, making them a seemingly upgraded version of your close-range Rang


Thankfully, Musashi fixed this for replayers with the Still Stop Wasting My Time Mod — updated for the War of the Chosen mod, hence the "Still" — which speeds up all the various animations that slow down the flow of gameplay. Never again will players suffer through the tedious 80-minute holo targeting animation. A nice bonus is that this mod seems to be almost universal, with no major confli


A rather simple UI change, all this mod does is add an "evac all" option on the normal taskbar at the bottom of the screen when in the evac zone. Maybe not a SLG Game Forums-changer exactly, but this is the kind of quality of life update that all large games could use. Truly, anything that reduces what would be 12 clicks with a full squad down to one is fantastic. It almost makes folks feel bad for XCOM 2 players on PS5 and their insane load times . No speed adjustments for them, the poor so


Overall, XCOM 2 and the War of the Chosen expansion are well balanced when it comes to class viability. Nearly every class in the game offers a unique playstyle that makes certain situations less punishing or even favorable. From hacking giant mechs to blowing up entire buildings, here are all of the classes in XCOM 2 ranked from worst to b


PC players have been enjoying the game since February, but the developers have finally released a console version to Xbox One and PS4. It's a longer delay than many gamers are used, so does the ported version seem worth the wait? And after Enemy Unknown 's own release on consoles, have the interfaces and controls been improved (along with the performance) on the Xbox One and PS4's hardware? The answer is 'yes' across the board - minus a few technical iss

Fans in 2012 were anxious to get their hands on another XCOM game after so many years absent. Coming from the creators of the Sid Meier's series, players were cautious in their anticipation, as while the developer is known for creating strong strategy elements, XCOM was a whole other ball game when it came to combat. Involving complex world building elements and critical decisions through the campaign, Enemy Unknown and its follow-up expansion, Enemy Within, became arguably the best installments in the long running franchise. It featured incredibly hardcore elements with the concern that even the simplest mission could end with a couple of your most invested and powerful comrades coming back in body bags. There was nothing like it on the market, and because of this, Firaxis was far from ready to hang the series up and has been working on a new and greatly improved sequel that will undoubtedly make fans joyous. While it seems XCOM 2 improves upon its predecessor, there are some shortcomings to its execution.

One feature that could have been great for Firaxis to implement is stealth. At the beginning of most missions, your team is concealed and unknown, so getting the drop on at least one enemy is fairly easy to accomplish. Unfortunately, there’s no way to actually keep concealment once an attack lands, so going back into the darkness to get the jump on another group of aliens is absent. As mentioned before, there are some characters such as the Ranger who has a skill that allows her to not be revealed when things go off, but after everyone in the vicinity is cleared and you progress further, enemies will instantly become aware of your position as they patrol their routine programming like nothing is going on. This is more of a half of a step rather than a full step in the right direction, something that could have benefited the core gameplay enormously. All-out war with your new alien overlords is fun, but a stealth component could have allowed for even more combat variance other than exchanging gunfire and hoping your shot hits every round.