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XCOM: Enemy Within |OT| Your Soldiers Never Asked For This
- Thread starter Jintor
- Start date
Hey guys - FYI, the PS3 version of Enemy Within is only $25 on Amazon. Not sure if the 360 version is too, but finally able to justify picking this up. Now to find time to play it. 
EDIT: A question, since I bumped the thread: I'm the type of player that found Normal fairly easy but Classic generally too difficult for me (it's the Thin Men that ruin me every time I try a Classic run). I haven't really looked too far in to the options for Enemy Within, but are there any modifiers/options people would suggest to maybe strike a balance between Normal and Classic? What I ended up doing in my last EU playthrough was playing Normal but then instantly selling the Officers' Building (whatever gives you the soldier upgrades) and consciously not choosing to set up shop in Asia.
EDIT: A question, since I bumped the thread: I'm the type of player that found Normal fairly easy but Classic generally too difficult for me (it's the Thin Men that ruin me every time I try a Classic run). I haven't really looked too far in to the options for Enemy Within, but are there any modifiers/options people would suggest to maybe strike a balance between Normal and Classic? What I ended up doing in my last EU playthrough was playing Normal but then instantly selling the Officers' Building (whatever gives you the soldier upgrades) and consciously not choosing to set up shop in Asia.
I love how they've modified and balanced the new abilities. Before, there was only one way to build supports really but the new combat-focused side of that tree is actually pretty fun (tactical rigging and new deep pockets is a part of that).
With the way that Overwatch/Covering Fire/Sentinel works with them now, firing before the enemy gets a shot off instead of only triggering after the shot is fired, you can sort of cheese out a rapid fire with a nearly equivalent accuracy drop off with very little risk. Combining them with Memetic Skin makes them perfect scouts when paired with a MEC. Move them to full cover undetected, find an unalerted alien group, move the MEC into grenade/proximity range, then twiddle your fingers and laugh at all the ways you can ensure that nothing leaves the area alive.
Also - I still love the MEC melee (18 guaranteed damage when fully researched. dios mio) but the flamethrower's incredible panic rate can't be understated. Its such a great way to buy time if you're really up against a wall.
With the way that Overwatch/Covering Fire/Sentinel works with them now, firing before the enemy gets a shot off instead of only triggering after the shot is fired, you can sort of cheese out a rapid fire with a nearly equivalent accuracy drop off with very little risk. Combining them with Memetic Skin makes them perfect scouts when paired with a MEC. Move them to full cover undetected, find an unalerted alien group, move the MEC into grenade/proximity range, then twiddle your fingers and laugh at all the ways you can ensure that nothing leaves the area alive.
Also - I still love the MEC melee (18 guaranteed damage when fully researched. dios mio) but the flamethrower's incredible panic rate can't be understated. Its such a great way to buy time if you're really up against a wall.
Fragamemnon
Member
Start a game on Normal and change it to Classic from the in-game menu once in progress.
CecilRousso
Member
2k forums sez just characters, not voices
aaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrggggggggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
Col. Yu Ying Lao, you are condemned to speak in a breezy American accent hereafter
Fragamemnon
Member
Other enemies will fire back when panicked, and can actually get some decent shots off.
I don't mind the flamethrower if I don't have a heavy in my squad but otherwise I really think the extra mobility from kinetic strike is the way to go. Terror missions aren't hard anyway.
It disrupts Mind Control and Psi Shields as well. When you're in a severe cluster fuck, its the way to go.
For Sectopods though? Always have the Electro-Stun thingy and the Kinetic Strike handy.
Flamethrowers are great early on, though I do miss not having the extra mobility of the robot punch upgrade.
Another "failed" classic run. Thought I'd try not building an uplink on month 1. Did give me MECs and such a bit earlier since I'd have some spare power, but the monthly allowance from the first council report was... disappointing. I've been experimenting with waiting with researching beam / carapace until I've got the interrogations too but I'm usually too slow to get the containment facility up and then successfully capture a sectoid and a floater.
Another "failed" classic run. Thought I'd try not building an uplink on month 1. Did give me MECs and such a bit earlier since I'd have some spare power, but the monthly allowance from the first council report was... disappointing. I've been experimenting with waiting with researching beam / carapace until I've got the interrogations too but I'm usually too slow to get the containment facility up and then successfully capture a sectoid and a floater.
