It's so rare to see a genuine turn based strategy game these days, where you actually need to use tactics to conquer your foes instead of reflexes. All other games still have you battle in real-time whilst having to battle with a massive interface. Even Undertale's combat was just a mini-game that got old very quickly rather than a head-to-head battle of minds. I've said this before, but turn-based games should ideally be like Chess...except with explosions.
XCOM: Enemy Unknown, released back in 2012, was a surprise great. It took an old retro series, completely streamlined the interface whilst keeping the trademark difficulty. Unlike many other strategy games, if you lost a unit then that's a life lost. You can't just buy another unit, because the unit is a soldier who you've spent ages levelling up and tweaking to be a perfect, immortal machine. The fun of renaming all your troops after your friends remained. In fact, it was improved upon greatly thanks to actual 3D graphics now.
So we're in another Just Cause 3 situation. The previous game was great, and so now we have the sequel that's the same but even better. Stats have been re-arranged, aliens have stopped shooting my guys through walls, the difficulty curve has been smoothed somewhat, more variety has been added to the missions, and the plot's been made more prominent. 2K have more or less taken the list of complaints people had about the first game and acted upon them; compared to such franchises as Assassins Creed or Call Of Duty where they're too busy building their second ballroom to care what anyone actually thinks about the game.
You step back into the role as 'Commander,' a mute, nameless, faceless, genderless protagonist who has complete control over an elite XCOM unit specialising in anti-alien invasion. You've obviously done a terrible job of this, since the game opens with a prologue where humanity has been enslaved by an Orwellian alien race (*COUGH*Half Life 2*COUGH*) and you've been imprisoned. But your squad busts you out and hands control back to you. So...wait - who was controlling the prologue!?
Your science team is back, and, more gratifying, the Councillor is back to spout exposition in his hilariously stilted manner. But the joy is short-lived as there's an ominous 'Project ADVENT' looming which, upon completion, will result in an immediate game over. Whilst the ultimate plan is to stop this, the main objective throughout the game is to delay it for as long as possible. It starts off with a progress bar, which you can keep down by doing side-missions. But once the bar is filled up, then a terrifying countdown clock appears and ticks down with each turn. It's like FTL but if the rebels were coming towards you instead of sneaking behind you.
Honestly, a good tactic is to actually ride the countdown. Whilst at the start, you can easily complete all the side-missions and keep up with the latest tech - but later on things begin to get more hectic. It's impossible to do all the side-missions without draining your resources; and this is one of those games where if you drain your supplies then it's going to be very difficult to get them back. You can't respond to every distress call or investigate every signal because soon you're going to run out of soldiers. You might as well re-load your last save if all of your squad dies because it's going to take forever to get them back and meanwhile the aliens are just itching to try their new mega death-bots out on you.
The fact I'm even suggesting tactics shows how invested I am in XCOM 2. The gameplay is mostly unchanged. It's still difficult to tell how good the cover you've selected actually is, and it's even more difficult to establish enemy sight-lines because you still can't zoom out of the map. The number of times I was outflanked made me actually consults a Let's Play so I could learn better tactics.
But hard games can still be utterly absorbing just so long as you have motivation to carry on whilst dealing with the tension of losing everything. There's still that mindless appeal of picking up loot, taking that loot back to base, researching some new high-powered magnetic weapons, and then trying them out in battle...a battle which gives you even more cool stuff to play about with.
And this time, the countdown mechanic means that the plot doesn't fade into the background. More than ever, the aliens feels like this unfair, crushing force that you can only halt - never stop. You're constantly bearing in mind how powerful you are compared to the enemy, and whether you should wait around improving your gear before the next mission just in case they whip out the death-monsters again.
Actually, I didn't do too badly whilst playing. I did much better than Enemy Unknown, where I got stuck on one critical mission. Without fail, I would emerge from battle with at least one wounded trooper - but it was only during the harder, plot-critical missions where I occasionally lost important people. I didn't mind that much though, since I'm a writer. I'm perfectly happy to kill off people just so long as they've served their purpose. In one mission the only objective was to grab an item and evacuate, so I just got my highest levelled trooper to run out, get the item, and get out leaving all the rookies to die whilst holding the enemy back like that one character in every 80's action movie ever made.
In fact, I got into the habit of, during the easier missions, putting two rookies in the squad, painting their shirts red, and making them go first. If they survived: great! If they die then they die and the two high-levelled troops can take over. This is why I should never be given any kind of power over people ever.
Injured players are really annoying. Just one lost HP point counts as 'wounded,' meaning you've lost that soldier for several days. And anything from three to five HP lost counts as 'gravely wounded' meaning that's even longer you're going to have to get by without your demolitions expert. Meanwhile, if you use a health kit on the battlefield then you can heal about four HP and get a soldier to 100% health again in a nanosecond. Why aren't the medical team using the same tech as the health kits? I need my sergeant back on the field right now! Can't we at least stick some robot parts in her?
