You're kind of all over the place here. I bet the Codex can suggest another tactical game you haven't already talked yourself into disliking. Personally I enjoyed XCOM 2 just as much as XCOM 1, probably more.
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X-COM XCOM 2 + War of the Chosen Expansion Thread
- Thread starter Morgoth
- Start date
I liked the Nuxcom 1 setting more, but Xcom 2 is definitely a better game. It's bigger, it has more enemies, more variety and deeper mechanics. But you need the WOTC expansion.
If you didn't like Nuxcom 1 you won't like Xcom 2 either, if you did enjoy Nuxcom 1 you'll like Xcom 2 more.
cruelio
Augur
- Joined
- Nov 9, 2014
- Messages
- 370
I thought XCOM 1 was insane garbage and I liked XCOM 2 and really like XCOM 2 WOTC. The reason I thought XCOM 1 was garbage were the insanely bad fixed maps (some of which were so bad Firaxis themselves essentially acknowledged it by flat out removing them in the expansion), prevalence of bad story or otherwise fixed missions, and the insanely pad pod system where you're strongly encouraged to walk one tile and slam overwatch every turn until you've crossed the map over three hours later. XCOM 2 WOTC sadly retains the pod system but the random map generator, decrease (but sadly not total removal) in fixed missions, and most missions having time pressure were massive improvements.
Anyway your complains are about retarded things and not the thing you should care about in a game, the gameplay, so I instead recommend you play that game about gay daddies.
Anyway your complains are about retarded things and not the thing you should care about in a game, the gameplay, so I instead recommend you play that game about gay daddies.
The chosen one issue only happens for the last mission or two (granted, he is treated as such for the whole game, but as for all chatter of XCOM 2, it is best ignored).
as cruelio said, XCOM2 solves most of the mechanical issues of the first, by having time limits and random maps.
The main issue remaining is the pod system, but there are mods that make it less so (larger pods, no pods at all, orange alert).
Now, if the art style doesn't work for you, which is quite understandable, there is little that can be done, but the game itself is much better than XCOM1 IMO, and the moddability means that most of the remaining issues can be somewhat solved by mods.
The main advantage of the first is that it has Long War (LW2 doesn't cover the expansion, and LW: War of The Chosen is still quite messy).
As for the comic books style, XCOM2 mods may help in that department(there are tons of cosmetic mods including stormtroopers, 40k, doom, mass effect, Halo).
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I actually think the first nuXcom game is the best of the bunch, even without the expansion, just the very first release, XCOM: Enemy Unknown.
Reason why is that the gameplay is much tighter and less simulationist. Normally I prefer simulationism, and normally that might incline me to prefer XCOM2+expansion, but ultimately the basic setup of the game isn't designed for simulation, it's designed around the more boardgame-like gameplay of XCOM1.
But of course eventually one hankers after more toys to play with, which is why they did the expansion, then XCOM2, then the expansion to that. But the gameplay isn't as taut because it's more complicated. The simplicity of XCOM:EU was part of its virtue, and part of what made it a hit, I believe.
Reason why is that the gameplay is much tighter and less simulationist. Normally I prefer simulationism, and normally that might incline me to prefer XCOM2+expansion, but ultimately the basic setup of the game isn't designed for simulation, it's designed around the more boardgame-like gameplay of XCOM1.
But of course eventually one hankers after more toys to play with, which is why they did the expansion, then XCOM2, then the expansion to that. But the gameplay isn't as taut because it's more complicated. The simplicity of XCOM:EU was part of its virtue, and part of what made it a hit, I believe.
Raghar
Arcane
- Joined
- Jul 16, 2009
- Messages
- 24,060
Actually the first game of new series was quite a bit simulationistic, with tight rules that worked well together. You had to manage generators, satellite uplinks, and various parts of the base.
Sectoids were small, with low HP, but quite dangerous.
XCOM 2 was massive rehash that was basically broken by Firaxis developers don't know anything about asymmetrical warfare. US government wouldn't be exactly happy when they would basically train terrorist how to fight efficiently against US government, especially when Firaxis developers would take an inspiration from drone warfare.
But main Firaxis problem is they can't autogenerate interesting tile maps. Shooting and other stuff feels also quite weird, especially in second game, where they simulate less.
BTW does official mod launcher work at all? I had to mod the game to stop the "Do best in one mission and when you'd win all missions you'd succeed easily." and have more "Losing one or three missions in the row isn't end of the world, but losing more would get you into SERIOUS trouble." like feeling.
