XCOM 2 Review thread

ebullientprism said:
I genuinely have a hard time believing either of those things. There is no way in hell this is skipping the consoles. And that UI doesnt look like it was designed to only work with a mouse and keyboard. Its not like they build it from the ground up, its a slightly altered version of the last game's interface.

All of that sounds like lip service to hardcore PC gamers.
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Dude, take it to another thread. The game is coming to PC. No console version has been hinted at. Give it a fucking rest.

How is it that everyone complains about PC port beggars when we have shit like this?
 
I haven't gotten around to playing the previous game yet. Do you guys think it still makes sense or should I just skip that and play this one - I mean is there a story or anything behind or is it like CIV where every iteration is basically the same, just bigger and better?
 
Great reviews, i've already pre ordered this despite I'll playing it only a week later [GMG deal was so good for the digital deluxe!]. Looking foward to read the OT, hopefully without console talk of any type :P, for more and more impressions, it seems that the procedural generation is really well done.
Firaxis rock, as always.

Ah, RPS review is a really good read imo
 
JoeyJungle said:
Does CDKeys use stolen credit cards to get their keys, or are they just taking advantage of regional pricing? I assume because they're allowed on GAF, they aren't doing anything scammy?
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Just use PayPal. I believe it's people selling NVIDIA keys, bundle keys, and abusing regional pricing.
 
Hzoltan69 said:
I haven't gotten around to playing the previous game yet. Do you guys think it still makes sense or should I just skip that and play this one - I mean is there a story or anything behind or is it like CIV where every iteration is basically the same, just bigger and better?
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Go pickup the first, its like $2 at the moment.
 
Hzoltan69 said:
I haven't gotten around to playing the previous game yet. Do you guys think it still makes sense or should I just skip that and play this one - I mean is there a story or anything behind or is it like CIV where every iteration is basically the same, just bigger and better?
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Definitely skip the first one, it's horrible on every level that matters. I'd advise you to wait for user reviews before buying this one as well as these reviews could've been bought.
 
Akronis said:
Dude, take it to another thread. The game is coming to PC. No console version has been hinted at. Give it a fucking rest.

How is it that everyone complains about PC port beggars when we have shit like this?
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What the hell are you babbling about? I have a gaming PC. Two of them actually. Which I mentioned like 3 posts ago. Dont own a single console. How did you construe all of this as port begging?

Try reading more than one post next time before you jump in with both feet.

Christ. Platform fanboys are the worst thing about this forum. PC or consoles.
 
Hzoltan69 said:
I haven't gotten around to playing the previous game yet. Do you guys think it still makes sense or should I just skip that and play this one - I mean is there a story or anything behind or is it like CIV where every iteration is basically the same, just bigger and better?
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XCOM isn't a narrative driven game but it does have a story of some kind. However the plot of this game is that XCOM lost the first game before it even got started, so in the end it doesn't matter if you play 1.

It's still well worth playing, and there should still be a humble bundle sale going on to get it dirt cheap. But if you're short on time it's not like you're missing out on any plot details.
 
loganclaws said:
Definitely skip the first one, it's horrible on every level that matters. I'd advise you to wait for user reviews before buying this one as well as these reviews could've been bought.
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Little too hot on the approach. Gotta ease em into it.
 
aP9m9ya.gif


This bit from the RPS WiT is the best news yet:
In terms of both its skilltrees and the equipment unlocked through research, XCOM 2 avoids tiered sets of stat-boosting abilities, weapons and armour. While there’s a rough equivalent to the projectiles < laser < plasma path of old, mostly you're increasing options rather than numbers. That's at the very heart of what this game is and why it's such an unqualified success, when it comes to the turn-based combat at the very least.
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The one thing I haven't heard about is the specifics of the difficulty levels. Do any of the reviews go into detail about them?
 
LurkerPrime said:
The one thing I haven't heard about is the specifics of the difficulty levels. Do any of the reviews go into detail about them?
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We already know about those in detail from the preview builds given to streamers. Main points off the top of my head -

- The big thing I've noticed about moving up in difficulty is that enemies not only get more health but you have to deal with more armored guys, and those with armor have an extra point or so.
- The two higher difficulties have 'true' rolls on your percentages whereas the two lower tend to err in your favor and prevent bad streaks of misses
- Legend is much longer than the others in terms of scale, I've heard 1.5-2x
- Legend is not as bullshit as Impossible was but obviously still tough. Beaglerush is able to manage on Legend with a modded ini giving enemies more health.

