XCOM Enemy Within: First Impressions

[SacremPyrobolum]

Did this game get released earlier in the States? It doesn't come out till Friday over here!

Why the Hell do I have to wait for a game that I DOWNLOAD just because I'm in a different country?

 

[Worgen]

I've been playing it for at least 10 hours and I'm really liking it. It feels a lot harder than it was before but the game also seems to dump thin men at you much earlier and they seem much more accurate and crit more. Plus overwatch isn't as good as it was before, seems like the chance to miss is much higher. The mek is quite fun but you have to retrain yourself to use it well, its tough but can't take cover so expect it to get shot. So far I haven't been blown away by the gene stuff, but that might be because I messed up my research order so I haven't done many autopsies.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

I've been playing it for at least 10 hours and I'm really liking it. It feels a lot harder than it was before but the game also seems to dump thin men at you much earlier and they seem much more accurate and crit more. Plus overwatch isn't as good as it was before, seems like the chance to miss is much higher. The mek is quite fun but you have to retrain yourself to use it well, its tough but can't take cover so expect it to get shot. So far I haven't been blown away by the gene stuff, but that might be because I messed up my research order so I haven't done many autopsies.

The Thin Man issue is due to Aiming Angles. They just obliterate you now, even in full cover. I've had a full wipe twice on the same Thin Man mission, with Thin Men hitting me for 9 damage crits from across the map in full cover. It's a bit rough. You can mitigate this by turning Aiming Angles off, but I'm reluctant to ditch it as it really does make things more intuitive.

 

[Worgen]

I've been playing it for at least 10 hours and I'm really liking it. It feels a lot harder than it was before but the game also seems to dump thin men at you much earlier and they seem much more accurate and crit more. Plus overwatch isn't as good as it was before, seems like the chance to miss is much higher. The mek is quite fun but you have to retrain yourself to use it well, its tough but can't take cover so expect it to get shot. So far I haven't been blown away by the gene stuff, but that might be because I messed up my research order so I haven't done many autopsies.

The Thin Man issue is due to Aiming Angles. They just obliterate you now, even in full cover. I've had a full wipe twice on the same Thin Man mission, with Thin Men hitting me for 9 damage crits from across the map in full cover. It's a bit rough. You can mitigate this by turning Aiming Angles off, but I'm reluctant to ditch it as it really does make things more intuitive.

At the point I'm at now, they are still dangerous because of those crits, but not deadly because I've got better tech and a leveled team. Really the big mistake I made at first was researching weapons before armor. I lost a lot of guys before they started toughening up.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

At the point I'm at now, they are still dangerous because of those crits, but not deadly because I've got better tech and a leveled team. Really the big mistake I made at first was researching weapons before armor. I lost a lot of guys before they started toughening up.

I'm playing CI and have wiped two campaigns on the same Thin Man mission (the introduction to Exalt). First time it was a mix of veterans and rookies, 2nd time it was all veterans with more or less an identical result (a 9 point crit is a 9 point crit, rookie or vet). I hadn't even gotten close to the first armor tier, research wise, I'm still basically in month 1.

Thin Men always represented the only real difficulty spike in the game, apart from possibly Sectopods and Mind Control, and it's demonstrably worse now with aiming angles. The only way to mitigate their extraordinarily high accuracy at the time they appear was full cover/smoke, and now they just angle you and get massive flanking bonuses to hit and crit. If I had to guess, I'd say no Thin Man will ever shoot at you with less than 80% accuracy barring improved smoke.

 

[Worgen]

At the point I'm at now, they are still dangerous because of those crits, but not deadly because I've got better tech and a leveled team. Really the big mistake I made at first was researching weapons before armor. I lost a lot of guys before they started toughening up.

I'm playing CI and have wiped two campaigns on the same Thin Man mission (the introduction to Exalt). First time it was a mix of veterans and rookies, 2nd time it was all veterans with more or less an identical result (a 9 point crit is a 9 point crit, rookie or vet). I hadn't even gotten close to the first armor tier, research wise, I'm still basically in month 1.

