XCOM 2 is really a Masterpiece

[Lensar]

I know everyone has their pet issues that bug them about XCOM 2, but the game really is a masterpiece.

I think the strategic game is a little too fast and a slower pace with more (and less decisive) battles would be preferable, similar to the Epic or Marathon settings on Civ 5, but I'm sure someone will make a Long War-esq mod for that.

In fact, with the amount of modding possibilities, I wouldn't be surprised if XCOM 2 becomes the hands-down game of the decade.

[Roderick]

Originally posted by Brother PaciFist:

You can fail the game by researching the wrong technologies or starting story missions too early, but mostly you fail because the RNG in the tactical layer screws you over. That is not really strategic or tactical. The map generator can screw you over hard too, giving you a map with little or no cover. Or placing three alien pods on top of another. Or the last mission refuses to launch properly.

Strange thing is here, that I haven't been screwed by any of this. There was no really unbeatable map, aliens have their misses too, never had three pods together and final mission works fine. :/ So, also I believe what you are saying, I just can't agree or support it.

Originally posted by Brother PaciFist:

I prefer to close my account for privacy reasons. I see no point to let strangers know my gaming habit, only to gloat about me. I have a ton of games, old and new. classic x-com , terror from the deep, apocalypse, ja2, garys grigsby's war in the east, i think i have played my fair share of strategy games to recognize one when i play it.

Older games had deeper layers, thats true. Today, money runs the world and companies have to design their games tailored for the mass - and XCOM EU/EW and XCOM 2 are already out of mainstream. Most players don't want to spend sooo much time on deep strategy.
Thatswhy I support this game and defend its "strategy"-title, it has more strategy then most of the newer ones.

[Black Raven]

Originally posted by Joppsta:

Originally posted by Black Raven:

over 20% of those was whining about timers which is easy to mod out lol

And they game is MUCH better than first XCOM by far, minus the performace issue.

The first XCOm had worse bugs on release, but people forget that now it fixed

If people's biggest issue are the timers then I guess that means by vote of popularity it was a bad design choice, regardless of if it's moddable or not. You pay your 30-40-60 bones for a completed product, not something you need to stick a band-aid on.

This isn't me dissing the game necessarily, I love it, but I can see why others would be frustrated and if that's reflected in the score then so be it. I would give the game a solid 7/10, probably going up to a 9 or 10 when the DLC is released and patches have been applied. In it's current state it feels very.. unpolished. Polished it would be an 8.

The only issue with times was number mission that used them in EARLY game, it didnt give people time to adapt to them and learn to understand that they not a big deal once you get some experienced troops.


Early game yet they can feel harsh to a new player, mid game we can almost forget they exist as we can do far more per single turn

[drake_hound]

Originally posted by ルを失うTiTiCon:

Originally posted by Black Raven:

over 20% of those was whining about timers which is easy to mod out lol

But it shouldnt be needed to mod them out ;) . And dont forget the technical issues,btw. I know fanboys tend to have selective memory.

I know haters have even more selective memory, remember XCOM 1 when it was released.
Day 1 DLC cut out content.
The moans it is nothing like XCOM UFO DEFENSE. the technical problems people had, corrupt ironman saves. still people say nothing is really fixed with XCOM 1

Then they released XCOM / EW and people again moaned and hated it. saying expansion ripoff.
So how did it get 95% score on steam ? LOL with all those moans!

I guess in the end the people who play it and continue to play it outweighs those who refund it after 2 hours and write a crappy review :P

[Black Raven]

Originally posted by drake_hound:

Originally posted by ルを失うTiTiCon:

But it shouldnt be needed to mod them out ;) . And dont forget the technical issues,btw. I know fanboys tend to have selective memory.

I know haters have even more selective memory, remember XCOM 1 when it was released.
Day 1 DLC cut out content.
The moans it is nothing like XCOM UFO DEFENSE. the technical problems people had, corrupt ironman saves. still people say nothing is really fixed with XCOM 1

Then they released XCOM / EW and people again moaned and hated it. saying expansion ripoff.
So how did it get 95% score on steam ? LOL with all those moans!

I guess in the end the people who play it and continue to play it outweighs those who refund it after 2 hours and write a crappy review :P

Exactly this, and i expect XCOM 2 reviews will move more and more positive as the year goes on, when people are still playing and talking about in months to come, then they be new overhaul mod hypes and other such things, not to mention the war stories this game makes :-D

[[sMil3]]

Originally posted by drake_hound:

Originally posted by ルを失うTiTiCon:

But it shouldnt be needed to mod them out ;) . And dont forget the technical issues,btw. I know fanboys tend to have selective memory.

I know haters have even more selective memory, remember XCOM 1 when it was released.
Day 1 DLC cut out content.
The moans it is nothing like XCOM UFO DEFENSE. the technical problems people had, corrupt ironman saves. still people say nothing is really fixed with XCOM 1

Then they released XCOM / EW and people again moaned and hated it. saying expansion ripoff.
So how did it get 95% score on steam ? LOL with all those moans!

