XCOM 2 - Review Roundup

Myrthos

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Here are a bunch of reviews for XCOM 2.

GamesRadar, 4.5/5

Foibles aside, XCOM 2 is still a wonderfully engrossing strategy game that can very easily leave you spellbound throughout 2016 and beyond. The myriad of tactical options at your disposal - from new soldier classes to the various weapon upgrades - is delicately balanced against the ever-changing extraterrestrial monstrosities. You'll constantly discover new, better ways of honing your craft, and XCOM 2 will happily meet your challenge in kind.
Gamespot, 9

Every once in a while, however, XCOM 2's difficulty surpasses challenging, and becomes unfair. For the most part, enemies abide by the same restrictions we do. But sometimes, they shoot through walls and dodge point-blank shotgun bursts. The cards are already stacked against us in most campaigns, and part of the fun is overcoming those odds--but when the enemy AI ignores the rules, the game loses its appeal. Furthermore, XCOM suffers from certain technical glitches: the action halted during action-camera sequences, and in certain cases, I felt as if the game was overwhelmed. My soldiers' reaction shots didn't trigger when they should have, and enemies' attacks happened all at once, or weren't shown at all.
Eurogamer, Essential

Everywhere you look, you see the same kind of micro-surgical thinking. The game is always keen to see you moving promptly, acting before it's too late. The aliens are always up to something and there's always a big, red, doomsday-styled counter ticking away at the top of the screen. Why? Many of us, I expect, were guilty of holding off on assaulting the alien base in Enemy Unknown until we'd finished a few extra research projects, or kitted out our squad in just the way we liked. Despite being repeatedly told how urgently the planet required us to complete that mission, we did a bit of grinding first. It was all-out war, but did we really feel the pressure?
Gameinformer, 9.5

Rock Paper Shotgun, Recommended

PCGamer, 9.4

ShackNews, 8

IGN, 9.3

Polygon, 9

VG24/7,

Internation Business Times, 5/5

The Escapist, 4.5/5

GameTrailers



More information.
 
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Game deserves big scores but really only 9's? on the technical side its a complete mess regarding optimisation and bugs
 
That's classic. Some games get panned over just one bug, others get a free pass although stutter on anything like AC4.
And I bet not a single reviewer mentioned season pass as minus.
 
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Game deserves big scores but really only 9's? on the technical side its a complete mess regarding optimisation and bugs

With such a buggy release it does not even deserve a 9. 9 will be its score once GotY edition comes with all content added and balancing and bug fixing done.
 
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I think if the biggest complaint is that a game is not "optimized" upon release, it's doing pretty darn well.
I'll second that. I'm lucky enough to have a pretty swank rig (though this is the first game I've played that actually challenges it), so I'm not having any problems with it, which means it *is* a case of optimization and not just shitty architecture. The plain fact of the PC platform is that:
a) you're never going to be able to test for every configuration; there are literally new ones being created all the time
b) it's more cost and time effective to test for the twenty most common configurations and let the players sort out the rest.

Anyway, I'm pretty much a dick when it comes to criticizing games (I don't even play AAA titles typically), and this one is turn-based gold. Since it runs fine for me, my biggest complaint is time-wasting animations, dialogue and cutscenes, and to a lesser extent the inefficient menu system.
 
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It isn't TOO buggy, but the 'shooting through floors' glitch is almost game-breaking right now.
It is not as buggy as Xcom 2012 was (that thing was broken with campaign stoping bugs) but it is too buggy for me. Especially for a full priced game.
 
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It is not as buggy as Xcom 2012 was (that thing was broken with campaign stoping bugs) but it is too buggy for me. Especially for a full priced game.

I started playing XCOM: EU only a few days after release, and I can't recall any significant bugs.

Maybe it was that pirated copy you were using. ;)
 
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I started playing XCOM: EU only a few days after release, and I can't recall any significant bugs.

Maybe it was that pirated copy you were using. ;)

There were a few reported bugs that many were having-- like crazy stuff-- that I didn't experience, either. Just came down to what setup you were using at the time, I guess.

Like I said earlier, the only bug I've run into is that floors don't seem to matter on some maps, and unfortunately it's a pretty big one when it comes to surviving battles.
 
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The old game had a bug having to do with 100... was it 100 saves? I think they named them save01 through save99 and something went haywire when you got to 100. (The way I play, it didn't take me long to hit it.)

While technically not a bug, they should have probably rounded all the hit chances down, too. There was a lot of complaining because the game calculates a 99.7% chance to hit, displays 100%, and the soldier misses.

I think there was something with shooting through walls, too.

