A few questions about XCOM 2 (campaign length, difficulty, modifiers)

[himmatsj]

Hi guys,

I used to be a super massive fan of XCOM EU/EW. It is the ONLY game in my Steam profile that I have played above 100 hours (I have 130 games for now).

Played EU and EW twice each to completion, and there were numerous failed attempts. Once I played Normal (cause XCOM EU was my first ever TBS tactical game), then Ironman, and with EW I played Classic Ironman twice with the modifiers. EU took around 25 hours a campaign, EW took a bit longer at 30 hours.

Now, for XCOM 2, I am wondering about a few things. I know the game is not out, but will appreciate any helpful responses.

1) How long will each campaign be? To me, time is of the essence. I love playing story-driven games, and I usually only ever play them once. The only games with campaigns that I have played multiple times are XCOM EU/EW and Invisible Inc (both incidentally similar games to a certain extent).

Now, is XCOM 2 expected to last around 25-30 hours as well as before? Or considerably longer? I ask because for TBS tactical games, I believe there is reason to replay to get the most out of the game (especially by knocking the difficulty setting higher and increasing the stakes with each run).

However, if it is too long (like 50 hours a campaign), I cannot commit to multiple runs. That's simply too long. As such, I would like to know what to expect length-wise before confirming my purchase of XCOM 2.

2) What are the difficulty settings expected to be like? Is it 4 as before? Will there be a big gap between Normal and Classic? Ever since playing XCOM EU, I have played a number of other TBS games such as Invisible Inc and Shadowrun Dragonfall on the higher difficulty settings. I believe if we were to use the difficulty settings in XCOM EU, normal would be too easy for me now, but I suppose for a first run (where you want the challenge, but not so hardcore to the extent you cannot experiment and learn your ropes) Classic may be a bit too hard?

Or maybe not, I'm not sure. Been two years since I played XCOM EW. I may be underestimating myself.

3) Believe it or not, but in all the years gaming I've never modded a game before using external files/scripts etc. But I did play XCOM EU with the in-game modifiers. Now, with news that XCOM 2 will be huge in terms of external mod support, I am wondering, will there still be any of the in-game modifiers?

Thanks!!!

[Neriel]

Well now everything is out the top of my head, so some things may not be 100% right

1) Length is around the same, exept for Legendary. On Legendary the game is much longer.

2) Yes still 4. About gaps between them, that is very hard to say. The only really obvious gap, is between Commander (Classic) and Legendary (Impossible) since Legendary is a little nod to the Long War Mod and is much longer and very hard.

3) Garth (Leading Producer) said, there would not be Second Wave Options at launch. (if I understand your question correctly)

[himmatsj]

Originally posted by Neriel:

Well now everything is out the top of my head, so some things may not be 100% right

1) Length is around the same, exept for Legendary. On Legendary the game is much longer.

2) Yes still 4. About gaps between them, that is very hard to say. The only really obvious gap, is between Commander (Classic) and Legendary (Impossible) since Legendary is a little nod to the Long War Mod and is much longer and very hard.

3) Garth (Leading Producer) said, there would not be Second Wave Options at launch. (if I understand your question correctly)

Sire, what kind of a difficulty would you reckon a person like me starts on?

Also, is Legendary designed to be a bit more forgiving/do-able now compared to how it was in EU? In EU, Impossible was, er, impossible.

[Mook]

Originally posted by Neriel:

Well now everything is out the top of my head, so some things may not be 100% right

1) Length is around the same, exept for Legendary. On Legendary the game is much longer.

2) Yes still 4. About gaps between them, that is very hard to say. The only really obvious gap, is between Commander (Classic) and Legendary (Impossible) since Legendary is a little nod to the Long War Mod and is much longer and very hard.

3) Garth (Leading Producer) said, there would not be Second Wave Options at launch. (if I understand your question correctly)

I will also add that impossible difficulty is harder, Jake literally said that impossible was too impossible, Legendary is harder in more ways than just one (wink) in Xcom 2. It is not the same as impossible

[Mook]

Originally posted by himmatsj:

Originally posted by Neriel:

Well now everything is out the top of my head, so some things may not be 100% right

1) Length is around the same, exept for Legendary. On Legendary the game is much longer.

2) Yes still 4. About gaps between them, that is very hard to say. The only really obvious gap, is between Commander (Classic) and Legendary (Impossible) since Legendary is a little nod to the Long War Mod and is much longer and very hard.

3) Garth (Leading Producer) said, there would not be Second Wave Options at launch. (if I understand your question correctly)

Sire, what kind of a difficulty would you reckon a person like me starts on?

Also, is Legendary designed to be a bit more forgiving/do-able now compared to how it was in EU? In EU, Impossible was, er, impossible.

I just said this second, they said impossible was too unfair, so they made Legendary not as impossible but it is more difficult in just hostile health, longer story etc.

[himmatsj]

Originally posted by ØпiҠanji:

Originally posted by Neriel:

Well now everything is out the top of my head, so some things may not be 100% right

1) Length is around the same, exept for Legendary. On Legendary the game is much longer.