Still not sure what mode I'll start on. Hoping they delivered on the promise that difficulty would be less 'frontloaded' in the early months.
 
The reviews I have read are pretty much based on the normal difficulty, but gametrailers had an interview with the devs some weeks ago and they mentioned that difficulty alters some schackles on the AI, there is a thing on normal and below where you your %s increase ir you're miss too much in a row, also research and recovery times. I don't remember they talking about aim and health bonuses, but I imagine it's there, too.

So basically I would bet it is almost the same as EU
 
Yeah, the difficulties sound in-line with XCOM: EU. IIRC it had more than just stat changes on Classic and above.
Mupod said:
We already know about those in detail from the preview builds given to streamers. Main points off the top of my head -

- The big thing I've noticed about moving up in difficulty is that enemies not only get more health but you have to deal with more armored guys, and those with armor have an extra point or so.
- The two higher difficulties have 'true' rolls on your percentages whereas the two lower tend to err in your favor and prevent bad streaks of misses
- Legend is much longer than the others in terms of scale, I've heard 1.5-2x
- Legend is not as bullshit as Impossible was but obviously still tough. Beaglerush is able to manage on Legend with a modded ini giving enemies more health.

Still not sure what mode I'll start on. Hoping they delivered on the promise that difficulty would be less 'frontloaded' in the early months.
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Thanks a lot!

I'm also not sure which difficulty I'll go with yet. I'd like it to be tough, but not that tough.
Edit: Ironman is a must, of course. I want to live the dream.
 
Normal ironman on the first (few) runs for me, for sure. If I am losing too much, I will savescum just to see the end, but I expect to be a tactical genius and nothing ever going wrong.
 
Absolutely awesome to see these scores! Sadly, with it being PC-only I can't see myself actually making significant time to play this... at least, not enough to justify a purchase until it's discounted. Regardless, I'll get to it eventually...

Edit: not intended as a 'portbeg' and not here for an argument on it - I'm here to celebrate the game's highly favourable showing so far, regardless of platform.
 
ebullientprism said:
What the hell are you babbling about? I have a gaming PC. Two of them actually. Which I mentioned like 3 posts ago. Dont own a single console. How did you construe all of this as port begging?

Try reading more than one post next time before you jump in with both feet.

Christ. Platform fanboys are the worst thing about this forum. PC or consoles.
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So just curious here, why are you so sure the game is coming to consoles even though the first one sold like crap?
 
illusionary said:
Absolutely awesome to see these scores! Sadly, with it being PC-only I can't see myself actually making significant time to play this... at least, not enough to justify a purchase until it's discounted.

Maybe we'll see a console release eventually... hopefully!
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Thanks for the stealth portbeg. Bye bye!
 
EGM's reviewer mistakes XCOM (and I'd assume 2) as a game to be completed when it is a game to be won. The review also bogs itself down trying to explain very basic things, rather than elucidate how it actually was to play.

The technical stuff sounds like a bummer, though. I hope the final game is crash free.
Fireblend said:
Holy shit what happened to this thread.
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Actually... This thread is an accurate representation of how all XCOM 2 threads go. (Seriously.)
 
ebullientprism said:
What the hell are you babbling about? I have a gaming PC. Two of them actually. Which I mentioned like 3 posts ago. Dont own a single console. How did you construe all of this as port begging?

Try reading more than one post next time before you jump in with both feet.

Christ. Platform fanboys are the worst thing about this forum. PC or consoles.
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It's a review thread. Stop talking about the likeliness of it coming to consoles. Make another thread. It's not hard to understand.

I don't know how you insinuated that I am a fanboy based on that post, you're clearly a bit too defensive.
 
Erheller said:
That's actually false. It's because this is what happens when you fire a shot:

1) The game rolls to see if the shot is a hit or not.
2) The game draws a projectile (if the shot is a hit, it'll draw a projectile towards the targeted actor)
3) If the drawn projectile is a hit, damage is applied.

Ideally, every single shot that rolls to hit will draw a projectile that hits the target and apply damage. That isn't the case, however.

