XCOM 2 Review (PC)

  XCOM 2, the game itself, is about as brutal and uncaring about you winning as the alien faction that fights against your expendable resistance soldiers. Like a true manipulative son of a bitch, it goes out of it's way to give the first impression of coddling and honesty; the tutorial mission is straight forward and basic, teaching you about the importance of cover and leaving you with a sense of fair, mission-first heroism in the face of overwhelming but defeatable odds. Once you start the game proper you'll be constantly harassed with mission pop-ups, tips, and suggested research paths to take, so you could reasonably think, “They're still teaching me the basics, so if something goes wrong I can obviously recover from the setbacks.” Dozens of hours later (when you realize how truly screwed you are) you come to terms with how badly you've been being fucked over, and have to make the choice to either get out of this destructive relationship or start a new game, become just as much of a sick bastard as the game itself, and fight back.

  XCOM 2 is not an easy game. It's not entirely “fair”, either. Aside from the reliance on dice rolls, where a 99% chance to hit is still just a 99% chance to hit, it's full of beginner's traps. The bigger picture strategy, research trees, and micromanaging of soldier's inventories are just as important (maybe more so) than the core boots-on-the-ground tactical gameplay. While the preparation phase is rewarding in it's own right and offers impressive options for the turn based battles, you can spend all day reading and processing the in-game descriptions of what you're spending your valuable time and resources on, but until you commit, most likely screw yourself over, and wrap your head around the “flow” of the game by failing you're going in blind. And in a game where a single botched playthrough can set you back a good dozen hours, I can't help but classify this type of trial-and-error as simple bad game design. For instance: you absolutely NEED to make armor and weapon upgrades a priority. You can play flawlessly otherwise, but if your soldiers can't do enough damage or survive an unavoidable hit or two you lose. Why this isn't part of the tutorial, a primary mission objective, or otherwise drawn attention to... it's just punishment for trying to play the game as presented and not looking at a walkthrough. I'm fine with difficult games, but this is a sadistic child telling you lost his game without ever telling you the rules.

  Another good “Oh no...” moment comes with the game's time limits. There are many of them. Most prominent is the overall, world map spanning red blocks that fill up over time. What these blocks are, how to stop them, or what happens when the meter fills is not immediately clear, but you know it's not anything good. Then there are the timed missions where you have to complete your objectives and usually extract your team in a set number of turns. The margin for error is usually next to nothing so any turn where you're not bee-lining toward the objective is a major risk, but conversely the necessary aggressive movement limits your play style and leaves your team open to annihilation. These can be intense and lead to some truly heroic moments, or can feel like exercises in frustration where you were set up to fail. If you're wondering what happens if the timer runs out on these missions, let's just say it's the harshest penalty you can probably imagine. Add to this the game time needed to do just about anything else, from research, recovering from wounds, making contact with settlements, even picking up your monthly resources... and the game is very much about time management and the stress that comes from that.

  Despite all these frustrations, and maybe a little bit because of them, I absolutely love XCOM 2. It's a testament to how rewarding the core gameplay can be that after my first two disasters of campaigns, after I felt completely hopeless and had spent a good twenty hours playing with nothing to show for it, that I started a third game, thinking, “This time...”. And that third time really was a charm, where I took my lessons learned from previous attempts and turned the tides in my favor. There's a definite tipping point in the game, where you go from humbly taking your licks and hoping to scrape by to laughing in the face of the alien menace, just knowing they're going to eat shit on their next turn. By the time I tore through the final mission my squad was augmented by a couple high level enemies I was mind controlling, and we destroyed the challenges set before us without taking a scratch. Granted I'd bumped the difficulty down to Easy, but it's a testament to the game that I'm now looking forward to going through the ordeal again on more challenging settings and overcoming those odds. XCOM 2 is a game meant to be played multiple times, not necessarily “won”.

  Much of the appeal comes from the presentation, which is top notch. The visually appealing, somewhat cliché ridden story is told through multiple nice looking cutscenes with noticeable polish and budget behind them. The traditional three quarters view of the tactical game is highlighted by cinematic, slow motion money shots when certain dramatic actions occur. These can be glitchy on occasion, focusing on a wall while the action occurs off-screen, but when they work they're fantastic. Riding into missions you're treated with a rousing score as your soldiers depart on a shuttle, get briefed en route, heroically zip line into battle, and hopefully return home. It's masking loading times, but still a great addition. There are numerous customization options for each of your soldiers so it can hurt that much more when you lose them. From changing their name, nationality, language, and even digging into their biography, to giving them scars, props, and naming their weapons, you can spend a good chunk of time letting your imagination run wild. And that time doesn't have to die with your men and women either thanks to a smart “Save to Character Pool” option, which will randomly place your favorite soldiers into any future games you play. And you'll probably have a few of those...

  To say, “XCOM 2 isn't for everyone” seems like both a cop out and an understatement. Some of the early stumbling blocks are unnecessarily harsh and objectively bad, but the payoff gained from gritting your teeth and getting to the actual game is worth it. It may have had me shouting obscenities and on the brink of giving up completely, but I also had a few nights laying in bed where it gave me the “Tetris Effect”; exhausted and trying to sleep, I had visions of moving my little soldiers around on a grid of war torn cities and colorful forests, trying to set up a good ambush on a Sectopod and a Gatekeeper. Those kinds of deep hooks are rare, and there's definitely something to said about the quality and craftsmanship that goes into a game to produce such a reaction.