XCOM 2 expansion to be released

[DoPo]

It's called War of the Chosen [http://store.steampowered.com/app/593380/XCOM_2_War_of_the_Chosen/] and is supposed to be released at the end of August.

This sort of crept up on me - I might have missed an official announcement somewhere and only saw it today. I think it might be pretty cool. It promises some new additions like new aliens stuff, as well as three friendly factions. I've got no clue how any of the new stuff would work, but it does look pretty good. I'm looking forward to it.

Seems like Firaxis are not going with the Terror from the Deep that was sort of dangled at the end of the game, so I expect whatever that is to show up in XCOM 3.

 

[meiam]

There was heavy rumor about it for the last 2 weeks and people knew they were announcing something on the 12.

As far as the expansion itself, seems cool but not going crazy over it. Essentially it all come down to long war 2 and this expansion probably feeling like a downgrade overall. It's not about the class added or the higher number of soldier on map or even the longer campaign. It's really all about the fact that in the base game you have just one team running all the mission with a few replacement whereas LW2 really has you managing a huge crew. It's cool that there adding a bunch of new classes, but so what? Base game already has just as many classes as there are spot on every mission, they'd need at minimum to increase the number of soldier to 9 to make me care about this, otherwise it just means that I'll have one more class that I sometime bring if one of my regular is out of action.

At this point I just really want XCOM 3 because the things that's burning me is the way pod activation works and that's something there not going to change in an expansion. Still I'll play it and I'll enjoy it, but not going crazy.

 

[KingsGambit_v1legacy]

Thanks for that heads-up. I'll buy it for sure, tho not so sure when I'll play it. I found XCOM2 a lot harder than the first and after doing the achievement to finish the final mission before July 1st, I get stressed just thinking of starting a new campaign! The Clock, the Rulers, the Avatars, my word they were brutal. A friend of mine is still in the middle of a Long War on it that also looks interesting.

I like the sound of the new "factions" (whatever those are) and the classes. Not keen on the sound of the Specter...the aliens are already deadly enough without "dark copies of XCOM soldiers" to contend with. Modifying the strategic layer sounds good...I think they took way too much away from that part of the game vs XCOM:EU/EW. Base stuff was minimal and TBH almost every single player will build the same base in the course of a campaign. Obviously research/manufacturing and build order can vary depending on strategy, but since labs/workshops aren't really a thing anymore there's less planning or consequences.

I absolutely love the sound of the "Share the Resistance" feature. I created a few of my friends as soldiers in-game so they'll get a kick from that, I'll have a lot of fun with it I'm certain

 

[KingsGambit_v1legacy]

It's cool that there adding a bunch of new classes, but so what? Base game already has just as many classes as there are spot on every mission,

Well that means more choice and alternative strategies. It is like choosing a stealthy Ranger and team overwatch sniper instead of say shotgun guy with high movement and the like. Nothing wrong with variety and nothing wrong with an opportunity cost to make squad selection a strategic choice. You can have some soldiers for one type of mission, some for another. One gunner for helping rank up rookies, one for armour stripping, etc.

At this point I just really want XCOM 3 because the things that's burning me is the way pod activation works and that's something there not going to change in an expansion.

Why? Don't you like activating a Sectopod on your last action with half your team out of position, no one in overwatch while your gunners and snipers have empty magazines?

 

[tippy2k2]

Yes please!

Frankly, I don't even need to read about it. In fact, I actually prefer it that way as I think those games are far more interesting when I don't know what's coming. It's XCOM; I will blindly buy it no matter what!

...OK, that's not 100% true as I'll make sure to check a few review scores just in case it somehow becomes a turd sandwich but I loved XCOM [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/groups/view/Tippy2k2-s-XCOM-Army-Let-s-Play], I loved XCOM Enemy Within, I loved XCOM 2, it's hard to imagine that I won't love XCOM 2 War of the Chosen.

 

[DoPo]

after doing the achievement to finish the final mission before July 1st

How do you even do that? I've not aimed for it but when I've played on Commander, it seems that were I to rush things, I think I can get to about after mid-game around that point in time. And I am still not sure how I'd go about winning at that stage. I suppose if you manage to get to the last mission, you will face easier enemies but I just don't know how to even get to the last mission that early.

When playing on Legendary, it seems downright impossible...although I imagine if you do manage to get to the last mission, then you will have even easier enemies to deal with, since the harder ones show up later on. If I remember correctly, andromedons would be in the game on Commander, but not on Legendary.

Not keen on the sound of the Specter...the aliens are already deadly enough without "dark copies of XCOM soldiers" to contend with.

