XCOM 2

 PC
User Score
7.3

Mixed or average reviews- based on 1694 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1,117 out of 1694
  2. Mixed: 275 out of 1694
  3. Negative: 302 out of 1694
Buy Now
Buy on

Review this game

  1. Your Score
    0 out of 10
    Rate this:
    • 10
    • 9
    • 8
    • 7
    • 6
    • 5
    • 4
    • 3
    • 2
    • 1
    • 0
    • 0
  1. Submit
  2. Check Spelling
view
per page
  1. Trypsinogen
    Feb 8, 2016
    6
    I beat a campaign run with about 45 hours of play time and played on veteran difficulty with some save scumming.

    The Bad: 1) Terrible performance/optimization. The game run terribly for a lot of people (if not everyone) even if you have a good rig. I have a GTX 970, i7 3.4ghz, 12GB RAM. I could even turn all of the graphical settings to the absolute bare minimum and even though the    I beat a campaign run with about 45 hours of play time and played on veteran difficulty with some save scumming.

    The Bad:
    1) Terrible performance/optimization. The game run terribly for a lot of people (if not everyone) even if you have a good rig. I have a GTX 970, i7 3.4ghz, 12GB RAM. I could even turn all of the graphical settings to the absolute bare minimum and even though the game looks ugly it STILL would not run completely smoothly and would have FPS dips. Also, every time enemies are triggered there are awkward ~3 second pauses which ruins the flow of things. This is the worst problem for me because it affects your enjoyment of everything.

    2) Line of sight issues. Some walls, floors, and roofs in the game do not properly block line of sight. This is especially evident in the urban city maps when you are trying to be on roofs. Firaxis should not have release the game with these issues in place.

    3) Chrysallids aren't the only bugs that will make you have a bad time. The game has numerous bugs and glitches. Some are as bad as completely ruining saves SO DO NOT TURN ON IRONMAN MODE (just do honest man instead). Others include animations not playing, damage numbers not showing, and etc.

    4) Some questionable/bad design choices: For example, you'll get voice over messages from a person during missions. He will say the exact same thing every mission and he says these things very often and the whole time he's talking you aren't allowed to do anything. So you have to sit there waiting, doing nothing while he says the same thing you've heard him say or the 20th time. Another example, the new HP bars are inferior to Enemy Unknown.

    5) Debatable: the music is worse than EU. This is of course subjective and some people think the music is good or is fine, but I'm pretty sure more people would agree that EU's music was superior.

    6) Debatable: the majority of missions involve timers or scenarios that force you to rush/run and gun. I'm on the fence on this issue. Some people say they're fine and people need to "git gud and not rely on overwatch crawling". I agree that XCOM should be very difficult and the round limits did make for some exciting escapes. I think though I would've preferred that instead of the vast majority of missions being about being fast and praying you don't trigger 3+ pods, that there be more missions with more lenient timers but with some other kind of difficulty that isn't rushing against the clock.

    The Good:
    Aside from the above, the game improves on EU in most every other aspect. The game could've been a real work of art if it didn't suffer from these issues.    … Expand
  2. Wesser
    Feb 6, 2016
    6
    In XCOM 2 every mission is a bomb defusal mission. Firaxis failed in their effort to artificially speed up the game through timers that are both explicit (turn counters) and implicit (civilians, objective defense, etc). And that's without mentioning the performance problems that plague the game as of now. XCOM 2 is a competent game that improves a lot of mechanics from EU, but at the sameIn XCOM 2 every mission is a bomb defusal mission. Firaxis failed in their effort to artificially speed up the game through timers that are both explicit (turn counters) and implicit (civilians, objective defense, etc). And that's without mentioning the performance problems that plague the game as of now. XCOM 2 is a competent game that improves a lot of mechanics from EU, but at the same time shoot itself in the foot because of some poor design decisions that turn the experience into something stressful and infuriating most of the time. While almost every piece of media praised the title, the user reviews both here and on Steam gravitate towards a 6/7 which is something to consider going forward.… Expand
  3. Mikethewolf
    Feb 7, 2016
    6
    I just want to say this review is 100% not about the bugs those will be fixed and i can deal with them
    .
    I am a long time Turn based game player. I thought Xcom:Enemy within was one of the best games i played in a long time . The long war add on/ expansion made it one of the best games I ever played (After some minor ini editing) I managed to beat the regular game on hard and long    I just want to say this review is 100% not about the bugs those will be fixed and i can deal with them
    .
    I am a long time Turn based game player. I thought Xcom:Enemy within was one of the best games i played in a long time . The long war add on/ expansion made it one of the best games I ever played (After some minor ini editing) I managed to beat the regular game on hard and long war on classic so im pretty good at the strategy games so when i say the following its with experiance and wisdom ;

    The devs took WAY to much of a page from the long war guys. Long war was made to be super hard but fun and while that what all the hard cores liked it was only 100k people that played it. Normally i am made about games catering to the masses and dumbing things down. But this time they took the opposite approach cator to the super hardcore. I am playing on normal (classic) and getting my ass handed to me at some points.

    First the games power creep for the bad guys so out paces you there are some points where a single unit can all of a sudden show up and if your not perfectly prepared for it it will wipe out half your squad on its own with your whole squad trying to take it out (I am looking at you Andy) This should not be again about following the perfect single path to get things done.

    So great you can try to play a bit more conservatively right....NOPE they put a timer on everything. A very short one that makes you constantly rush forward using very little startegy , often needing to rush through over watch or into areas you know where you will trigger another pod of bad guys while still fighting the first to reach the objective before the time runs out. So its a Tactics game that forces you to use limited tactics and rush most the time. When your not rushing the enemy i can basicly 1 hit your best guy with the best gear.

    Now the 2 things I have seen in other reviews that people try to counter 1) Probably not researching the right stuff) But seriously its not fun if you HAVE to follow a set path . Maybe i shouldnt of focused on weapons as much.
    2) you can mod the timers: Mods should not be a fix for a base game, they should be there to make a good game better.

    I should not be losing 4 out 6 guys on normal when not rushing when i can beat the other one on Hard/Iron-man with less losses .

    I just want a game that is a fun turn based strategy game that doesn't punish you for not following the exact perfect building/ research paths.

    Slow the game down a bit...less power creep , longer research maybe.    … Expand
  4. Bleeding
    Feb 6, 2016
    6
    I loved XCom: Enemy Unknown very much, it's one of the best games I ever played. XCom 2 is, unfortunately, a letdown. It's still a decent game, but terribly flawed. My most pressing issue with the game is that most of the missions now apply time-pressure to the player - which, when uses from time to time, like in XCOMEU, is a nice twist - but having a turn limit in 3 out of 4 missionsI loved XCom: Enemy Unknown very much, it's one of the best games I ever played. XCom 2 is, unfortunately, a letdown. It's still a decent game, but terribly flawed. My most pressing issue with the game is that most of the missions now apply time-pressure to the player - which, when uses from time to time, like in XCOMEU, is a nice twist - but having a turn limit in 3 out of 4 missions spoils the core, tactical gameplay. It forces you to push forward instead of following your own style and/or strategy. It also spoils the new concealment feature, which else would have been a great addition. While there are, no doubt, also some positive changes and additions, like a greater enemy diversity than ever and (most importantly) dynamically generated maps, there are also further drawbacks, even if none of them is as bad as the mission design. One to mention should be the terrible performance of the game - while the game looks good, it's really nothing special. And that's fine, XCom does not need to be a visually stunning game on the bleeding edge of technology. But still, it pushes even higher end hardware to its limits. To me, it seems this is what the developers meant by the advantages of targeting PC only: the ability to be lazy in optimizing your game as you can always push the player to invest into expensive hardware instead investing in a decent performing game yourself. But the main flaw, again, is the time-pressuring mission design, sucking all creative fun out of the gameplay most of the time. I happily prefer XCOMEU which much less sophisticated visuals and pre-defined map layouts anytime over XCOM 2. Because XCom is not about graphics, it's about gameplay - and this is the area where Firaxis unfortunately underperformed the most.… Expand
  5. joggy
    Feb 6, 2016
    6
    OK, I'm huge fun of x-com series, been playing since original x-com back in 90's.
    so, whats wrong here, why low score?
    - graphic: better than previous game, there's much more objects and scenery, so maps will look very different. Also, they are created right before you go in, so every time it will be different (not sure if this is true for story missions, didn't start new game). But    OK, I'm huge fun of x-com series, been playing since original x-com back in 90's.
    so, whats wrong here, why low score?

    - graphic: better than previous game, there's much more objects and scenery, so maps will look very different. Also, they are created right before you go in, so every time it will be different (not sure if this is true for story missions, didn't start new game). But its not great, its pretty but technically lacking. And hardware requirement is simply unimaginable for turn based strategy. You need a beast to play it without frame drops and on high details. That's just bad optimization.

    - gameplay: this title should be named: "xcom 2: prepare to die". Cause you will. A lot. In some missions I have to reload various saves for 3 hours in order to finally keep all team alive. Now, in my book this would be a good thing since in first xcom from 2k I didn't have a need for more soldiers, only dead were first 2 (or 3?) from tutorial. Game starts moderately difficult for first few hours, but then ramps up considerably. So whats the problem? Game isn't hard because enemies are smart or tactical in approach. They simply have way better stats than your soldiers and they outnumber you 4:1. The most basic trooper will hit you from 20 tiles away behind hard cover on elevated position with no problem whatsoever. 8 out of 10 times. Sectoids will wreak havoc in your ranks since their psionic hit chance is 100% and since you will be wounded in almost every mission your willpower will be nonexistent. Alien rangers can run up to you from beyond your field of vision and hit you with a sword.
    And forget about hiding behind the wall, they will shoot straight trough it. While I first thought this is cool idea since even weapons of today can shoot trough walls with no problem, later i realized that they don't have any penalties for shooting where they cannot see you. Also, they can shoot trough solid rock or cliffs like it is a wall. Their crit chance is waaaaay better than yours.
    It's actually very bad idea to try and remain concealed for too long because all enemies walk towards you (I tried this for several hours, they don't have patrol routes, they walk towards you), and if you delay action, you will be swarmed eventually. If you put all your squad on overwatch and then start combat with last one, you will lose 1 turn of action (this must be bug, so i guess it will be repaired).

    On a bright side there is still that good old "just one more turn" feeling, and i really hope that they will repair some obvious bugs with fields of vision.
    For a die hard fan of the series: go for it! For casual strategy gamer: wait 6 months 'till they update and optimize it, and buy it on sale. For non-strategy gamer: nothing to see here :(    … Expand
  6. Alsvha
    Feb 6, 2016
    7
    A Tactical Approach game which forces you to forego tactical approaches...... strange design choice.