Oh. I don't know about low cover, but I was wondering why my heavies would suddenly be standing one tile outside of cover in my last game.
ambientmystic
Member
I went with the Flamer build at first until I took my Mech out for the first run and saw that it had an extremely limited number of uses per mission.
Yeahh... gotta go with that ultra mobile infinite use bionic paunch suit any day of the week. Dat 18 guaranteed damage is unbeatable, not ot mention the awesome cutscenes that occurs when the Mech takes out a Muton Berserker. Plus the extra mobility that stacks with other research and rocket boots that let you quickly traverse any terrain makes the dude a super versatile scouting and killing machine.
My MEC Trooper always ended each mission with the highest number of kills next to my 2 snipers. Without fail.
ambientmystic
Member
Did I also mention that your MEC could also murder groups of aliens from extreme distances using the Grenade Launcher? When upgraded with the Alien Grenade (post research), it's a great way to soften up enemies before they reach your position when combined with a Mimetic Skin Augmented Lookout to scout ahead for groups of enemies. When the pricks come close, just electrocute all of them for nice amounts of damage.
Either that, or use it to Mass Heal your wounded troops using the Healing Mist.
Mah gawd, it's such an OP unit at times. The only thing that really bums me out is the massive amounts of MELD required to fully upgrade just one Suit to the Mark III. That 2nd to 3rd level suit takes ages.
Either that, or use it to Mass Heal your wounded troops using the Healing Mist.
Mah gawd, it's such an OP unit at times. The only thing that really bums me out is the massive amounts of MELD required to fully upgrade just one Suit to the Mark III. That 2nd to 3rd level suit takes ages.
Imperfected
Member
The big value of the flamethrower is that one time when a group of three chryssalids do a total bullshit spawn-in bumrush to within one round of completely annihilating your squad, your MEC just turns, fans them with the flamethrower, then knocks off for the day to go get something to drink. It's quite possibly the best "panic button" in the game for dealing with those situations where a total crapbasket has just fallen in your lap.
Though, yeah, the further into the game you get the more compelling the case for kinetic strike becomes simply due to most enemies having ridiculous amounts of health once you hit the Heavy Floater -> Muton Elite -> Ethereal -> Sectopod tier. There's just not enough enemies left that are good use-cases for the flamethrower by then.
An easy solution is to make a Tier 1 MEC with Flamethrower to start, but when you get the tech to upgrade it, instead make a completely new second MEC with Kinetic Strike and upgrade it from there. As you get the MELD to do so you can then upgrade the original to either have a back-up unit for missions where the Flamethrower would be more useful (why hallo thar Newfoundland) or even get a second MEC Trooper spun up entirely. That lets you have the flamethrower for those early missions where it's ridiculously good, and kinetic strike for the latter missions when it comes into its own, with minimal cost added due to redundancy.
Though, yeah, the further into the game you get the more compelling the case for kinetic strike becomes simply due to most enemies having ridiculous amounts of health once you hit the Heavy Floater -> Muton Elite -> Ethereal -> Sectopod tier. There's just not enough enemies left that are good use-cases for the flamethrower by then.
An easy solution is to make a Tier 1 MEC with Flamethrower to start, but when you get the tech to upgrade it, instead make a completely new second MEC with Kinetic Strike and upgrade it from there. As you get the MELD to do so you can then upgrade the original to either have a back-up unit for missions where the Flamethrower would be more useful (why hallo thar Newfoundland) or even get a second MEC Trooper spun up entirely. That lets you have the flamethrower for those early missions where it's ridiculously good, and kinetic strike for the latter missions when it comes into its own, with minimal cost added due to redundancy.
I kinda like building my first MEC suit with a flamethrower, but then never upgrading it. As I unlock the higher tiers I build a fresh suit with the punchy-punchy fist o' fury and take that one to tier 3. You're out the 40 Meld for the initial suit, but the flamethrower is pretty beastly in the early game, whereas the face smasher shines once you have the Foundry project that increases MEC mobility and the damage upgrade that lets it go all Fist of the North Star on Berserkers and Sectopods.
