Poll: XCOM 2 is Nigh - Prepare Your RNG Holes

[BloatedGuppy]

With release now a week away, I thought I'd beat the hype drum for a game that's been shaping up beautifully in the months before release.


Hypey-Hype Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pJHto4YWms

With that out of the way...

TEN GOOD THINGS

1. The randomized maps are looking excellent. Naturally they're shuffling assets around, so it's not like everything is as fresh as just-baked bread, but shuffling assets around is better than stumbling into the same motherfucking construction yard for the 55th time in a row. For those who engaged in Marathon play or Long War, map repetition became a serious strain on investment.

2. The horrendous air war/interceptor combat is gone. This tedious, non-interactive mini-game was a blight, and forced the player to choose between necessity and enjoyment when investing funds in research and tools. It was also hell in longer games, as you'd run into an endless parade of down UFOs, each one requiring a nigh-identical mission to raid a copy-paste ship model. XCOM 2 features a wide variety of mission types.

3. No more satellite spam. XCOM 2 has a completely re-designed strategic layer. There was emphasis placed this time on "no single path to victory". Could it turn out bad? Possibly, but I'll take an unknown over something that I know stinks.

4. Battlefield loot replaces meld as the "impetus to push yourselves a little further, extend out of your comfort range". Rather than an abstract resource, aliens will now drop gear that must be manually collected off the battlefield.

5. Vastly improved soldier customization, including everything from scars to eyeglasses to cigars to a variety of different ATTITUDES and personalities. Now it will hurt thrice as bad when your favorite is murdered. Even weapons can be customized and made unique, through mods and individual skins. A weapon can end up being a "character" in and of itself.

6. The game features an entirely new stealth mechanic, and XCOM forces start most missions stealthed, allowing players to set up overwatch traps and choose the grounds for their initial engagement. Aside from adding a new layer of complexity, this has the added bonus of accelerating the opening phase of missions. There's no longer a requirement to creep forward carefully, attempting to avoid triggering more than a single alien pod.

7. Wider variety of destructible terrain, including roofs. You can now blow a skylight in a building if you so choose.

8. More visual/obvious implementation of armor/damage reduction mechanics. No more "surprise!" when your shot does half the expected damage.

9. Designed from the bottom up to be mod-friendly. In fact, the makers of the game's most famous mod, Long War, and now founders of the new "Long War Studios" have partnered with Firaxis to deliver day-one mods. Players will be able to easily mod/tailor their experience to their liking, allowing you to dynamically tailor difficulty. And it won't be more than a few months before total conversions and other large scale mods start making appearances.

10. Firaxis sent out preview copies many weeks in advance to well known streamers, and content has already been thoroughly tested. Without exception, the reception was overwhelmingly positive. Beaglerush said that in some 2000 hours of XCOM the XCOM 2 missions were amongst the most fun he'd had, Total Biscuit showered it with unreserved praise, and Northern Lion, ChristopherOdd, et al held lengthy Let's Plays. Firaxis has tweaked the game's balancing as well after Beaglerush discovered an AI exploit.

Spoiler: Total Biscuit plays XCOM 2

Spoiler: Beaglerush plays XCOM 2

BONUS ACTUAL DISCUSSION VALUE

1. Are you planning on getting XCOM 2 for launch? Yes? No? Why? Why not?
2. What difficulty level are you planning to undertake? Easy? Normal? Commander? Legendary? Or whatever the Long War sadists have cooked up?
3. Anything about the game that worries/disappoints you?

EDIT FEB 1: Reviews are now coming out.

http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/xcom-2/critic-reviews

 

[Elfgore]

1. Maybe... It honestly all comes down to how much money I have left after using it on boring adult stuff(damn you car payment!) As for why, a co-worker has me all worked up for this game and I really have nothing else to tie me over until late this month. Need something to play.

2.Pft, fucking easy, bro. With cheats.

3. Nothing really, maybe that they removed the cheats you could put into the game yourself. Might mean I'll have to try.

 

[Souplex]

I plan on playing with self imposed "Fire Emblem" rules; if anyone dies, I have to restart the entire map. It makes individual maps harder, but the game easier overall.

 

[thebobmaster_v1legacy]

1. I will quite possibly get it. My hesitation is a lack of funds, and the fact that I will likely be losing the computer I have that can run it in about 2 months.

