Does Enemy Within change the base game?

[Nats]

I would like to know if Enemy Within changes the base game at all in terms of the missions, story, maps, and items you will get. Or is it purely a competely separate addon where you play a different campaign with all the new features added?

ie: if I am playing the first game is there any point in getting it until I have finished the original story? (not that I would ever get it at £20 mind but there will be another sale at some point).

[Sam]

EW doesn't modify the base game. When you buy it, the launcher gives you the choice of launching the base game, or the game with the expansion.

You might as well play the base game a few times, get what you can out of it, then pick up EW in a sale and play some more campaigns.

[zwelgje]

Trying to keep it general to not spoil anything.
It is not a complete new campaign but it does change the "base game" somewhat.

You will get additional soldier types with new perks, additional maps, additional equipment, additional basestructures, one new enemy type and a small "side story" (not the DLC missions, those remain as well) with different missiontypes. Also there is one new mission (single mission) in the main storyline.

What will not change: the main storyline, the perks of the traditional soldiers, the research options, the DLC missions, the tradional enemies.

The main story will not change, but with the changes it does feel/play differently. Or i should say: you can play it differently. Whether you think it is worth to purchase, is a personal decision. :)

My personal opinion:
If you are playing Enemy Unknown now, keep playing to complete the campaign. If you have not started yet, wait till you have Enemy Within and start playing then.

[funbelievable]

Don't forget that since EW is its own game, it will just about double the hard drive size requirements to 20+ GB. I'ts about the biggest sized game out there.

[Nats]

Originally posted by funbelievable:

Don't forget that since EW is its own game, it will just about double the hard drive size requirements to 20+ GB. I'ts about the biggest sized game out there.

Certainly that would have been a factor a few weeks ago but now that I have a 2tb drive it isnt too much of an issue. Mind you it makes you wonder how they could have doubled the game size with just an expansion, seems very wasteful. Unless its all new content which is very doubtful of course.

[RalphRoberts]

Originally posted by Nats:

Originally posted by funbelievable:

Don't forget that since EW is its own game, it will just about double the hard drive size requirements to 20+ GB. I'ts about the biggest sized game out there.

Certainly that would have been a factor a few weeks ago but now that I have a 2tb drive it isnt too much of an issue. Mind you it makes you wonder how they could have doubled the game size with just an expansion, seems very wasteful. Unless its all new content which is very doubtful of course.

Its like that because its a "modular" expansion. What I mean by that is it allows you to choose to boot up the basic Enemy Unkown "module" with no changes, or you can boot up the new Enemy Within "Module" with all the changes.

[Black Hammer]

They did add quite a few new maps for Enemy Within, some of them quite large.

[Peter Pan]

No new campaign, but there are a few "side-quests" for you to do, and a "side-campaign".

But I wouldn't call it a full blown new campaign.

Originally posted by Nats:

ie: if I am playing the first game is there any point in getting it until I have finished the original story? (not that I would ever get it at £20 mind but there will be another sale at some point).

In terms of the main story, it doesn't matter whether you get the expansion before or after you complete your story, though you have to start a new game in the expansion and you cannot use your old save.

You would be getting the expansion, because you like the base game, and you want new ways to obliterate the aliens, and also because you want to support this franchise.

[Gentoo]

The expansion gives you a lot of new toys to play with, and changes the feel of the game and a lot of the strategy. This is more than a DLC. This is a proper expansion pack like in the old days.