Free DLC Invades XCOM, Abducts Free Time

[IanDavis]

Free DLC Invades XCOM, Abducts Free Time

Free DLC pack Second Wave adds a dozen new gameplay options to XCOM: Enemy Unknown.

Christmas may have passed, but the gifts keep rolling in. Packaged as a free game update, a new DLC pack lands today for the popular strategy game XCOM. Available for all platforms, Second Wave extends the already highly-replayable title with a host of new features and mods, most aimed at making the game more difficult.

<a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/120239-XCOM-Players-Discover-Bonus-Campaign-Mode>Modders found out about the existence of features that were cut for lack of time time a few months back. Since then, it seems that Firaxis has had time polish them off and send them out to gamers waiting eager-eyed for fresh punishments like more critical hits and marathon mode.

For those who already have a few campaigns under their belt and are looking for a new challenge, Second Wave will give you a good excuse to ignore your mundane responsibilities and save the world one more time. Even players who don't take advantage of the update should still be able to appreciate the free update on principle.

XCOM designer Jake Solomon [a href=http://www.joystiq.com/2013/01/08/xcoms-second-wave-dlc-available-today-adds-new-gameplay-opti/]openly admitted[/a] to Joystiq of a naked conspiracy to abduct your free time. "One of the values we offer people who play our games is [that] we really want to reduce the dollar cost per hour spent on our games. We want to consider ourselves to be one of the greatest game values that there is."

The following is a complete list of new modes:

? Damage Roulette: Weapons have a wider range of damage.
? New Economy: Randomized council member funding.
? Not Created Equally: Rookies will have random starting stats.
? Hidden Potential: As a soldier is promoted, stats increase randomly.
? Red Fog: Combat wounds will degrade the soldier's mission stats.
? Absolutely Critical: A flanking shot guarantees a critical hit.
? The Greater Good: Psionics can only be learned from interrogating a psionic alien.
? Marathon: The game takes considerably longer to complete.
? Results Driven: A country offers less funding as its panic level increases.
? High Stakes: Random rewards for stopping alien abductions.
? Diminishing Returns: Increased cost of satellite construction.
? More Than Human: The psionic gift is extremely rare.

Permalink

 

[Genocidicles]

Sweet! I was just about to start a new game.

 

[gigastar]

I approve of the article title.

And of the update as well. Thats nice too.

 

[Legion]

... Almost all of those make me feel like playing the game less than I do. Most of them remove consistency which just makes the game less about tactics and more about randomised statistics.

Statistics are good in games where you can get XP and such to improve chances, but this game randomly picks them for you. So my team may suck just because the game decided to scramble their abilities rather than through any action I take.

 

[Bindal]

Goddarn it - I just finished a playthrough and wanted to take a break by playing the originals (...yeah, that sort of break) until I either finished those or get the Slingshot DLC.

Some of that does sound interesting (e.g. Marathon), but some isn't really my thing. Thankfully, we can pick and choose.


Well, it was obvious that this would come sooner or later from official side into the game. They said they had to cut it due time-restrains but adding it later is nowerdays very easy to do. Plus allowed them to work on it a bit more (trying to balance it better, ect).
I just wouldn't call it "DLC" - for once, it would be "ODC" (On Disc Content. Free one, at least - not that paying for it looked like a realistic option in the first place), second it isn't really new content but just addional settings. So, wouldn't it be just an update with re-enabling features?

 

[Daystar Clarion]

Soooooo nothing that lets me pick the nationality of recruits?


I started the game nearly 200 times to get a female British sniper after the first mission.

I shit you not.

 

[Bindal]

Apparently, Firaxis had the time to add yet another four modifiers into the game with the addional time.

Total Loss - Lose all gear from soldiers who die in combat.
War Wariness - Overall funding levels drop inexorably with every month that passes.
E-115 - Elerium stores will degrade over time.
Alternate Sources - The power requirements of all facilities are increased.

