X-COM XCOM 2 + War of the Chosen Expansion Thread

Yeah, not like Ufo: Defense absolutely original and never seen farmlands, gas stations and grain fields!

Damn i have never seen such grain fields before!!! so special

 

As Thane says, after 20 odd years you'd expect something a little fresher. Apocalypse had more environmental variety & originality than Xcom 2. After so many years you'd expect to see that idea built on, not just watered down and regurgitated.

 

What kind of incredibly awesome special environments do you expect in a game who take place on earth? The arcane santuary of Diablo 2?

Xcom 2 takes place on earth in a not far future, having forests, deserts, small towns and big cities make sense. And imho they did a good job with world building, there are lot of fine details in every environment but haters gonna hate anyway.


Also, original ufo defense had pretty generic and boring environments, apocalypse was absolutely garbage in terms of artistic department, like crap version of power rangers with totally ugly models and armors LOL and people complain Xcom 2 wtf.

Xenonauts has absolutely boring environments too and dull flat depressing art style, but ehy, which one of all those is "commercial"? Xcom 2? yeah, so let's criticize it.

 

Xcom Apocalypse did it better & more varied 20 odd years ago just like I said earlier. Futuristic, but with more variety & depth.

 

I like the new x-coms more than the average codexer, but the original shits completely on those games when it comes to art/worlddesign.

Ufo drips atmosphere so much it gives me a boner just thinking about that game. And i played it for the first time in 2010.


Still, looking forward to the expansion. They have some neat concepts in their backpacks.

 

I already told you that i liked nu-xcom 1 even with its flaws. You are retarded and cannot read or comprehend basic things from games. Welcome to my huge ignore list, fucking newfags *

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* Nothing personal, just got so disappointed and now triggered with XCOM 2, liked the tactical layer, got improved, the rest went quite bad

 

Nah dude, they suck now. NuLibraries don't even have half the books of classic libraries. The don't even have card catologs anymore. Now it's all streamlined electronic book searching bullshit.

Also, old X-Com definitely had a ton of atmosphere, which was intentionally based on a comic book aesthetic (there are literally comic book panels in that opening movie). Sometimes it was dark, like when chryssalids infected the shit out a town and your dudes. But then other times there were goofball aliens that were half-man/half-snake with tails full of eggs. Sometimes it combined both of those seemingly contradictory tones into one mission, like when snakemen brought chryssalids on the terror mission. But it definitely had character. Although not as much as x-piratez (which I just started playing and highly recommend).



Capes are srs bsns

XCOM 2012 leaned into the gritty "realism" that dominates all videogames and media everywhere, which made it less unique, but that's more of a flaw inherent in contemporary culture generally rather than the game itself. CoD vs DOOM, etc.

 

I much prefer the originals, but I think Enemy Within is a great reboot and enjoyed that immensely, despite it's flaws.
But Xcom 2 took way more steps backwards than forwards Imo. The most shockingly bad being humanizing the aliens so much. It's just fucking bland & boring, and even the more extravagant aliens are fairly flat.
As others have said, it's more sanitized tone does little for it too.

 

Man, i played the original in the mid 90s and it was (it is) my favourite game ever.

I still remember lot of summers wasted on Ufo:defense and Dune 2, not to mention many other good titles of that era.

However, i think that Xcom 2 is the best turn based avaiable if you want something modern, it is very fun and enjoyable despite being different from the original.

Ufo: defense had the best atmosphere and soundtrack (probably the former is cause of the latter) and a deep and satysfing strategy layer, nobody can't deny it, but this doesn't means that Xcom 2 is bad only cause of that.


Fallout new vegas is completely different from the 1st glorious fallouts, but it's still a good game. Same for this.

 

How come you prefer 2 to Enemy Within? Personally I think EW had better atmosphere, aliens, and even combat (seemed fairer Imo).

 

Xcom 2 is way superior to Xcom EW. But the main trick is to play Long War in both games. The base games are finish once and never touch again without Long war.

