X-COM Firaxis - XCOM: Enemy Unknown + Enemy Within Expansion

[Hobbit Lord of Mordor_]

Far-fetched solution: Aliens actually try to slip out of the area and infilitrate the local communities. Maybe the cops might find them before they cause too much trouble. X-COM SWAT?
Don't let too many escape or they'll form an underground alien cult on Earth. Or maybe a UFO would come to pick them up. ET phone home!

Interesting both these suggestions were recently made on Open X-Com. There are new 'cult' missions which you get when you observe UFO is circling around and lands in an area, maybe passing tech or instructions to the humans. I haven't tried them yet

Not yet implemented but there's an the idea of having alien 'rescue' missions, they'll sometimes send another UFO over to recover the Elerium, power source/navigation units and important sectoids to prevent them falling into X-Com's hands.

 

[Gozma]

I'm not speaking for the mech stuff in the expansion; they look like they for some reason decided to obviate the stuff that's good in the new game (the destructible quadrant cover thing where flanking and approaches are very boardgamey and intelligible for both a human and the AI) with units that are pure attrition. The Heavy Weapons Platform-equivalents in the non-expanded release use basically the same idea (don't use cover, usually can't be critically hit, relatively tough) but they have bad offense, can't be healed by medpack stuff and don't scale well and they are still extremely useful anyway.

 

[Average Manatee]

they look like they for some reason decided to obviate the stuff that's good in the new game (the destructible quadrant cover thing where flanking and approaches are very boardgamey and intelligible for both a human and the AI) with units that are pure attrition.

No that was dumb too.

 

[Raghar]

Good morning!
You only found out about that stuff now? Where have you been in the last year?

He was in denial.

 

[OSK]

they look like they for some reason decided to obviate the stuff that's good in the new game (the destructible quadrant cover thing where flanking and approaches are very boardgamey and intelligible for both a human and the AI) with units that are pure attrition.

No that was dumb too.

I disagree.

 

[Average Manatee]

they look like they for some reason decided to obviate the stuff that's good in the new game (the destructible quadrant cover thing where flanking and approaches are very boardgamey and intelligible for both a human and the AI) with units that are pure attrition.

No that was dumb too.

I disagree.

So you like dumbed down mechanics?

 

[OSK]

So you like dumbed down mechanics?

Are you trolling with that loaded question of yours?

I like how this game provides a clean and concise interface to quickly allow you to assess the amount and direction of cover from enemy fire for any given tile. Better games in the genre have done a poor job of conveying this information to the player making ascertaining cover largely guesswork. In other games, I sometimes find myself wondering what kind of cover this particular piece of scenery will provide me. I shouldn't have to guess, and I shouldn't have to fight the interface. This game fixes that problem. If you want to argue that four directions of cover is too few or that three states of cover (none/partial/full) is too simple, I won't disagree with you. But this cover implementation is surprisingly effective, and I'm glad to see it already being used in other games like Shadowrun Returns.

 

[Brinko]

So all the reviews are getting dumped today. Consensus seems to be that its just more of the same except now way fucking easier. Apparently Friaxis didn't think shit through again and a squad of gene modded guys just bulldoze through any resistance. Guess the only way to play this game with the expansion at this point is to just turn on every second wave option to even have a challenge. The IGN review even stated that the expansion includes a new set of scripted missions that they claim makes psi testing not necessary which makes me lol hard.

http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/11/11/xcom-enemy-within-review

The lopsided late-game balance is made worse by the two series of scripted missions that come with big rewards at the end. Both the Slingshot DLC missions from Enemy Unknown and a new set play out identically each time you play them, allowing you to easily ambush enemies after the first couple of times through. The new set loads you up with extremely juicy rewards that make the ending even easier, and defeat the purpose of psi testing. Fortunately, Firaxis allows us to disable those mission sets when starting new games.

 

[Volrath]

Fuck Firaxis.

 

[Brinko]

So just got in contact with one of the reviewers who did a write up of this game and the psi-testing obsolete thing is the game gives you 4 characters who are psi-positive but testing is still required because can't break the illusion or whatever retarded excuse they have for this nonsense.

