Author Topic: XCOM 2 - It could just be another simulation  (Read 9127 times)

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Offline The E

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Re: XCOM 2 - It could just be another simulation
I picked this up a couple days ago and it's my first experience with an XCOM game. How do you nerds think it compares to EU/EW? Also **** andromedons. Also pic related

I think it's a much improved game. The conceit of having to fight a guerilla war makes some of the weirdness of EU/EW more bearable (That you can only field 6 soldiers at a time is much more explainable when you're a small resistance cell rather than a multinational force), and the strategic layer is more interesting. Overall, EU/EW are games where you have two or three game plans, and whether or not you win depends on your ability to execute those plans. XCOM2, on the other hand, is throwing you curveballs all the time; it's more of a game of improvisation imho.
Tactically, XCOM 2 is also more satisfying: Setting up and executing an ambush just feels great, and the addition of turn limits on most mission types forces you to think and play more aggressively.
If I'm just aching this can't go on
I came from chasing dreams to feel alone
There must be changes, miss to feel strong
I really need lifе to touch me
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Offline CKid

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Offline Lepanto

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Re: XCOM 2 - It could just be another simulation
Got it. Great game. Sucks up my evenings now. Looking forward to the lategame.

That said, ONE certain mid-game enemy can die in the fury of a thousand exploding suns.

Spoiler:
Envision the situation. Your squad has been fighting a difficult battle to retrieve a thing before it explodes, AND to capture this one guy, AND kill all his cronies.

And when you capture- err, stick a pokey thing into his brain- that one guy, BOOM SURPRISE MINIBOSS!

He clones himself every time he takes a hit.

Your squad's already half-dead and you've burned all your consumables because you didn't anticipate a SURPRISE MINIBOSS!
 
He has a plasma gun AND psychic powers. One of his powers generates a black hole thing that disables your guys' weapons. But oh, he can also explode that black hole, AND TAKE OUT ONE OF MY BEST GUYS, A SNIPER MAJOR WHO'D BEEN WITH MY TEAM FOR 20+ MISSIONS! And he would've killed at least one more guy if I hadn't been lucky.

And my whole team's so badly battered that I had to hire 4 rookies just to have a six-man team again!

And I tackled him with sorta-midgame gear and a pretty high-ranked squad, since I'd been messing around rather than moving the plot forward. Would've been even worse if I'd hit him with 4-5 guys and the basic guns, which is what the game sorta implies you should do by putting the skulljacking tech that early.

So anyway, that's why the Codex and all of his clones can die in a burning death fire of horrible hateful death.

Anyone who's got them, share your own Codex horror stories. (Nothing after the Codex/processing center, though; I haven't gotten past the early midgame.)
"We have now reached the point where every goon with a grievance, every bitter bigot, merely has to place the prefix, 'I know this is not politically correct, but...' in front of the usual string of insults in order to be not just safe from criticism, but actually a card, a lad, even a hero. Conversely, to talk about poverty and inequality, to draw attention to the reality that discrimination and injustice are still facts of life, is to commit the sin of political correctness. Anti-PC has become the latest cover for creeps. It is a godsend for every curmudgeon and crank, from fascists to the merely smug."
Finian O'Toole, The Irish Times, 5 May 1994

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Offline The E

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Re: XCOM 2 - It could just be another simulation
Codices can indeed die in a fire.

They are also the reason why I do the skulljacking after the processing center; While a single Codex is no big deal with Tier 1 gear (assuming you know it's coming and plan accordingly), a pod that has two or three of the damn things is utterly backbreaking that early in the game.
If I'm just aching this can't go on
I came from chasing dreams to feel alone
There must be changes, miss to feel strong
I really need lifе to touch me
--Evergrey, Where August Mourns

 

Offline Scotty

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Re: XCOM 2 - It could just be another simulation
Bring Flashbangs.  Enemies that are disoriented (or burning) can't use special abilities, so a Codex that has been flashbanged won't clone and can't teleport.

 

Offline Lepanto

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Re: XCOM 2 - It could just be another simulation
Huh. Thanks, Scotty.

Gah I must not have teched fast enough. I'm now fighting Archons, berserkers, and advanced soldiers with tier 2 weapons and mostly tier 1 armor. Now there's this one generic Council mission I just can't seem to clear.

Should I give up and restart, or forge on?
"We have now reached the point where every goon with a grievance, every bitter bigot, merely has to place the prefix, 'I know this is not politically correct, but...' in front of the usual string of insults in order to be not just safe from criticism, but actually a card, a lad, even a hero. Conversely, to talk about poverty and inequality, to draw attention to the reality that discrimination and injustice are still facts of life, is to commit the sin of political correctness. Anti-PC has become the latest cover for creeps. It is a godsend for every curmudgeon and crank, from fascists to the merely smug."
Finian O'Toole, The Irish Times, 5 May 1994

Blue Planet: The Battle Captains: Missions starring the Admirals of BP: WiH
Frontlines 2334+2335: T-V War campaign
GVB Ammit: Vasudan strike bomber
Player-Controlled Capship Modding Tutorial

 

Offline Colonol Dekker

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Re: XCOM 2 - It could just be another simulation
It's talk like that that let the aliens take over.