Those, however, you only seem to unlock once you finish the game on impossible at least once (while most you finish on any except easy)

 

[Tireseas_v1legacy]

Soooooo nothing that lets me pick the nationality of recruits?


I started the game nearly 200 times to get a female British sniper after the first mission.

I shit you not.

Really? I got one right out the gate...

And here goes at least one month of productivity.

 

[Jandau]

Soooooo nothing that lets me pick the nationality of recruits?


I started the game nearly 200 times to get a female British sniper after the first mission.

I shit you not.

I get that.

I had a female British sniper. Even her last name was Perkins by default, which is about as British as you can get. Every time I would give her an order I'd say "Ms. Perkins, would you please..." in a terrible fake British accent. Also, she two-shot the final boss on the first round of combat (Double Tap, both crits), which was pretty damn sweet...

 

[Doom972]

Soooooo nothing that lets me pick the nationality of recruits?


I started the game nearly 200 times to get a female British sniper after the first mission.

I shit you not.

I'd love to be able to control it too. Luckily, I usually get one Israeli recruit per playthrough.

OT: Looks nice, but I don't think I'll get to use it much since I haven't been able to beat it on Classic Ironman yet.

 

[Andy Shandy]

Clearly they were just waiting for the best day to release the DLC, which just so happens to be the day my copy gets delivered =D

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

Soooooo nothing that lets me pick the nationality of recruits?


I started the game nearly 200 times to get a female British sniper after the first mission.

I shit you not.

oh i'm sorry, i can't hear you over the two british women snipers I have destroying everything in their path.

(one I got right off the bat and the other after the first council report.)


OT: awesome free is awesome, i'll have to check these out in the next week

 

[Pink Gregory]

Alright! I was hoping the Second Wave options would be made official, how fortunate that I just finished my first campaign

(seriously, I got this on release and have only just finished my first campaign at 50 hours. On normal. I'm a bit slow)

 

[Joabbuac]

Cool, i love randomness.....(No sarcasm intended)

 

[Kross]

... Almost all of those make me feel like playing the game less than I do. Most of them remove consistency which just makes the game less about tactics and more about randomized statistics.

Another view is that your tactics have to adjust to the situation, rather then "I know for a fact this grenade will kill that group because it always does 5 damage and never misses". Once you have a handle on overwatch and aggro mechanics, there's very predictable and safe ways to clear almost all the maps (in Impossible you can certainly still get overwhelmed [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pk55NYbcFQ] with a string of misses and the health differences, but it's a lot more manageable then most might expect due to how static the mechanics are)

Also, knowing as soon as you recruit a soldier what their exact potential is eliminates the joy of a soldier developing into someone exceptional (or outright firing any soldier with less then 50 will/etc) - Compared to having to leverage soldier strengths in UFO Defense[footnote]Caveat, the hidden Will stat in older X-Coms was terrible because it could nullify your whole squad, though it was manageable and occasionally hilarious[/footnote], I found their interchangeability in the new version a bit disheartening. Turning the RNG to your advantage is a whole extra level of potential strategy that makes you come up with interesting/different plans then you would otherwise need. Of course it's not for everyone, but I tend to view most of these options as creating variety rather then difficulty.

 

[Kiyeri]

The Psionic Gift isn't already rare? I'm no expert at XCOM, but in two of my three playthroughs I only ever found one Psionic. Of course, in another I found 5. Best team ever!

This will be interesting. A good reason to get back into XCOM again, to see how these affect gameplay.

 

[phoenix352]

iam still waiting for more technologies.
while this game is a fun little time waster it has little in the replay department.
you can replay it as many times as you want but you cant do anything different because
the technologies are all linear progression, cant do anything unique or specific
like say have a melee soldier or have some interesting equipment.

besides the end game gear and arc thrower its all the exact same stuff anyway.




and honestly this game has too much "bullshit" built within it for me to say its worth
the time you need to invest in a playthrough.