    The game overall is quite decent actually. For me it looks good, plays well and there's seemingly a lot to do. However the mission design is poor as the game forces you to rush forward most of the time, which means you do not spend much time being tactical, but hoping for luck with    A Tactical Approach game which forces you to forego tactical approaches...... strange design choice.

    The game overall is quite decent actually. For me it looks good, plays well and there's seemingly a lot to do.

    However the mission design is poor as the game forces you to rush forward most of the time, which means you do not spend much time being tactical, but hoping for luck with the *miss* roll engine.

    It seems like a half a try and that the developers expect modders to fix their game.    … Expand
  7. ImJTHM
    Feb 6, 2016
    6
    XCOM 2 is a serviceable sequel that has a single major misstep that winds up nearly destroying the entire game around itself.

    Namely, a majority of the missions are on a turn limit. Remember those missions in Enemy Unknown that involved moving a train in a certain number of completely arbitrary turns? Yeah, that's the entire game now. Nearly every mission is complete and utter    XCOM 2 is a serviceable sequel that has a single major misstep that winds up nearly destroying the entire game around itself.

    Namely, a majority of the missions are on a turn limit. Remember those missions in Enemy Unknown that involved moving a train in a certain number of completely arbitrary turns? Yeah, that's the entire game now. Nearly every mission is complete and utter frustration as you try to savescum your way through the map to find where you need to go.

    The tactics in the game are just as solid as before, but with this completely forced speed on every level, I never felt comfortable actually trying the new stealth or ambush mechanics, because they took longer to complete than just sprinting around the map, trying to avoid the instant game over time limit.

    Once there's a mod to remove this, I'll get it. Until then, they've turned the game into a frustrating slog.    … Expand
  8. ChunkySaurus
    Feb 6, 2016
    6
    My biggest complaint about the game is the mission timer. Almost every mission now has an arbitrary turn limit. This takes away from the tactical feeling of the previous XCOM. It's also totally at odds with the guerrilla/ambush tactics the game wants you to use. Setting up a good ambush takes time and the game won't give it to you.

    The game is definitely not optimized. It performs    My biggest complaint about the game is the mission timer. Almost every mission now has an arbitrary turn limit. This takes away from the tactical feeling of the previous XCOM. It's also totally at odds with the guerrilla/ambush tactics the game wants you to use. Setting up a good ambush takes time and the game won't give it to you.

    The game is definitely not optimized. It performs poorly on my above-average rig and has tons of graphical glitches, choppy cut-scenes and inexplicable pauses in game-play. I hope they will fix most of these issues with some patches later on.

    If you enjoyed XCOM 1 with a gamepad, skip this one as they have dropped gamepad support. This is really infuriating because they had excellent gamepad support in the last game. So they actually took it out of the engine. It does support Steam controllers, if you have one of those. I bought one; it's not great. Almost every action requires using the trackpad like a mouse. They've totally missed the point of a gamepad .

    It's pretty disappointing to see such a sloppy sequel to an awesome game. I am sure it will get better over time. Once they patch out the graphical and performance issues and patch in proper gamepad support.    … Expand
  9. Robinjhoe
    Feb 6, 2016
    7
    XCOM 2 is pretty much an welcomed update of XCOM and XCOM Enemy Uknown.

    Lets start with the Soldiers. From the beginning you have 4 Soldiers, which gain Experience in battles and get promoted for their own calss. The classes are kind of the same as before but a bit changed ( Heavy has instead of a rocket launcher, a grenade launcher) The Weapons dont look like Toys anymore. The soldiers    XCOM 2 is pretty much an welcomed update of XCOM and XCOM Enemy Uknown.

    Lets start with the Soldiers. From the beginning you have 4 Soldiers, which gain Experience in battles and get promoted for their own calss. The classes are kind of the same as before but a bit changed ( Heavy has instead of a rocket launcher, a grenade launcher) The Weapons dont look like Toys anymore. The soldiers can be customized as before but they added that also for the Weapons.

    The Gameplay hasnt changed. But the fact that your are an underpowered Rebellion is pretty much existent at any time in the Game. They changed a lot of Enemys. Some are very powerful from the beginning and new Players will have their Problems.

    For myself I didnt expect a sequel at first but I was happy to see one. Nothing is better than the feeling of an hard fought victory.    … Expand
  10. Silverflame
    Feb 8, 2016
    4
    "Hey, Commander! I recently bought this new strategy game. It is called Chess - The X-Com 2 Edition!"

    "An X-Com 2 edition of chess?" the commander replied. "What's different about it, Colonel?" "I'll teach you. You can be the white knights of X-Com, I shall be the black Advent aliens." They started playing. "Ha, I've got you now!" the commander said, grinning, as his knight    "Hey, Commander! I recently bought this new strategy game. It is called Chess - The X-Com 2 Edition!"

    "An X-Com 2 edition of chess?" the commander replied. "What's different about it, Colonel?"

    "I'll teach you. You can be the white knights of X-Com, I shall be the black Advent aliens."

    They started playing.

    "Ha, I've got you now!" the commander said, grinning, as his knight attacked the colonel's bishop.

    "Not so fast! First we need to spin this." The colonel pointed to a roulette wheel that came in the box. "You see, whether a piece can take another piece is random! Fun!"

    The commander seemed unsure about this concept. "That makes no sense," he said. "My knight is clearly right in front of that bishop, and he is well trained, so why would he not succeed? Ah, whatever, just spin the damn wheel."

    A few minutes later, the commander's peasant moved close to the colonel's queen. Quickly, the colonel moved several pieces out of the way and placed a new knight on the board, which defeated the commander's peasant. The colonel was so into the game that he did all this in slow motion, like a kid playing with action figures.

    "What the hell did you just do, soldier?!"

    "Oh, that's a rule," the colonel said excitedly. "The black advents get free moves while it's your turn to play, and some newly appearing pieces even get to hit your pieces without the roulette wheel most of the time!"

    "Are you kidding me?!" the commander said, an incredulous look on his face. "This is not a strategy game if you have random events like this. And in a turn-based game, pay attention to whose turn it is! Oh, and for the love of advent burgers, stop with the slow motion and killing animations already! You're wasting my time!"

    "Sorry, commander, but these are the rules! You chicken? If you'd like, you can just reload your piece and try the same turn again until the outcome suits you. Hmm, come to think of it...basing a game on a probabilistic scheme should always lead people to reload, which means any such system ends up being tedious and no fun for most players. Ha! This is pretty dumb game design, ha ha ha!" The colonel beamed anyway, pretending it was just difficult and challenging.

    "I don't need no frickin reload!!"

    They continued playing, the commander getting more and more frustrated with the strange rules of the game. Despite all odds, he ended up devising an ingenious strategy, circumnavigating the defenses of his subordinate, when suddenly ...

    "Ooh, well," the colonel said. "You lose."

    "What?"

    "It has been 15 turns, and you have not defeated me yet, so you lose," the colonel explained. "Didn't I tell you? The white knights of X-Com only get a few turns to win the match. I already cheated on your behalf and gave you 7 more turns than normal."

    "What in the absolute hell?!" the commander yelled. "That is the dumbest thing I've heard since the incident with the microwave casserole at Black Mesa! On the one hand, I am supposed to devise a strategy to avoid your stupid rules, but on the other hand, you give me no time to do so and waste half of that with roulette! This is not chess, this is not a strategy game, this is a casino!"

    The colonel frowned and took a closer look at the box of the game. "Warning: May cause gambling addiction," he read. "Oh, so that's why I'm so hooked on this thing... Anyway, this casino-chess-simulator comes with a story, but it consists of many, many nearly identical matches like this, more time limits and forced gameplay, and I will also be compelled to explain your goal in every match as if you didn't know it already." The colonel smiled brightly. "We can try that, if you like -- you know, for the benefit of the story!"

    The commander sighed. "Is the story any good, at least? Proper characters that grow and change as the plot unfolds? A fine ending with a shocking twist, a clever idea at its base and an emotionally significant boss battle?"

    "Hmm..." The colonel's face fell a little. "Actually, at the end, I'm just going to throw a large number of pieces on the board for you to defeat, after which I shall act out a meaningless cutscene. The characters have as much personality as a sea slug and come from the planet of hats. Nothing else to it, I'm afraid. On the bright side, these chess pieces and the board are visually really impressive!"

    At that moment, a piece glitched through the table and fell in a stuttering motion to the floor.

    "Alright, that's it!", the commander yelled as he stood up. "I've had it with you and your badly designed games! We are going to use this one for target practice tomorrow! Star Wars Battlefront - The Board Game Edition, is relieved of this position immediately!"

    "Aye, aye, sir!"    … Expand
  11. Avadon
    Feb 7, 2016
    4
    XCOM 2 is challenging, but for the wrong reasons. Most of it comes from the randomness that exists as its core mechanic, from the level design (procedural), to hit chances, to turn limit sizes, to world map events. Whether you'll like it or not depends on what you want out of it.

    Personally, I'd prefer a more tightly designed game that is harder than this (more enemies in maps +bigger    XCOM 2 is challenging, but for the wrong reasons. Most of it comes from the randomness that exists as its core mechanic, from the level design (procedural), to hit chances, to turn limit sizes, to world map events. Whether you'll like it or not depends on what you want out of it.

    Personally, I'd prefer a more tightly designed game that is harder than this (more enemies in maps +bigger maps +more "puzzle-y" encounters), but without the timers and stress and RNG everywhere. I'd rather have developer-designed maps and missions with tough encounters where you need to utilize the terrain and your equipment in the right way, rather than proceduraly generated missions with a turn limit that is barely enough for you to sprint to the objective and destroy it, and then pray as the 4 pods that you aggroed along the way rain down on you from the ceilings and wipe out your entire squad while your overwatches miss. Only to go back to the world map and see the Avatar gaining its 3rd ping in the same week due to RNG dark events.

    XCOM 2 is overwhelming in a way that makes you feel helpless. Because you are. Better read some Reddit threads and restart the whole thing, doing only the absolutely most optimal things. Why do the rest of the options exist again?