 

[Brotherman Bill]

Even ign thinks it's easy? That shit has to be a cakewalk. Well, I'm not surprised but I really wonder who at firaxis thought this was a good idea.

 

[Heresiarch]

It's a huge pity actually. The new stuff looks fun, with the craziness of MEC troops and all the new maps, but come on, a expansion pack introducing tons of powerful toys to play with, but on the opposite side they put in only 1 powerful enemy, and a bunch of weak ones? Not to mention how they didn't change anything at all in the late game missions which were already frickin easy already. It's completely missing the point that XCOM games are supposed to be challenging and suspenseful, as you're fighting increasingly weird and powerful aliens with tech that is trying hard to catch up. But now you got Deus Ex enhancements with flamethrowers and railguns to annihilate mutons with 12 dmg powerfists.

I don't mind playing the game with all the over-the-top tech but they could at least introduce more powerful aliens to fight with, such as Mechton, Mechternals, Mechryssalids, etc.

 

[Jaedar]

Lets face it though, the original was also really easy towards the end. I should think it would be one of the easier flaws to notice and try to fix if you were making a sequel or reboot or whatever they're calling it.

 

[Gozma]

They went in every wrong direction they could manage more or less. I dunno how anyone could want to put in more canned linear missions with 100% predetermined spawns and triggers but they did, much less more subtle game design shit

 

[Brinko]

Really the only thing decent about this expansion is that they are moving most of the game's shit into ini files to facilitate better modding. Hope that brings out something better than what the tards at Firaxis have been doing the last 2 years.

 

[Raghar]

Does it mean I shouldn't do a review?

 

[Jaedar]

Does it mean I shouldn't do a review?

That's probably between you and Whisky.

"Unless you can bring back 14 and 24 man squads and random map through ini modding, its still gonna be shit."
Just fixing the "aliens only exist after being spotted" thing would be enough to make it miles better.

 

[Raghar]

Does it mean I shouldn't do a review?

That's probably between you and Whisky.

I didn't talked with him. Does it means RPG codex received a free reviewer copy?

 

[DefJam101]

Looks decent but if fucking TotalBiscuit is playing it on Classic

TotalBiscuit isn't bad gamer,

9:00 onward.

 

[Trash]

Perhaps this will be worth a playthrough when The Long War gets updated to use it. Otherwise looks as crap as vanilla, although that game had the added weight of fucking over one of my fav franchises ever.

Do they at least add a number of new maps? Seeing the same mission maps pop up time and time again was a large part of what made vanilla such a bore.

 

[RK47]

I bought the game when it was cheap, still can't be bothered to finish it.
It's missing something.
Getting 6 people to move, cover, move cover, felt like a chore. And most of the time you're just going to spam Heavy weapons anyway for max dmg splash.
It's not as good as it could be, and it's a pity the expansion didn't address the miniscule squad and map size. I felt it's the improvement that could spice up the gameplay.

 

[Gord]

And then you can memorize the map instead so you can remember the spawn points.
Also X-COM is not X-COM with measly 4 our 6 men squads. Apocalypse made more sense in that aspect (You're defending a city, not the world, and with futuristic tech).

Provided that you would want to play it often enough to memorize all spawn points.

And most of the time you're just going to spam Heavy weapons anyway for max dmg splash.

I didn't find heavys that great actually. Their rocket and the anti-robot perk is useful, but for pure damage output usually nothing beats a good sniper.
Also the game is decidedly more fun if you put one or two assaults in the squad to add some dynamic to the duck&cover hopping.

Well, I had hoped for more from the expansion. Given that it seems to be just more of the same, only with even easier endgame, I'll probably pass it.
Should have put in much more randomization, imho.
Building more bases would have been cool, but I think it would clash too much with their (pretty artificial) metagame limitation of having to choose one out of 3 missions.
Would probably have meant too much reworking of the council mechanics for them.

 

[AngryEddy]

How is the new expansion so far?

 

[felipepepe]

How is the new expansion so far?

Unreleased.

 

[AngryEddy]

How is the new expansion so far?

Unreleased.

It's up and running right now on Steam. You can play it if you got it, but some people have been having problems launching the game since expansion, I haven't though.