XCOM Enemy Within: First Impressions

[chozo_hybrid]

There are also mission rewards that give you decent ranked soldiers. I have about 13 soldiers I would consider all decent enough if I have to bring them out in case my A-Team is out of commission. I'm doing a classic play through, have lost 3 countries and have just finished the Alien base mission.

I grant that you can have bad luck sometimes and that can end a game, I've had that. But part of XCOM is base/squad management that can help get the odds in your favor.

Yeah I have approximately fifteen Sergeant and up at this point, and eight of them are Colonels. Mind you, I'm at the stage of the game where things have to seriously pear shaped to lose a trooper. Things always seem to snowball heavily in XCOM's favor at that point. Game has had its G&K expansion. It needs its BNW. End game is too damn easy.

I'm still getting challenge out of it, but you're probably right. But I think that's kind of the idea, when you get near the end, that's the tipping point of the war. It's not going to be as hard with all that's now available to you.

 

[Elijin]

This topic got my interest piqued, then I went and opened steam...49.99USD in my region? False alarm, I wasnt interested.


Onto the wishlist so I get notified of sales I guess.

 

[FoxKitsune]

Having just failed my first playthrough (though I never completed one before the expansion! Damn you aliens, one day), I have to say I loved it.

Mec's, I thought were a bit overpowered at first, but even they are not immune to that single mistake that can send your mission out of the window.

Gene mods, excellent addition (and I really like how you can have both and there's no real trouble balancing the two), and I'm sure everyone has that obligatory sniper with thin man legs.

Medals are fun, there's not much more to say there. Kind of a `why not`?

Best part? Enemy Within is just as brutal as ever. What I always loved about Xcom was that the game makes you adapt. When you're winning you're loving it, when you lose your A-team and things spiral rapidly out of control, that's a whole new challenge that it's still hard not to enjoy, for that rare occasion you can pull it back.

I failed because I lost my A-team against the darn Chryssalids, then what I had left in the first Exalt mission. It's my own fault for rushing all the new content and not playing more sensibly (beam weapons and good armour.)

So yep, game over. I say I've failed, but that's not strictly true. I COULD pull this back, having lost three council members and rapidly outmatched by the baddies, but I think now I've lost and I'm just waiting for the game to realise it

 

[Dodgeboyuk]

i managed to build my first MEC and trooper before the first covert op i sent that MEC straight to the encoder and he held off a lot of exalt troops solo with all my other team members being rookies(because the troops with ranks got killed or injured) i send them to guard the operative as i took down the com relays.

the good news is that when your MECtrooper gets killed in battle so long as you win the battle you can recover the suit to put another soldier in it.

That means that the soldier and mec both take damage and require repair separately of each other (it costs meld and cash to fix).
easy to over look that the mec needs repair since the soldier get healed automatically

 

[Sixcess]

That means that the soldier and mec both take damage and require repair separately of each other (it costs meld and cash to fix).
easy to over look that the mec needs repair since the soldier get healed automatically

I wasn't expecting the repair of my MECs to cost Meld but thinking about it it's probably a necessary balance. I've found MECs to be extremely useful early on, but the cost of repairing them may make me a little more cautious in throwing them in front of... well, everything.

April has been a hell of a month in my current playthrough. In addition to Portent and the first Slingshot mission I also got 2 abductions, one shot down UFO, one landed UFO and a Terror mission. That I came through all that with only 3 fatalities is something I'm pretty pleased with.

 

[Phantom Kat]

I found that MECs pretty much replaced assaults in my squad. The MECs were tanky enough that I didn't need a lightning reflexes assault to draw overwatch fire, and packed enough firepower to kill most things easily. I ended up taking two MECs, two medic Supports, a heat ammo heavy and a snapshot/inthezone sniper. With gratuitous use of ghost grenades (holy shit I love these) it was incredibly easy to simply ghost my entire squad for a turn if anything went wrong.

I also ran into a situation where I had plasma weapons before I even had access to research beam weapons.

I also found gene mods to be somewhat pointless except for the bio-electric skin mod though I mainly play on normal so that may be why. Currently planning on a training roulette run to see what kind of crazy skill combos I get.