    You can mod out all the crazy 8 turn limits and massive random spikes in Avatar progress though. Great. What you are left with then is an extremely easy game. Guess why. Because that's what it is. An extremely easy game, made hard only through RNG rigged to screw you as a core design philosophy. The encounters themselves are easy and the maps are poorly designed, like everything procedural. There's no actual depth. There are no "damn, I'm a genious" moments as you lure an overwhelming force back to a well fortified position with half of your squad lying in the perfect ambush. The game gives you no time to think. No time to strategize. No time to have fun.    … Expand
  12. gongal
    Feb 6, 2016
    3
    - Enemies see and attack through the walls
    - There's basicaly no height advantage since everyone can see everyone and aim perfectly through the roofs, walls etc.. more than ridiculous.
    - Patrols are triggered without seeing you, only because your guy noticed them 5 miles away - You noticed the enemy? Don't worry you won't get any tactical advantage since they always see you as well, get    - Enemies see and attack through the walls
    - There's basicaly no height advantage since everyone can see everyone and aim perfectly through the roofs, walls etc.. more than ridiculous.
    - Patrols are triggered without seeing you, only because your guy noticed them 5 miles away
    - You noticed the enemy? Don't worry you won't get any tactical advantage since they always see you as well, get a free turn to position themselves behind covers. Lazy lazy programming and ♥♥♥♥♥♥ design.
    - Removed secondary weapons because too much tactical depth. You have to reload your plastic guns every few turns.
    - There's nothing that makes sense for this game being a PC exclusive, as it's basicaly an overall dumbed down experience.
    - They were praising Long War all this time, but made basically no changes to the overall formula. There was a massive amount of improvements in Long War that they were very much unable to include in the sequel.
    - Turn timers for each mission...
    - No optimalization aka game runs like ♥♥♥
    - 3 of my soldiers were killed by exploding walls while shooting in the overwatch stance
    - Awesome Enemy Unknown music was replaced by a stereotypical hollywood strings.
    - You can't realistically hide in this game, because even if you are positioned behind a solid concrete building, waiting to ambush an enemy, you are instantly exposed and being shoot through the walls.

    I can't even imagine what kind of people design their games in firaxis. It's just unreal.    … Expand
  13. 21-5-73
    Feb 6, 2016
    3
    Things you could do in the original XCOM (1994) and you can't do anymore:

    1. Air combat, because now there is only one vehicle disposable. 2. Inventory management, because now your soldier can' Exchange or drop objects anymore. 3. Shoot more than 4 shots without going ot of ammo, because...? 4. Have several bases around the world, because aliens have conquered Earth and...? and they    Things you could do in the original XCOM (1994) and you can't do anymore:

    1. Air combat, because now there is only one vehicle disposable.
    2. Inventory management, because now your soldier can' Exchange or drop objects anymore.
    3. Shoot more than 4 shots without going ot of ammo, because...?
    4. Have several bases around the world, because aliens have conquered Earth and...? and they are so many there is no way to put up a base even in Antarctica or Gobi desert?
    5. Have a fighting team of more than 6 elements, because now you are a guerrilla leader, and...?
    6. Research more projects simultaneously, because you had several base with several laboratories and several teams, like it should logically be, and now your scientists can only work on one project at time, because...?
    7. Take enemies by surprise, catching them from behind, and now you can do it, but only once during concealment phase, then surprise a hidden enemy is no more possible, because when discovered, enemies automatically see you and go in cover mode.
    8. Plan you tactical battles carefully, using overwatch and advancing slowly to minimize risks, like every good soldier should do, and now it's too often not possible because you are on a turn limit that forces you to dash under enemy fire, because urgency really makes a game more tactical, or so the experts say.
    9. Have tanks fight alongisde human soldiers, using them as disposable scouts, mobile covers and heavy artillery, and now....?
    10. Have a balance in enemies progress, and now you have aliens who can revive their comrades and mind trick your soldiers in 2nd-3rd mission, because the world out there is cruel, and kids must learn frustration and videogames are the best Teachers.

    And I'm not even going to list all the bugs and glitches. Others have done it well enough.

    And now you know.    … Expand
  14. CockmageLVL99
    Feb 6, 2016
    3
    Here are my thoughts after 10 hours with this game. 10 hours of trying hard to like this game trying to forgive all those bugs and crahes and trying not to get mad when the game's state again is sent to no-responding-land. This is it, I'm done. This is not a kickstarter early access title. This hasn't been developed by a young studio with little money. This is a full priced triple A studioHere are my thoughts after 10 hours with this game. 10 hours of trying hard to like this game trying to forgive all those bugs and crahes and trying not to get mad when the game's state again is sent to no-responding-land. This is it, I'm done. This is not a kickstarter early access title. This hasn't been developed by a young studio with little money. This is a full priced triple A studio title.
    But even with a decent PC which runs games with similar (and better) graphics flawlessly, the performance is disastrous and btw I'm running medium settings. The framerate often drops so hard that it feels like playing crysis 2 on a gameboy. The UI responenses sluggishly. Clicking buttons in XCOM2 to me feels a bit like using a cheap Android smartphone from 10 years ago. XCOM2 graphics overall have not improved that much to justify those high system requirements. In addition I don't like the overall look and feel of the game. It often times is so hard to tell what is going on in this game. The levels are often dark and the colors don't vary much -its like an all dark blue, grey, black soup where you often try to find your soldier's and your foe's position. Don't get me wrong you CAN and WILL find characters but it is exhausting to do. Also because the camera is really bad. It acts like a monkey on steriods trying to capture a michael bay movie. I often times find little me trying to adjust the perspective with spinning and clicking the mouse wheel to zoom in and out and pressing q and e repeatedly for rotating back and forward to find a good view. It's just so unsatisfying.
    Sound design is quite ok but i personally would have liked it a lot more if characters from non english speaking countries would speak with their specific accent just like the characters from Jagged Alliance 2 back in the days. God I miss JA2 -a game where you actually are able to perform tactical decisions. In XCOM2 you now have a turn limit which forces you to rush forward with no cover and get face melted by the enemy.
    Oh and those bugs... god I am so sick of jumping cursors, displaced soldiers, blocked characters, shots through walls and all that stuff.

    If I were you I would wait a few more month until some patchwork has been done and non 2K-designers with a brain brought out a UI mod.    … Expand
  15. TsukasaHiiragi
    Mar 17, 2017
    0
    Vanilla Xcom 2 4/10 /// Modded Xcom 2 6/10
    TL:DR
    In some ways, better than EU but still no way near as good as the originals and without mods to rebalance the game, you'll find it frustrating. Firaxis needs to do better with this franchise, and as always don't listen to most of the critics and 10/10 reviewers, this is strictly for the fans of the reboot. After being a fan of the    Vanilla Xcom 2 4/10 /// Modded Xcom 2 6/10
    TL:DR

    In some ways, better than EU but still no way near as good as the originals and without mods to rebalance the game, you'll find it frustrating. Firaxis needs to do better with this franchise, and as always don't listen to most of the critics and 10/10 reviewers, this is strictly for the fans of the reboot.

    After being a fan of the original trilogy, let me rephrase that as a huge fan of the originals - the reboots have angered me greatly as they have not done any justice in my personal opinion, if anything - have been a travesty to the Xcom franchise and Xcom 2 is arguably the worst because not only do you have the same cheating AI with miraculous almost impossible shots to spawning extra alien squads at the worst possible times making some missions all but impossible to add further insults.

    A large chunk of missions are timed with very tight limits making a front frontal assault the only viable option to meet the limit and that method almost always puts your prized troops at risk with each and every mission. The balance of the game is just dreadful, along with EU the enemy units out class you, and out gun and out number you forcing you to rely on guerilla style tactics and ambushes, which is good and all, until the AI decides to cheat and shoot you through walls or shoot you half way across the map with near 100% accuracy.

    Xcom 2 complicates it even more with many different units this time, not to mention some of the classic ones returning, but in a beefed up version than before - even those pesky sectoids are considerably more dangerous now, and will PSI attack you all the time, often with very high success rates. Another very major problem is related to the avatar project, the aliens can power through construction sometimes making a game over situation possible just because you miss-managed your time, or didn't discover enough ways to slow down the project in time, this aspect in Xcom 2 doesn't work very well but luckily there are enough mods to balance this.

    Time Management is a huge problem, you hardly ever have time to breath in Xcom 2 without a new 'important' mission appearing that you must do, either extract VIPS, protect the rebels, attack dark sites and the list goes on and on and you hardly get any peace without being interrupted, it gets incredibly tiresome after the 200th cookie cutter mission has forced you to abandon your supply collections.

    Xcom 2 needs a huge amount of mods to essentially balance out the game, even with major rebalances almost to the point of outright cheating, the game can still be stressful and frustrating - essentially you'll be save scumming a lot if you become attached to your favorite crew.    … Expand
  16. raorian
    Feb 5, 2016
    9
    This is more of a summary of other reviews because people keep rating 0/10:
    +This is a great game in the tactical sense and why professional reviews love it.
    -Graphic design is bad according to most opinions. and isn't as good as in trailers. i think most people don't like the simplistic futuristic stuff. me too. -a lot of optimization issues and some people recommend waiting for    This is more of a summary of other reviews because people keep rating 0/10:
    +This is a great game in the tactical sense and why professional reviews love it.
    -Graphic design is bad according to most opinions. and isn't as good as in trailers. i think most people don't like the simplistic futuristic stuff. me too.
    -a lot of optimization issues and some people recommend waiting for patches before playing.
    I wait for patches anyway because crashing the game on ironman can be a serious pain.    … Expand
  17. Scritty
    Feb 6, 2016
    0
    Sneak into enemy base undetected after spending hours on a flight. Suddenly (again) you hear "Right we have 8 turns (2 minutes) to get in and out. No recce has been done, so rush in, press a button/hack a terminal/free a dweeb - whatever then rush out again. 1.2.3 TANK RUSH
    That is not tactical, it's not clever. it's
    NOT WHAT GUERILA WARFARE IS IN ANY WAY SHAPE OR FORM Real guerilla    Sneak into enemy base undetected after spending hours on a flight. Suddenly (again) you hear "Right we have 8 turns (2 minutes) to get in and out. No recce has been done, so rush in, press a button/hack a terminal/free a dweeb - whatever then rush out again. 1.2.3 TANK RUSH
    That is not tactical, it's not clever. it's
    NOT WHAT GUERILA WARFARE IS IN ANY WAY SHAPE OR FORM

    Real guerilla warfare is 90% about gathering the intelligence, setting the trap and getting into position

    YES... the actual firefight may be short and sharp, but the preparation is absolutely paramount - every rime

    There is no prep in this game. No time. On many maps the maths of the distance and your squads movement limit barely allows you to reach the objective at a full sprint.

    Ready steady TANK RUSH!!!!