Thin Men always represented the only real difficulty spike in the game, apart from possibly Sectopods and Mind Control, and it's demonstrably worse now with aiming angles. The only way to mitigate their extraordinarily high accuracy at the time they appear was full cover/smoke, and now they just angle you and get massive flanking bonuses to hit and crit. If I had to guess, I'd say no Thin Man will ever shoot at you with less than 80% accuracy barring improved smoke.

I must have reloaded that mission like 5 times cause of them killing too many of my guys. At that point I only had 1 not rookie, because all my good troops were wounded and recovering or they died. My mek was laid up because I forgot that trucks explode. At this point I'm like 5 months or so in with 2 meks and 3 captains.

Oh man, I forgot about mind control, I'm really not looking forward to that since none of my solders have high will from being critically wounded all the time when they were low rank.

 

[Kevlar Eater]

I'm a bit too concerned with getting satellites in the air and better armaments on my soldiers to mess with the gene and cybernetic stuff. All that stuff seems awesome, but I see no point on further thinning out the small amount of resources I currently have.

Some of the new missions are quite awesome. Last mission I was doing had me at a fishing port in St. John's, Newfoundland, and I was, at first, investigating zombie outbreak. Several zombies bust through the doors to get chewed up by lasers, with my heavy getting slapped around a bit at first. As I get closer to the source of the outbreak, lots of chrysallids (sp) started zerging at the soldiers as my team was tossing grenades at them, nearly overwhelming one of my supports until my sniper had her turn. She was so in the zone her rifle went dry after dealing with the enemy. The team gets closer to the ship and they spot a whale with all these eggs inside it, and chrysallids were popping out, and I had to send a three-man team to plant a designator in the ship. After it was planted I was given an 8-turn timer to have my team extracted, all the while holding back swarm after swarm of chrysallids until they made it to the extraction point with one turn left.

 

[Jadak]

Is it worth the $30 purchase now or should most people wait for the Steam Christmas sale? $30 seems pretty steep for an expansion.

Certainly looks fun though.

I'd lean a little toward 'yes' on that question.

Breaking it down into how I would view the value of individual items as if they were standard DLC:

$10: New enemies primarily consisting of the new EXALT human faction and corresponding missions and covert ops strategic map elements. More minor, the two new alien types.

$5: Quite a few new maps, the change in variety really freshens things up.

10$: Genetic modification, Mechanized soldier class and upgradeable suits requiring new MELD resource. Pretty major stuff here, the genetic mods feel fairly minor, but the MECs are a major gameplay addition.

$5: New Council Missions. Nothing super special here, and not the first DLC of this style. But a little more variety never hurts.

So, that's $30. But it's rather subjective and your mileage may very. I'd say it's worth it, but it really depends on how much you enjoy playing XCOM. If you love the game, it's probably worth it.

 

[SacremPyrobolum]

Goddammit, it's midnight on the 15th and I still can't download that game.

It said 15th of November~ It is now the 15th of November! And Yet, here I am complaining on a forum instead of chopping off the limbs of my hapless X-Com recruits to make into Mecs!

Thanks a lot Merkel!

EDIT: Hmm, seems I have to wait until midnight GMT. Munich is GMT pus 1 so I guess I'll wait an hour to see

But seriously, why the actual fuck do I have to wait longer than those in the United States for a game that does not require any physical media!

 

[deleted139124]

DELETED

 

[Sixcess]

One question since I'm considering picking up Enemy Within. Do you start a completely new game for it? Or do you import your soldiers from previously existing XCOM:EU save files?

Brand new game.

One month into a new classic campaign and so far I'm really impressed. The game feels pacier and there's a ton more customisation options between gene mods, cybernetics, medals and one of the new Second Wave options, Training Roulette, which I instantly love. Aiming Angles will probably hurt later on, but like Guppy says they make the game feel a lot more intuitive.