2) Yes still 4. About gaps between them, that is very hard to say. The only really obvious gap, is between Commander (Classic) and Legendary (Impossible) since Legendary is a little nod to the Long War Mod and is much longer and very hard.

3) Garth (Leading Producer) said, there would not be Second Wave Options at launch. (if I understand your question correctly)

I will also add that impossible difficulty is harder, Jake literally said that impossible was too impossible, Legendary is harder in more ways than just one (wink) in Xcom 2. It is not the same as impossible

So is Legendary even harder than Impossible, or less hard? Like you said, Impossible was already too damn hard without relying a great deal on save scumming, and I believe it was immensely difficult to complete Impossible Ironman.

[Mook]

Originally posted by himmatsj:

Originally posted by ØпiҠanji:

I will also add that impossible difficulty is harder, Jake literally said that impossible was too impossible, Legendary is harder in more ways than just one (wink) in Xcom 2. It is not the same as impossible

So is Legendary even harder than Impossible, or less hard? Like you said, Impossible was already too damn hard without relying a great deal on save scumming, and I believe it was immensely difficult to complete Impossible Ironman.

Combat wise it is not as hard as impossible, but Legendary is harder in different ways with also hard combat. So I would say Legendary Ironman is not as hard as Impossible Ironman, because impossible shots are simply lies.

[gimmethegepgun]

From what I've heard, the highest difficulty has the same tactical difficulty as the second highest. The main difference is that everything on the strategic map takes MUCH longer (but only on XCOM's side) meaning the campaign itself is much harder.

[Neriel]

Originally posted by himmatsj:

Sire, what kind of a difficulty would you reckon a person like me starts on?

Also, is Legendary designed to be a bit more forgiving/do-able now compared to how it was in EU? In EU, Impossible was, er, impossible.

Well I would start at Commander. Challenging but still room for errors.

And based on what Jake said, Legendary is fairer, since Impossible was almost really Impossible. But since Legendary is much longer, mistakes are punished hard and you can very quickly fall behind. So the main difficulty in Legendary is, that it is much longer and by logic you have more time to do errors.

[himmatsj]

Originally posted by gimmethegepgun:

From what I've heard, the highest difficulty has the same tactical difficulty as the second highest. The main difference is that everything on the strategic map takes MUCH longer (but only on XCOM's side) meaning the campaign itself is much harder.

Wow man, if that be the case, I'd be incredibly pumped!

I think, correct me if I am wrong, by the looks of it Classic difficulty will be slightly easier than before (comparatively), and Impossible difficulty will now be on the whole slightly harder than the previous classic difficulty.

Either way, this has me pumped.

I will play one commander run first by the looks of it (not sure about ironman or not, possibly yes), and then one legendary run. Then I keep the game away and get back to it when the expansion launches in the future.

Any idea how much longer will Legendary be in % terms? 100% longer? 40%?

[Mook]

Originally posted by himmatsj:

Originally posted by gimmethegepgun:

From what I've heard, the highest difficulty has the same tactical difficulty as the second highest. The main difference is that everything on the strategic map takes MUCH longer (but only on XCOM's side) meaning the campaign itself is much harder.

Wow man, if that be the case, I'd be incredibly pumped!

I think, correct me if I am wrong, by the looks of it Classic difficulty will be slightly easier than before (comparatively), and Impossible difficulty will now be on the whole slightly harder than the previous classic difficulty.

Either way, this has me pumped.

I will play one commander run first by the looks of it (not sure about ironman or not, possibly yes), and then one legendary run. Then I keep the game away and get back to it when the expansion launches in the future.

Any idea how much longer will Legendary be in % terms? 100% longer? 40%?

I don't think we can say, but to quote Jake "Alot longer than any other gamemode"

[Neriel]

Originally posted by himmatsj:

Wow man, if that be the case, I'd be incredibly pumped!

I think, correct me if I am wrong, by the looks of it Classic difficulty will be slightly easier than before (comparatively), and Impossible difficulty will now be on the whole slightly harder than the previous classic difficulty.

Either way, this has me pumped.

I will play one commander run first by the looks of it (not sure about ironman or not, possibly yes), and then one legendary run. Then I keep the game away and get back to it when the expansion launches in the future.

Any idea how much longer will Legendary be in % terms? 100% longer? 40%?

Based on a stream of Firaxis with Jake, it is around 50%-100% longer. They weren't more specific. At least I don't know of it.

[Rosebourne]

Did the reviewers bring insight to how difficult normal and classic difficulty will be?

[Mook]

Originally posted by Rosebourne:

Did the reviewers bring insight to how difficult normal and classic difficulty will be?

No, they just said the generic stuff "OMG lose all your friends and family"

[himmatsj]

Have any of the reviews touched on game length?

[Mook]

Originally posted by himmatsj:

Have any of the reviews touched on game length?

Nope. But I am sure it is equal or longer than EW which gave me a lot of
hours, not counting long war