Frankly they should stop with aliens in second game, and have a zombie invasion game, that isn't happening before, or after alien invasion XCOM, just as FF X isn't happening before FF XII.
Sectoids were small, with low HP, but quite dangerous.
XCOM 2 was massive rehash that was basically broken by Firaxis developers don't know anything about asymmetrical warfare. US government wouldn't be exactly happy when they would basically train terrorist how to fight efficiently against US government, especially when Firaxis developers would take an inspiration from drone warfare.
But main Firaxis problem is they can't autogenerate interesting tile maps. Shooting and other stuff feels also quite weird, especially in second game, where they simulate less.
BTW does official mod launcher work at all? I had to mod the game to stop the "Do best in one mission and when you'd win all missions you'd succeed easily." and have more "Losing one or three missions in the row isn't end of the world, but losing more would get you into SERIOUS trouble." like feeling.
Frankly they should stop with aliens in second game, and have a zombie invasion game, that isn't happening before, or after alien invasion XCOM, just as FF X isn't happening before FF XII.
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- Jun 28, 2017
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- 31,752
Firaxis should stop making games entirely.
Maxie
Guest
bought the base game coz its like 17 aryanbucks on steam
i hope im not missing out on anything worthwhile ignoring the dlcs
i hope im not missing out on anything worthwhile ignoring the dlcs
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- Jan 28, 2011
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- 99,612
rusty_shackleford
Arcane
- Joined
- Jan 14, 2018
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- 50,754
wait
nu-xcom is a decade old
nu-xcom is a decade old
X-Com 3 comfirmed?
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- Jun 28, 2017
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- 31,752
The DLC basically turn the game into an anime. You would probably enjoy it.
Ash
Arcane
- Joined
- Oct 16, 2015
- Messages
- 7,055
Played both Nu xcoms recently. Pretty decent games but much of the strategy often boils down to spamming overwatch and cautiously triggering pods. there should also be way more variables involved in turns, e.g NOT shooting through each and every wall no problem (should be reduced damage for wall shots, unless special moves), possible wind speed and definite throwing arc for grenades, reduced accuracy when Shaken/panicked instead of losing control that's just lame, and so on.
I found XCOM 2 to be the better game, though 1 had a few things over the sequel, and 2 also had difficulty scaling issues.
I love the base building micromanagement and all that stuff but the combat itself is surprisingly simple and that's not a good thing. For the most part you get one relevant parameter - accuracy, which itself is only modified by firing angles/ranges. Oftentimes not even solid walls are relevant. How hard is it to do a line of sight trace checking for structures when calculating aim? And I guess turns/moves is pretty important too...That's fucking basic. Hyperbole of course but the combat needs a little more. there should be more rules and variables established on the battlefield that need to be kept in mind and accounted for.
I found XCOM 2 to be the better game, though 1 had a few things over the sequel, and 2 also had difficulty scaling issues.
I love the base building micromanagement and all that stuff but the combat itself is surprisingly simple and that's not a good thing. For the most part you get one relevant parameter - accuracy, which itself is only modified by firing angles/ranges. Oftentimes not even solid walls are relevant. How hard is it to do a line of sight trace checking for structures when calculating aim? And I guess turns/moves is pretty important too...That's fucking basic. Hyperbole of course but the combat needs a little more. there should be more rules and variables established on the battlefield that need to be kept in mind and accounted for.
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Humanophage
Arcane
- Joined
- Dec 20, 2005
- Messages
- 5,441
Just bought X-Com 2. God, I hate 3D graphics. It looks like even more of an incoherent mess with grotesquely excessive animation and a ton of translucent interface elements than its predecessor (which I liked with Long War). I wish you could zoom out, fix the camera so it doesn't jump all over on its own, speed it up without making everything flicker so much it might give you a seizure, and play it like Jagged Alliance. It's a pretty decent game fundamentally, but the AAA inanity is killing it for me.
I was trying out the demo for The Last Spell before that, and it's amazing how infinitely more capable indie developers are with those things. No need for huge buttons and special screens, all buttons are super-clear in spite of having more complex content than XCom skills, skill animations look fun but don't take up much time and the game isn't paused because of them, all the tiles are perfectly clear too, enemy turns don't take up a ton of time (and are processed simultaneously!), no camera following your characters for some unclear reason, etc. Replace cutesy SNES Japanese stuff with beautiful 2D a la Age of Wonders, and it would look perfect.