Plus overwatch isn't as good as it was before, seems like the chance to miss is much higher.

So far I've had quite the opposite experience. I certainly enjoyed seeing a Sectoid burst through a door and get instantly mowed down by two of my guys both hitting it for 3 or 4 damage each.

 

[Xeorm]

Ugh. I forgot just how bad starting a classic game can be. Those thin men are brutally accurate. I almost thought that the Exalt mission was supposed to fail given how many times they would shoot straight through full cover + head down and kill him.

Otherwise, I like meld. Gives me something more to shoot for. The thin men are still pretty annoying though, but honestly not feeling so bad after hearing everyone else has problems with them as well.

 

[Fat Hippo]

I'm a bit too concerned with getting satellites in the air and better armaments on my soldiers to mess with the gene and cybernetic stuff. All that stuff seems awesome, but I see no point on further thinning out the small amount of resources I currently have.

Most of the meld stuff actually isn't a big drain on your budget. Especially MECs are actually dirt cheap, considering how good they are. The main limiting factor here will be your stores of meld, and it is most definitely worth using, maybe even too good, to be honest.

I'm really loving some of the new maps, especially the fact that not every UFO crashes in a damn forest now. I always hated those forest maps.

 

[Carnagath]

To my experience so far, the game is more polished and more varied. Other than that, it still has problems:

1) Research is much slower, but the game still seems to introduce new harder enemy types into your maps at the same pace as EU. Fighting against Muton squads with tier 1 weapons is disgusting.
2) They have introduced several new buildings but not increased the base size. Why limit the player like this?
3) The camera still does freak out on occasion. Sometimes moving to a specific spot on a higher elevation is impossible unless you fiddle around with it for 2 minutes and rotate it until it gets unstuck.
4) Meld is a mind numbingly stupid addition. Collecting it is either a pointless chore, or it will lead to you aggroing 3 enemy squads at the same time which wipe you out. You don't even know where the fucking things are when the mission starts. So you have 2 options, you either save scum or ignore them completely. It's a stupid, STUPID addition, poorly implemented, which adds a rush element to a tactical game which emphasizes caution. Great job.
5) They did absolutely nothing to limit some of the bullshit RNG game overs that plagued EU. Same shit. On my first save I got 3 abduction alerts before my first council meeting and lost pretty much all continent bonuses for the rest of the game. Then after the first council meeting, I was attacked by large signature UFO's. What control did I have over this? Zero. Yet they are still there.

 

[Frankster]

Ain't played EU since the release, enemy within+slingshot has improved the base product massively.

Additions I'm loving:
-More maps, more varied combat locations, was sorely needed.
-Meld as a bonus objective during battles which adds a random element that can greatly influence missions. I don't go out of my way to collect them as rushing ahead in the EU remake is a recipe for disaster, but has lead to a change in tactics when I do sight meld locations and making my way to them within x turns becomes part of my gameplan.
-More customization options and roleplaying touches such as accents so your team don't all speak american anymore (only a few dialects available but definitely a good step forward here) and possibility to award medals.
-A few new second wave options such as RANDOMIZED SKILLS. Ok this ain't completely true, there appears to be limitations on who can get what but point being, you can randomize a fair bit of the skill tree resulting in unique recruits with a unique combination of skills, some probably game breaking. But who cares, this just makes character customization more interesting and with this addition, I now officially prefer the remakes way of soldier advancement over the original, even if I do miss all the stats.


Haven't even gotten around to MEC units or gene mods yet, kinda need to get satellite coverage up first, am at end of 2nd month and already about to lose 2 countries :/ Fortunately it's all in south america so guess will just write off that continent this game. Their bonus is the suckiest anyways (imo).

 

[Pink Gregory]

Is there a way of deactivating the Slingshot DLC included with Enemy Within?

 

[tippy2k2]

Is there a way of deactivating the Slingshot DLC included with Enemy Within?