    No guerilla warfare is fought like that. Not from a guerilla group that expects their troops to fight more than one battle it isn't. Recon, planning, set up then a short fire fight then out.
    Mad rush to objective is not the way small forces fight against large ones anywhere - ever.

    Why do they rely on this timer over and over again?
    Because the enemy AI is risibly poor and the sense of urgency and tension is completely and 100% down to the timer in the early game
    Later in the game enemies have uber HP levels (so the programmer typed a bigger number into the enemy HP when designing the game .. yeah, great - top strategy... yawn)
    Then their are the faces of your troops. OMG. Like melted waxworks. The extra detail only show cases how damn ugly they all are. YEUCH!!
    Real disappointment, Terrible design decisions destroyed the franchise for a second time after the Interceptor did almost 20 years ago.
    What a shame.    … Expand
  18. DonMega
    Feb 6, 2016
    6
    The game is decent for the first couple hours of game play but it gets boring very fast because it's extremely repetitive. There is too many missions and they are all the same.

    Graphics are nothing special. They are ok but could be better. The game feels very cartoony to me which I don't like. Other than that the game doesn't bring any spectacular new features. At full price of $80    The game is decent for the first couple hours of game play but it gets boring very fast because it's extremely repetitive. There is too many missions and they are all the same.

    Graphics are nothing special. They are ok but could be better. The game feels very cartoony to me which I don't like.

    Other than that the game doesn't bring any spectacular new features. At full price of $80 this game is not worth it. It also has first day dlc which is a let down. Wait till you can buy this for around $30.    … Expand
  19. HozzMidnight
    Feb 6, 2016
    4
    Promising but released way too soon. I literally can not recall the last game that gave me as much technical difficulties as XCOM 2.

    Very poor FPS on a system that ran Witcher 3 fine on Ultra@1080P. Worse than that, cutscenes that lead to hard locks, some that are 100% reproducible. Wait until there are multiple patches before picking this one up. No idea how this got a 91 from    Promising but released way too soon. I literally can not recall the last game that gave me as much technical difficulties as XCOM 2.

    Very poor FPS on a system that ran Witcher 3 fine on Ultra@1080P. Worse than that, cutscenes that lead to hard locks, some that are 100% reproducible.

    Wait until there are multiple patches before picking this one up. No idea how this got a 91 from the Critics given its current state.    … Expand
  20. Woohoohoo
    Feb 6, 2016
    3
    To say it briefly, XCom 2 is to turn-based strategy what Call of Duty is to first-person shooters (a corridor shooter with no gameplay freedom whatsoever).

    Golden age games (1994 Xcom, Jagged Alliance, etc) gave player full freedom to decide how game's going to play. XCom 2 is for some dumb reason very scared of this, and what you get is boundaries at every aspect. Numerous mods to    To say it briefly, XCom 2 is to turn-based strategy what Call of Duty is to first-person shooters (a corridor shooter with no gameplay freedom whatsoever).

    Golden age games (1994 Xcom, Jagged Alliance, etc) gave player full freedom to decide how game's going to play. XCom 2 is for some dumb reason very scared of this, and what you get is boundaries at every aspect. Numerous mods to those games which expand freedom even more should be very clear message what players want. I guess people at 2K just don't care about this and imagine that average player is paralyzed, braindead and and of course, extremely bad player.
    No ammo, inventory management is basically non-existing, and even seemingly free movement on globe is constantly broken up by game forcing you with "critical" missions. I swear it took 6 times to finish one "contact rebels" quest (which takes 4 game days) due my Avenger being constantly called off to the other side of world due some "crisis". The game even forces you to have full squad all the time, unless you take time to manually remove soldiers each time before mission. Why?

    XCom remake wasn't good game to begin with - compared to original, and they just managed to dumb this down and restrict player even more. For a PC exclusive, I also wonder why almost whole tactical combat can be played with plain keyboard... in 2016.

    Storyline is rushed and interesting for maybe 10-year old, especially insultingly bad ending with some Dragonball Z or whatever going on. Science is not interesting (unlike in 1994 original or recent Xenonauts) and I found myself not even reading at research results after few tries. Game is ridden with bugs and runs very choppily here and there. Final mission is harder than one in XCom: Terror from the Deep, and that is saying a lot!

    Graphics look like it were developed for Playstation 2, but still pop-in and break at any chance. Music, now without Michael McCann, feels mostly like stock hollywood "heroic scene" soundtrack, which also kills all and any mood previous game had and doesn't even come close to "Fear simulator" the 1994 game had.

    Long story short, get Jagged Alliance 2, install 1.13 patch and you'll forget XCom 2 existed in about 5 minutes. Forever.    … Expand
  21. Metacri01
    Feb 6, 2016
    6
    I like the previous game a lot but not this one, at least for now, because I really dislike the "turns limitation"(timer), 8 turns to do this, 12 turns to do that, or you're screw..., what a tactical new "feature", it's almost a game breaker for me, so I'll keep the negative review unless the developers can make some changes, such as provide an option to disable it or decrease the missionI like the previous game a lot but not this one, at least for now, because I really dislike the "turns limitation"(timer), 8 turns to do this, 12 turns to do that, or you're screw..., what a tactical new "feature", it's almost a game breaker for me, so I'll keep the negative review unless the developers can make some changes, such as provide an option to disable it or decrease the mission ratio which has timer in them.

    Another thing, the characters faces in customization need some improvements,too, especially females, most of them are just too ugly, I can't bond with my team mates if I cannot even stand with their looks.
    Yes, they're soldiers/warriors, but that doesn't mean they have to be ugly.    … Expand
  22. ZetarXenil
    Feb 5, 2016
    4
    What seemed to be great game, turned out to be another good concept buried under the pile of frustrating bugs, poorly executed mechanics and other annoyances. Game runs really bad, you can frequently get stuck on some of the menus and the amount of bugs is just enormous. They didn't even fix bugs that existed 4 years ago, back in Enemy Unknown. We live in sad times, once again promisingWhat seemed to be great game, turned out to be another good concept buried under the pile of frustrating bugs, poorly executed mechanics and other annoyances. Game runs really bad, you can frequently get stuck on some of the menus and the amount of bugs is just enormous. They didn't even fix bugs that existed 4 years ago, back in Enemy Unknown. We live in sad times, once again promising game gets ruined by the laziness of the devs.… Expand
  23. kharnikhal
    Feb 6, 2016
    4
    Under no circumstances is this game even a 7/10. I played about 5 or 6 hours before uninstalling

    It runs horribly. My rig GTX770, Xeon E3-1231v3, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD (runs Fallout 4 high/very high quite comfortably). I turned AA and AO off, turned rest of the settings to medium, and it still runs like crap. Constant fps drops, hangs, graphical glitches, jarring microstuttering, you name    Under no circumstances is this game even a 7/10. I played about 5 or 6 hours before uninstalling

    It runs horribly. My rig GTX770, Xeon E3-1231v3, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD (runs Fallout 4 high/very high quite comfortably). I turned AA and AO off, turned rest of the settings to medium, and it still runs like crap. Constant fps drops, hangs, graphical glitches, jarring microstuttering, you name it.

    Most of the missions are now timed, which means you usually have about 8-12 turns to complete a mission. This heavily encourages running and gunning, which in turn means that you will lose a lot of squad mates, and if you want to keep them alive, well you have to reload the entire mission so you get new RNG-seeds for the enemy shots, and pray to RNGeesus that they dont hit you.

    No more tactical advancement, no more strategy, just run in, shoot aliens, hope that you hit them, rinse and repeat. The game also puts in sectoids against you right from the second mission. They can mind control, raise dead soldiers (which get a HP boost because **** you thats why), use panic attacks, and oh they also have 8 HP (your starting weapons deal 3-5dmg, usually 3 though), and they usually run deep into cover, inside a building where they cant be killed, while they destroy your squad with Psionic attacks that have 100% accuracy. Sounds fair, no?

    Did you get frustrated in the previous X-Com, when the aliens, once discovered, could freely run to cover on YOUR turn? Well, dont worry, because they still do that in X-Com 2 too! The only time this doesnt happen is when your squad is in concealment, but the missions never give more than 2 or maybe 3 enemies to shoot from concealment, and there's no way to regain the concealment. Then you advance on the map, you discover another group of 3 aliens, and off they go, sprinting to cover for free. Because **** you, thats why.

    On the starter weapons you have 4 shots before you have to reload, which further slows you down, because again, yep you guessed, **** you thats why. This couldve easily been 5 or 6 shots.

    Enemies get reinforcements on almost all missions, and you never know where the dropship comes in from, usually behind you, and then, yep you guessed it, they get free movement to cover while they flank you. And you know the reason why.

    An example mission: Need to get to EVAC zone, 3 turns left before mission fails, one of your squad mates is already dead, others on low HP. 2 enemies ahead, between you and the EVAC zone. And boom, reinforcements from the back (they literally appear out of the dark), now you have no cover anywhere on the map, clock is ticking, each enemy shot kills a squad mate, and how did I forget to mention that one of the mission objectives was "Extract all X-Com soldiers", which mean if one of them dies, you have to pick the corpse up (and you cant shoot when youre carrying a body), and get it to the EVAC zone.

    That was mission 3, btw, about 1,5hrs in the game, while youre still in starter gear, starting weapons, starter everything.

    I dont have a problem with challenging games, but only if the challenge is fair. This game is just dice rolling, in timed missions, against superior numbers, superior gear, and superior skill-moves all the time.    … Expand
  24. uglyNobody
    Feb 7, 2016
    4
    This is the first time I am writing a real negative review for a game. A game I really wanted to enjoy.

    I know XCOM can be a tough game to play. But this time the word "tough" needs to be replaced with whatever suits the following: - I started playing the game on the third of the four difficulty levels, because I know the first game and wanted an intense gameplay experience. I    This is the first time I am writing a real negative review for a game. A game I really wanted to enjoy.

    I know XCOM can be a tough game to play. But this time the word "tough" needs to be replaced with
    whatever suits the following:

    - I started playing the game on the third of the four difficulty levels, because I know the first game
    and wanted an intense gameplay experience.
    I realized that the aim percentage you see while attacking an enemy is seemingly reduced by 15-20% because of the difficulty level. I missed four out of five shots when the percentage was between 65-80%. Long story short: no fun - executing tactics where a disaster. I perfectly flank an enemy to kill him, I miss and get kicked right away losing one of my best soldiers.

    - I started overs four times before I realized, I would have to lower the difficulty. Did that, enjoyed two hours of gameplay, until I went through a routine mission with the first time facing the snake like enemy. The moment one of my soldiers was grabbed and pulled to the this enemy through three walls without any line of sight was the moment I just had to quit this game and give it this review.

