XCOM 2

[E.RedMark]

I loved the old xcom . It was a game I played back on PS1 . The last console I owned lol then when I looked for a newer copy , I was told it was only on pc . 

 

Go figure , but thats what brough me to pc . and I never looked back . 

 

Now the new xcom 1 and 2 (I got both save for the new expansion) , are good . Homewhever , they are missing ALOT from the old game . 

 

for exemple , the older xcom was filled with tension (hidden movement) and scary (hear civilian scream and that damn xeno one kill everyone lol) . And the map were bigger . 

 

the new xcom look gorgeous , thats true . But I wish it kept the old xeno for exemple style...which looked more scary . Or the hidden movement and such . And the map are small . 

 

But they are good games though . And I enjoyed the story of the 1st better , the 2nd has better gameplay and armor and stuff . 

[Hurlshort]

Xenonauts fits the old style pretty well if you are looking for it though, so give that a spin.

[Fenixp]

Yeah, Xenonauts is a delightful take on classic X-com games and gameplay.

[Darkpriest]

I was hoping for Phoenix Point to be good, but it feels that you will basically need to abuse the free aim feature to play the game efficiently - I'd rather keep general probability with center point and deviations from it, and specific body parts aiming, with special feature. Tiles should be aimed at their center mass points.

 

Anyway, back to XCOM and legacy scenarios - they are actually quite fun

[Wormerine]

We will see about Phoenix Point. It is still early in development and things will probably change a lot. Looking forward to what changes will the next year update bring. On paper it looks like a good combination of new XCOM and Gallop’s sensibilities. We will see how it will work at the end.

 

New XCOMs simply aren’t old XCOM. I am completely fine with at. I have installed, at all times, a new XCOM and openxcom. Firaxis take has a lot going for it, though there are individual design decisions which don’t really work for me. Pod Activation mechanic is the biggest gripe for me. While I understand idea behind it (give each encounter a decent challenge) the result is, that how you activate the pod is the biggest factor in winning/loosing the fight. Long War1 played into it, while XCOM tries to cover the problem by adding stealth mechanic (you can see were pods are and active them on your terms) and added timers which force you to make bad activations nonetheless. Add to that the heavily scripted nature of XCOM missions and the whole thing becomes repetitive and occasionally frustrating. Snd very shallow strategy layer. Still, XCOM2 is stuffed with so many things that I return to it every once in a while.

[Hurlshort]

For me, new Xcom 1 did a good job of filling the void of the original Xcom games, while new Xcom 2 did a good job filling the void of a decent Jagged Alliance game. Not quite an exact comparison, but I've been extremely happy with what Firaxis has done. Even better is the fact that it was popular enough to get a bunch of new entries into the genre.

[melkathi]

It bothers me a bit that XCOM 2 basically redcons the prequel novel more and more with every bit of content they add.

So not too keen on the little bit of the legacy story I have played so far. Hope to be surprised.

[Tale]

Well, XCOM 2 itself retconned XCOM: EU/EW. So it's about par for the course. They really don't care.

[melkathi]

The novel was explicitly written as a prequel to XCOM 2, to set up the alternate setting, so no.

 

Following your logic, every mission should retcon the previous one.

[Tale]

I'm not saying what they should and shouldn't do, just that I think they are wholly callous about continuity.

[Hurlshort]

I'm not saying what they should and shouldn't do, just that I think they are wholly callous about continuity.

 

Kind of par for the course for this type of property. I mean, why did all my advanced tech disappear when I went under the sea in Terror from the Deep? Why am I shooting a harpoon when I had plasma guns and spaceships in the original?

[Gorgon]

They like to build up to stuff and they haven't really figured out what that stuff is. Another enemy type obviously, the enemy of the elders. 

 

But it's not unlike writing for a TV show and they have no idea what the second season is going to be, they just want a cliffhanger. 

[ktchong]

Wait... people actually read novels written for video games??!?

Edited October 11, 2018 by ktchong

[Tale]

I tried a few times. I've got Stolen Throne for Dragon Age (I've heard around that Gaider admits it was accepted without any editting) and Arthas for World of Warcraft (I had to put it down when it started reading like a WoW RP session).