 

[Kyrdra]

My thoughts on EW: Exalt Missions are really unbalanced. Some of the random mission hand you your ass and other could be so easy theoretical I could do those with one SHIV

Mecs are close to OP but I still managed to lose 1 Colonel

Training roulette: BEST OPTION EVER. I had a Assault that could theoretical dish out 4! Shots in one turn and had the thing which made half cover to full cover. Which brings me to my next point

Gen mods: They have variable use and most of the time I had a standard layout which I could apply on every soldier because the other ones are not worth it. Mimetic Skin also sometimes causes the KI to break.

All in all the additions are nice and welcome.
The start was a little harder for me than in EU but the end is easier.
A good add-on and I hope there are more to come.

 

[veloper]

I found that MECs pretty much replaced assaults in my squad. The MECs were tanky enough that I didn't need a lightning reflexes assault to draw overwatch fire, and packed enough firepower to kill most things easily. I ended up taking two MECs, two medic Supports, a heat ammo heavy and a snapshot/inthezone sniper. With gratuitous use of ghost grenades (holy shit I love these) it was incredibly easy to simply ghost my entire squad for a turn if anything went wrong.

I also ran into a situation where I had plasma weapons before I even had access to research beam weapons.

I also found gene mods to be somewhat pointless except for the bio-electric skin mod though I mainly play on normal so that may be why. Currently planning on a training roulette run to see what kind of crazy skill combos I get.

I have had my MECs replacing the heavies instead.
The heavy rocket is usually just one shot and because of that I don't even use it every mission, but only when I really have to, such as when I activate multiple alien trios by accident. The regular shot is simply too inaccurate and usually only serves to activate holo-targeting. Suppresion + area + mayhem is the only thing heavies are really good at and it burns through ammo, while the sniper can just disable an alien weapon with one shot.

Now the MEC's collateral damage I use more often, because it will do the trick against that hard to reach alien in cover and you can simply reload. Then there's also the option to install long-range grenades to blow up big area of cover, more than once.

I keep my assault class because a fully tricked out assault guy is as tough as lvl3 MEC, but can also use cover and cannot take any critical damage on top. Fast reflexes is also preferable to simply soaking up damage. Run&gun followed by double shot remains a real life-safer, that is often 100% reliable with a shotgun, for massive damage. When the sniper cannot aim around an obstacle, the assault guy can still get there.
Add double heart and regeneration and these guys just won't die and when they do fall you get 5 turn to bring them back.

Assaults and snipers(even after the nerf) remain my top classes and I always try to take atleast 1 of each. After armor is researched I usually want atleast 1 support medic aswell (2 in the late game, where every casualty can simply be revived), just for the 3 upgraded medikits. Atleast 1 MEC in the early game is good, but when I have a bunch of colonels in titan armor and with 2 hearts, I may leave them behind and maybe even take a psionic heavy.

 

[Phantom Kat]

I found that MECs pretty much replaced assaults in my squad. The MECs were tanky enough that I didn't need a lightning reflexes assault to draw overwatch fire, and packed enough firepower to kill most things easily. I ended up taking two MECs, two medic Supports, a heat ammo heavy and a snapshot/inthezone sniper. With gratuitous use of ghost grenades (holy shit I love these) it was incredibly easy to simply ghost my entire squad for a turn if anything went wrong.

I also ran into a situation where I had plasma weapons before I even had access to research beam weapons.

I also found gene mods to be somewhat pointless except for the bio-electric skin mod though I mainly play on normal so that may be why. Currently planning on a training roulette run to see what kind of crazy skill combos I get.

I have had my MECs replacing the heavies instead.
The heavy rocket is usually just one shot and because of that I don't even use it every mission, but only when I really have to, such as when I activate multiple alien trios by accident. The regular shot is simply too inaccurate and usually only serves to activate holo-targeting. Suppresion + area + mayhem is the only thing heavies are really good at and it burns through ammo, while the sniper can just disable an alien weapon with one shot.

Now the MEC's collateral damage I use more often, because it will do the trick against that hard to reach alien in cover and you can simply reload. Then there's also the option to install long-range grenades to blow up big area of cover, more than once.