    My conclusion unfortunately is that this game is unplayable if you like a strategic challenge, because the game just does not let you execute any strategy - it just keeps kicking you in the face from out of nowhere.

    If you like the story and do not bother about the gameplay experience to much, then play on Rookie and go ahead.

    Definitely not recommended. A pity.    … Expand
  25. Ignibus
    Feb 6, 2016
    0
    After years of using metacritic I finally joined JUST to pan this PoS game. I can't take it...85% (and that is -not- an exaggeration) are timed missions (missions that have parts are all that must be completed in a certain number of turns). To add insult to this injury the loot despawns after three turns...not three turns AFTER it drops but three turns including the turn it drops.After years of using metacritic I finally joined JUST to pan this PoS game. I can't take it...85% (and that is -not- an exaggeration) are timed missions (missions that have parts are all that must be completed in a certain number of turns). To add insult to this injury the loot despawns after three turns...not three turns AFTER it drops but three turns including the turn it drops. Seriously.

    I have no idea what the devs were thinking and why they feel that forcing people to rush recklessly across the map is 'fun'. It is NOT fun to play well only to be forced to run double moves and BAM...right in to a pod.

    Seriously, is this a joke? Are you all just swimming around naked in a pile of our money laughing at us? Clearly your plan to release preview copies to critics that only allowed them to play for a month worked! Look at that metascore! Well, enjoy the free fall of the user score.    … Expand
  26. Buttpuncher
    Feb 6, 2016
    6
    Once you mod away the arbitrary timer which restricts the number of turns you have to finish a mission, it's not a bad game at all. Combat is much harder and the base/worldmap feels completely different, although it's built on the same basic principles as the previous Xcom games.
  27. Bobsagoth
    Feb 5, 2016
    2
    First time reviewing game here due to this unoptimized pile of game. Not giving this zero as there are some elements that i kinda like in here but the sum of all not so good elements is far greater that the positives.

    To get started the first thing that puts me off from this is the enemy movement. Setting up ambushes and the triggering the end of concealment is ok but having    First time reviewing game here due to this unoptimized pile of game. Not giving this zero as there are some elements that i kinda like in here but the sum of all not so good elements is far greater that the positives.

    To get started the first thing that puts me off from this is the enemy movement. Setting up ambushes and the triggering the end of concealment is ok but having reinforcements drop in byt transport and then allowing enemies to move into position is not.

    Then the ammo capacity. 2k apparently did the exactly opposite what is even close to realistic and made clip size even smaller that was in Xcom 1. Which is just horse manure. Point me to a soldier with AR who wastes clip with 4 shots. And 1 grenade (without perks) oh really?

    What comes to timed missions can understand that they create sense of urgency but yet again the presentation is greatly flawed as the mission just ends stating that xcom was disbanded and everything went to hell. Then why the F"@# they send only 4 soldiers with equipment for one to mission so important that resistance and humanity ends if it fails, yet spend time designing fancy looking avenger and armour. Yes i know these are design choices by devs but to me it show how little they put thought onto this particular thing and instead made roller-coaster ride out of turn based tactical game.

    I might be able to live with some of the choices made while developing this game but the condition it was released is just shameful. I can't understand how it runs so poorly (i could play Fallout 4 without problems) and has so many bugs and yet it looks just the same as xcom 1. Seems that every site that reviewed it and gave max scores have forgotten that not everyone has ultra gaming rig and developers have forgotten to optimize this because of how scalable pc is. In that regard i would've liked to see console version as that would've forced devs to optimize this a bit.

    All in all.
    + idea behind the game

    - Presentation (enemy movement during our turn, ammo clips size, equipment capacity, shooting thru walls, etc)
    - Bugs and glitches    … Expand
  28. sickysickybrah
    Feb 7, 2016
    10
    Alien attacks my soldier and causes him to panic.
    My soldier turns around and throws a grenade blasting his squadmates and blowing their cover.
    Enemies finish off my squad. It's ironman mode and I am now doomed and must restart. How I love XCOM! 11/10 will die again Game is awesome-If you like XCOM 1 or tactical turn based strategy, it's a must have. Compared to XCOM 1:    Alien attacks my soldier and causes him to panic.
    My soldier turns around and throws a grenade blasting his squadmates and blowing their cover.
    Enemies finish off my squad.
    It's ironman mode and I am now doomed and must restart.
    How I love XCOM!

    11/10 will die again

    Game is awesome-If you like XCOM 1 or tactical turn based strategy, it's a must have.

    Compared to XCOM 1:
    -improved graphics
    -better story
    -more and better cutscenes
    -same edge of your seat difficulty
    -new soldier types and upgrades
    -tons of facility improvements and research
    -more destructible environments (i.e. threw a grenade at an enemy on the roof and roof blew apart making him fall to first floor)

    I have not experienced any performance issues that many are giving bad ratings for. My rig is: i7 4770k, 7970 ghz card, 16gb ram. It runs great at max settings.

    I honestly feel the game deserves a 9.5/10. It's almost perfect in my opinion. Tactical strategy games are my favorite genre, so YMMV    … Expand
  29. itmo
    Feb 5, 2016
    4
    Not sure how this game is getting 100%, which equates to a perfect game, when it has more bugs than a bethesda release and I am already over the timed missions. I have done 8 missions so far, and 7 have had a turn limit imposed. The missions are getting boring after 5 hours of play. There are basically 2 mission types, they are, get to the objective within 6 turn, then kill anyNot sure how this game is getting 100%, which equates to a perfect game, when it has more bugs than a bethesda release and I am already over the timed missions. I have done 8 missions so far, and 7 have had a turn limit imposed. The missions are getting boring after 5 hours of play. There are basically 2 mission types, they are, get to the objective within 6 turn, then kill any remaining enemy forces, or, kill all enemy forces and take as long as you want. The stealth mechanic in the game sounds nice but is a pointless element that hasn't been fully developed. In reality, the stealth concept hasn't added anything to the so called strategy part of this strategy game. I am still not sure why the enemy gets a free movement turn during your turn when they discover you, this really makes the whole stealth concept stupid and irreverent. This was a big annoyance for me in the previous game, when the enemy discovers you, they get to move all their units into cover during your turn. Really breaks the immersion and idea of creating a strategy of getting the enemy caught in a cross fire as they can just run off behind some cover. The looting system is a dumbed down element from the previous game, it doesn't matter if you use explosives to kill enemy's , you still get all their crap, corpses, upgrades etc. The graphics issues list is a large one, there are camera issues, line of sight issues, shot through 3 walls issues, see through walls issues, excessive loading times during the missions and loading in and out of missions. In it's current state it is almost unplayable, another game release that doesn't work, just add it to the list. The gaming industry is in an absolute shambles atm.… Expand
  30. 21grams
    Feb 16, 2016
    6
    I'm re-writing this review after beating the game (giving slightly higher score than initially)
    So this game was rushed with release and has many problems, it doesn't feel completely finished and polished. So you should seriously consider whether to buy it in such state or wait for more serious patching.
    THE BAD. 1) this game has serious optimization issues - the fps in this game is    I'm re-writing this review after beating the game (giving slightly higher score than initially)
    So this game was rushed with release and has many problems, it doesn't feel completely finished and polished. So you should seriously consider whether to buy it in such state or wait for more serious patching.

    THE BAD.
    1) this game has serious optimization issues - the fps in this game is all over the place, jumps between 25 and 80 on decent rig that tops recommended settings by quite some (and not, it's not even max settings). Anti-aliasing solutions are super heavy taxing, except FXAA which is good as nothing. The game has no triple buffering for vsync, and because fps is very unstable, you jump between 30 and 60 periodically, or if you decide to turn off vsync, you have massive screen tearing - again because of very unstable fps. The game runs poorly, even it's not visually exceptional in any way. And this game is not even a consolish port done by some 3rd party rookie studio.

    2) Glitchy camera, some weird issues with line of sight and other minor issues that were not resolved from previous installment. Like shouting thru walls, floors and other objects which are confusing and break the immersion.

    3) the game has some very bad design choices and some balance issues. Timed missions are very badly designed, they not make the game much harder, but definitely make it more stupid and leave with less options for your strategy and tactical decisions.

    4) Balance is bad in a lot of cases only because of how poorly RNG is designed, which acts in very weird way - you can reload multiple times and same action will have same result - RNG is predefined, the dice is not rolled when you take specific action.. I failed a mission because I missed 95% at point blank situation (seriously), there was no time for backup plan since it was timed mission.. There are so many things in this game that don't increase the difficulty fairly, but instead make it unfairly frustrating.

    THE GOOD.
    Now with some more and less serious issues this game still can be good and fun. Overall mission design is great, tho later on I'd say it becomes easier and easier as you progress (except maybe final mission which I liked a lot, now this is what I call proper challenge). The customization is satisfying and you unlock many items and gadgets to play with. Game is pretty flexible here. Now gameplay itself would be really great if not earlier mentioned glitches and weird RNG, but it's manageable. Also I loved the whole presentation, they put good effort into it - like mission launcher, returning from mission, showing injured squad members etc. There is a lot of nice detail to it.

    Final note: I don't thing games in such state should be released. Things should be sold when they are finished and meet certain criteria of overall quality. I was even considering a refund, because I don't like to pay for unfinished games and here is that case. So if someone still consider buying it, think twice about issues this game has!    … Expand
  31. mayuyuyukirin
    Feb 5, 2016
    10
    Welcome back commander!
    +Good combat abilities
    +More enemies
    +Mod support
    +More soldier customization
    +Better story

    -Bug
    -Performace Issues

    Score 9.5/10
  32. hmkunzmann
    Feb 5, 2016
    7
    + Nice strategic map gameplay improvements over previous version
    - unskippable cut scenes
    - bad performance, constant mini-hangs, long loading times, need to wait all the time despite top of the line hardware. - high difficulty & learning curve, no useful tutorial help to introduce strategies for new aliens & new challenges. Missions constantly require you to rush... I like hard but    + Nice strategic map gameplay improvements over previous version
    - unskippable cut scenes
    - bad performance, constant mini-hangs, long loading times, need to wait all the time despite top of the line hardware.
    - high difficulty & learning curve, no useful tutorial help to introduce strategies for new aliens & new challenges. Missions constantly require you to rush... I like hard but combined with the two items above it gets frustrating to no end

    Overall very disappointing - am hoping it will be much better after a few patches.
    Yet another game where I wonder how the game site reviewers all rate it so high. No credibility & integrity at all.    … Expand
  33. sherbz
    Feb 5, 2016
    10
    Quite simply the game is brilliant. It looks gorgeous, it plays very well, and it is one hell of a challenge. If you liked X COM the original, then you simply have to buy this. They have improved practically everything about the original. This feels more much more dynamic. Gone are the days of satellite spamming your way to victory. This game provides meaningful choices throughout soQuite simply the game is brilliant. It looks gorgeous, it plays very well, and it is one hell of a challenge. If you liked X COM the original, then you simply have to buy this. They have improved practically everything about the original. This feels more much more dynamic. Gone are the days of satellite spamming your way to victory. This game provides meaningful choices throughout so that you really dont know which way you want to go. And i think that many different paths to victory will be possible. I think this is probably the best looking turn based game we have ever seen. Kudos to Firaxis on a job well done. A sure contender for game of the year. The only thing that slightly spoils it are a few buggy camera angles and some dodgy hang times, but you can forgive it that as they dont spoil the fun. And it is in infinitely better shape than most games when released. But the real gem of this is the mods. Oh my goodness what a year we have in store.… Expand
  34. Gareque
    Feb 5, 2016
    9
    Of the negative reviews I read, they seemed to be primarily "The game is too hard..." or "It runs like crap..."