I guess in the end the people who play it and continue to play it outweighs those who refund it after 2 hours and write a crappy review :P

Funny how I never said that Xcom was a masterpiece or was a perfect game, eh?
Still,if Xcom2 is so much better,I dont get the 95 vs 74. I'll let you guys do the math (without a timer,ofc,take your time ;) )

[PzAbt SilentFear]

Originally posted by ØпiҠanji:

Originally posted by ibanezrg82:

Ugh. I still can't get past Witcher 1

Well, the game is so damn old and ugly I cannot stand to look at it for 10 min lol That was their first game you know, you can see the proof of that.

Hum strange i did replay the Witcher 1 last year when i was getting pumped for The Wild Hunt. It still looked ok.

But yeah Xcom 2 so far prove to be magnificent game and i belive a strong contender for game of the year - that is if CDPR dont release Syberpunk - then i dunno. As they clearly have shown that they put their soul into their games.


Anyway - cant wait for some of the big mods to show up. And im definetly looking forward for Long War akin mode.

[Black Raven]

Originally posted by ルを失うTiTiCon:

Originally posted by drake_hound:

I know haters have even more selective memory, remember XCOM 1 when it was released.
Day 1 DLC cut out content.
The moans it is nothing like XCOM UFO DEFENSE. the technical problems people had, corrupt ironman saves. still people say nothing is really fixed with XCOM 1

Then they released XCOM / EW and people again moaned and hated it. saying expansion ripoff.
So how did it get 95% score on steam ? LOL with all those moans!

I guess in the end the people who play it and continue to play it outweighs those who refund it after 2 hours and write a crappy review :P

Funny how I never said that Xcom was a masterpiece or was a perfect game, eh?
Still,if Xcom2 is so much better,I dont get the 95 vs 74. I'll let you guys do the math (without a timer,ofc,take your time ;) )

For a start the 95% is reviews over 4 years vs 1 week

And 30k reviews vs 7.5k

2ndly XCOM started out with mostly negative review, at lot was changed from negative to postive over time as the game was fixed.

[drake_hound]

Originally posted by ルを失うTiTiCon:

Originally posted by drake_hound:

I know haters have even more selective memory, remember XCOM 1 when it was released.
Day 1 DLC cut out content.
The moans it is nothing like XCOM UFO DEFENSE. the technical problems people had, corrupt ironman saves. still people say nothing is really fixed with XCOM 1

Then they released XCOM / EW and people again moaned and hated it. saying expansion ripoff.
So how did it get 95% score on steam ? LOL with all those moans!

I guess in the end the people who play it and continue to play it outweighs those who refund it after 2 hours and write a crappy review :P

Funny how I never said that Xcom was a masterpiece or was a perfect game, eh?
Still,if Xcom2 is so much better,I dont get the 95 vs 74. I'll let you guys do the math (without a timer,ofc,take your time ;) )

Well Xcom 1 wasn´t 95 at start was it , since Xcom 2 is only 10 days old. we shall see :P
Since Xcom 1 had plenty of sales later on the score get boosted.

We will see in 3 year time when people hardware are up to date if Xcom 2 isn´t 95% or more :P
Skyrim sure wasn´t a the same score on release !

So anything else you want to teach me about math ?

[Joppsta]

Originally posted by Black Raven:

Originally posted by Joppsta:

If people's biggest issue are the timers then I guess that means by vote of popularity it was a bad design choice, regardless of if it's moddable or not. You pay your 30-40-60 bones for a completed product, not something you need to stick a band-aid on.

This isn't me dissing the game necessarily, I love it, but I can see why others would be frustrated and if that's reflected in the score then so be it. I would give the game a solid 7/10, probably going up to a 9 or 10 when the DLC is released and patches have been applied. In it's current state it feels very.. unpolished. Polished it would be an 8.

The only issue with times was number mission that used them in EARLY game, it didnt give people time to adapt to them and learn to understand that they not a big deal once you get some experienced troops.


Early game yet they can feel harsh to a new player, mid game we can almost forget they exist as we can do far more per single turn

Timers are a cheap gameplay device though, they add no physical challenge to a mission. It's on the same level as escort missions in action games, especially if the escort is on the rails with set pieces. That's what a timer adds to a mission. It's like artificial difficulty, if anything. The only mission timers I approve of would be reinforcement timers, that would be a cool mechanic in moderation. But a timer where "oh sorry you're here in concealment and the aliens shouldn't know we're here but it'll tick down anyway because gameplay design" is pretty poor use of timer mechanics.

It is there if only for no reason other than to force a player into making progress towards an objective, even if there are better tactical options available to them.

