XCOM 2 War of the Chosen

[Michael {United Critics}]

This review was made based on my experience playing on a Ryzen 5 3600, 16GBs of ram and a RX 6600, be mindful that my experience can differ from yours depending on the hardware.


Xcom 2 War of the Chosen (X2WotC) is the expansion for Xcom 2 that overhauls and adds new mechanics to the base game. Story wise the expansion doesn’t add much to the narrative, besides more side content and a lot of amazing sci-fi horror elements to Xcom 2.

Be aware that you need to own and have the base game installed to play X2WotC, and both games don’t share save files. You are required to start a brand new save in order to play all the content of the game and don’t worry, you will start diving into it right away.

Questions you might have if you're interested in playing it:

• What is it exactly that you do in this game?
  
  Basically the same that you did in the base game: leading and organizing the rebellion against the alien invaders… but this time there will be more resistance in the form of 3 new alien bosses, the 4 new regular enemy types and the new challenging maps and missions that X2WotC offers.
  There is a bit of politics baked into W2WotC with the new 4 allied guerilla factions with their own perks, soldier units and equipment for you to use against the aliens. I’m not going to say more, they are so good that they really need to be experienced firsthand to have the full impact, but they offer you so many options for your planning and fighting of battles that it’s insane. The complexity of how all the new systems interact and enhance the old content from Xcom 2 makes it basically a new game. Even Xcom: Enemy Unknown seems small in comparison. But if you thought that Xcom 2 was hard, W2WotC it’s going to break you, so be ready.
  
  
• Will it make my eyes bleed?
  
  This is not going to blow your mind, X2WotC uses the same engine and assets from Xcom 2 and more or less looks the same. But I love how the new maps and enemies look. The highlights for me are how shiny the new robot enemies are and how depressing and grim the lighting and smoke effects are in the maps where you have to explore a desolated city… Why are they deprived of life?... you will have to play the expansion to find out.
  
  A thing that I wish they fixed on from the base game are the 30 FPS cinematics, it’s nothing terrible, but playing the game at 60 FPS and having to watch a 30 FPS cinematic is jarring. I agree that this is a nitpick but it’s the only thing that I really dislike about how this game looks.
  
  
• Does it have a good story?
  
  Same story as the base game but it adds lots of fun and enjoyable characters. I particularly love the leaders of the allied fractions and the 3 new aliens are delightfully evil and over-the-top. They really went hard on the B-movie feeling with the story and I love it.
  
  
• Does it have a good soundtrack?
  
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4V7gDa80CpU
  
  It’s absolutely epic. Xcom 2 already have some bangers, X2WotC elevates every battle with amazing music. Nothing to complain about here.
  
  
• Does it have replay value?
  
  With how complex this game is and how much extra (and missable) content this game has, it’s easy to replay this game for hundreds of hours and, if you decide to mod this game, maybe thousands. There is still only one ending, but the way in which you get to that ending is different each time. The stories that you craft with your soldiers is what will keep you coming back for more.
  
  
• Does it run well?
  
  
  Besides some stutters when the game is loading assets it’s the same performance as Xcom2. No bugs or crashes to report, only some funny bugs and some weird ragdoll physics.
  
  
• Is it fun?
  
  If you played Xcom 2, you own yourself to play X2WotC. It’s everything that you found fun and more.

So what is Xcom 2: War of the Chosen

I said it before, it’s practically a new game. Sure you experience the same premise with more or less the same characters, but X2WotC adds so many new and cool mechanics that elevates Xcom 2 to new highs. I really don’t want to spoil anything from you, this game is worth going in blind and get the full experience on your own but I would like to make a point on how this expansion overhauls the base game. I’m only going to explain a bit a single mechanic that X2WotC adds but if you don’t want to get spoiled this is your time to leave this review and buy this game.

There are 3 new bosses in the game. They are in all the promotional media for the expansion and the expansion itself is named after them: The Chosen. Every one of them has their own playstyles, weaknesses and strengths to certain classes and strategies and they themselves have mechanics that you can exploit to make them turn against each other or against other enemies. They are smart and actively hunt you and sometimes they can spawn in one of your missions and screw your day. You can choose to ignore them and allow them to become stronger or fight them for awesome loot and upgrades. It’s fantastic.
The factions and new soldier units are great, my favorites are the sneaky snipers and their ability to stay on stealth as long that unit deals the killing blow to an enemy. You will have to play the game and check what the other new classes do.

The multiplayer is broken at the moment but you can play singleplayer with mods and have plenty of fun. I spent 60 hours in the base game and I managed to get another 80 hours with this expansion, it is totally worth it.

Is this expansion worth my hard earned money?

You can get this expansion for $5 on sales, and with the amount of content that it has, it’s a steal! This expansion is one of my favorite games ever and I highly recommend it to anyone that loves Xcom 2 and is not afraid of a soul crushing challenge. I gave Xcom 2 a 9/10 and I believe X2WotC is the closest that you can get to perfection.

Rating: 10/10 = Sublime

Reviewer: Nova