    I am not saying the game runs without a hitch (hence the 9, rather than 10) but I get a strong feeling that the people saying this is making the game unplayable are playing it on **** rigs... I turned it down to high because I got a few drops in FPS when new enemies spawned    Of the negative reviews I read, they seemed to be primarily "The game is too hard..." or "It runs like crap..."

    I am not saying the game runs without a hitch (hence the 9, rather than 10) but I get a strong feeling that the people saying this is making the game unplayable are playing it on **** rigs... I turned it down to high because I got a few drops in FPS when new enemies spawned and some in the loading screens. Being turn based, NONE of this makes it unplayable... The game runs absolutely fine for me now, only very minor drops.

    As for difficulty... It's XCOM ffs. Don't jump in to a game that's designed to be difficult and then complain it's too hard and thus mark it down... A 1-3 is for genuinely 'bad' games, not because the reviewer sucks at it...

    I've been playing for 4 hours and have not yet lost a soldier (granted I currently sit with 4-5 out for the next 2 weeks, but that's expected) so no, the sectoids are NOT that hard to beat, even with the backup...

    Anyways, rant over stupid reviews over...

    Graphics - Not great, but they don't need to be. The art style is nice and fitting with the previous game, so in short it isn't ground breaking, but looks nice.

    Gameplay - Same as XCOM, little more difficult but not much so far. (Not X-Com - By that, I mean it doesn't have the "OMG I am going to smash my PC" of the originals, when a sectoid blows your entire team up as soon as you step off the lander).

    Story - Couldn't say yet, not far enough in but I'm enjoying it so far.

    Launch - Shaky, but not game breaking.

    As a staunch fan of XCOM and its predecessors, I can not recommend this enough IF you like the style of games.    … Expand
  35. Flendomo
    Feb 5, 2016
    10
    Absolutely one of the best games I've played in three years.

    I will not derate a game over minor bugs on launch (Almost every game has some problems at start) This is a fresh blow of air in the right direction, the gameplay is stunning, the new mechanics is stunning, the story is stunning. All in all, 9/10¨ Whether or not you find this useful, try remembering that prejudice over    Absolutely one of the best games I've played in three years.

    I will not derate a game over minor bugs on launch (Almost every game has some problems at start)

    This is a fresh blow of air in the right direction, the gameplay is stunning, the new mechanics is stunning, the story is stunning.

    All in all, 9/10¨
    Whether or not you find this useful, try remembering that prejudice over simple quirky bugs upon release day is rather foolish as there has hardly been one game without flaw upon release these past years.    … Expand
  36. kozzy420
    Feb 5, 2016
    10
    Better than Enemy Unknown in every single aspect. It isn't perfect though as there are some performance issues and some bugs. Still the performance issues are just one aspect of the game, everything else is vastly improved over Xcom EU. From the improved combat, to improved base building, to the new concealment aspect and so much more. This is how you do a sequel! Improve everything!Better than Enemy Unknown in every single aspect. It isn't perfect though as there are some performance issues and some bugs. Still the performance issues are just one aspect of the game, everything else is vastly improved over Xcom EU. From the improved combat, to improved base building, to the new concealment aspect and so much more. This is how you do a sequel! Improve everything!

    Yes the performance issues suck, but this is one thing out of so many things this game does perfect. If you love turn based games or the Xcom series, pick this up ASAP or if you are on the fence maybe wait for a patch or two to come for the performance issues.

    Nothing gamebreaking but it can be annoying, especially when everything else in the game is so damn well made.    … Expand
  37. armchairjerk
    Feb 6, 2016
    4
    If you can try this game out before buying it. Very glad I was able to do so before wasting money on this. Maybe with the future DLC and GOTY edition I will change my mind, till then im sad i wasted 4 hours on it.
  38. testiq12345
    Feb 5, 2016
    10
    While in need of some optimization, overall XCOM 2 is huge leap forward for the franchise that should please both new and old fans alike!

    PS Turning off MXSAA should help with FPS.
  39. vendeta
    Feb 5, 2016
    10
    Xcom 2 is one of the best strategies in history,the same as xcom only 20 cooler at all.Yes optimization is lame,but I think I will correct in the patches.
  40. ScienceAdvisor
    Feb 6, 2016
    3
    Hit expand to see this with proper spacing. Metacritic threw a 503 error and erased my original review. Since most of it was a warning about the poor design/performance, this will just be a point form listing of the cons (too few pros to waste time on). This could never *honestly* be considered a 10/10, even with a reviewer optimized copy unless you are essentially brain-dead as to whatHit expand to see this with proper spacing. Metacritic threw a 503 error and erased my original review. Since most of it was a warning about the poor design/performance, this will just be a point form listing of the cons (too few pros to waste time on). This could never *honestly* be considered a 10/10, even with a reviewer optimized copy unless you are essentially brain-dead as to what the term gameplay means. Anyone claiming the gameplay is the same as the previous release clearly has not played this.

    Cons

    -Performance Issues

    -Run&Gun as missions are ~85% timed now (artifical and pathetic attempt at difficulty or suspense). This also eliminates the value of all but two classes.

    -Little-to-no tactics or strategy (see Run&Gun)

    -Many silly/lazy gameplay elements (RNG used without consideration or believability) both in, and out of combat

    -Scripted elements within the the missions (spawns), and the way the game unfolds at a pace that is far too quickly advanced, robs this of much of XCom 2's advertised replayability

    -No active Physically Based Render engine as it looks nearly identical to their original game, just with higher resolution textures that are not nearly as realistic as the procedurally generated GTA5 car paint-jobs

    Mods will be needed to save this, as Firaxis has shown it does not have a clue. So much for all their promises about listening to fans of the Long War mod. Collapse    … Expand
  41. AlexJB
    Feb 5, 2016
    0
    This game has a very high difficulty curve and many features which together make this game very frustrating.

    One of the first aliens you encounter are Sectoids, while your trying to kill them with your rookie soldiers, he can mind control up to two of them and reanimate any dead. To regain control of your soldiers, you can kill the sectoid, which is almost impossible when he is    This game has a very high difficulty curve and many features which together make this game very frustrating.

    One of the first aliens you encounter are Sectoids, while your trying to kill them with your rookie soldiers, he can mind control up to two of them and reanimate any dead. To regain control of your soldiers, you can kill the sectoid, which is almost impossible when he is accompanied with other troops and sectoids.

    Many missions are timed, forcing you to rush your moves, which can get you killed. This is worse when you are trying to save civilians. There are also long waiting times on the ai turn, leaving you with nothing to do but twiddle your thumbs.

    In conclusion I can’t recommend this game, waste of money and frustrating experience.

    If they can balance it by having a gradual increase in difficulty and tweaking things like the timer, then you might have a game worth playing.    … Expand
  42. Joote
    Feb 14, 2016
    0
    20 hours and I can confirm that this game is a pile of cheating junk, but it looks pretty and has nice character generation. So it depends what turns you on.
  43. Winterspark
    Feb 6, 2016
    2
    The good:
    - nice strategic gameplay (when you get there)
    The bad: - load times are insanely long (Witcher, Tomb Raider, etc. are way faster on my machine) - Enemy difficulty seems mismatched with your crew (multiple psychic aliens on first level) - You spend so much time doing admin in your ship which takes forever, especially when you have to constantly try to skip through endless    The good:
    - nice strategic gameplay (when you get there)

    The bad:
    - load times are insanely long (Witcher, Tomb Raider, etc. are way faster on my machine)
    - Enemy difficulty seems mismatched with your crew (multiple psychic aliens on first level)
    - You spend so much time doing admin in your ship which takes forever, especially when you have to constantly try to skip through endless animations and cut scenes
    - The NPCs won't shut the f**k up
    - no controller support, rebinding keys is broken
    - difficult to keep track of things on the battlefield due to some poor colour variation

    Basically they have taken all the things that made enemy within/unknown good and buried it beneath layers and layers of pointless animations, cut scenes, loading screens. Its a bit like trying to watch a program on MTV. Its probably quite good but there is so much filler and padding it ends up being a waste of time.    … Expand
  44. upThere
    Feb 5, 2016
    9
    I really enjoyed the entirety of XCOM: Enemy Unknown. Good game design is my thing - and the combination of suspenseful tactical combat with strategic base/resource management achieves a campaign way more than the sum of it's parts. Firaxis' design is flawless. I've only played 4 hours of XCOM 2, but so far this game has delivered at or above my expectations in every meaningful way - II really enjoyed the entirety of XCOM: Enemy Unknown. Good game design is my thing - and the combination of suspenseful tactical combat with strategic base/resource management achieves a campaign way more than the sum of it's parts. Firaxis' design is flawless. I've only played 4 hours of XCOM 2, but so far this game has delivered at or above my expectations in every meaningful way - I can't wait to uncover more!… Expand
  45. RedWallcreeper
    Feb 5, 2016
    10
    It is a very cool game with a tactical missions which makes you think strategically and think twice about every your step, This is exactly what I want to feel from a strategy. Good Job!
  46. Marq
    Feb 5, 2016
    10
    Great game. It's a more fast paced version of the first but with more goodies and customization. Though this one has way more surprises than the first.
  47. obamonkey
    Feb 5, 2016
    10
    If you take a look at the bad reviews, they're mostly by console gamers who're enamored with COD and BF, and who're complaining that this game is punishing. This game isn't a first person shooter. This game is also going to be difficult. If you're expecting to walk over the enemy AI, you're going to have a bad time.

