XCOM series

[Monk Ed]

XCOM 2!

At first I was like YYYEEEAAAH XCOM 2!

Then I saw the premise and I was like "WWWHAT? They changed it now it sucks!"

Then I read more and more and now I'm back to YYYEEEAAAH XCOM 2!

Risky to change the premise like that, but the description of how the tactical situation has changed sounds like an interesting change of pace.

To be fair, one can totally legitimately say "Before you know it, they'll catch up to everything you were allowed to do in the original X-COM from 1995!" And I think that way some times (I mean didn't X-COM have procedurally generated maps and the ability to sneak up on your foes and take them out without them getting a free scramble to cover?), but I did enjoy XCOM even with its more limited feature set. It was still a just plain fun game and I got something different out of it from X-COM that made it worthwhile. Looks like the same will be true for XCOM 2.

[ElMariachi]

You know, the concept of XCOM being a ragtag group of resistants having to use every bit of material they had and having a captured and customized alien ship as their main base gave me some serious WILLE vibes, just look at the concept art of the inside of the ship-base:

Don't tell me that don't screams "AAA Wunder" to you!

And with the fact the game will be open to mods means that... well first there'll be a MLP mod (since apparently you have to have them everywhere somehow), then in second someone will probably reskin the machetes into chainswords from Warhammer 40,000 , then someone will maybe do a WILLE resking giving WILLE uniform to the XCOM troops and replacing the Advent soldier's logo on their armor by neo-NERV's logo!

[Bhorium]

Firaxis' talk of XCOM 2 taking place in alternate timeline and their recent confirmation that the Volunteer is still alive, kind of makes me suspect that there will be a element of time-travel or dimension jumping in the game.

I must admit, I kind of hope it isn't time-travel (though that might just be the trauma I sustained from watching Terminator Genisys talking).

[ElMariachi]

Well, Firaxis released a video of the base gameplay.

And it has freakin' AAA Wunder vibes all over it!

[Monk Ed]

XCOM 2 has launched!

[Rosenakahara]

Now to celebrate, Plague draws a sexy snake lady:

SPOILER: Show

[Monk Ed]

The Steam Controller integration for this game is horseshit. I gave up on it after it spontaneously reset my bindings for at least the second time.

How in the world is this "integration"? I appreciate that the software is able to recognize in-game context (at least as broadly as knowing when I'm in the Geoscape vs on a mission), but it's still asking me to map to keyboard and mouse inputs. Left pad to navigate the field and right pad to move the cursor are pretty cool, but action selection is not redone to fit the controller at all; I have to use the cursor for that, while the left pad and analog stick go unused in that context.

[Rosenakahara]

Yeah the steam controller/machine is a massive letdown, HOWEVER there is going to be a portable steam machine sometime and that has the potential to be amazing, a portable gaming PC that's smaller and potentially stronger (probably cheaper too) than your average laptop.

[Monk Ed]

Yeah the steam controller/machine is a massive letdown

I'm not talking about the controller itself, I'm talking about this game's integration with it.

Against all odds and seemingly every effort by the developer, I managed to figure out how to configure the thing to do most of what I want. I discovered that I can in fact map controller inputs to in-game actions directly. During the same session of tinkering, I discovered the touch menu system... and then lost it and now I can't figure out how to bring that functionality back. I stumbled upon it is because the game's default setup has the left paddle set up as a shift-toggle that turns the right pad into a touch menu of hotkeys, but I wanted to use the paddles for unit selection instead, so I figured I'd map that to another button and I can't figure out how to do that. I'm left wondering how they got it mapped to the left paddle in the first place.

When the software is cooperating, though, the controller is everything I expected. My expectations were not very high, but they weren't low either. I see lots of room for improvement, but I'm able to play XCOM 2 fairly comfortably as it is, enough so that I think the controller serves at least as a solid proof of concept. I hope it survives to have a successor, because I think properly fine-tuned touchpad input is exactly what the gamepad has been missing for which the right analog stick has always been a poor substitute.

[Monk Ed]

Coming near the end of XCOM 2 (I think), my impressions have evolved.

gameplay evolution spoilers  SPOILER: Show

It's fun and all -- a lot of fun, actually -- but I can't help but notice, now that I'm so far into the game, how much has been removed even from the previous game, let alone the classic original.

Everything in the game feels smaller. There are no huge bases or enormous crashed UFOs. Missions feel shorter than what I remember from before, whether they actually are or not; they rarely seem to last more than 12 turns. I haven't played XCOM 1 in a long time, but I'm pretty sure a number of them lasted a lot longer, or if they didn't, they certainly felt like they did.

The strategy side of the game is a lot simpler. XCOM 1 was as nerve-wracking between missions as during them. I wonder if that change was intentional? I'm not as driven anymore to be as efficient as possible. One does not even have to pay much attention to one's base layout, as compared to XCOM where you could really mess up if you didn't think really far ahead. There aren't even such things as UFO interception anymore -- all missions just pop up as random opportunities.

As different as the strategy side of the game is, the tactics gameplay is a lot less different than I'd been expecting. The same character classes are in play, just with new names (which don't always even make sense -- the Grenadier's main weapon isn't even their grenade launcher) and largely cosmetic differences. They've been tweaked and rebalanced (snipers are no longer OP, support units now do everything through a sweet drone), but there's nothing akin to Enemy Within's additions to Enemy Unknown's gameplay. There are no mechs, no heavy platforms; psionicists are the only extra class, and they're unlocked almost at the start. There aren't even any flying suits -- the grapple is the only movement upgrade in the game.

Even one of the game's shining differences from its predecessor, the concealment mechanic, has wound up meaning almost nothing to me in the long run. By the mid to late game, trying to set up an ambush from concealment the way the game advises is just a good way to get yourself killed, because in order to perform the ambush you have to put everyone who will fire into Overwatch, which means no special abilities, no choosing your targets, and unless you kill them all you won't get a chance to react before they go again after their free move.

And yet, despite all these things I can name that the game has removed, it's still... fun. Like a lot of fun. I'm 71 hours in and still not bored of what is there, and much as I notice what's missing, I see how its removal focuses the game.

I'd still probably get excited as fuck to see them reimplemented somehow, though. As long as it was fun.

[Lavinius]

(which don't always even make sense -- the Grenadier's main weapon isn't even their grenade launcher)

According to Wikipedia- someone else might know better than I do- the name "grenadier" long ago turned from meaning "guys who throw grenades" to "big guys for leading assaults". Perhaps that might explain it?

[Monk Ed]

Nevermind that point then.