You can turn both DLC bonus missions off if you so choose to (on the 360 version at least, I presume it is the same for PC). Same with all the "Second Wave" items.

Spoiler: For reference, here are your options

Advanced Options
Tutorial
MELD Tutorial
Operation Progeny (new to Enemy Within; Council missions)
Operation Slingshot (Slingshot DLC)
Iron Man
Beginner Voice-overs

Second Wave
Damage Roulette
New Economy
Not Created Equal
Hidden Potential
Training Roulette
Save Scum
Aiming Angles

OT: I'm digging the game so far. My "Let's Play" [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/groups/view/Tippy2k2-s-XCOM-Army-Let-s-Play] soldiers have all survived so far and I'm just starting to dig into the new content. Having a bunch of new maps alone has felt like it was worth the price of admission and I haven't even gotten to using MELD. Adding the MELD is a sweet idea and gives the game a much better flow. It's a lot harder to "cheat" and move your men up six inches at a time in OW at all times when MELD is on the line...

 

[BloatedGuppy]

Meld is a mind numbingly stupid addition. Collecting it is either a pointless chore, or it will lead to you aggroing 3 enemy squads at the same time which wipe you out. You don't even know where the fucking things are when the mission starts. So you have 2 options, you either save scum or ignore them completely. It's a stupid, STUPID addition, poorly implemented, which adds a rush element to a tactical game which emphasizes caution. Great job.

I'm playing on C/I, and I've gotten approx. 75% of all Meld encountered. Of course it's forcing you to take risks, that was the entire point of it. The game over-rewarded caution and barely rewarded risk taking at all. At higher difficulties this meant a creeping, super-conservative method of play was always optimal. Meld is there to crowbar you out of your comfort zone and give you high risk targets to shoot for, without making them mandatory to mission completion (ala bomb defusing).

If you want to complain about something, complain about Aiming Angles.

 

[Carnagath]

Meld is a mind numbingly stupid addition. Collecting it is either a pointless chore, or it will lead to you aggroing 3 enemy squads at the same time which wipe you out. You don't even know where the fucking things are when the mission starts. So you have 2 options, you either save scum or ignore them completely. It's a stupid, STUPID addition, poorly implemented, which adds a rush element to a tactical game which emphasizes caution. Great job.

I'm playing on C/I, and I've gotten approx. 75% of all Meld encountered. Of course it's forcing you to take risks, that was the entire point of it. The game over-rewarded caution and barely rewarded risk taking at all. At higher difficulties this meant a creeping, super-conservative method of play was always optimal. Meld is there to crowbar you out of your comfort zone and give you high risk targets to shoot for, without making them mandatory to mission completion (ala bomb defusing).

If you want to complain about something, complain about Aiming Angles.

I highly doubt that you are playing C/I and actually take risks in order to secure meld. You just grab it if it's in your way or not terribly out of your way and you just cleared the path towards it. So, again, it's a pointless chore. Nobody who plays Ironman would charge into a fog-covered area just to grab some meld that has 2 turns to go, at least noone who wants his playthrough to last more than 2 hours. So yeah, on normal runs it's a save scumming waste of time, and on Ironman it's pointless, so it's a pretty stupid addition either way (in my opinion always).

 

[BloatedGuppy]

I highly doubt that you are playing C/I and actually take risks in order to secure meld. You just grab it if it's in your way or not terribly out of your way and you just cleared the path towards it. So, again, it's a pointless chore. Nobody who plays Ironman would charge into a fog-covered area just to grab some meld that has 2 turns to go, at least noone who wants his playthrough to last more than 2 hours. So yeah, on normal runs it's a save scumming waste of time, and on Ironman it's pointless, so it's a pretty stupid addition either way (in my opinion always).

You can doubt it if you wish. I'm close to the Alien Base, and I have indeed taken SENSIBLE risks to get Meld. I won't blow up half my squad to get it, but I definitely extend myself a LOT more aggressively than I otherwise would.

I'm sorry you hate it so much. It was honestly a borderline necessary addition.