    Pros: - Complex strategic layer - Amazing randomized map generation    If you take a look at the bad reviews, they're mostly by console gamers who're enamored with COD and BF, and who're complaining that this game is punishing. This game isn't a first person shooter. This game is also going to be difficult. If you're expecting to walk over the enemy AI, you're going to have a bad time.

    Pros:
    - Complex strategic layer
    - Amazing randomized map generation
    - Solid story
    - Good/Not great graphics
    - Extremely moddable
    - Difficult and challening

    Cons:
    - Small bugs here and there that should get patched in the next couple of days    … Expand
  48. Koelatath
    Feb 5, 2016
    0
    No thanks. Always hang the course after every motion of any character, even though the enemy, meditation games for about 1 minute. But at least it is. So even animation twitching all the time. What is very annoying. Drawdowns FPS 5-6 also enrage. problem even in the menu. Translations into other languages ​​are sometimes inaccurate, and the letters do not match the fonts. In multiplayer,No thanks. Always hang the course after every motion of any character, even though the enemy, meditation games for about 1 minute. But at least it is. So even animation twitching all the time. What is very annoying. Drawdowns FPS 5-6 also enrage. problem even in the menu. Translations into other languages ​​are sometimes inaccurate, and the letters do not match the fonts. In multiplayer, the fastest on the course of 45 seconds is as much as 6-10 minutes. And after a stroke can not even press the button, so you're foolish person waiting for the end of the course. So silly. Where optimization, hey? And the game has been tested on several PCs and a laptop. Everywhere it went very badly. The very same game and the plot is not bad ... but the same type and annoying timing that puts sometimes impossible mission. Oh, and random. Even on the easiest difficulty crit enemies that demolished my team for 2-3 turn. Thank you played.… Expand
  49. Skagi
    Feb 6, 2016
    0
    The game is FRUSTRATING. I can't help the feeling that the story is being forced upon me and I can't avoid it.
    So much time wasted because of some cut scenes / talking etc. XCOM Enemy Unknown was awesome, rules were laid out clearly in a few short steps. In XCOM 2 when I get to the fight I suddenly am stopped by some comment / objective spotted and I can't press escape to avoid it and    The game is FRUSTRATING. I can't help the feeling that the story is being forced upon me and I can't avoid it.
    So much time wasted because of some cut scenes / talking etc. XCOM Enemy Unknown was awesome, rules were laid out clearly in a few short steps. In XCOM 2 when I get to the fight I suddenly am stopped by some comment / objective spotted and I can't press escape to avoid it and continue playing, I have to wait. So far I dislike the campaign. I don't have the freedom I had in XCOM Enemy Unknown. THAT'S IRRITATING.    … Expand
  50. Paxton476
    Feb 21, 2016
    3
    Good points:
    Nice graphics and lots of potential for customization, particularly with mods.
    Bad points: Performance issues (lag, particularly in strategic mode ), which seem unrelated to another problem which is that the action is very poorly synchronized, with weird pauses after taking a shot and being spotted by an enemy, for example. Also several other minor bugs such as people    Good points:
    Nice graphics and lots of potential for customization, particularly with mods.

    Bad points:
    Performance issues (lag, particularly in strategic mode ), which seem unrelated to another problem which is that the action is very poorly synchronized, with weird pauses after taking a shot and being spotted by an enemy, for example. Also several other minor bugs such as people shooting through cover/away from target.
    Beyond these presumably fixable issues is an underlying repetitiveness in the game design that gets tedious fairly fast and may not necessarily be saved by modders.    … Expand
  51. saber7
    Feb 15, 2016
    5
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Why can't someone just make a 1:1 remake of the original with better graphics. Here is everything that's wrong with XCOM 2 as compared to the original (no the actual original. Not the first FIRAXIS game.)

    1. Solider limit. Seriously?
    2. Bases. Plural. Bases. BASES!
    3. Base invasion. The "base invasion" in XCOM 2 is a pathetic joke. It's just more of the same "blow up this thing" mission except now you have to defend your ramp. It doesn't even take place inside your base!
    4. Timers. There wasn't a single timer in the original's missions. This is a contrived way to create tension. The original is still way more tense than this game and they do it through atmosphere, music, and gameplay.
    5. Tactics. Most of the missions start you right on top of the enemy (literally in some cases) in XCOM 2. You can't move more than a few feet without the enemy spotting you and then running to cover (because why? Isn't it my freaking turn?) Then there's the timers that take the tactics out of most missions. Pathetic.
    6. Alien Bases. The bases in the original were huge, haunting, strange, and awesome. The bases in this game are a joke in comparison.
    7. Linearity. The linearity of this game and its story is repulsive. Then the overworld timers shove you down a path or else. Yeah that's fun.
    8. AVATAR. Seriously? When did video game designers start thinking it was fun to be nagged?
    9. Animations. The animations are cool .. the first time you see them. Then they are show stoppers and happen so often and are SO slow ... it really sucks the tension out of the air. "Am I going to miss? Aw dang it I don't care just shoot already!" Then the enemies have their response animations when they're shot. WHY!?
    10. Talking. The original didn't say a thing to me and I loved it. Why is there so much dam talking in this game and why does it pause the game so often while I listen to this drivel?
    11. TIME UNITS. This is the worst part of the remakes. Two moves? Seriously. What is the thinking behind this? "Gamers is so dumb nowadays that if they have more than two moves to contemplate their heads may asplode." Give me back my time units. My reserve for a snap shot. My auto fire. My aimed shot. MY CROUCH! BECAUSE ELITE SOLDIERS IN THE FUTURE CAN'T CROUCH!
    12. Ammo. "I cans only shoot three times before I have to reload cause this is the FUTURE"
    13. UFO crashes. Because hunting down stray aliens from a downed UFO is so 20th century.
    14. Management - No seriously. Can I manage my own inventory from my base and not have to fly TO the black market. Did they deinvent the post office? Can we send drones? Wait, don't they send the drones since we are buying stuff?
    15. Manufacturing. Wait, how does everyone have a magnetic rifle? I just bought one! Oh that's right I'ms too shtoopid to manage my manufacturing.

    The Pros

    1. Graphics - no wait. They are laggy. Pretty but laggy.
    2. Did I mention the graphics?

    Please someone just remake the original with pretty graphics and don't touch a thing on it. Don't try to make new creatures or weapons because YOU CAN'T BE TRUSTED! TRUST NO ONE.    … Expand
  52. vict116
    Feb 11, 2016
    5
    This is a game I followed since E3 and pre-ordered and loaded. The gameplay is great. The dynamics are similar to the first XCOM but now with more ramped-up enemies. I love how the map works.

    But as I played into the game, the system keeps hard-crashing and along that, has a whole lot of performance issues. I run on two video cards and it doesn't seem to utilize it either, while    This is a game I followed since E3 and pre-ordered and loaded. The gameplay is great. The dynamics are similar to the first XCOM but now with more ramped-up enemies. I love how the map works.

    But as I played into the game, the system keeps hard-crashing and along that, has a whole lot of performance issues. I run on two video cards and it doesn't seem to utilize it either, while taxing one GPU and heating up the other even after workarounds made in the GFX profile. If the game did crash so much, I would of saved hours trying to get this game to work.    … Expand
  53. capthavic
    Feb 9, 2016
    5
    While I'll be the first to admit to not being an MLG Pro or master tactician, I think it's fair to say the game has an unreasonably steep difficulty curve, even more so than in the previous game. The issue is not that the game is challenging, rather that it's cheap/artificial difficulty spawned from poor balance and wonky shooting. The timer mechanic is not a bad idea but often felt tooWhile I'll be the first to admit to not being an MLG Pro or master tactician, I think it's fair to say the game has an unreasonably steep difficulty curve, even more so than in the previous game. The issue is not that the game is challenging, rather that it's cheap/artificial difficulty spawned from poor balance and wonky shooting. The timer mechanic is not a bad idea but often felt too strict and far too common. The whole game feels like you are being rushed, whether its to reach an objective in time or getting pulled into a mission while trying to do something else or just against the "doom counter" hanging over your head. Again it comes down to an issue of balance that game can't manage to find.

