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XCOM 2 |OT| Be Aggressive! Be Be Aggressive!

datruth29

Member
Played for about 6 hours yesterday. Things I noted:

1) Game is Hard, but it might just be due to unfamiliarity with some of the systems and enemies.

2) You can reload on your first turn and shoot on the second! Had no idea.

3) Flash grenades are INCREDIBLE! They have a massive AOE, and the debuffs they place on enemy units are powerful.

4)
The most stressful thing about Faceless isn't their health and damage output but that they get to attack immediately on the turn after their reveal. So if you move your last solider towards a civilian, and a Faceless pops out, you're screwed.
 

Mupod

Member
Played for about 6 hours yesterday. Things I noted:

1) Game is Hard, but it might just be due to unfamiliarity with some of the systems and enemies.

2) You can reload on your first turn and shoot on the second! Had no idea.

3) Flash grenades are INCREDIBLE! They have a massive AOE, and the debuffs they place on enemy units are powerful.

Maybe spoiler that last one.

Also what exactly do flash grenades do? I tried to use one, and my camera freaked out at the exact moment I clicked. I think it was trying to get on top of a gas station when I was hovering over two ADVENT. So my soldier just threw it into his own face with no 'friendly fire' warning since I guess it doesn't do FF.
 

dumbo

Member
3) Flash grenades are INCREDIBLE! They have a massive AOE, and the debuffs they place on enemy units are powerful.

Indeed - they also cancel abilities that have already been used (e.g. zombies seem to drop down dead if you flash-bang their sectoid controller).
 

Zeliard

Member
The most egregious one is personality type, some of my created characters are coming into my game with completely random ones rather than the one I set.

Personality type is one of those character options locked until you've leveled them up a certain amount, so it seems like the problems people are running into with importing soldiers is due to a number of the customization options in the campaign being unavailable until your soldiers have hit a certain level.
 

Jintor

Member
There's still weird shit though like my dude shot straight through the floor into a flanked enemy. I wasn't complaining. Also enemies ressed on the same square as your troops looks pretty weird.
 
The rhythm of the combat is improved in such a dramatic way, i cant put my finger on exactly what it is, but the tactical combat just feels fantastic and fresh.

Also, i actually kind of like them missions with counters, especially when you drop in concealed and rush as far up as you can. I've gotten down to the wire on the timer, but haven't whiffed any of them yet.
 

Zeliard

Member
Indeed - they also cancel abilities that have already been used (e.g. zombies seem to drop down dead if you flash-bang their sectoid controller).

Well, that's certainly useful to know. Sectoids are just brutal in the early game now. I had an early wipe because I fought a single Sectoid who managed to hit every roulette on mind control and my team just imploded. That they can raise zombies now on top of having early-game mind control is rough stuff, but fun!
 

Khoryos

Member
Something very useful to know about Mind Control - if you have a guy on overwatch, and he gets controlled? The overwatch stays. My grenadier killed the ranger that was about to free him ;_;
 

Zeliard

Member
How's the difficulty guys? About the same as EU?

Early game feels notably harder to me, personally. Sectoids are much more dangerous now and it's exacerbated by the timed missions you often have to take, so you aren't able to be as careful and methodical as you might want.
 
Any good youtubers to follow for some quality XCOM 2 playthroughs? Preferably not the popular generic ones that cover all videogames, but ones who might be more familiar with the series.
 

Falk

that puzzling face
I'm really, really digging the strategic layer. You're definitely forced to choose between four or five different scarce resources (one of them being time invested by Avenger on the geoscape) and there definitely feels like there's the ability to err by spreading yourself too thin rather than going all-in on one of the solutions/branches.

It's sorta like how you should either go nuts with MECs or gene mods in EW, except applied more to the alien timetable metagame rather than teching.
 

Zyae

Member
Played the 1st mission. Everything seems great but it runs weird on low/medium settings with my 560ti... I have a 960 in my shopping cart on amazon right now...
 

datruth29

Member
Are you guys that are saying the timers are great and don't rush you too bad playing on veteran or commander difficulty?