2. Normal, probably. I get stressed/frustrated fairly quickly with XCom, I've discovered.

3. Nothing worries me so far...other than the Faceless. Those enemies definitely worry me.

 

[Tuesday Night Fever]

1. Already broke my personal "NO PRE-ORDERS!" and "NO SEASON PASSES!" rules to preorder the Deluxe Edition. I loved Enemy Unknown, and truly great games of this genre are few and far between. I was going to buy this game Day 1 anyway, so I might as well get the pre-order bonus and slight discount on the future DLC.

2. Legendary. I always start games off at their highest difficulty. That said, if the first game is anything to go by, I'll probably get most of the way through, find out I made some sort of critical error early on, ragequit, then start again on the next lowest difficulty with a vow to complete the highest difficulty next time.

3. I'm disappointed that it didn't come out last week when I had an extended four day weekend from work.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

1. Already broke my personal "NO PRE-ORDERS!" and "NO SEASON PASSES!" rules to preorder the Deluxe Edition. I loved Enemy Unknown, and truly great games of this genre are few and far between. I was going to buy this game Day 1 anyway, so I might as well get the pre-order bonus and slight discount on the future DLC.

2. Legendary. I always start games off at their highest difficulty. That said, if the first game is anything to go by, I'll probably get most of the way through, find out I made some sort of critical error early on, ragequit, then start again on the next lowest difficulty with a vow to complete the highest difficulty next time.

3. I'm disappointed that it didn't come out last week when I had an extended four day weekend from work.

I actually took time off work to enjoy it. Better than sitting at work chewing my arm off. Last time I did that was Witcher 3. Played it after work, girlfriend got home, informed girlfriend I would be calling in sick tomorrow because Witcher 3 was too good.

I'm aiming for Legendary Ironman myself, but I'm relatively certain I'm going to get my ass handed to me. I'm pretty reckless/have a lot of incurably bad XCOM habits.

 

[Tuesday Night Fever]

I actually took time off work to enjoy it. Better than sitting at work chewing my arm off. Last time I did that was Witcher 3. Played it after work, girlfriend got home, informed girlfriend I would be calling in sick tomorrow because Witcher 3 was too good.

I'm aiming for Legendary Ironman myself, but I'm relatively certain I'm going to get my ass handed to me. I'm pretty reckless/have a lot of incurably bad XCOM habits.

I want to request time off sooo bad for this one, but I still feel guilty about the time I took off back when Fallout 4 and StarCraft: Legacy of the Void both came out on the same day. I work for a fairly small company, and my position is only shared by one other person. So if one of us calls out, the other gets stuck working a double. We trade them from time to time, but we both try to keep it at a minimum and save it for emergencies when possible.

I regret taking the time off for Fallout and StarCraft in hindsight.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

I want to request time off sooo bad for this one, but I still feel guilty about the time I took off back when Fallout 4 and StarCraft: Legacy of the Void both came out on the same day. I work for a fairly small company, and my position is only shared by one other person. So if one of us calls out, the other gets stuck working a double. We trade them from time to time, but we both try to keep it at a minimum and save it for emergencies when possible.

I regret taking the time off for Fallout and StarCraft in hindsight.

I actually got SICK when Fallout 4 launched. Practically to the day (either the day of, or the following day). I ended up taking 2-3 days off to recover. A few people at work know I game, including a supervisor and the supervisor of the supervisors, who game themselves, and I just KNOW they thought I was skiving.

I think I actually played less Fallout than if I'd just been healthy.

 

[Souplex]

It seems foolish of Firaxis to launch their game so close to Fire Emblem.

 

[Tuesday Night Fever]

I actually got SICK when Fallout 4 launched. Practically to the day (either the day of, or the following day). I ended up taking 2-3 days off to recover. A few people at work know I game, including a supervisor and the supervisor of the supervisors, who game themselves, and I just KNOW they thought I was skiving.

I think I actually played less Fallout than if I'd just been healthy.

I've actually got a pretty cool boss right now. The clinical director doesn't really care what time we take off or for what reasons, as long as all the work gets done. I actually paid for most of that XCOM2 Deluxe Edition with a Steam gift card that he gave me for Christmas, so he even kinda encourages it.