 

Ah, that's were I'm screwed. PC's too old for 2, so PS4 Vanilla is all I have at the mo. Will try the new expansion tho.

 

Xcom 2 vanilla + Expansion (and some minor mods) may end being better than u think.

 

Better atmosphere sure, aliens and combat not at all. Xcom 2 without expansion has more aliens than EW with more varied abilities. Also i found combat extremely boring in EW, spam overwatch and no destructible cover. Boring environments aswell, 90% urbans and 10% all identical forests. How this is better?

 

Only thing I miss in Xcom 2 that was in Xcom EW is more UFO missions. Xcom 2 has one and that one happens rarely (you can even have campaigns where it does not happen). Also "base" defense is a mission that does not need to even happen in Xcom 2.

But the rest is way superior and that is even without the expansion for Xcom 2. Actually I would says Xcom 1 is better without EW because both MECs and gene mods were broken and made the game even easier.

 

The campaign is better, a bit linear but better in my opinion, so are the aliens, atmosphere, and base building. Xcom 2 brought a better tactical layer, better customization, stupid timers, a dumb campaign that at first might look interesting, but its trash for me, base building is almost a gimmick now, the mobs i hate them, everyone is so out of the context and diffrent (from normal aliens, to colorfull snakes, angels, bioshock robots and what not, liked the tripod tho), beside the guards and the basic aliens. Purty colors everywhere, they tried to do an Apoc thing, but they failed. If they improve the campaign, i might give it another try(500+ hours in XCOM EW, 50 hours in XCOM 2), but it seems they are not even aware how mediocre to shit it is... Instead on building on the old systems and take it to the next level in campaign design (( It almost looks like these shit "open world" games like DAI, hey look things to clear out and once in a while an invasion.

And in the end i wouldnt be bothered by this expansion, if they fixed the performance and campaign design first, along with some thought in the base building.... I am just dissapointed, but thats just my opinion and taste.

 

If this is true, sorry for insulting you, the same thing i experienced back in the day, but like i said i liked XCOM EW, so dont blame me on nostalgia, there is some there, but they are enough medium titles or small today, to please me, while i ignore 90% triple by default. Not even worth pirating.

 

It's just more atmospheric in EW. Graveyards, peaceful parks, subways etc. Everything in 2 feels sanitized and bland. The terror missions are pathetic in comparison, often in daylight in remote locations. No sense of aliens ripping through innocents in a confined space, as there was in EW.
It's been a fair few months since I played both, so I'll replay and see if I get your POV.

Regards EW's mechs & gene mods, I play without either and just enjoyed the variety which Exalt & the new maps + missions added.

 

I don't care that much about atmosphere, I don't play these games for that. I play it for challenge, thinking and options. Xcom 2 is a bigger challenge, there is more thinking and planning involved during missions and outside missions and there is more customization involved with weapon mods and having more item slots. Also Xcom 2 has a better UI with flanks and such being shown as you plan to move your guys around, concealment system is interesting even if it has faults.
They also implemented some stuff that LW1 did for Xcom EW like medkits preventing poison or there being normal and ablative armor and losing that ablative does not create injuries for your troops and send them for weeks into medbay.

 

I agree and i like more Xcom 2, but i can't deny that horror theme of original and EU is more captivating. My dream is Xcom 2 system and engine with Xcom EU setting and storyline.

 

I didn't find EW storyline anything special or better than Xcom 2. Actually both have you use a psionic soldier and then do a very similar last mission. But geoscape in Xcom 2 is so much better than EW it is not even funny.

 

Yep but i mean the fact who we're getting invaded and we dont know anything about aliens, so we'll discover slowly. The mystery feeling

 

I care about that even less
I guess I am a combatfag first and foremost.

 

I'm still salty about the complete lack of actual guerilla fighting. Every mission in 2 can be solved by grenading everything into dust. Even LW2 doesn't really fix that.

 

Yeah, that's something which all the sequels from both generations have failed to deal with to some degree.
Although Apocalypse did have that mystery once you progressed to the exploration of the Alien world/bases.