I keep my assault class because a fully tricked out assault guy is as tough as lvl3 MEC, but can also use cover and cannot take any critical damage on top. Fast reflexes is also preferable to simply soaking up damage. Run&gun followed by double shot remains a real life-safer, that is often 100% reliable with a shotgun, for massive damage. When the sniper cannot aim around an obstacle, the assault guy can still get there.
Add double heart and regeneration and these guys just won't die and when they do fall you get 5 turn to bring them back.

Assaults and snipers(even after the nerf) remain my top classes and I always try to take atleast 1 of each. After armor is researched I usually want atleast 1 support medic aswell (2 in the late game, where every casualty can simply be revived), just for the 3 upgraded medikits. Atleast 1 MEC in the early game is good, but when I have a bunch of colonels in titan armor and with 2 hearts, I may leave them behind and maybe even take a psionic heavy.

Pre-EW I loved assaults. I often used my assaults as the guy who'd run in first as if it went bad, they were the best suited for making it out alive. A MEC with a defensive build was not only a bullet magnet since it couldn't use cover, but was pretty hard to kill as well. By the time I got around to late game, I had a snapshot/inthezone sniper with ghost armour who could basically solo most of a mission and didn't feel the need to train up an assault.

I think I stuck with a heavy because I was so used to using one for heat ammo and having extra ghost grenades was a life saver.

I think you're right though in swapping out heavies for MECs and I'll probably do it in my next play through. Truth be told I always despised heavies as inaccurate and mostly a one-trick pony for taking down the tough robot enemies in one turn.

 

[Jandau]

Nearing the end of my first EW playthrough, I must say I have very mixed feelings regarding MECs.

On one hand, they have definite strengths - high damage, useful abilities (Grenated, Punch/Flamethrower, EMP for Sectopods), they are fast (Foundry upgrade + Kinetic module), tons of HP (with self-repair). However, their downsides are an issue...

Relatively low Aim stat is the glaring issue for me. Since I can't equip a SCOPE one a MEC, this really bites me in the arse. It's not so bad if I convert a high-level Sniper, but even then I can feel the shitty aim. What use is a 13 damage Particle Cannon if it misses all the time?

Next is the cost. Put simply, a MEC is insanely expensive, both when it comes to cash and Meld. In fact, for the Meld price of a single MEC upgrade I can fully Gene Mod a soldier and have some spare change left. And it's not cheap when it comes to cash either, though that's less of an issue later on.

Then there's the fact that they kinda suck early game. I'm glad that some of you have success stories with a heroic MEC holding off whatnot, but people have those stories with other classes. In pure numbers MECs don't really start to outperform regular troops until Tier 3 tech.

No cover. This makes me think that they would be VERY squishy at higher difficulties. Let's be fair, the best defense is not getting hit in the first place (which is why Skeleton armor > Carapace armor), and MECs will be hit. If they stand back and try to snipe, the aforementioned shitty Aim comes into play.

Don't get me wrong, I do think that a fully upgraded MEC is superior to a non-psionic, non-genemodded Colonel of pretty much any class. But I'm not sure if it's worth the cost. And I'm even less sure that it would outperform a fully gene-modded psionic.

That being said, my next playthrough will focus more on gene mods, so I can get a basis for comparison. I might convert a Colonel Sniper into a MEC lategame, for the lulz.

Granted, the very act of chopping all four limbs off a person just feels wrong to me...

 

[BloatedGuppy]

Nearing the end of my first EW playthrough, I must say I have very mixed feelings regarding MECs.

On one hand, they have definite strengths - high damage, useful abilities (Grenated, Punch/Flamethrower, EMP for Sectopods), they are fast (Foundry upgrade + Kinetic module), tons of HP (with self-repair). However, their downsides are an issue...

Relatively low Aim stat is the glaring issue for me. Since I can't equip a SCOPE one a MEC, this really bites me in the arse. It's not so bad if I convert a high-level Sniper, but even then I can feel the shitty aim. What use is a 13 damage Particle Cannon if it misses all the time?

Convert higher level soldiers. You keep their Aim and movement bonuses. When you convert, say, a squaddie, he levels up and gets aim comparable to a Heavy (so, crap). If you're playing NCE then you can have some very high accuracy MECs running around. Which is to say nothing of the fact that Kinetic Strike and Flamethrower never miss.