I am really interested in how that works out. I loved the alien rulers, but I found them a bit problematic, too:
- it's a bit hard to go after them early, since the game hangs on a thin thread and you are overwhelmed with missions and other timers. It's hard to sqeeze in the time to finish the alien rulers mission. And if you do it early-ish, you also make all your other missions harder, not to mention your good soldiers will be no doubt injured.
- if you do the mission later on, the alien rulers are not too much of a challenge any more.
- regardless when you finish the mission, there is only three alien rulers and when you've dealt with them, there isn't anything to replace the experience

At any rate, the Chosen seem to be a bit like EXALT where they will attempt to sabotage you and you have to go and hunt them down. Also, there is the "dark copies" thing which seems like the EXALT operatives.

 

[DoPo]

Frankly, I don't even need to read about it. In fact, I actually prefer it that way as I think those games are far more interesting when I don't know what's coming.

Let me spoil it for you:

...uh, I really don't know much. The description lacks in any details. As I mentioned above, I get some Enemy Within vibes from it but other than that, there is something about factions but I really don't know how those would even work. Whether you choose only one and stick to it or if you can go with multiple ones in some fashion.

Whatever the case, I'm pretty sure I'll just get it regardless. I was a bit underwhelmed by Shen's Last Gift DLC but I get the feeling I won't be disappointed by this expansion. I generally like how Firaxis handled the game so far and the fact it's reminiscent of Enemy Within fills me with confidence - that was one fine expansion.

 

[tippy2k2]

Frankly, I don't even need to read about it. In fact, I actually prefer it that way as I think those games are far more interesting when I don't know what's coming.

Let me spoil it for you:

...uh, I really don't know much. The description lacks in any details. As I mentioned above, I get some Enemy Within vibes from it but other than that, there is something about factions but I really don't know how those would even work. Whether you choose only one and stick to it or if you can go with multiple ones in some fashion.

Whatever the case, I'm pretty sure I'll just get it regardless. I was a bit underwhelmed by Shen's Last Gift DLC but I get the feeling I won't be disappointed by this expansion. I generally like how Firaxis handled the game so far and the fact it's reminiscent of Enemy Within fills me with confidence - that was one fine expansion.

Shen's Last Gift? WTF is that?

Googles...

EGADS! Why was I not told?!?!?

WHAT!!?!?! THERE ARE THREE OF THESE THINGS!!!!!!!!

...excuse me

*runs to Xbox

EDIT: Alright, evidently two of these are story DLC and one is a cosmetic thing so I guess I have two of these now to play. I thought all of those were cosmetic things, not good DLC!

 

[DoPo]

Frankly, I don't even need to read about it. In fact, I actually prefer it that way as I think those games are far more interesting when I don't know what's coming.

Let me spoil it for you:

...uh, I really don't know much. The description lacks in any details. As I mentioned above, I get some Enemy Within vibes from it but other than that, there is something about factions but I really don't know how those would even work. Whether you choose only one and stick to it or if you can go with multiple ones in some fashion.

Whatever the case, I'm pretty sure I'll just get it regardless. I was a bit underwhelmed by Shen's Last Gift DLC but I get the feeling I won't be disappointed by this expansion. I generally like how Firaxis handled the game so far and the fact it's reminiscent of Enemy Within fills me with confidence - that was one fine expansion.

Shen's Last Gift? WTF is that?

Googles...

EGADS! Why was I not told?!?!?

WHAT!!?!?! THERE ARE THREE OF THESE THINGS!!!!!!!!

...excuse me

*runs to Xbox

EDIT: Alright, evidently two of these are story DLC and one is a cosmetic thing so I guess I have two of these now to play. I thought all of those were cosmetic things, not good DLC!

You haven't played them?!?!

You should hand in your commander's badge now. I've dispatched a squad of MECs to your location to retrieve it.



But yeah, the DLC is fun. Anarchy's Children just adds customisation options and, frankly, I'm not into most of it. It's mostly Mad Max type stuff - spikes, leather, and so on. Some of the gear looks good, but overall I wasn't too impressed. Alien Hunters adds some VERY exciting stuff. I suggest you don't go immediately into it, though - make sure your squad at least hits level 4-5-ish. Shen's Last Gift has one mission which gives you the ability to build MECs as squadmates. I was a bit underwhelmed but the idea is solid. If you want my thoughts on them, here:

Spoiler

The MECs are a bit like the old MECs but also not really. They are entirely mechanical, so you don't chop up soldiers to put into one. They act vaguely like the old mecs, too - you can specialise them as being support oriented (for example, they can grant cover to your other soldiers with one power) or focused on destruction (like an ability to walk through and destroy cover). They can always equip a heavy weapon like the EXO/WAR suits and use a weapon that's on par with the grenadier's heavy gun.

