For those new to the series XCOM was about managing an organization tasked with fighting off aliens and had both a base building/management aspect and a squad level turn based strategy element reminiscent of chess.
It was tough but fun, harsh but fair and I wasn't the only one in the apartment who can attribute a bad semester to that game.
XCOM 2 then seems set to recreate that addictive feeling in me and I remember being very disappointed when soon after it was announced I learned that it wouldn't be coming to consoles. I know RTS games have historically had trouble off the computer but the first one worked out great so what's the issue? Well time makes fools of us all and the game finally showed up on the marketplace of my Xbox One.
The story this time around is that the XCOM of the last game failed and the invading aliens conquered earth. The game opens with XCOM, now a resistance movement , breaking the commander (you) out of an alien facility. There's a bigger focus on the story than in the last game down to background bio's for your soldiers.
Your base is a large Heli-ship this time and on the base building front there are a few changes but much of the same thing that made it fun in the first game return. You assign construction, research and training the same way but the biggest difference is you can now assign your engineers to individual rooms, sending people from one place to another to speed up vital projects or to boost your communications immediately. There are new things to research and build fitting of a sequel. While you get a budget it's more defined by how many regions you've contacted and then built towers in.
This income proves a little tenuous at best since failure in certain missions within a territory will break the communication with that region, costing you time and resources you may not have just to get it back. This means that you can't pick your battles too much and I often found myself with no choice but to go into fights I knew I'd loose.
Time is the most precious commodity in XCOM 2 and while I won't spoil why, I will say the the game ending countdown gets put on early and failing the wrong mission or succeeding at a high enough cost can put you into an unrecoverable position easier than last time.
Fitting for a sequel the soldier classes have been tweaked and changed slightly and there are vastly more customization options for your guys. There are also new aliens to kill as well as updated ones from the last game. On the squad level engagements there's a few new types of missions that require new strategies and tactics. With the exception of a few missions your squad starts concealed at the start of missions, allowing you to set up an ambush of patrolling aliens befitting of a guerrilla resistance. This is great, but as on the world map time becomes the main concern as objectives often have a time limit, occasionally forcing your hand when it come to setting up the perfect ambush.
The good:
-the squad battles are fun and reward good tactics.
-the level of management of your base is more in depth
The bad
-the game ending timer shows up early in the game.
-the consequences for a failed mission are more grave without the rewards for a successful one feeling as large.
Perhaps its most fair to say that XCOM 2 hits the ground running and raises the tension in several new ways. Compared to the original I spend most of the game under to gun worried about the game ending timer but that did build the tension and I played it through to the end. Overall the game is the same kind of fun as the original and adds a lot of new elements. Good, but I wouldn't place it above the first one.
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