There are also more customisation options available for your troops now, but even in the first game (which had about three options) I didn't bother because I don't want to get too close to these people. Actually, I lie. I only bothered once I'd levelled up the soldier past two levels; because then I'd spent time with these people. We'd worked together through hell. All the other annoying idiots who panicked when a red shirt ran into a sectoid's PSI-ray and aimed like little girls fell whilst they stood tall. The least I can do for these people is give them a personality. My favourite was my blonde German specialist with ridiculous sunglasses. I called him 'Blondig' and gave him a rifle with smiley faces on it.
A new gameplay addition is 'overwatch mode.' When you start a mission, you're unseen to the enemy and thus can navigate undetected. You're detected either if you're spotted or when you attack, and if you attack whilst hidden then you're granted a damage bonus. The problem is that there's almost never a way to shut down all the security, so the only use this mode has is to plan an ambush. This is useful, but you always want to ambush the first enemies you see otherwise if you carry on ahead then once you're spotted they'll come up behind and flank you. Whilst the ranger later gets the ability to remain in 'overwatch mode' when everyone else has been spotted, there's still no way you can run in, complete the objective, and get out without being caught. This isn't Thief, sadly.
You also now have the option to evacuate - which is something else I never used. If a trooper is seriously injured, you can get them to retreat or get a squad member to pick them up and rescue them. The problem is that if you do this then you've lost two out of four of your team; so you might as well just evacuate everyone. But then that's a failed mission...so actually your best option is to just re-load your last save and try the mission all over again, this time being more prepared for what's going to happen.
Selecting where you want to move is still a bit dodgy. It's OK on the flatter plains, but in levels where you can move to higher ground (which gives you a huge advantage, particularly with your snipers) then it's a nightmare of fiddling around then clicking only to find your guy moving right into the enemy and triggering the alarm. Speaking of flatter maps, some of the maps are clearly re-cycled, which is disappointing considering the variety of missions on offer.
I also first tried this game out with an XBOX One controller, and so I'd like to give you some advice: don't use an XBOX One controller. Some of the buttons worked, but I still needed a mouse and keyboard to be able to function even though the game says it has full controller support and is also available on consoles. I hope the console ports are better otherwise my PS4 friends are going to shove their charging towers down my throat for recommending this game to them. In the meantime, 2K really need to patch this now because it was impossible to play this with a controller - not helped by the fact that the font is also too small to be played on a television. Games with controller support also need to let us alter the size of the UI, because if possible I like to play slumped on my bed after a hard day of work. Italio Calvino said that there is nothing more comfortable than lying down reading a book; and I believe the same is true for any artform.
The worst part of the game is the aiming. It's ridiculous how rookies can't shoot anything unless it's right in their face. Realistic, perhaps, but even I could probably hit an Advent trooper ten feet away with an assault rifle. Even once you level up your troops, they're still liable to miss like playing a Dungeons and Dragons game with a weighted dice. Even when you upgrade their aim and give them scopes then it still doesn't work...and you've just wasted a scope on a low-powered rifle.
I lie again. The most annoying part of the game is how much loading there is. At first it's impressive how every mission is treated like a heroic quest into the heart of darkness to save all mankind. The best part about the game is how every battle feels exciting, aided by the grand orchestral music. But after about ten missions, this gets really annoying. Even the simplest escort mission results in the same music being played, the same scene of your troops getting into the aircraft, sitting in the aircraft, and abseiling out of the aircraft. This whole procedure takes around a minute and I'm begging for a skip button - or at least let me Alt-tab out to do something else in the meantime instead of pausing the game when you Alt-tab away.
And then after the mission, you have to sit through a cut-scene debriefing you and returning to base - which lasts another minute. Can't this just be placed on a blank screen before letting me carry on with the game? Imagine if every time you fast-travelled in Skyrim, you had to sit though a cut-scene where you call a dragon, ride the dragon, and then the dragon drops you off. I know it sounds cool, but think of the amount of times you fast-travel and you'll know how old it's going to get.
But whilst the game still isn't perfect, it's a marked improvement on the previous game - which was already great. You wouldn't believe how satisfying it is returning to something that has looming tension, scale, drama, and tactics after all the independent games I've endured since the start of this yeat. Not only does this take me back to the days when games demanded challenge, but it takes me back to when Triple A actually meant high polish and genuine quality instead of bland emptiness. Maybe there's still hope for humanity yet against the oppression of EA and it's imitators. We'll just ignore the fact this has Day One DLC...