The problem I have with them is, that you cannot equip any items nor any weapon mods not PCS chips. They have a some cool abilities but end up sucking compared to other soldiers. No items, means you have to pack your other soldiers with some more stuff, and no weapon mods means that they aren't even impressive when they shoot. If they even hit at all. Even a rookie can contribute if you give them a weapon with a scope and/or a stock so they hit more and do damage even on a miss. Hand the rookie a mimic beacon and a flashbang or something and they become outright useful. The MECs...don't. They have all have a cool ability that allows them to take three actions in a turn, including shooting three times, but it doesn't really cover for them. Not to mention each next shot in the turn gets a -15 accuracy. They aren't really great at shooting to begin with, so this really doesn't help.

Probably a bigger problem with the MECs is that when you get them, they are rank 1 and you still need to level them up like any other soldier.

Not to just mouth them off - they are pretty good at tanking. They have high HP and also a lot of armour. If you give them the ability to grant cover (which gives them extra armour), they become really good at taking damage. Watch as ADVENT troops shoot them and crit only to deal 2-3 damage. They could really save your soldiers' asses in some situation - if you manage to activate a pod in a place with bad cover, you can just use the MEC. If your soldier is out in the open for whatever reason (they finished their last action and revealed, or they had a good shot from there), you can move the MEC to cover them, too. Not only are they good at taking damage, though, they are really survivable, too - if they sustain damage, you still need to repair them (works exactly like healing but for MECs), however, you can take wounded MECs on missions. The game has what I'd call a bug with taking wounded soldiers, though - if they finish the mission without sustaining further injury, they actually heal. So even if a MEC gets almost trashed, just take it on a mission or two and you don't need to wait for the repair time - they'd just be fully restored.

One job I found MECs to excel at is scouting ahead. Especially on missions with chrysallids. They are robotic, so they won't get poisoned, getting wounded won't put them out of fighting and the high armour means that 'lids attacking them won't even do much damage. On other missions, making the MEC lead forward and reveal the fog of war is pretty safe - activating a pod is fine, since the MEC doesn't need to find cover and your other soldiers can react accordingly. There is even an ability they can get where they have a 33% chance of shooting at an enemy that gets revealed, so on average when revealing a pod of 3 units, they'll get an automatic shot at one. On the downside, one reason it's safe to scout ahead with the MECs is because they can't really do much. I've learned not to rely on their shots, so revealing ends up being "safe", because I don't really expect much to come from a MEC's action.

 

[Zhukov]

Rendered preemptively obsolete by Long War 2.

Seriously, the only way this matters is that it gives the LW2 crew more toys to work with.

 

[bastardofmelbourne]

It looks...weird. Like, I'm not totally sure what it is they're doing here.

There are rival resistance groups? That...provide special hero classes? Like, new aliens are always good, but what's the story explanation for these Chosen fellas? Are they alien renegades? Remnants?

I was pretty underwhelmed by XCOM-2 because of the technical issues, the overuse of "human" enemies like the Advent and the Avatar, and the armour designs. Plus, from what I saw of it, the DLC was turds except for the one that gives you robots. To fix the armour designs you really had to go to mods; there were some amazing XCOM-2 mods for extra gear and such, unlocking Advent armour and designing new headpieces from scratch and so on. This looks like it's addressing that; the new classes have kickass armour designs that look kinda Destiny-inspired.

I just miss the old MECs. Why did the Advent have to get MECs but humans don't anymore? I liked having an army of cyborg mecha with the names, nationality, and colour schemes of Evangelion characters.

 

[KingsGambit_v1legacy]

after doing the achievement to finish the final mission before July 1st

How do you even do that? I've not aimed for it but when I've played on Commander, it seems that were I to rush things, I think I can get to about after mid-game around that point in time. And I am still not sure how I'd go about winning at that stage. I suppose if you manage to get to the last mission, you will face easier enemies but I just don't know how to even get to the last mission that early.

When playing on Legendary, it seems downright impossible...although I imagine if you do manage to get to the last mission, then you will have even easier enemies to deal with, since the harder ones show up later on. If I remember correctly, andromedons would be in the game on Commander, but not on Legendary.

It's so very different from a normal campaign in numerous ways. Obviously it *can* be done, since even I managed it, but it requires a different approach to pretty much everything.