Kinda costly, but I'm all about profligate spending in the defense of the Earth.
Kinda costly, but I'm all about profligate spending in the defense of the Earth.
bonesmccoy
Banned
I rushed the Mec path in my latest (and most successful!) Classic run. My first Mec I loaded out with the Kinetic Fist, but I found that was only useful to finish off missions. My second one uses the flamethrower, and it is fantastic when you have a swarm of Chryssalids bearing down on your squad.
Yeah, the flamethrower is awesome until Sectopods start showing up. Even with Ethereals, they still do the job well because Ethereals aren't really that mobile at all. Mechtoids are chumps too.
(Sectopods are straight up immune to the flamethrower btw.)
So I'm almost done with my first run after expansion, and I have a couple of observations. I played on Classic/Ironman, just so that I could give myself the ability to make a couple of mistakes and live.
1) The difficulty curve really hasn't changed much. It's still decently high early game then tapers off dramatically. Story spoilers:
2) Going after Meld early on is a great risk/reward decision. To get Meld, you often have to play aggressively, which is exactly what you don't want to do when thin men and crystal dudes can hit you behind full cover. Is it just me, or did they do that more often now on classic than before?
3) The MECS are great. The MECS are definitely game changers early on. Unlike you guys, I took a support MEC and didn't regret it for the ability, although I did build him completely wrong (benefits of a classic run, I suppose). The gene lab was kind of middling to me, it had some great abilities but I feel like it's hard to manage expenses early, get MECS, items, and invest in the gene lab.
4) Snapshot still sucks. There are actually a lot of abilities like this, it's too bad, I know they made an effort to retune the abilities but snapshot should have been a top of this list. the 10 penalty just really sucks, if anything squadsight should get that penalty.
Overall I'm very satisfied with the expansion. I'll probably do an impossible run next, or maybe a classic with a lot of 2nd wave options enabled.
1) The difficulty curve really hasn't changed much. It's still decently high early game then tapers off dramatically. Story spoilers:
I found Exalt to be almost comically easy by the time they really came up with any frequency, especially since by the time they had laser (and I assume carapace armor) I already had plasma.
2) Going after Meld early on is a great risk/reward decision. To get Meld, you often have to play aggressively, which is exactly what you don't want to do when thin men and crystal dudes can hit you behind full cover. Is it just me, or did they do that more often now on classic than before?
3) The MECS are great. The MECS are definitely game changers early on. Unlike you guys, I took a support MEC and didn't regret it for the ability, although I did build him completely wrong (benefits of a classic run, I suppose). The gene lab was kind of middling to me, it had some great abilities but I feel like it's hard to manage expenses early, get MECS, items, and invest in the gene lab.
4) Snapshot still sucks. There are actually a lot of abilities like this, it's too bad, I know they made an effort to retune the abilities but snapshot should have been a top of this list. the 10 penalty just really sucks, if anything squadsight should get that penalty.
Overall I'm very satisfied with the expansion. I'll probably do an impossible run next, or maybe a classic with a lot of 2nd wave options enabled.
Snapshot is weird.
If you get REALLY lucky and land that 80+ aim sniper rookie AND keep them alive AND already have a squad sight sniper so you're not under too much pressure AND gene mod that rookie to get Memetic Skin, Crazy Eyes, and Super Jump then you can see the full benefits of the Snapshot/In The Zone where you can move up and sweep an entire area on a whim.
Up Close And Personal for Assaults is amazing now.
If you get REALLY lucky and land that 80+ aim sniper rookie AND keep them alive AND already have a squad sight sniper so you're not under too much pressure AND gene mod that rookie to get Memetic Skin, Crazy Eyes, and Super Jump then you can see the full benefits of the Snapshot/In The Zone where you can move up and sweep an entire area on a whim.
Up Close And Personal for Assaults is amazing now.
My biggest hold up in my first playthrough had nothing to do with difficulty.
I wanted a perfect squad of 4 (1 heavy, support, assault, sniper) gdlk psi-soldiers, 1 fully gene modded 97/97 combat support, and a tier 3 heavy MEC
I mean, who wouldn't?
