Just posting to say that my media blackout has been fairly successful, and I'm going into this relatively blind. I just know that I can punch aliens THROUGH FUCKING CARS and blow them up good.
hype hype hype
Dang, I didn't get to play it, even thought I preordered it, until now, and goddamn that was excellent. Went through the whole campaign on Classic.
Thoughts -
Whoever designed that fishing mission is brilliant. Fucking awesome mission. I was able to handle the bugs quite well, actually, and even delayed my evac until the last minute so I could farm as much EXP as possible. Assaults kill 'lids dead (brought 2 of 'em for some reason...glad I did lol), and I was lucky enough to have positioned my sniper at that really high tower near the start of the level. It is directly across from the hole in the barge, so any Cryssalids that pop out get sniped with max height aim bonus.
I'm not sure if that's the only new non-plotline original mission, but if it is, that's a bummer. I thought there was a bit of a lack of new content, but I think that's more of my overexpectations talking.
It was my first time experiencing the Slingshot DLC...and it was okay, I guess. Getting blaster launcher that early is kinda OP, but then again, it takes forever to research and a lot of cash to build. Besides, I usually don't even encounter any battleships on regular playthoughs before I beat the game anyway. It also allowed me to capture a Muton a LOT earlier than usual, so that gave me a leg up on plasma research, and so I skipped lasers entirely, and went straight to plasma.
Only 2 new enemies was kinda a bummer, but the Seekers freaked me the fuck out the first time they attacked. Mechtoids are neat, I guess.
MEC troopers are fucking sweet. Punching aliens through cars never felt so good. I only used one, but on my next play, I'm going to go for 3, to triple my alien face punching goodness.
With the punch, I can break through walls like the motherfucking Kool Aid man. SURPRISE, BITCHES! OHHHHHH YEAHHHHHH! PEW PEW PEW!
3 grenades are good. Nice for blowing up cover so that the rookies can take killshots at aliens.
The new weapons were neat. Gas grenade and needle grenade seemed worthless, didn't bother building them. Mimic grenade was interesting to set up traps. Ghost grenade was cool - it let me set up assault bombs (I'll explain what these are later) much much earlier before getting ghost armor. I wish there were more kinds of main weapons, though.
Gene mods are cool. Jumpy legs are awesome. Mimetic skin is fucking overpowered. As soon as I read the description, I'm all like - fuck it, I'm getting THAT. Scouting is even easier.
Getting mimetic skin ASAP on a support is well worth the meld cost, since it makes getting any meld in future missions a cakewalk. Have you meld grabber just run from full cover to full cover, hidden the whole time. Scouting is so much easier now, with mimetic skin. Have one or two snipers with squadsight, and you can consistently blow away one alien from a pack before they even activate.
EXALT stuff was pretty cool, and a nice change of pace. The first EXALT mission was fucking tough, since there are so many of them, but as I progress, they pretty much turn into EXP farm missions. I was a little disappointed that there was nothing else revealed about EXALT after I fucked up their base. Overall, I feel like the EXALT stuff was a good idea, but could use more fleshing out. It has a lot of potential.
I'm also glad I went on a media blackout, since the existence of EXALT came as a surprise to me. Initially, I had suspected that the "Enemy Within" title had something to do with XCOM fighting a human threat as well. I guessed that it might be something along the lines of the original XCOM, where aliens do "alien infiltration" missions to get other countries to abandon you. I thought that XCOM:EW would try to do something where you have to do missions to stop alien sympathizers, or to recapture any countries that withdrew. I guess I was sorta close.
I think with the new content, the game got easier. It's still hard in the first months, but endgame is more of a cakewalk than before.
Part of this comes from all the new available options for stealth. I can do all the late-game ghost armor stealth abuse tricks in mid-game now. Like the assault bomb.
Scout with a support with mimetic skin, going from full cover to full cover, so you're always in stealth. Or, scout with a sniper. Using the low profile skill, any cover is full cover, so you can pretty much go anywhere and always be stealthed (until you spot aliens).
Once you find aliens, ghost stealth (with armor or the ghost bomb) one or more assaults. Have the assaults run up to the alien pack, and end turn. On the next turn, activate the pack with a sniper shot, or a grenade, or rocket, or whatever. The aliens run away - right past your assaults, which then shoot them in their fucking faces with close quarters combat. Then use your assaults (who have a full turn available to them), to run and gun next to the remaining aliens and rapid fire them right in the face again.
Now, off to read this thread from the beginning
