Poll: XCOM 2 is Nigh - Prepare Your RNG Holes

[DoPo]

So, another hidden thing in the game:

Successfully hacking stuff with your specialists, increases their hacking stat. It increases it by 5 and I'm told that it's only limited to one increase per mission, however, it does work. It's somewhat hidden because the game lies to you - you can only see the true hacking stat while hacking - the one you can pull up while viewing the soldier is NOT accurate. Hacking terminals and guard towers, as well as skullmining all count for the purpose of the increase, however, Haywire doesn't.

 

[LetalisK]

So, another hidden thing in the game:

Successfully hacking stuff with your specialists, increases their hacking stat. It increases it by 5 and I'm told that it's only limited to one increase per mission, however, it does work. It's somewhat hidden because the game lies to you - you can only see the true hacking stat while hacking - the one you can pull up while viewing the soldier is NOT accurate. Hacking terminals and guard towers, as well as skullmining all count for the purpose of the increase, however, Haywire doesn't.

There is some nice stuff you can get too. Want a little Intel bonus? Or maybe give your entire squad Squadsight for a few rounds? A lot of the lesser rewards can be lackluster, but once you get to the bigger squad-wide buffs, it's worth it.

 

[DoPo]

So, another hidden thing in the game:

Successfully hacking stuff with your specialists, increases their hacking stat. It increases it by 5 and I'm told that it's only limited to one increase per mission, however, it does work. It's somewhat hidden because the game lies to you - you can only see the true hacking stat while hacking - the one you can pull up while viewing the soldier is NOT accurate. Hacking terminals and guard towers, as well as skullmining all count for the purpose of the increase, however, Haywire doesn't.

There is some nice stuff you can get too. Want a little Intel bonus? Or maybe give your entire squad Squadsight for a few rounds? A lot of the lesser rewards can be lackluster, but once you get to the bigger squad-wide buffs, it's worth it.

I got one which was rather sweet - soldier is immune to the next two attacks.

On the other hand, I later took control of an enemy advanced mech - the red one. That overgrown toaster was worse than a rookie in EU! It missed EVERY SINGLE TIME. And it's not like I tried to get him to do something extraordinary - I placed him next to the enemy trooper in flanking position. You know, the thing that rookies in EU pretty much had to do to get any reliable chance to kill something. They would at least hit once in a while. At the very least, the mech served to sponge enemy fire.

 

[GothmogII]

Soooooo...finished it on veteran. Was okay I guess. The final missions were far too short and few. The difficulty sort of spikes early mid-game, but once you get past that it's very easy, obviously I'm going to try legendary next.

I'd still like more plot, I know XCOM as a series has always been very minimal in that regard, Apocalypse probably being the one with the most fluff. (Seriously, the UFOPedia in Apoc is encyclopedic.) But I really wanted to know more about the alien regime. Also, this probably isn't a spoiler, but I was -sure- Tygan was going to betray me at some point, I kept staring at that scar on the back of his head thinking: Yeah, he's gonna go psycho-killer. That would have made a neat element possibly, if Advent could somehow send infiltrators after you, perhaps even as part of adding risk to recapturing a soldier.

Psi-Ops are OP. As is the Specialist's Capacitor Discharge ability. I can't count the amount of pods I one-shotted with that, and it has a chance to stun those that do survive.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

Soooooo...finished it on veteran. Was okay I guess. The final missions were far too short and few. The difficulty sort of spikes early mid-game, but once you get past that it's very easy, obviously I'm going to try legendary next.

I'd slow your roll and get comfortable with Commander before moving on to Legendary. Huge jump up on each difficulty level. Normal/Veteran is piss-easy. Was true of EU, and is true here.

 

[EternallyBored]

So, another hidden thing in the game:

Successfully hacking stuff with your specialists, increases their hacking stat. It increases it by 5 and I'm told that it's only limited to one increase per mission, however, it does work. It's somewhat hidden because the game lies to you - you can only see the true hacking stat while hacking - the one you can pull up while viewing the soldier is NOT accurate. Hacking terminals and guard towers, as well as skullmining all count for the purpose of the increase, however, Haywire doesn't.

There is some nice stuff you can get too. Want a little Intel bonus? Or maybe give your entire squad Squadsight for a few rounds? A lot of the lesser rewards can be lackluster, but once you get to the bigger squad-wide buffs, it's worth it.

Another thing I noticed just last night is that skullmining seems to only take one action, but lets you move sprinting distance, so you can essentially take two moves, skulljack someone, then shoot your gun. I don't know if that only happens if you miss, but I ran up to an advent officer missed the skulljack, then got the opportunity to shoot him in the face.

Also, the stock seems to effect the skulljack too, so if you miss a skulljack, it still does 1-3 damage depending on what stock your using. That sounds like something that's unintended though, so might get patched out.

 

[Terminal Blue]

I'd still like more plot, I know XCOM as a series has always been very minimal in that regard, Apocalypse probably being the one with the most fluff. (Seriously, the UFOPedia in Apoc is encyclopedic.) But I really wanted to know more about the alien regime. Also, this probably isn't a spoiler, but I was -sure- Tygan was going to betray me at some point, I kept staring at that scar on the back of his head thinking: Yeah, he's gonna go psycho-killer. That would have made a neat element possibly, if Advent could somehow send infiltrators after you, perhaps even as part of adding risk to recapturing a soldier.