I wanted a perfect squad of 4 (1 heavy, support, assault, sniper) gdlk psi-soldiers, 1 fully gene modded 97/97 combat support, and a tier 3 heavy MEC
I mean, who wouldn't?
Do we think that they will have another expansion for this game? I'd love to see another one, preferably one that adds several new aliens to the mix (especially late game, to help increase the difficulty). I think they really need to fix up Exalt a bit as well, give them some better weapons. The missions are simply a nuisance when you have plasma and they have lasers.
I really hope they come out with a sequel to this game when all is said and done. I'm not sure where they would go with the story (mars perhaps? Go on the offensive?) but the game sold too well and was too great to not get something down the road....
I really hope they come out with a sequel to this game when all is said and done. I'm not sure where they would go with the story (mars perhaps? Go on the offensive?) but the game sold too well and was too great to not get something down the road....
I'd like to see one too, but I would figure it'll have something to do with how well this one did. I always imagined this game to follow traditional expansion pack model, just like Civ V.
I think exalt having plasma can be patched in, hopefully they do that sometime soon.
Exalt would need Plasma and a little something else on top too.
Maybe Psi soldiers, I dunno...
And the 3 way fight sounds like an awesome idea as well.
Exalt has two problems
1. Weaponry is too weak
2. Tactics, they take it easy on the player
I've played a few Exalt missions where they could have pinned a character and killed him quite easily. Instead, they dash to cover or do something else that doesnt make a lot of sense. They just don't play aggressively like the aliens do for whatever reason.
I'll just hope for XCom 2: Mission to Mars
pls no Xcom 2: Terror from the Deep
Dunno how enthusiastic EXALT operatives would be about the prospect of chopping off their fleshy bits and replacing them with cold steel.
How would they explain their new metal limbs to their tailor? Those snappy ensembles aren't going to alter themselves, after all.
How would they explain their new metal limbs to their tailor? Those snappy ensembles aren't going to alter themselves, after all.
Playing my first EW campaign, started on classic and I definitely came back rusty. Scraped through my first mission with 1 rookie left but stabilized pretty well. Things had been progressing pretty smoothly until a May council mission...specifically one of the new EW ones. Spoilers the rest of the way because it was certainly a change of pace from EU.
This'll probably cripple my current campaign but even so it was a fairly satisfying way to lose.
So this was the chryssalid council mission in Newfoundland with the whale corpse. I was doing just fine and moving up on the tanker, had an assault up top on deck at the bow, squadsight sniper tucked way back with awesome sight lines in the market, rest of the squad heading down the docks inching forward. Trigger the whale speech and get the comm beacon objective to show up. No problem I think, just send the assault in, have the rest of the squad hold the line and everybody run like heck. Get the assault to the door to the bridge, everything is working out. Except I forgot that chryssalids can jump really well. One jumps from the hold and zombies my assault. So now I've got a growing army of chrysallids and my squad is in terrible position to complete this thing. I slow retreat my team back towards the market and begin pushing towards the ships deck again. Make it to the deck and am barely keeping pace with the chryssalid spawn rate. Fight my way down the deck losing the support and rookie. Heavy near the bridge and squaddie sniper holding down the bow with help from my uber sniper back in the market. Strike called in, starting to think it might not be a complete disaster. Pull my squaddie sniper back to my lead sniper and have the heavy hauling ass as fast as she can. Near the docks the heavy gets overrun, and I'm just moving at full retreat now. Major Sniper goes down next turn and squaddie sniper barely made it onto the skyranger before being devoured. http://imgur.com/sdbz8ln 37 kills, 5 KIA, but mission complete
This'll probably cripple my current campaign but even so it was a fairly satisfying way to lose.
I haven't seen a different base layout myself, but I could be wrong.