In the broadest strokes, you have to make a beeline for the plot-critical research and construction in order to get the Shadow Chamber/Portal finished. There is *some* leeway, about 3 weeks, give or take, enough for one or two *luxuries* but the main core of the campaign is getting the research and building done as a matter of priority. It's not possible to progress beyond tier 2 for weapons or armour, and I only just managed to somehow get both. There's not really time to go down the psi route...it is too time and resource intensive. I'm sure it's doable but I don't think it's worth it.

Regarding the squad, again it's different. First, there's not enough time or missions to train backups. You can get 6, maybe 7 good soldiers so losing one even one will hurt. I think I got there with 5 colonels and 1 major, so they can rank up. I avoided grenades and snipers completely, there isn't time to research all the weapons (and snipers need the best gear to be effective). So i had 3 heavy gunners, 2 rangers and 1 support and focused on shredding armour, boosting accuracy and hacking. Having to play so much more cautiously, made the combat much slower and harrowing.

Intel is a really important resource and has to be spent wisely. I followed a guide on how to spend it but you need to have enough to make the two jumps to each of the two main story missions, with a radio tower to then get to the last mission. Also, having to focus on scientists early...they are like the sole focus for early mission rewards till you get like 4-5, minimum needed to make shadow chamber.

The Clock is more or less irrelevant since the campaign will be finished before it becomes an issue. You can (and should) also skip a few missions you'd probably otherwise do, just to make sure you have a fighting fit squad for a more important one. It's really involved, and even tho I will admit I got a kick from beating the challenge, I found it brutal and very stressful. So many beats you have to hit...it certainly is very strategic, lots of crucial choices with repercussions and combat with stakes...not to mention fighting Avatars and sectopods earlier than you otherwise would. I made one big mistake early on, building the AWC thinking for helping with injuries, really silly. Set me back a week plus power and supplies and I never used it at all. I did finish everything by mid-June tho so I spent two weeks researching warden armour for the hell of it and launched final mission on 29th. I found this guide [https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=646058257] really helpful for outlining the order and rough beats of necessary research, what to do with intel and contacting regions.

XCOM2 I think is harder than the first title, and Exquisite Timing was harder still. I'm glad i did it in hindsight, but I found it really stressful and wouldn't want to do it again. I don't think it's possible to do on Legend difficulty because of the increased cost and research/build time. I combined it with the "Don't lose any soldiers" achievement since it is essential anyway

 

[DoPo]

It's so very different from a normal campaign in numerous ways. Obviously it *can* be done, since even I managed it, but it requires a different approach to pretty much everything.

Oh, I had not doubt it can - otherwise the achievement wouldn't be there. But I just couldn't figure out how.

Thanks for your explanation, it sounds like a real blast.

XCOM2 I think is harder than the first title

The previous game had some real difficult stuff for the unprepared, but it was also a bit of a false thing. The strategic layer could REALLY screw you and it's what cost me my first few games. After figuring out that success pretty much hinged on satellite rushing, I started to fare much better.

XCOM 2 does give you more leeway in that sense. You still have to make haste to the facilities, but you do have freedom around them, so it's not like satellites in that respect. You can still get stuff like facility leads and main quest progress to stall the doom ticker, so even if you make a strategic mistake, it won't (necessarily) cost you the game a month or two down the line. However, on the tactical side, things get bonkers - you do get more leeway there, represented by larger amount of options to handle things, but the enemies are also quite unkind. The timers also mean that you don't have much room for mistakes and you do have to take some sub-optimal engagements, if you want to win.

I very recently finally finished an ironman legendary game and...it was tough, to say the least. In the past, I've said that XCOM 2 is much more stable than its predecessor and I wouldn't really dream of doing an ironman game in EU/EW due to the amount of bugs I am likely to encounter. However, when I started doing ironman legendary, the game decided to just throw outright bullshit in my way. Sure, I understand that RNG can screw me - like when I lost my three best soldiers when the aliens decided to score three crits while disoriented and while my guys were behind high cover. OK, that was bad, but it's XCOM, baby - I can live with it. I did also lose few campaigns due to my own fault - bad engagement leading to a squad wipe, or me forgetting I could evac also leading to a wipe. I'm also fine with that. But the serious bollocks was when the game decided to put my team in a crossfire because a single pod surrounded me[footnote]officer and stun lancer were in front but a MEC was on the side. Somehow. Also the MEC was literally in the corner of the map. Somehow.[/footnote] or when enemies decided the wouldn't take the DOT and just walk it off[footnote]Sectopod had 2 HP left and had an acid burn with volitile mix, so it would have done 3 damage minimum. When its turn came up it just miraculously cured the acid burn without ticking...[/footnote] or even when the facelesses decided to attack whenever they feel like it[footnote]I had stayed one turn in the exact same spots, so I assumed all civilians nearby were safe. Only to have one turn into a faceless the next turn...when I already had a pod walk in on me. [/footnote].