[Ender]

Originally posted by ルを失うTiTiCon:

Originally posted by Black Raven:

over 20% of those was whining about timers which is easy to mod out lol

But it shouldnt be needed to mod them out ;) . And dont forget the technical issues,btw. I know fanboys tend to have selective memory.

It isn't really needed, just because people insist on playing the game exactly the way they played Xcom 1 does not mean there is a design flaw here. Nothing at all wrong with the timers. What makes it worse is someone will complain about the timer and give the game a 1 out of 10 because of them ignoring all the good. Load the mod and stop complaining about something that isn't broken.

[Black Raven]

Originally posted by Joppsta:

Originally posted by Black Raven:

The only issue with times was number mission that used them in EARLY game, it didnt give people time to adapt to them and learn to understand that they not a big deal once you get some experienced troops.


Early game yet they can feel harsh to a new player, mid game we can almost forget they exist as we can do far more per single turn

Timers are a cheap gameplay device though, they add no physical challenge to a mission. It's on the same level as escort missions in action games, especially if the escort is on the rails with set pieces. That's what a timer adds to a mission. It's like artificial difficulty, if anything. The only mission timers I approve of would be reinforcement timers, that would be a cool mechanic in moderation. But a timer where "oh sorry you're here in concealment and the aliens shouldn't know we're here but it'll tick down anyway because gameplay design" is pretty poor use of timer mechanics.

It is there if only for no reason other than to force a player into making progress towards an objective, even if there are better tactical options available to them.

they be awful aliens if they didnt detect a skyranger in the area, they do know your there, they just don't know where your troops deployed precisely.

[Dies Fourth]

Originally posted by Lensar:

Originally posted by Dies Fourth:

" Best game of the decade "....

Theres alot more decade to go, the rte that tech evolves in 4 years this will be a fondly remembered game like Skyrim but best of the decade ?

I think youve had enough to drink for this weekend : )

EDIT, this reminds me of a kid from Brazil saying " H1Z1 is the greastest game of all time " 2 weeks after it was released lol ( it was a mess then and its worse now )

Please dont be " that guy ".

You're entitled to your opinion, of course, but I'm totally going to be "that guy."

H1Z1 wasn't best-in-class with regards to anything. It was just a little blip on the radar, and only because it was well-timed with the outbreak of zombie-fandom that became all the rage.

XCOM 2 is, hands down, best-in-class when it comes to turn-based strategy games. The original remake redefined the genre when it came out and this version has sold a ton of units (impressive, since it's a rare PC only title). Just look how fast new threads are buried on the steam discussion forums.

I'd say it's pretty impressive for how turn-based strategy was essentially considered a dead genre before the original remake came out. And with the robustness of the engine (yes, some people have bugs, while others have no issues at all) it seems to be garnering a vibrant modding community that has the potential to keep the game active and fresh for a long long time.

Do you even hear yourself ??

To declare a game thats been out a week " The best game of the decade ".................

I declare my bottle of water " the best bottle of water of the decade "

Just because you want it to be true and type it means NOTHING !!! Well besides your possibly insane but other tha that it means virtually nothing.

[Dies Fourth]

Originally posted by Sumbi San:

Performance too bad for Goty

nonononnonononononononono, its not GOTY.................... according to the OP it " game of the DECADE "

my dog is " dog of the decade " look i did it again, is it true THIS time ??

[drake_hound]

Originally posted by Dies Fourth:

Originally posted by Sumbi San:

Performance too bad for Goty

nonononnonononononononono, its not GOTY.................... according to the OP it " game of the DECADE "

my dog is " dog of the decade " look i did it again, is it true THIS time ??

It is a masterpiece in TBS genre cause of two things superior Modern day graphics and Physx nothing we have in the TBS genre comes close, Mordheim tried but they didn´t succeed.

Here is Xcom 2 that shows you how it is done.

2nd thing that is a master piece the Modding tool or SDK, it intergrates so many features for people. and they didn´t lie about it.

So yeah I don´t think anybody in the coming years will be able to beat those 2 Asset alone in the TBS gernre.. artistic taste differ, and we can say TBS doesn´t need graphics.

But truth is graphics of this quality surely helps push TBS upwards :P

So anything you want to say about the TBS gernre ?

[[sMil3]]

Originally posted by Black Raven:

Originally posted by ルを失うTiTiCon:

Funny how I never said that Xcom was a masterpiece or was a perfect game, eh?
Still,if Xcom2 is so much better,I dont get the 95 vs 74. I'll let you guys do the math (without a timer,ofc,take your time ;) )

For a start the 95% is reviews over 4 years vs 1 week

And 30k reviews vs 7.5k

2ndly XCOM started out with mostly negative review, at lot was changed from negative to postive over time as the game was fixed.

Yet developers couldnt learn with XCom problems and repetead the same mistakes. And I find hilarious to see people complaing about Xcom 1 launch yet praising XCom 2. Amazing.