Finished the game. Ironman/Classic. First time Ironman win too; I restarted a LOT (20 times actually) but once I got the hang of it and survived for two months, the game was quite manageable as long as I keep my head calm. Got only 3 guys killed, the most tragic one was a redhair colonel "Wildchild" got blasted and critically wounded by a sectopod in melee range. The sectopod refused to move despite I tried to lure it away, and killing it on the spot would mean the explosion would kill my colonel. What's more, my remaining soldiers couldn't kill it fast enough, so I was forced to let my MEC do an EMP blast on the sectopod to stun it, but doing so would also kill my colonel who was lying at the pod's feet. I could almost hear my colonel using her last breath saying "blast away, don't mind me, give...it...hell...". So my MEC stunned the pod, saved the team, but also killed her good friend Wildchild in the process.
Here's my personal conclusive thought on Enemy Within:
- General difficulty: the thing that I worried most at first. Turned out the game actually became on average slightly more difficult (and fun) than the original. The early to midgame is as before the best part. Longer research time at the beginning makes the game more challenging to play with as full carapace + laser combo won't come as quickly as it was, thus Mutons and Chryssalids could be slightly more annoying to deal with (annoying but not difficult, as you have the MECs and stuff to use). Mid game, with the introduction of Mechtoids and the enhancement of Sectopods, along with the nerf of some of the best skills (squad sight, HEAT ammo), combat require a bit more thought as you can't simply solo Cyberdisks and Sectopods with a HEAT heavy anymore, and better firepower management must be used to deal with these guys. Late game (post alien base) was still ridiculously easy, but fortunately that part could be breezed over pretty quickly. Also, the AI seems to have improved as well, sectoids and mutons FUCKING LOVE flanking this time, and they won't hesitate to walk around a wall or even a building just to shoot at your sides or ass.
- New toys and general balance: The new equipments, MEC class, foundry upgrades, and genemods were not as overpowered as I thought. A lot of the old things on your side got nerfed (more expensive plasma weapons, weaker abilities, longer research time, more powerful aliens, etc.), so the new features provide the needed balance to make the game more manageable. For example, in XCOM EU I could comparably easy equip my whole team in Archangel and Ghost armor, and in most cases Titan Armor was not even needed. In EW, as plasma weapons become more expensive, and Elerium could be spent on some new things such as MEC weapons, I faced the problem that I had no Elerium left to build Archangel/Ghost armor. Luckily with genemods I could compensate that with the jumping mod. Also because the sectoid family appears in much higher frequency this time, sectoid commanders become a very common sight. Therefore the new brain gene mods is also very useful to protect against mind attack.
- MEC: The MEC class though is probably the most fun thing to play with. They are really like the good old tanks in X-COM and TFTD, or Androids packed with heavy launchers and HE missiles in Apocalypse. Just throw them out in the open and bring down massive firepower without worrying too much about being damaged, while the human troopers flank and deal the lethal blows. To be honest, the destruction or tactical value the MAC can bring aren't what your classic heavy or sniper cannot do. Double Tap Squad Sight Headshot sniper and Close Combat Specialist Rapid Fire Close and Personal assault did way more (reliable) damage for me. Early on MEC with their low accuracy and EXTREMELY limited ammo is highly annoying and couldn't contribute as much as the humans. Later on they would become very reliable and flexible as they don't rely on covers, and can stand and fight in places that humans won't dare to be in (i.e. open fields or near easily destroyed half covers).
I think a very important contribution to the gameplay the MEC brought is it gives tactical management much more versatility because they are not reliant on covers. Before EW, I found many cases that all my troopers were competing for covers to stick behind, as seldom is the case that there are enough full covers for 6 people. This brought a lot of silly situations such as 3 or 4 guys lining up behind a wall, or 3 humans camping around a single half cover. In EW however, I could put one or two MECs in the open, giving the other 4 humans much more room to maneuver with. This helped solving the problem that the game was too reliant on covers.
A tip about using MEC: despite their perceived high HP, these guys are NOT bullet (or plasma) sponges or even tanks. Their resilience level is just like X-COM/TFTD tanks and Apoc androids - tougher than humans, capable to take a couple extra hits, but that's all. Their greatest survival ability is as mentioned above you can put them into less than ideal spots (for humans) without worrying being one-shot crit killed. Their high mobility also helps them getting out of trouble (or LOS) or getting in for a killing blow. Ideally MEC should never be damaged in most combat, just like humans.
- New maps and missions: as discussed before, the fishing village and base defense missions are awesome. The first two Progeny missions were also enjoyable (the second one could be a bit too easy as it comes quite late), but the third one sucked as it was just an alien abductor ship mission with a time limit. In my playthrough I haven't seen a single normal randomized council missions, which was pretty weird. Playing scripted DLC missions is better than killing Thin Men over and over and over again in the randomized missions though.
- Second wave: Training Roulette and Aiming Angles could potentially give massive gameplay changes. With Aiming Angles cover management becomes even more important. On the other hand your troopers could also hit aliens easier early on. I don't know late game wise if AA would tip the favour into the aliens, as in EW there are a lot of +defense perks (medals and support MEC's skill), I saw my late game troopers easily get 60 - 70 defense behind a full cover. I suspect you'll get hit A LOT MORE with AA on.
Training Roulette is probably insanely fun. Not Created Equal and Hidden Potential were praised to make soldiers a bit more interesting, and with TR it takes it to the extreme by making every single soldier completely unique. It also makes soldier reward more attractive as less guess work will be involved at choosing their skills. A combination of different, unique soldiers, customized further with genemods and new equipment such as all those new grenades, would possibly provide endless replay value.
In conclusion I find this Xpac a good incline. There are still some bugs like FUCKING TELEPORTING BUG (only once though), aliens occasionally disappear from LOS (mostly after damaged by explosions), and some aliens' AI is quite dumb (Mechtoids instead of shooting, run into your smoke). The new gameplay features are mostly very well balanced. The new second wave options alone would provide a lot of roguelike feeling. Finally, things like EXALT, MEC and genemods, while at first sight may look like diverted from classic X-COMs, in practice they feel more like bringing back good old Cult of Sirius, Displacer/Sonic, and androids/hybrids (as you can see, I really like Apoc).