I'm playing on commander. The first time I took a timer mission, I didn't realize how pressing everything was. After that, I learned to not be as patient as I use to be in EU, and to take more risk. The use of a concealment in your first couple of turns during a timer mission is SOOOO IMPORTANT as it's the only time that you can push it without worrying about activation.
 
Plus most of the faces are brutal looking.


Loaded it up for all of fifteen minutes this morning so first impressions are weak at best.

However.

What the hell?

Five faces per race and nearly all of them look like they are joke faces or something went horribly wrong at birth.

Am I missing something? Is there a DLC pack I need to grab/purchase?

How am I supposed to "play Barbies" with only five faces?


Any good youtubers to follow for some quality XCOM 2 playthroughs? Preferably not the popular generic ones that cover all videogames, but ones who might be more familiar with the series.

Beaglerush
 

Falk

that puzzling face
jq6S6S2.jpg


Firaxis pls
 

Jintor

Member
The timers are brutal and you can seriously get effed. Just lost a sick heavy cos he didn't get the extraction zone in time cos he stopped to solo the entire invading reinforcements.

I have to relearn so many habits... anybody know if the Overwatch (Conceal) carries the standard overwatch aim penalty or not? Seems to imply it doesn't, but the very first time I tried to overwatch trap all three of my shitty-ass soldiers missed the sectoid who proceded to mindfuck pretty much everybody in sight.

Losing a turn to MC is really brutal early game when you only have 4 units. Doubley-so when their MC causes your unit to panic chain.
 

deoee

Member
I guess I need to start over, really sucks :(

Lost like 2/3 hours of gameplay - meh.

Btw. I assinged classes to my self made chars but in game they got a random class after promotion? Is that supposed to work that way?
 

Zeliard

Member
Are you guys that are saying the timers are great and don't rush you too bad playing on veteran or commander difficulty?

Put it this way: if you were the type of XCOM player who went on Overwatch every few steps, you might have a tough time. :p

So far the turn timers have cut it pretty close. You have very few actual turns to position your guys and move carefully, because it takes a certain number just to get to the objective, another turn to 'activate' it, and then at least a couple or so more to exfil out. Turn limits seem to range anywhere from 8-12 or so.

It's unfortunate to me that the turn timer counts against you when you move around during concealment. Just gives you less time to set up ambushes, and it also doesn't make sense - the aliens don't even know you're there.
 

Anno

Member
The timers are brutal and you can seriously get effed. Just lost a sick heavy cos he didn't get the extraction zone in time cos he stopped to solo the entire invading reinforcements.

I have to relearn so many habits... anybody know if the Overwatch (Conceal) carries the standard overwatch aim penalty or not? Seems to imply it doesn't, but the very first time I tried to overwatch trap all three of my shitty-ass soldiers missed the sectoid who proceded to mindfuck pretty much everybody in sight.

Losing a turn to MC is really brutal early game when you only have 4 units. Doubley-so when their MC causes your unit to panic chain.

No aim penalty on concealed overwatch.

And you bit about the dude having to stay behind so your others can get out is what makes me love the timers, actually. If it wasn't timed then it'd be a boring story about hiding behind boxes, mopping up aliens and getting out. Instead that dude can be remembered as the guy who saved 3-5 other XCOM members and let you extract that key VIP or whatever. Sounds much more interesting.
 

Falk

that puzzling face
anybody know if the Overwatch (Conceal) carries the standard overwatch aim penalty or not?

Pretty sure I saw a tip or another say ambush overwatches do not suffer penalty.

Timers seem fine for the most part. I've had a couple of hairy situations trying to get loot, but other than that I don't think they've been any worse than, say, bomb defusal

Also the OTS upgrade for +3 movement for the first 2 turns in concealment is pretty baller. 6 tiles extra is nothing to sneeze at on timer missions. Still is a tertiary/luxury checkmark though, considering how ridiculously scarce supplies are.

And you bit about the dude having to stay behind so your others can get out is what makes me love the timers, actually. If it wasn't timed then it'd be a boring story about hiding behind boxes, mopping up aliens and getting out. Instead that dude can be remembered as the guy who saved 3-5 other XCOM members and let you extract that key VIP or whatever. Sounds much more interesting.