P.S. Looks like there's a Dalek on the truck in GT's review at 3:54!
 
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I'm enjoying the game but man do a lot of my soldiers get injured. I'm always having to field rookies. Still its all great fun with some good enemy variety testing my soldiers strategy. If in doubt go high and rain fire from above - seems to work best.
 
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I was tempted to open this as a new thread but dunno, it just didn't feel right to give another separate thread to the product that comes with planned scamware.

Apparently there is a huge loadtime in the game on mission endings that can be "fixed" by just pressing - caps lock:
http://www.vg247.com/2016/02/11/xcom-2-reduce-back-to-base-loading-times-trick/
http://kotaku.com/an-unlikely-fix-for-xcom-2-s-long-ass-back-to-base-load-1758314840

That's 9/10 game? LOL

It's not first of april so I don't think every single gaming site out there is making a prank. I bet the proper and not bizzare "fix" people will receive within the game's season pass. You know, the material that got cut out to be sold separately and added later, but this time seems they cut out the performance part, deliberately or not, only they know.

No wonder this game is PC exclusive. One can't emulate caps lock with mushrooms.
 
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Developers do implement tools into software that is accessed in "strange" ways. I would guess they forgot to remove this for release versions and was probably used for testing.
 
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I'm enjoying the game but man do a lot of my soldiers get injured. I'm always having to field rookies.

(sigh…) I was thinking of starting a thread for this, but it would probably be seen as whining moreso than an actual discussion, and maybe it is. I LOVE that XCom is hard. I LOVE that it forces you to make tough choices. But I think XCom 2 railroads you a bit too much into sacrificing, thus it has the opposite effect when it comes to "caring" for the wellbeing of my soldiers.

It's gotten to the point where it isn't a shock/surprise when I lose someone for extended periods (or forever…) anymore, because it happens so often. Yes, part of it is maybe how I play the game, but part of it is that some of the enemies in XCom 2 are kind of… over the top? Instead of improving AI, the developers have just given them a significant ability advantage. Teleportation AND firing in a single turn? The ability to change from one of the many human 'citizens' standing around the map to a hulking giant with no warning who then gets to walk halfway across the map and destroy anything he swings at-- in one turn?

When you are cheesed into having a bunch of troops killed, you stop caring about them as much, no matter how many pretty colors you can change on their avatar. I think they lost the nuance of the 'troop death drama' effect when your decisions are less likely to be the reason they died.

That said, it's still a fun game.
 
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I kind of like that we have to rotate a lot of different soldiers in and out of combat because they get injured. It adds to the variety and means that I get to play with different combinations and different sets of abilities. With that said I will be happy when my engineers finish construction fo the building that reduces the healing time of my soldiers.

The enemy abilities are scary as they should be, but I haven't found any to be too unfair once you know what your dealing with. Your own guys have some pretty powerful abilities too.
 
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(sigh…) I was thinking of starting a thread for this, but it would probably be seen as whining moreso than an actual discussion, and maybe it is. I LOVE that XCom is hard. I LOVE that it forces you to make tough choices. But I think XCom 2 railroads you a bit too much into sacrificing, thus it has the opposite effect when it comes to "caring" for the wellbeing of my soldiers.

It's gotten to the point where it isn't a shock/surprise when I lose someone for extended periods (or forever…) anymore, because it happens so often. Yes, part of it is maybe how I play the game, but part of it is that some of the enemies in XCom 2 are kind of… over the top? Instead of improving AI, the developers have just given them a significant ability advantage. Teleportation AND firing in a single turn? The ability to change from one of the many human 'citizens' standing around the map to a hulking giant with no warning who then gets to walk halfway across the map and destroy anything he swings at-- in one turn?

When you are cheesed into having a bunch of troops killed, you stop caring about them as much, no matter how many pretty colors you can change on their avatar. I think they lost the nuance of the 'troop death drama' effect when your decisions are less likely to be the reason they died.

That said, it's still a fun game.
What difficulty are you playing on?

I have zero problems on Commander/Ironman. I only lost 2 or 3 people so far and healing is done fast when I got AWS with an engineer inside. I never had a mission where I had to take more than 2 of the less standard members of my party and it was good because I got to spread around the XP a bit.

You can detect faceless with Scanner grenades. Or be sure to move with overwatch when around civilians.
 
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As I said, build AWS and have one engineer for it, Even gravely wounded heal for 10 days or so.
 
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Yup the AWS is a must-have. I also make sure my specialist has an upgraded med kit and that my guys have top of the line weapons. Do not underestimate the rangers with swords, for an alien that sneak attacks a high level ranger with proper spec is gonna get decimated almost instantly.
 
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