FIGHT TO THE LAST! !
Campaigns I've added my distinctiveness to-
- Blue Planet: Battle Captains
-Battle of Neptune
-Between the Ashes 2
-Blue planet: Age of Aquarius
-FOTG?
-Inferno R1
-Ribos: The aftermath / -Retreat from Deneb
-Sol: A History
-TBP EACW teaser
-Earth Brakiri war
-TBP Fortune Hunters (I think?)
-TBP Relic
-Trancsend (Possibly?)
-Uncharted Territory
-Vassagos Dirge
-War Machine
(Others lost to the mists of time and no discernible audit trail)

Your friendly Orestes tactical controller.

Secret bomb God.
That one time I got permabanned and got to read who was being bitxhy about me :p....
GO GO DEKKER RANGERSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Re: XCOM 2 - It could just be another simulation
Two thing's I dislike off the bat: Codice's and Faceoff. I immense hate people who use both on multiplayer, All Codices and a Medic is currently that cheap start people do to win. And I honestly think Faceoff needs to be either removed or balanced.

 

Offline NGTM-1R

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Re: XCOM 2 - It could just be another simulation
I have to admit, I'm not actually enjoying this much. The early difficulty curve is much higher, which would probably be okay I guess if it didn't abruptly fall apart much earlier than the EU/EW did, and much harder. Scientists are kind of useless, since everything interesting is done by engineers, including for some reason running your hospital. The ticking-clock thing feels much less like something you can influence and much more arbitrary now, given that most of your ways to arrest it can end up locked behind building another comm facility or power plant and then a comm facility.

TFTD so far seems to have been the better sequel.
"Load sabot. Target Zaku, direct front!"

A Feddie Story

 

Offline Scotty

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Re: XCOM 2 - It could just be another simulation
Every story mission removes a block from the doom clock, and that's right there going to be the majority of ways to influence it in a given game unless you deliberately farm facilities.  The first Blacksite will never be behind a Comms wall, and you've got a minimum of two skulljack missions that will reduce the clock.  That's three right there, plus the forge mission and any facilities you might hit over the course of the game (I've hit two so far and will be hitting another two before the end of the game) for seven or eight opportunities to knock a peg off of it (and reset the clock doing it).  I needed a grand total of two comm facilities to get fourteen regions, and one of those isn't even upgraded.  I've never once felt like the clock was beyond my influence.

Scientists are kind of useless.  I feel like something involving them got cut somewhere in development.

Nothing in XCOM2 is as dumb as lobstermen on cruise ship terror missions.

 

Offline NGTM-1R

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Re: XCOM 2 - It could just be another simulation
I've never once felt like the clock was beyond my influence.

Scientists are kind of useless.  I feel like something involving them got cut somewhere in development.

Nothing in XCOM2 is as dumb as lobstermen on cruise ship terror missions.

I'm glad you're having a different experience. It's still kind of irrelevant to the one I'm having, though.

Also, the only reason you say that is because they didn't manage to kill Trashman.
"Load sabot. Target Zaku, direct front!"

A Feddie Story

 
Re: XCOM 2 - It could just be another simulation


Nothing in XCOM2 is as dumb as lobstermen on cruise ship terror missions.

Tricene Upper Deck. Nuff Said.

 

Offline Colonol Dekker

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Re: XCOM 2 - It could just be another simulation
I miss terror from the deep. ...
Campaigns I've added my distinctiveness to-
- Blue Planet: Battle Captains
-Battle of Neptune
-Between the Ashes 2
-Blue planet: Age of Aquarius
-FOTG?
-Inferno R1
-Ribos: The aftermath / -Retreat from Deneb
-Sol: A History
-TBP EACW teaser
-Earth Brakiri war
-TBP Fortune Hunters (I think?)
-TBP Relic
-Trancsend (Possibly?)
-Uncharted Territory
-Vassagos Dirge
-War Machine
(Others lost to the mists of time and no discernible audit trail)

Your friendly Orestes tactical controller.

Secret bomb God.
That one time I got permabanned and got to read who was being bitxhy about me :p....
GO GO DEKKER RANGERSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
President of the Scooby Doo Model Appreciation Society
The only good Zod is a dead Zod
NEWGROUNDS COMEDY GOLD, UPDATED DAILY
http://badges.steamprofile.com/profile/default/steam/76561198011784807.png

 
Re: XCOM 2 - It could just be another simulation
I miss terror from the deep. ...

I'm sure there will be a total conversion mod eventually. Imagine: Chryssalid + Seeker = Tentaculat.

  
Re: XCOM 2 - It could just be another simulation
Eventually. Eventually.

 
Re: XCOM 2 - It could just be another simulation
Neo-Interceptor when?

 
Re: XCOM 2 - It could just be another simulation
When the sun burns out. But hopefully before then.

 

Offline NGTM-1R

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Re: XCOM 2 - It could just be another simulation
I would like to state categorically that Andromedons are bull****.
"Load sabot. Target Zaku, direct front!"

A Feddie Story

 

Offline General Battuta

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Re: XCOM 2 - It could just be another simulation
They're ez mode once you get used to them, and they make amazing Dominate buddies. Very few things in this game remain bull**** for long given the incredible bull**** available to the player.

If anything (and I say this as someone who struggled mightily for a few days) I think this game has a few too many 'I win' buttons for the player. Mimic beacons are straight up degenerate, dominate breaks the game, stasis lets you put the big bad guys on pause.

 

Offline NGTM-1R

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Re: XCOM 2 - It could just be another simulation
I'm more annoyed with having to kill them twice than really caring about their actual combat ability.

I mean, I took down my first Avatar on the turn I encountered it.
"Load sabot. Target Zaku, direct front!"

A Feddie Story