Apparently
people you leave behind can show up in rescue missions later on
 

Metroidvania

People called Romanes they go the house?
I've had multiple timer-missions end with 5+ turns, and just last night, I tripped two pods during concealment, and ended up being 1 turn short of securing the objective.

It generally seems to be pretty balanced/fair in how many turns it allows you, at least on Veteran.

I've been screwed over more by concealment-movement leading to me being flanked from outside visual range (which is probably my fault for dashing, lol, but that gets back to the timer issue, to be fair) than I have been by timers themselves.

Sidenote, I've been absolutely screwed by loot drops. Got one good movement set for my blade-ranger, but since then, only a 1 hp one, and 3 will saves -_-. Not one aim boost for my poor sniper.

Btw. I assinged classes to my self made chars but in game they got a random class after promotion? Is that supposed to work that way?

I think (not sure by any means) that if you assign them a class, if they show up as a mission reward/ 'buyable' squaddie from the resistance HQ, instead of a recruit, they have that class. It seems a bit buggy, though.
 

Jintor

Member
also i know it was deliberate but it's fucking hilarious that sectoids are definitely no longer the baby weenies who you'd step on to start xcom and are instead the scary guys you're like "KILL THEM HOLY SHIT KILL THEM NOW"... at least for the moment.

And you bit about the dude having to stay behind so your others can get out is what makes me love the timers, actually. If it wasn't timed then it'd be a boring story about hiding behind boxes, mopping up aliens and getting out. Instead that dude can be remembered as the guy who saved 3-5 other XCOM members and let you extract that key VIP or whatever. Sounds much more interesting.

I just felt a bit cheated cos he was literally like a tile or two away from the extraction zone. :(
 

Sblargh

Banned
Well, my ironman commander run ended well... for the aliens.
Veteran for me then. :|
For now.
I'll be back, commander difficulty!
 

Jintor

Member
Shit I got used to in Long War I wanna see

1) even more accent packs. where's my singaporeans? at least there's some great british/aussie voices in here already, but when Ong Ba Xiao started speaking in perfect NA standard I was a little disappointed. Let's not even talk about Jubilee Shen over here (who's supposedly Taiwanese... but I guess a little accent mixing's to be expected after the alien invasion)

2) fatiguing? admittedly this is just a preference thing, dunno how it would work for game balance yet
 

Mupod

Member
Apparently
people you leave behind can show up in rescue missions later on

Wonder how long it will take. I had a heartbreaking moment where my sniper saved the day on a VIP extraction and then ended the final turn 1 step from evac.

I would have easily done that mission in time if I'd noticed there was a countdown before the 5 turn remaining thing popped up...also accidentally dropping a flashbang at my feet instead of on a squad of ADVENT didn't help.

I was worried that playing on Veteran wouldn't give me memorable moments like classic used to, I'm glad that's not true at all. Amazing how a turn based game can get your pulse racing.
 

Sblargh

Banned
Shit I got used to in Long War I wanna see

1) even more accent packs. where's my singaporeans? at least there's some great british/aussie voices in here already, but when Ong Ba Xiao started speaking in perfect NA standard I was a little disappointed. Let's not even talk about Jubilee Shen over here (who's supposedly Taiwanese... but I guess a little accent mixing's to be expected after the alien invasion)

2) fatiguing? admittedly this is just a preference thing, dunno how it would work for game balance yet

Well, unlike EU I am always low on soldiers; so no fatigue for me, pls.
 

Zeliard

Member
also i know it was deliberate but it's fucking hilarious that sectoids are definitely no longer the baby weenies who you'd step on to start xcom and are instead the scary guys you're like "KILL THEM HOLY SHIT KILL THEM NOW"... at least for the moment.(

Very first time I encountered a Sectoid in this game, he mind-controlled Jane Kelly with his first move, she was blown up by her own team on Overwatch, the Sectoid made her a zombie, and then on his next turn he mind-controlled someone else. And at that stage of the game they take a minimum of two turns to kill unless you get lucky with a crit. They also run away!

Jerks.
 
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