Next is the cost. Put simply, a MEC is insanely expensive, both when it comes to cash and Meld. In fact, for the Meld price of a single MEC upgrade I can fully Gene Mod a soldier and have some spare change left. And it's not cheap when it comes to cash either, though that's less of an issue later on.

You need to weigh the suit cost against the cost of armor for the trooper in question. Especially at the point of the game where Titan armor is just starting to get rolled out, all the alien tech and cash tends to be a bit tight. MECs draw on Meld, which is typically plentiful at that time, and cost in less in cash per armor than a regular troop.

Then there's the fact that they kinda suck early game. I'm glad that some of you have success stories with a heroic MEC holding off whatnot, but people have those stories with other classes. In pure numbers MECs don't really start to outperform regular troops until Tier 3 tech.

They're phenomenal early game, especially since you can easily get them out pre-carapace armor, meaning they have 3x the survivability of a regular troop, along with being immune to things like Chrysalid poison or Thin Man spit.

No cover. This makes me think that they would be VERY squishy at higher difficulties. Let's be fair, the best defense is not getting hit in the first place (which is why Skeleton armor > Carapace armor), and MECs will be hit. If they stand back and try to snipe, the aforementioned shitty Aim comes into play.

They are not. Both my Colonel MECs lead the charge on every mission and sponged up damage like champs. They make great mitigation tanks. I had them go head to head with everything from Berserkers to Sectopods and only very rarely even came close to losing them.

Don't get me wrong, I do think that a fully upgraded MEC is superior to a non-psionic, non-genemodded Colonel of pretty much any class. But I'm not sure if it's worth the cost. And I'm even less sure that it would outperform a fully gene-modded psionic.

I had a fully gene-modded Assault who was leading the squad by 40+ kills when my two MEC troopers became regulars on missions. By the end of the campaign they'd both lapped him. Gene mods are great. MECs are better.

Frankly they border on being crazy OP.

 

[squid5580]

Meld is gonna get me killed. And nice to see the council is still paying us with change they found in their couch, cheap bastards. I wonder how much the countries are paying them for them to give us a whopping $300 monthly allowance.

 

[ERaptor]

MEC's are fkin awesome. Not only are they tanky, deal a ton of damage and get nifty upgrades, but they also finally enabled my bloody revenge against those godforsaken Crytsallids. Every aggression I ever built up against these di*ks vanished promptly after i Falcon Punched 3 of them trough Walls in one mission. Rot in Alien Hell Sucker!

I dunno if its just me, but MECs are actually so good that Genemods seem...laughable in comparison. The Genetic modification just seems like babystep improvements, compared to a hulking Mechasuit who kills Mutons with a guruanteed 12 damage melee punch, that makes Bruce Lee cry himself to sleep every night.

MELD is a fun addition. I tend to take 1 Rookie on every mission, after i unlock max size for my mission squads. Not only do i feel my roster with Squadies that way, I also have someone on my squad as a suicide Meld-grabber should the need arise.

The only real gripes I have are: The Panic thing they didnt fix. It annoys me that luck determines where missions and abductions take place. Its absolutely possible to loose a bunch of countrys with no way of doing anything against it. I Lost China early on, because I missed one UFO and the game refused to give me even one damn mission there. After EXALT was introduced they promptly upped the Panic even more by sabotage, whereafter I lost the country.

The fu*ked up difficulty curve. The early game likes to completely destroy me multiple times on classic, but after i cross a certain point, it gets laughably easy. I cant really pinpoint the exact moment, but eventually high level soldiers combined with a lot of Squadies in reserve just outperform even the stronges Alien units. I think it would help if the alien army also had some form of "Level", so weaker units like Sectoids and floaters catch up to late game as well. I tend to plow trough hundreds of the poor guys, without even the remote risk of loosing someone.

 

[veloper]

I dunno if its just me, but MECs are actually so good that Genemods seem...laughable in comparison. The Genetic modification just seems like babystep improvements, compared to a hulking Mechasuit who kills Mutons with a guruanteed 12 damage melee punch, that makes Bruce Lee cry himself to sleep every night.