My previous job though was working as a sales associate for Best Buy, and yeah, even if you were legitimately dying, they'd still give you shit for it if it happened to be around the release of something big - and they all knew about the big releases.

 

[Neuromancer]

It seems foolish of Firaxis to launch their game so close to Fire Emblem.

Why, exactly?

They are two different games of different genres, with different enough fanbases, different consoles and different target groups. Whatever overlap there might be can't realistically hurt sales. Not to mention that Fire Emblem didn't have that much of a following in the West until Awakening, or the fact that a PAL release for Fates is still to be announced, and thus half the west not getting it quite yet. I honestly don't see the competition here.

OT: The game comes out on my birthday, so I will indulge myself and get it then.

My first one will be a Commander Ironman. Normal in EU and EW I found to be not difficult at all, and I think that Commander will strike a good enough balance in difficulty that it's challenging but not overwhelmingly so, and should work as a good learning experience for the inevitable Legendary difficulty playthrough.

 

[meiam]

Difficulty, w/e is the same as classic ironman. First time trough XCOM:EU my game got screwed because of a bug (enemy spawn on top of my best character, instant killed him which snowballed and killed most of my team) so I might do a non ironman with self imposed rule if I read that its a bit buggy.

I pre ordered cause there was a good deal for it, but I feel bad about it tbh. Not about playing at release, but pre ordered are bad, sigh only for you firaxis (even tough you burned me on civ beyond earth).

My biggest hope is that there is better weapon variety, having them all be straight upgrade was super boring, I want laser weapon to actually feel different from ballistic, I want there to be a reason for me to switch weapon around. I also hope that there's more occasion to get really good loot early game from mission rather than making everything yourself. Like say an early mission where one of the enemy has a plasma gun that if you stun him you can keep it.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

My biggest hope is that there is better weapon variety, having them all be straight upgrade was super boring, I want laser weapon to actually feel different from ballistic, I want there to be a reason for me to switch weapon around. I also hope that there's more occasion to get really good loot early game from mission rather than making everything yourself. Like say an early mission where one of the enemy has a plasma gun that if you stun him you can keep it.

Pretty sure gear will tier like it did before, but there are mods that drop from enemies that can have a pretty strong influence on weapon/gear. So while you might not get an amazing weapon off an early drop, you might get an amazing weapon MOD off an early drop, to similar effect.

 

[tippy2k2]

Did you throw in the "cry into towel" bit knowing that I would be powerless to enter a XCOM 2 thread to talk about how depressed I am about my PC situation? I've just been letting the tears flow but getting a towel would make it less messy...

To answer the questions, I will not be getting it right away for my PC has the computing power of a hamster ball. It also sounds like there's a hamster ball rolling around inside there every so often with how loud it gets over basic tasks so I may not be using a hyperbole there...

When I do eventually get the game, I will start on Normal Difficulty with Iron Man on just like Enemy Within/Unknown. When command makes a mistake or just gets shitty luck, that stays with the team no matter how many times it gets gigastar killed (like....fifteen of you at best will recognize that inside joke so I hope it gave you a chuckle)!

Unfortunately, I just can't justify buying a new computer with my current financial situation. I hope to eventually play it, either when Firaxis decides they don't hate me anymore and release it to console or I somehow win the lottery. I'm hoping for option #2 but I suppose option #1 would be good.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

Did you throw in the "cry into towel" bit knowing that I would be powerless to enter a XCOM 2 thread to talk about how depressed I am about my PC situation?

It's possible I was thinking of a guy I know when I wrote that. A guy whose name may or may not rhyme with "Mippy".

While I expect the game MIGHT get a console release at some point, it's far from guaranteed. XCOM didn't perform particularly well on consoles, and Firaxis is primarily a PC developer. If you do find the means, I highly recommend going the PC route, for access to mods if nothing else. One of the great shames is that you loved XCOM so much and never even got to TRY Long War.

 

[Pseudonym]

1. The game releases at 5 februari? Well, had it released today, I probably would have gotten it. After next week though, I have busy times ahead and I don't know whether I'll have the time and energy to play it.

2.Commander ironman, assuming that is the same as classic ironman in EU.

3. Well, nothing in particular but strategy games are easy to screw up. If the balance is off by only a little, that could easily ruin the game. I'll wait for the game to come out, if the masses of the internet play it, they'll tell us all what they think of it and I'll know it there are major flaws.