Amineri (one of the Long War people) explains this in more detail:



https://www.reddit.com/r/Xcom/comme...is_seriously_off_with_the_to_hit_for/cvl6a70:
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Huh, I stand corrected. No idea they investigated the game further, last I checked was around the time b15 was getting released, figured they were done digging into the game's guts by that time. That's interesting.

But yeah, I admittedly never looked at the code myself, just heard it from some people and probably misremembered a lot of stuff. Only thing I remember about how the game worked was how to make custom voice packs for LW, which was super fun.
 
Durrzerker said:
C'mon man, posts like this just derail it further.

This thread's a mess, can we please get back on topic?


Case in point, is EGM's 7.5 the worst review so far, or have we seen lower? Curious what the widest range will be.
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it is the lowest so far. I'm expecting a 70 at the worst.
 
Akronis said:
It's a review thread. Stop talking about the likeliness of it coming to consoles. Make another thread. It's not hard to understand.

I don't know how you insinuated that I am a fanboy based on that post, you're clearly a bit too defensive.
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Yeah I still don't understand how this can be acceptable for some reason.
Every goddamn xcom 2 thread is like this.

We understand you want a console release but this thread is not about it.
 
There's all sorts of garbage in this thread at this point, but I wanted to roll back a few pages and state why I think that this series (and most games built around the feature) are really best in Ironman.

In Ironman, bad things happen and you're stuck dealing with them. These things aren't to be viewed as bad, though. They are to be viewed as interesting. A campaign where you stomp your way over the the aliens without having setbacks (or even minimal setbacks) is just not compelling.

The other side of things is that without the crutch of takebacks, you spec your characters and roll out your squads differently.

Playing a lower difficultly with ironman is a much more interesting game than playing higher difficultly and reloading when someone past CPL dies.
 
Fragamemnon said:
There's all sorts of garbage in this thread at this point, but I wanted to roll back a few pages and state why I think that this series (and most games built around the feature) are really best in Ironman.

In Ironman, bad things happen and you're stuck dealing with them. These things aren't to be viewed as bad, though. They are to be viewed as interesting. A campaign where you stomp your way over the the aliens without having setbacks (or even minimal setbacks) is just not compelling.

The other side of things is that without the crutch of takebacks, you spec your characters and roll out your squads differently.

Playing a lower difficultly with ironman is a much more interesting game than playing higher difficultly and reloading when someone past CPL dies.
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Yeah, I'd say XCOM is designed around adapting to failure and change, succeeding in spite of the overwhelming unknown you face. Julian Gollop's love of RNG cemented this into X-Com's DNA from the very first game, and Jake Solomon wisely preserved this for his XCOMs.

This is why that EGM review continues to slay me. Everything is a risk in XCOM--even at 5%.
 
Gauloisess24 said:
Thanks for the stealth portbeg. Bye bye!
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Not at all my intention - yes, I'd love a console release, I'm not going to deny that, but I'm just here to celebrate the game's highly positive showing so far, regardless of platform. I've been a far of XCOM from the days of UO, TFTD and Apocalypse, and also own XCOM: EU and EW on both PS3 and Steam.

One way or the other, I'm looking forward to following the coverage in the coming weeks and will enjoy if vicariously if nothing else...
 
LurkerPrime said:
Yeah, I'd say XCOM is designed around adapting to failure and change, succeeding in spite of the overwhelming unknown you face. Julian Gollop's love of RNG cemented this into X-Com's DNA from the very first game, and Jake Solomon wisely preserved this for his XCOMs.

This is why that EGM review continues to slay me. Everything is a risk in XCOM--even at 5%.
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It's an opinion piece so it's not difficult to see why that sort of gameplay doesn't appeal to people.

I think a lot of games these days empower the player too much and it's a shock to the system for something like XCOM 2 to have actual stakes. I think the whole idea of being at a significant disadvantage fits the gameplay narrative quite well.

Especially to those who have played the original XCOM, they will feel right at home when they squad wipe because you missed that 95% chance shot ;)
 
Sinatar said:
Because a wide range of opinions is important? Reviews aren't an echo chamber designed to reinforce your predetermied belief about the quality (or lack thereof) of a game.
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Oh I absolutely agree. The negative film and game reviews are very important and often times more useful than the positive reviews.

However, this EGM review is not one of those great negative reviews. The reviewer mentions the same glitches as every other review does, does not get the point about the randomness of XCOM and then somehow arrives at 7.5 (he gave 9,0 to Just Cause 3).
 
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