To add to my earlier thoughts, think the problem with Exalt is that it firmly needs to be more early mid game. If they pushed it so that they were showing up early month 2 at the latest and you had base intel maybe month 3/4 then they would be just fine. Right now they show up way too late to make a difference and by the time you assault the base you are rolling in plasma which makes them rather trivial.
deadbluesky
Neo Member
Yes, playing on PS3, it flickers on every loading screen. Almost janky.
oh ok. glad i'm not alone.
also, the words, emblems and insignias on my units are all blue/blue teary.
ha. i reloaded a save. its fine now.
dafuq ?
hooijdonk17
Member
Haven't bought this yet, but I really don't want to use MECs - is it possible to finish an I/I without amputating your soldiers? I want to go with gene-mods and SHIVs only..
it is possible,. but you do need 1 of each MEC to get a trophy
also, I only have a max of 70 soldiers. In EU, I can get 99..what happened ????
Finally got re-stuck into this game again (Enemy Unknown I mean, not Enemy Within). Its got that Civilization 'one more turn' feel for sure. I suck, and I know it. So I played on Easy and played Africa (30% more money from the council every month), got further than I ever got before and saw many cool things:
- Mutants and Berserkers are awesome. It was fun surrounding the Berserkers with a few soldiers and making them take a few steps towards one of them, shoot them with another soldier, and watch them stumble around in the cross fire. But WOW if they got close!
- I loved the levels with the civilians mixed-into the fray. Gives you something extra to do than just shooting aliens. And it was especially hilarious when a Thin Man appeared and shot a civilian in the face at point blank range.
- Finally got to grips with medpacks, being able to stabalize and revive completley messed-up soliders was a god send, or later-on getting perks so that they are more likely to be critikal'd rather than killed.
- Grapple hook was awesome.
Died somewhere around 17 battles, perphaps 4 months in. Can't wait to go back and see what other tech is included in Enemy Unknown, and later Enemy Within.
- Mutants and Berserkers are awesome. It was fun surrounding the Berserkers with a few soldiers and making them take a few steps towards one of them, shoot them with another soldier, and watch them stumble around in the cross fire. But WOW if they got close!
- I loved the levels with the civilians mixed-into the fray. Gives you something extra to do than just shooting aliens. And it was especially hilarious when a Thin Man appeared and shot a civilian in the face at point blank range.
- Finally got to grips with medpacks, being able to stabalize and revive completley messed-up soliders was a god send, or later-on getting perks so that they are more likely to be critikal'd rather than killed.
- Grapple hook was awesome.
Died somewhere around 17 battles, perphaps 4 months in. Can't wait to go back and see what other tech is included in Enemy Unknown, and later Enemy Within.
Boss Riovane
Member
When I was playing for an extended period of time in one sitting(about 8-10 hours) i started getting the flicker around hour 4. When I turned the system off and went back to the game later flicker was gone.
KyanMehwulfe
Member
Back into XCOM campaign mode. Had about a solid seven weeks in the summer with EU and now looking forward to a good portion if winter with EW.
What I've liked about the two modern versions now of XCOM is that you still get the core XCOM experience but also a bit of typical console production values in the presentation. Orginal XCOM experience is still incredible but I appreciate that I appreciate these 2 console campaigns. Alongside the rewarding difficulty, simulation personal-ization, and the satisfying feedback of combat, there is the still the classic option of permadeath -- obviously still a large part of the survivalist atmosphere and pacing of the game. Diablo II Hardcore. Tactics Ogre Non-Raise. Fire Emblem Expert. The original XCOM. Way of the Samurai. Even StarCraft II or Tzar: The Burden of the Crown units. Even 1 Credit Arcade Beat'em Ups. There are countless examples that players can relate to. XCOM is a great example of atmosphere and immersion benefiting from increased difficulty and permanent death. It feels designed around the aliens winning and the player losing, and in this it makes any little success you have to be highly satisfying.
As a player, you're not concerned with winning or dinging or unlocking: you're merely desperate to survive.
Tactics or strategy games, especially on console, are sometimes dependent on RPG features for replay-ability. It's the strength of Final Fantasy Tactics' replay-ability, for example, as with many others. It has enough variety and options for personal-ization that the user can craft a different theme or idea for each new game campaign. XCOM, while not offering the same breadth, offers enough (especially with the new EW content) that the combat gameplay and simulation elements can shoulder the rest of that load. The strategy element tunes into the nostalgia of old unforgiving PC sims and the simple cover/terrain destruction model is tactile enough that your combat tactics provide satisfying feedback when executed successfully. Further, in the case of high difficulty + permadeath, the time constraints and difficulty make it is possible to keep finding different combinations of upgrades, classes, and continents that feel like very different strategies in the unforgiving early period of the game progression.