I had that feeling too, but honestly, it seems to obvious. He has a scar because he surgically removed his own ADVENT monitoring chip, which is kind of badass.

I too felt the plot was the weakest element. It felt like they were very much treading the exact same ground in terms of revelations and twists. The one thing that got me super excited, if only for a second, was the final teaser shot.

Spoiler

..because that purple glow looked an awful lot like some kind of dimensional rift.

Basically, although the team stated early on that they didn't want to remake Terror from the Deep. There are several little homages to Terror from the Deep in Xcom 2, such as gauss weaponry being the second tier and also

Spoiler

the final mission taking place at the bottom of the pacific ocean

it seems possible that the next game will be a deliberate homage to Apocalypse, which I am so down with.

But yeah, considering the original X-Com's story was just "random aliens of various species are invading earth! Kill they ass!" I think perhaps the issue is that Enemy Unknown actually had a better story than anyone was expecting, and XCom2 didn't really add all that much to it.

Still a pretty all round excellent game though.

 

[DoPo]

it seems possible that the next game will be a deliberate homage to Apocalypse, which I am so down with.

I saw somebody suggesting an expansion of XCOM 2 would be somewhat Terror from the Deep themed. I don't know if they were basing it or anything or were just wishing it would be.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

Basically, although the team stated early on that they didn't want to remake Terror from the Deep.

I saw somebody suggesting an expansion of XCOM 2 would be somewhat Terror from the Deep themed. I don't know if they were basing it or anything or were just wishing it would be.

Spoiler

Do you guys not think a Terror from the Deep expansion is virtually guaranteed at this point? As evil states, you finish up in their base at the bottom of the ocean, and you get a cinematic of a deep ocean trench glowing with alien activity. The Andromedon is a Big Daddy/Deep Sea Diver approximate very suitable to a TFTD theme. Seems inevitable to me, regardless of anything Firaxis might have said in the past.

 

[DoPo]

When you say "chop" are you referring to framerate shenanigans or the awkward pauses before enemies take their turn? Because I would love to have a fix for the latter. It's like Chinese water torture in video game form, not harmful but impossible to ignore.

In case you haven't found it yet - there is a solution! You can grab the mod called Stop Wasting My Time [http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=620600092] and suddenly the game is a lot better.

Note: the mod also increases movement speed by 20%. I was initially put off by this, however, the modder had made it configurable, so I decided to give it a go. And the speed boost is actually pretty nice.

 

[Zhukov]

When you say "chop" are you referring to framerate shenanigans or the awkward pauses before enemies take their turn? Because I would love to have a fix for the latter. It's like Chinese water torture in video game form, not harmful but impossible to ignore.

In case you haven't found it yet - there is a solution! You can grab the mod called Stop Wasting My Time [http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=620600092] and suddenly the game is a lot better.

Note: the mod also increases movement speed by 20%. I was initially put off by this, however, the modder had made it configurable, so I decided to give it a go. And the speed boost is actually pretty nice.

Oh, sweet Jesus.

You, sir, are a gentleman and a scholar.

 

[GothmogII]

Basically, although the team stated early on that they didn't want to remake Terror from the Deep.

I saw somebody suggesting an expansion of XCOM 2 would be somewhat Terror from the Deep themed. I don't know if they were basing it or anything or were just wishing it would be.

Spoiler

Do you guys not think a Terror from the Deep expansion is virtually guaranteed at this point? As evil states, you finish up in their base at the bottom of the ocean, and you get a cinematic of a deep ocean trench glowing with alien activity. The Andromedon is a Big Daddy/Deep Sea Diver approximate very suitable to a TFTD theme. Seems inevitable to me, regardless of anything Firaxis might have said in the past.

That reminds me, are the latest XCOM games less...scary? Or have I just become desensitised from years of horror media? EU certainly had some creepy moments, and while I didn't particularly like the re-design of the Chryssalids they did get some intense missions, they seem less so in the second. X2 seems a bit less horror focused overall though, the aliens becoming an occupying force turns it more into a dystopian sci-fi story, you want to see them evicted, sure, but they aren't terrifying.

Also, the Thinmen were way scarier before, though apparently were female this whole time. x) Then again, I suppose any of the aliens could be male or female or both or neither, wouldn't be much point looking for human sexual characteristics. Which begs the question: Why do snakes have breasts?

 

[BloatedGuppy]

That reminds me, are the latest XCOM games less...scary? Or have I just become desensitised from years of horror media? EU certainly had some creepy moments, and while I didn't particularly like the re-design of the Chryssalids they did get some intense missions, they seem less so in the second. X2 seems a bit less horror focused overall though, the aliens becoming an occupying force turns it more into a dystopian sci-fi story, you want to see them evicted, sure, but they aren't terrifying.

Atmospherically, it's definitely less oppressive. Some of the suburban/wilderness maps feel a bit suffocating, and the retaliation missions have the same atmosphere as EU's Terror Missions, but there's less night missions overall, and the Advent city centers have a very Mirror's Edge feel to them...clean modernity, rather than the smoking battlefields you'd visit in the first game.