P.S. The interface in XCom 2 is so annoying I dropped it for now. Plenty of games are pleasing, no need to spend life on unpleasant stuff just because it might be good under layers of rubbish.
I was trying out the demo for The Last Spell before that, and it's amazing how infinitely more capable indie developers are with those things. No need for huge buttons and special screens, all buttons are super-clear in spite of having more complex content than XCom skills, skill animations look fun but don't take up much time and the game isn't paused because of them, all the tiles are perfectly clear too, enemy turns don't take up a ton of time (and are processed simultaneously!), no camera following your characters for some unclear reason, etc. Replace cutesy SNES Japanese stuff with beautiful 2D a la Age of Wonders, and it would look perfect.
P.S. The interface in XCom 2 is so annoying I dropped it for now. Plenty of games are pleasing, no need to spend life on unpleasant stuff just because it might be good under layers of rubbish.
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Just bought X-Com 2. God, I hate 3D graphics. It looks like even more of an incoherent mess with grotesquely excessive animation and a ton of translucent interface elements than its predecessor (which I liked with Long War). I wish you could zoom out, fix the camera so it doesn't jump all over on its own, speed it up without making everything flicker so much it might give you a seizure, and play it like Jagged Alliance. It's a pretty decent game fundamentally, but the AAA inanity is killing it for me.
I was trying out the demo for The Last Spell before that, and it's amazing how infinitely more capable indie developers are with those things. No need for huge buttons and special screens, all buttons are super-clear in spite of having more complex content than XCom skills, skill animations look fun but don't take up much time and the game isn't paused because of them, all the tiles are perfectly clear too, enemy turns don't take up a ton of time (and are processed simultaneously!), no camera following your characters for some unclear reason, etc. Replace cutesy SNES Japanese stuff with beautiful 2D a la Age of Wonders, and it would look perfect.
P.S. The interface in XCom 2 is so annoying I dropped it for now. Plenty of games are pleasing, no need to spend life on unpleasant stuff just because it might be good under layers of rubbish.
3D is bad, tripplee AAA gaammes is bad, me play old game 2d and indie cause it good. (Eric Cartman voice)
- Joined
- Jun 28, 2017
- Messages
- 31,752
Firaxis XCOM is not UFO just like Firaxis Civ is not Civilization. This isn't rocket science.
Falksi
Arcane
WOTC adds a good amount of fun to the base game tbh.
It's still nothing compared to the 90's versions, and I think you can get through 1 full playthrough without them. But after that the base game becomes really stale and predictable.
Humanophage
Arcane
- Joined
- Dec 20, 2005
- Messages
- 5,441
Uh, yes, except with the explanation why 3D and AAA are bad and 2D and indie is good?
There are unskippable unnecessarily long animations, pauses, flickering translucent layers, and it is done for no real reason other than to seem expensive. Even if you install a bunch of mods from the workshop to cut on that trash, it is still extremely janky and a lot of issues remain. It still insists on taking camera control from the player all the time. Speeding up animation inexplicably also speeds WASD scrolling, such that a click sends you to the other side of the map.
A lot of those issues are quite endemic to AAA games, especially constantly trying to take away control from the player and put it in the hands of some algorithm that knows best.
There are a lot of 2d Indie games that are garbage, with every aspect of the them being trash. This alone invalidate your generic point about indie 2d games being better than triple A.
Whiny-Butthurt-Liberal
Guest
Stopped playing XCOM 2 when I realized the only characters I'm getting are dark-skinned soyboys, old men and mannish whores.
XCOM 1 was pretty fun, though.
XCOM 1 was pretty fun, though.
You can get lots of custom guys and gals in X com 2 though? I got full Aliens and Predator roster in my game
Whiny-Butthurt-Liberal
Guest
Maybe they expanded the roster with DLCs. It was a hideous collection of effette numales and mannish womynz when I last played it.
Can you create/add characters who don't look like a netflix diversity brigade now? Post screens of your rosters.
Can you create/add characters who don't look like a netflix diversity brigade now? Post screens of your rosters.
CthuluIsSpy
Arcane
You always could, I'm not sure what you're talking about?
yes, you can... in fact one of the appeals of x-com 2 during launch was people creating custom character lists. You can find many on steamworkshop.
https://steamcommunity.com/workshop...edfileid=0&browsesort=textsearch§ion=home
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