There's never enough time before the enemy becomes stronger and more aggressive -- there's never any reprieve and it forces difficult choices and sacrifices into you, and if you don't plan your simulation mode well enough from the start, then you don't even have a chance to survive the combat -- which in itself is already unlikely. But without a broad simulation strategy, rather than unlikely it is impossible. Strong planning does not guarantee success: it merely gives you a fighting chance.
That's the strength of XCOM: strategy planning and survival-ism to turn unlikely odds in your favour and hang on by the skin of your teeth.
Bring on the winter of XCOM war.
What I've liked about the two modern versions now of XCOM is that you still get the core XCOM experience but also a bit of typical console production values in the presentation. Orginal XCOM experience is still incredible but I appreciate that I appreciate these 2 console campaigns. Alongside the rewarding difficulty, simulation personal-ization, and the satisfying feedback of combat, there is the still the classic option of permadeath -- obviously still a large part of the survivalist atmosphere and pacing of the game. Diablo II Hardcore. Tactics Ogre Non-Raise. Fire Emblem Expert. The original XCOM. Way of the Samurai. Even StarCraft II or Tzar: The Burden of the Crown units. Even 1 Credit Arcade Beat'em Ups. There are countless examples that players can relate to. XCOM is a great example of atmosphere and immersion benefiting from increased difficulty and permanent death. It feels designed around the aliens winning and the player losing, and in this it makes any little success you have to be highly satisfying.
As a player, you're not concerned with winning or dinging or unlocking: you're merely desperate to survive.
Tactics or strategy games, especially on console, are sometimes dependent on RPG features for replay-ability. It's the strength of Final Fantasy Tactics' replay-ability, for example, as with many others. It has enough variety and options for personal-ization that the user can craft a different theme or idea for each new game campaign. XCOM, while not offering the same breadth, offers enough (especially with the new EW content) that the combat gameplay and simulation elements can shoulder the rest of that load. The strategy element tunes into the nostalgia of old unforgiving PC sims and the simple cover/terrain destruction model is tactile enough that your combat tactics provide satisfying feedback when executed successfully. Further, in the case of high difficulty + permadeath, the time constraints and difficulty make it is possible to keep finding different combinations of upgrades, classes, and continents that feel like very different strategies in the unforgiving early period of the game progression.
There's never enough time before the enemy becomes stronger and more aggressive -- there's never any reprieve and it forces difficult choices and sacrifices into you, and if you don't plan your simulation mode well enough from the start, then you don't even have a chance to survive the combat -- which in itself is already unlikely. But without a broad simulation strategy, rather than unlikely it is impossible. Strong planning does not guarantee success: it merely gives you a fighting chance.
That's the strength of XCOM: strategy planning and survival-ism to turn unlikely odds in your favour and hang on by the skin of your teeth.
Bring on the winter of XCOM war.
mr teaspoon
Member
Looking for more advice/tactics as I'm still struggling on classic.
Basically my strategy is go for satellites and satellite uplinks and quickly as possible, along with armor research. Every other choice is a schizophrenic, seat of my pants 'uhhhh yeah I can afford that at the moment' choice.
Basically my strategy is go for satellites and satellite uplinks and quickly as possible, along with armor research. Every other choice is a schizophrenic, seat of my pants 'uhhhh yeah I can afford that at the moment' choice.
InsaneElite
Member
I'm speaking from an Impossible standpoint, but you should always go for lasers over armor. Early lasers in April will make the transition into the midgame much smoother. Afterwards, you have a bit of leeway to focus on more Geoscape-centric research. You can afford to get Carapace later when you're killing everything before they can even shoot at you.
Also realize that Exalt is a rookie training ground. I did an Exalt mission on Impossible with a Major, a Corporal, and 4 Rookies and beat it without a scratch. The Exalt AI is so awful that they will dash on almost all their moves and only take shots when you're under smoke, hunkered down, and in full cover. Take a fair amount of low level soldiers in the first 1-3 months of Exalt to help build them up in case your A-team loses someone.
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