I know there will probably be some people complaining about how this is totally a betrayal of everything xcom stands for because such people are there at every sequel ever, but if there aren't exceptionally many I'll know I'm in the clear.

 

[freaper]

I pre-ordered the Deluxe Edition a week ago, even though I vowed to never do that again. I'll probably stick to Normal for a very long time, my Long War wounds are still healing.

 

[Silverbeard]

BONUS ACTUAL DISCUSSION VALUE

1. Are you planning on getting XCOM 2 for launch? Yes? No? Why? Why not?
2. What difficulty level are you planning to undertake? Easy? Normal? Commander? Legendary? Or whatever the Long War sadists have cooked up?
3. Anything about the game that worries/disappoints you?

I'd like to add two more GOOD THINGS to your list, Gups m'lad:
11. Scientists and engineers are now discrete resources rather than numbers. Players can get either of the two as mission rewards and these individuals (because they are individuals with names and faces) can be used to improve the function of almost every base facility. Reduced construction times, increased healing times, discounted production and more are available to the savvy commander.

12. Bases construction has moved away from the 'build lots of one building' to 'build one of as many different buildings as you can'. No longer is the player cramming satellite relays into the left side of the access elevator. Adjacency bonuses have been done away with so there's more of an emphasis on building the structures that will suit your tactical and strategic approaches rather than building the ones that will pave the way to victory as it was in Enemy Unknown.


BONUS ACTUAL DISCUSSION VALUE

1. Game's already been preordered and I've managed to secure time off from work for a four day weekend of nothing but XCOM 2. Why, you ask? Because XCOM represents the most perfect blend of global strategy and tactical battle that I've seen in the games industry. Go heavy on weapons research so that you have mighty powerful weapons but no good armour? You'll be playing defensively and relying on taking out enemies before they can hit you. Go the other way? You can afford to be reckless and take a few knocks to your well protected noggin. Each layer of the game informs the other. That premise alone is enough to secure an instant purchase from me. Everything else- the graphics, the width and breadth of customization and the difficulty- are just the nice chianti that comes with the liver and fava beans.

2. Normal for my first but I'll definitely give Commander a try before long. One of my most enduring memories of Enemy Unknown comes from my first Commander level playthrough. I went in sans tutorial so my first squad of four dropped into a nondescript battleground on the bridge map. I move my guys into position, no contacts on my turn, and concede the order to the x-rays. What happens? A sectoid scampers out of the fog of war, calmly skitters onto the flank of my furthest soldier and crits him in the left kidney. The poor bastard dies. A second later, the other sectoid on that pod does an equally cheeky skitter towards his mate, takes cover and fires a 3 damage round at another of my soldiers who instantly panics and hunkers. So my turn begins with my two healthy soldiers holding terrible shots against full cover sectoids and one guy blubbering like a schoolgirl. And this was the FIRST ENCOUNTER!
I was so stunned that I just stared blankly at my screen for a minute.
As an addendum, I have a feeling that Long War Studio's contribution will come in the form of 'Second wave'-ish options: Specific modifiers that players can activate to change individual aspects of each playthrough. I guess I'm not really anticipating a 'Long War' difficulty level as much as a list of potentially challenging toggles that can affect a given playthrough.

3. The visual bugs worry me. Firaxis did a livestream last Thursday and... well, there were quite a few bugs! Skipped animations, ammo counters disappearing from weapons before the firing animation is complete, Rangers using swords and then not sheathing them (they'll instead hold the blades like they're shotguns) and inordinately long slo-mo sequences when triggering overwatch on moving enemies. The game must have gone gold by now. When are they going to fix these issues? Are they going to fix them at all? Is there a day one patch in the works? Quite worrying, I tell you!

 

[Andy Shandy]

I'm one of those crying into a towel folk. So I'm (probably) going to watch NorthernLion play through it and then pray to The Council that Firaxis make a console version later down the road.

 

[teqrevisited]

I've got the game ordered over on GMG thanks to their generous discount voucher. I've avoided looking at the in-depth coverage that has been going up lately although I did listen to Totalbiscuit's hour-long preview whilst doing other things. I want enemies and events to surprise and murder me which is why I'll be playing as I did on the first game on Classic Ironman.