In conclusion, I'd say XCOM 2 is harder because it constantly keeps you on your toes. When you aren't being goaded into engagements you know would be stacked against you, the game doesn't feel a bit bad about stacking engagements even further.

 

[Frankster]

Oooh and i was just thinking about replaying some xcom 2 too!
*reads steam store page blurb*
Yup im sold, wake me when it's available to preorder, Xcom 2 is easily one of my favorite games these past few years so wouldn't have taken me much convincing anyways.

Re: Long War
I've actually not tried it for xcom 2 yet, i read the features and dunno, it just felt like it made the game tedious without adding enough to make it more worthwhile, i run over 300+ mods in my game i doubt a single overhaul could beat my current setup for sheer complexity and number of features.

 

[Amigastar]

Oooh and i was just thinking about replaying some xcom 2 too!
*reads steam store page blurb*
Yup im sold, wake me when it's available to preorder, Xcom 2 is easily one of my favorite games these past few years so wouldn't have taken me much convincing anyways.

Re: Long War
I've actually not tried it for xcom 2 yet, i read the features and dunno, it just felt like it made the game tedious without adding enough to make it more worthwhile, i run over 300+ mods in my game i doubt a single overhaul could beat my current setup for sheer complexity and number of features.

Long War 2 is indeed tedious without making it more worthwhile. At least for me. I prefer Vanilla XCOM 2.

Anyways count me in for the DLC, XCOM 2 is one of my favourite games of all time.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

Shen's Last Gift? WTF is that?

DLC for XCOM2 that adds mech units and one REALLY long-ass story mission. It's by far the best of the three DLCs for XCOM2, by route of the other two being distinctly ass.

Re: Long War
I've actually not tried it for xcom 2 yet, i read the features and dunno, it just felt like it made the game tedious without adding enough to make it more worthwhile, i run over 300+ mods in my game i doubt a single overhaul could beat my current setup for sheer complexity and number of features.

Long War 2 dramatically overhauls the strategic layer and adds significant depth and breadth to the tactical layer. I cannot speak to your "300+ mod" setup or how it functions (or indeed, how on earth you keep the game remotely stable), but the benefit of LW2 over a random grab bag of mods that duplicate many of its features on a micro scale is A) it plays nice with itself, B) it plays nicely with the host client since it was officially commissioned by Firaxis, and C) it's carefully balanced to give an appropriate difficulty curve.

Comparatively, the vanilla game is a kiddie pool.

 

[Frankster]

"300+ mod" setup or how it functions (or indeed, how on earth you keep the game remotely stable)

Honestly despite the impressive number, most Xcom 2 mods ain't that intensive. The worst culprits are voice pack mods and that's due to bugs leftin by firaxis that never got fixed, resulting in those types of mods, possibly music ones too, taking up far more memory then they should and slowing game performance quite noticeably the more you stack them.
Otherwise mods tend to be txt files or ini edits, and mods that add new graphics or enemy types don't seem to affect performance too drastically. The real problem is like with skyrim, trying to find the ONE mod that doesnt play nice with the rest and makes your game crash. Took me soo many hours, but in the end arrived at my perfect cocktail of a mod list, delicious <3 And after checking, the exact number of my mods is 346!

Anyways guess that does explain the appeal of LW2 as an all inclusive package, particularly C), customizing the difficulty of my game to account for all my mods did take some time xP Ended up having to include things like pods all activating together to make things interesting.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

Anyways guess that does explain the appeal of LW2 as an all inclusive package, particularly C), customizing the difficulty of my game to account for all my mods did take some time xP Ended up having to include things like pods all activating together to make things interesting.

I always felt like pods activating in one rush would make things too zergy.

I don't MIND the pod mechanic. I understand why people feel it makes the game too static, although LW adding yellow alert to the game took away 90% of the cheese involved with it (while adding in some occasionally maddening RNG).

 

[Zhukov]

The worst culprits are voice pack mods and that's due to bugs leftin by firaxis that never got fixed, resulting in those types of mods, possibly music ones too, taking up far more memory then they should and slowing game performance quite noticeably the more you stack them.

Huh.

I guess that would explain why I was suddenly getting six minute load times.