Don't overlook the clever uses of genemods. A soldier with mimetic skin can act like a invisible spotter for a sniper and you can take as long as you like and try as often as you like, to snipe the aliens with impunity. That's even beter than a MEC.
Mimetic is so good it almost feels like cheating and it could use a nerf.

I'd say an assault colonel in titan armor + chitin (27 HP) + immunity to criticals, still makes a for a better tank than a MEC colonel in a paladin suit (28 HP) + max 33% damage. The assault class can use cover when necessary and can also ignore the first alien reaction shot.

Once the stronger aliens start to roll out, like elite mutons, I protect my MECs more, putting them outside immediate lines of sight more often and trying to avoid firefights where they cannot one-shot/punch aliens within one turn. Grenades and mines are still very useful tools though.

MECs mostly make the early game a bit easier in those missions where you really have to hurry.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

I'd say an assault colonel in titan armor + chitin (27 HP) + immunity to criticals, still makes a for a better tank than a MEC colonel in a paladin suit (28 HP) + max 33% damage. The assault class can use cover when necessary and can also ignore the first alien reaction shot.

There's a point in the game where you basically start steam rolling everything regardless of your group makeup. The great joy of MECs is they're abnormally powerful at a time in the game when you're still quite frail and vulnerable. You can easily get them pre-carapace armor even, and their toolset is like nothing else in the game at that point.

They're game changers when you NEED a game changer.

Mimetic skin is totes OP though.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

Yeah that seems to be the biggest problem so far, with or without Enemy Within. The problem is that the campaign isn't time-restricted like, say, FTL, which means you can just take your time, research everything, do easy missions over and over and after a while you're assaulting the first alien base with a completely decked out squad with Plasma weaponry, Titan armor and max level on all 6 of your troops. And since you didn't assault the alien base until then that means you never saw a hint of Ethereals or Sectoid Commanders. And the rest of the campaign just becomes tedious busywork as there's no researches of note left and no cool things to do beside getting one of your squad to max level psionic.

What the game needs is for aliens to be an actual threat that can bite you if you take too long before you act.

It was a problem with the original too. In all honesty it's also a problem with Civ, although it's a problem stemming back to long before Firaxis became shepherds for the series so it's hard to lay all the blame at their feet. It's a gripping challenge right up to a point, and then everything snowballs hilariously into a cakewalk victory.

Enemy Within is a fine expansion that really beefs up the early-mid game. But it also helped underscore the weak end game that has been there since the beginning.

 

[veloper]

I'd say an assault colonel in titan armor + chitin (27 HP) + immunity to criticals, still makes a for a better tank than a MEC colonel in a paladin suit (28 HP) + max 33% damage. The assault class can use cover when necessary and can also ignore the first alien reaction shot.

There's a point in the game where you basically start steam rolling everything regardless of your group makeup. The great joy of MECs is they're abnormally powerful at a time in the game when you're still quite frail and vulnerable. You can easily get them pre-carapace armor even, and their toolset is like nothing else in the game at that point.

They're game changers when you NEED a game changer.

Mimetic skin is totes OP though.

Yes, that's basicly what I said.
Early game is where MECs perform best, but when you're in no hurry (no terror sites or a timed mission) a mimetic soldier + a squad-sight sniper will easily take care of everything anyway.
Mimetic even lets you steal all the meld early. I won't use it anymore, to make the game challenging again.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

Yes, that's basicly what I said.

I felt like re-affirming your point by restating it, and the forum does not allow me to go "hear hear" or give you a +1 or anything. You'll have to cope with the occasional paraphrasing in a display of agreement.

 

[squid5580]

So is there a doctor in the house? I have 1 support out of 80+ agents. Lots of heavies if anyone wants to trade.

I am gonna find and kill every exalt member til I find the D-Bag who set my plasma sniper back by 3 days. Speaking of which can anyone tell me what the green X by the countries when doing an intel scan is?

 

[BloatedGuppy]

Speaking of which can anyone tell me what the green X by the countries when doing an intel scan is?

It means that country has been ruled out as a location for the Exalt base.

Speaking of which, the Exalt base can be in red/alien controlled countries, regardless of their lack of little checkbox.