[melkathi]

XCOM 2 was planned as an alternate story to XCOM, rewriting what happened. It never was planned with any sort of continuity in mind.

The novel was written to show people the events leading up to XCOM 2.

There is a difference. You can't draw conclusions from the first to the second.

[melkathi]

I read the dragon age ones. First one was meh, trying to name drop a lot to include stuff people would see in the game. It created inconsistencies that shouldn't have been there when written by the guy writing the game.

Second one was terrible.

 

Read some Deus ex novel. Was OK.

 

StarCraft stuff I read was surprisingly fun.

 

XCOM 2 was commissioned by a writer who would have nothing to do with the game. When the game came out it showed.

War of the Chosen at least brought the Lost into the game that were interesting in the novel.

[Vaeliorin]

I finished all the Legacy Ops. While Shen's was the best (<3 Lily), the end of the final one was great.  All of them are good though.  I really like the way they did the storytelling/narration in them.

Also, I'm pretty sure the Legacy Ops aren't really canon.  They're just Bradford telling stories to recruits/random people post-war.
 

[Wormerine]

Ha! Didn’t even knew that there was an XCOM novel. Not gonna touch it.

 

I think streamer BeagleRush really nicely summarised Legacy Ops: Drunk Bradford’ stories. Lore wise, they are idiotic and don’t make any sense - enemies which were supposed to be new in main campaign show up (even avatars!), plasma weapons simply show up in your hands. Stories are somewhere between amusing and cringey (going through the 2nd one right now). Lovely to see old maps, and classic assets. The missions are actually more entertaining as they are better balanced than your usual campaign.

[melkathi]

Well, after Shen fixes the airship and XCOM Starts recruiting, they find Bradford hiding at the bottom of a bottle, so that would make sense

[ktchong]

So, in the final campaign of the new Tactical Legacy "prequel" DLC, you play two NPC (out of a squad) who would later die in the tutorial of the original XCOM 2 game.  Those two characters, Peter Osai and Ana Ramirez, became so powerful at the end of the DLC that it makes absolutely no sense for them to be killed by a bunch of ADVENT grunts at the  beginning of  XCOM.

 

Also, Jane Kelly (a starting character whom you got to keep if you played through the tutorial in the main game) has the set nickname "Quiet" in the DLC.  Yet she gets a different randomly-generated nickname in every different playthrough of the original game.  Unlike Elena "Outrider" Dragunova and Pratal "Mox", who are also hero/story characters that have the same nicknames in every game.  (I will rename Jane Kelly's nickname to "Quiet" every time from now on.)

 

This new DLC proves that  Faraxis did not have a grand plan for all the DLC ahead of time.  So of course they have to retcon everything.

Edited October 20, 2018 by ktchong

[Hurlshort]

That's awesome that they included those three in the fun free DLC missions.

[ktchong]

Also, the pacing of the new DLC is rather poor,  These new campaigns are overall shorter but harder than the main campaign with all the DLC, and you can play them ONLY in Ironman Mode.   However, you unlock weapons, armors and other bonuses that you can use in the main campaign.  Those bonus items are mostly starting-level items, but they are better than the default starting-level items in the main campaign.  Which means, first-time players should play through the Legacy Tactical campaigns BEFORE the main campaign - so you get those bonuses.  However, the Legacy campaigns is more difficult than the main campaign.  It does not even make sense.

Edited October 20, 2018 by ktchong

[Hurlshort]

Sounds like a fun challenge, very generous of them to offer so much free content.

[melkathi]

I got a silver medal on the first legacy campaign. Accidentally created a Psi Zombie and that got killed, costing me 5000 points, leaving me just a bit under 5000 points shy of the gold medal.

 

Got a gold medal on the second legacy campaign, but it was a close one.

 

On the third story now and it went so badly that I'll have to restart again.

 

I ignore the story. It's pretty fanfic level.

And I keep wondering who at Firaxis thinks people like Bradford. I mean there is a Quiet Bradford mod to make the guy shut up because people can't stand his constant talking. How many NPCs can put that in their CV?

Edited October 21, 2018 by melkathi