    To be fair the concept and presentation is cool, and the gameplay is fun when the various parts click together. Unfortunately due to technical issues, poor balancing/design, and general feel like an expansion or spin off rather than full sequel ...I can't in good faith give XCOM 2 more than a 5 overall.    … Expand
  54. quikesan
    Nov 25, 2017
    1
    Frustrating. That's the word that describes the game.
    I loved the first original Xcom, liked very much the Firaxis Xcom reboot.
    This one is not fun to play. The strategy tries to be the same as the original: research, build, so on. But in this case it doesn't make much sense. Excavate the ship to make more rooms? Why? Because the construction system has to be the same but this time    Frustrating. That's the word that describes the game.
    I loved the first original Xcom, liked very much the Firaxis Xcom reboot.
    This one is not fun to play. The strategy tries to be the same as the original: research, build, so on. But in this case it doesn't make much sense. Excavate the ship to make more rooms? Why? Because the construction system has to be the same but this time inside a ship, not a base?
    The interface is messy and you don't really understand the mechanics of what is going on. What do I have to scan? Do the missions on the map disappear? What is scanning the base for? Why there are
    The combat gets screwed because of the short limit times on most of the missions. Conceal is pretty useless because you have to rush to whatever you have to deactivate.
    With the DLC you get new enemies, but the Kings are ABSURDLY overpowered, and it's totally absurd that apparently they appear in missions randomly.
    I just cant keep going. Screw this game.    … Expand
  55. trash-46645
    Nov 10, 2017
    5
    Review after some 20 or so hours of gameplay. I'm an X-COM veteran - I played the original UFO: EU, X-COM: TFTD, X-COM: Apocalypse and even the previous X-COM:EU game (which I quite liked) so I'm no noob. I would score the game much higher but what I really dislike in this latest version is the ever present timer on pretty much all missions (only a minority do not have a timer). In theReview after some 20 or so hours of gameplay. I'm an X-COM veteran - I played the original UFO: EU, X-COM: TFTD, X-COM: Apocalypse and even the previous X-COM:EU game (which I quite liked) so I'm no noob. I would score the game much higher but what I really dislike in this latest version is the ever present timer on pretty much all missions (only a minority do not have a timer). In the previous X-COM:EU there also were timers on those containers but it was always this sort of "bonus" objective that was good if you done it but you didn't have to, unlike now where the timer is the goal. The game is constantly pushing you to rush, never allowing you to take your time and work your way tactically through the mission. I really dislike this design decision. Also I dislike the concealment mechanics. Clearly this is not an infiltration game and the whole concealment mechanics is pretty much pointless - again it's there to push you into early rush into a position near the objective and hope for the best once the fight starts instead of allowing you to work your way towards it tactically. I don't like that. Otherwise the game seems solid - it contains all the elements we like in an X-COM game but for me it's ruined by the timers which prevent me to play the game the way I like and forces me to rush the objective, every time. Forget about taking the longer route around the map to avoid the patrols, or carefully position your squad before the assault, looking for the best spot, none of that - the game forces you to go front in guns blazing otherwise you will miss the timer which means mission failed. The same rush design can unfortunately be seen even in the overall war management - you are constantly bombarded by events, the game never gives you any time to breathe, take your time, prepare. Some might think this makes the game challenging but I don't agree, it makes the game annoying. I'm fine with challenge but when presented with one I'd like to be able to face it my way. Unfortunately there seems to be only one way - rush or fail. That's not a challenge, that's just limiting game design and a step back from previous version which rewarded you for successful rush (getting the containers in time) but also allowed you to play more carefully and tactically.… Expand
  56. Kurt_Rivera
    Feb 8, 2016
    5
    Из плюсов, которые я успел обозначить для себя за те пару часов, на которые меня хватило в игре, могу обозначить лишь графику. Смотрится все зрелищно. Анимация, стрельба - приятно. Более чем достаточно для того, чтобы адекватно воспринимать тактическую игрушку, даже если ты не самый большой фанат тактики.
    Минусы: оптимизация игры отвратительна. Моя конфигурация такова: i7 3770k, GTX 780,    Из плюсов, которые я успел обозначить для себя за те пару часов, на которые меня хватило в игре, могу обозначить лишь графику. Смотрится все зрелищно. Анимация, стрельба - приятно. Более чем достаточно для того, чтобы адекватно воспринимать тактическую игрушку, даже если ты не самый большой фанат тактики.
    Минусы: оптимизация игры отвратительна. Моя конфигурация такова: i7 3770k, GTX 780, 8GB оперативки. Ведьмак 3 идет на ультра, с выключенными Nvidia волосами и верт. синхронизацией.
    Здесь же сплошные проседания. При чем в таких моментах, где их вообще не ожидаешь увидеть. В меню редактирования персонажа, например. Странно.
    Что по настоящему взбесило, так это рельсы. От игр этой серии прежде всего ожидаешь свободы. Случайно генерируемые задания в зависимости от решений на тактической карте, исследований ну и тд. Здесь же я на протяжении первых двух часов просто ехал в тележке по рельсам. До смешного. Ты не можешь выбрать отсек на базе, который тебя интересует сейчас. Выбрать исследование. Да вообще ничего не можешь. Не игра, а затянувшийся поинтклик. Бесконечное обучение. Бесконечные речи и заставки. Хочешь поиграть? Да пошел ты. Смотри, какие мы подготовили заставки. В них так много драматизма. Смотри. Смотри, сука, мы ведь так старались как можно дальше оттянуть тебя от геймплея.
    Сама тактика безбожно примитивна. Минимальный набор. Сдобренный глюками от души. Стрельба сквозь стены, самосожжения персонажей, которые решают пройти сквозь огонь, а не обойти рядом.
    Совершенно неадекватная камера. Ты делаешь ход, решаешь поразить противника. И тебе в упор на протяжении всего действа показывают дуло твоего автомата, вместо цели. Ты даже не знаешь, чем закончилась стрельба. Попал ты, или нет. Ты смотришь в сраное дуло автомата.
    Вообще на каждом углу как следует намазано оказуаливанием. Всего и вся. Допущение на допущении. Даже трупы не надо выносить никуда. Хотя в обучении нас этому учат. Завершил миссию и вуаля. Все, что там было - у тебя на базе. Нет никаких одиночных выстрелов, или стрельбы очередями. Никаких прицеливаний в голову, или ноги. Короче - вообще ничего, что могло бы разнообразить тактическую игру. Одни декорации. Тычут и тычут тебе ими в бороду, чтобы прикрыть банальный гейплей.
    И как вишенка на торте - в каждой второй миссии ограничение времени. Не дай взорваться генератору за 8 ходов. Не дай еще чему нибудь произойти за 6 ходов. Все это еще больше заставляет тебя ехать по рельсам, уготованным разработчиками. Потому что для успешного завершения задачи в 8 ходов есть лишь 1, максимум два сценария действий. Враги будут вот тут, а потом пойдут сюда. И ты должен подготовить засаду. Хочешь придумать что то свое? Да флаг в руки. Но у тебя 8 ходов, так что скорее всего ты пойдешь на хрен со своей инициативностью.
    Короче, как и 90% современных игр - XCOM2 не представляет ценности для будущих поколений. Подойдет лишь очень непритязательным игрокам. И упаси вас бог включать голову и хоть на йоту начинать относится к этой игре, как к тактике.    … Expand
  57. whatever523
    Feb 13, 2019
    7
    XCOM 2 is a good game, but a lot of things could have been improved.

    * The user interface could be better. HP bars cover half the screen, navigating the base has too many annoying animations, you can't see what items your team have equipped during the missions etc. * There are still quite some bugs. * Line of sight needs a lot of improvements, especially with storied buildings. * RNG    XCOM 2 is a good game, but a lot of things could have been improved.

    * The user interface could be better. HP bars cover half the screen, navigating the base has too many annoying animations, you can't see what items your team have equipped during the missions etc.
    * There are still quite some bugs.
    * Line of sight needs a lot of improvements, especially with storied buildings.
    * RNG seems even worse than in the first part and it's often frustrating.
    * Missions are kinda boring and repetitive.

    The strengths are the same as in XCOM. The gameplay and customization options are good, but there's too much that distracts from it. Feels like XCOM 1.5.    … Expand
  58. Crank101
    Aug 1, 2016
    7
    I was only recently able to play the game due to upgrades needed to my PC. I was extremely excited to play this game due to my love for previous installments. I had a great time and it did feel a lot harder than previous versions games.

    Now for what I wanted this game to have. 1) The story line is very Linear. They could have made a much better experience if your choices changed the    I was only recently able to play the game due to upgrades needed to my PC. I was extremely excited to play this game due to my love for previous installments. I had a great time and it did feel a lot harder than previous versions games.

    Now for what I wanted this game to have.
    1) The story line is very Linear. They could have made a much better experience if your choices changed the war against Advent. For instance the VIP Missions where you could extract or kill them, if you saved them you got a engineer or a scientist, that is it. This was a great opportunity to have side quests and different outcomes.
    2) Soldiers was fully changeable even their back stories. I would have liked to see some cultural perks in some characters hidden until a certain rank. (Good or Bad) For example a soldier from Africa in the assault class being able to throw their blade as an auto over-watch perk. Or a Irish character can be immune to panic, a french guy got a extra retreat movement after being shot at. simple things that could get you more invested in your team.

    Just in finishing, This is still one of my favorite franchised and even thou it was still fun to play I hope they start taking their end users a bit serious. Recent games have shown what is possible with today's technology. Give us consequences for our choices!!!    … Expand
  59. Kif1983
    Dec 11, 2019
    3
    You're gonna want to mod it. It's painfully difficult at the expense of being fun or interesting.

    I started playing on normal, after 5 or so missions I switched to rookie, then a couple more levels later I installed mods. As an example, a mere 5 missions in, a special type of alien pops up. He has armor (limiting your damage), 50 or so health (compared to most mobs 8), plus, every    You're gonna want to mod it. It's painfully difficult at the expense of being fun or interesting.

    I started playing on normal, after 5 or so missions I switched to rookie, then a couple more levels later I installed mods.

    As an example, a mere 5 missions in, a special type of alien pops up. He has armor (limiting your damage), 50 or so health (compared to most mobs 8), plus, every time your characters do something, it gets a full turn. So:
    Character A moves
    It got a turn
    Character A shoots
    It got a turn
    Character B moves
    It got a turn etc

    Because it appeared after a number of previous fights, and I had an objective to deal with, on normal difficulty, it wiped me out before it even got to its actual official turn.

    The next frustrating thing was that a lot of the missions have a turn limit. It's harsh, what it means is rather than thinking and strategizing like you would in the previous titles. You're just running for the goal and hoping someone survives.

    The final frustrating thing is that the game pretends like you have agency, but the moment you say 'ignore' on one of its incredibly frequent pop up missions, (maybe because your soldiers are wounded), it brings up a big read message saying we recommend you don't ignore this, if you do it's gonna ruin your game. It's deviously linear.

    So, mod it to remove / increase turns, mod it to make aiming a bit better, mod it give those boss creatures normal turns... then, you might actually have fun... and, if you don't save scum, it'll still be a challenge; just not a painful one.

    Score is based on the game without mods.    … Expand
  60. pyhriel
    Apr 25, 2020
    6
    I am a big fan of XCom: Enemy Unknonwn, loved the challenge there. In this one there is still much of the core elements that are fun and some of the new ones, like the combat mechanics, the new classes, etc.

    My main issue with this game, and it does end up making the game a lot less fun to play is the timed missions that happen far too often. It kind of breaks the overall strategy feel    I am a big fan of XCom: Enemy Unknonwn, loved the challenge there. In this one there is still much of the core elements that are fun and some of the new ones, like the combat mechanics, the new classes, etc.

    My main issue with this game, and it does end up making the game a lot less fun to play is the timed missions that happen far too often. It kind of breaks the overall strategy feel of the game. If it happened only once in a while it'd be okay, but in XCom2 most missions have this timed element. I'd say this is the main problem I have with it, because it ends up limiting your choices and also limits what is an efficient build-up. Building up for stealth is not as effective when you need to rush-in, so you should build up for fast, heavy damage output.

    The second thing I don't like much about this game is the difficulty. I don't mind a challenging game, XCom : Enemy unknown was challenging, but in this one, there is a lot of luck based difficulty. The monsters that reacts to your every move can be either easy or impossibly tough depending on how they act, and it does seem a bit arbitrary. As a general rule, I didn't like fighting them that much. I loved seeing them pop up in battles unexpectedly, but I hated the battle mechanics for fighting them. There was really just one tactic that seemed to work against them : heavy damage as quickly as possible.

    Finally, the game timer in this game is ... average. it isn't that fun how its implemented. Its starts fun, but becomes tedious after a while. I understand the desire to change things from the first one, but it didn't make the game fun.

    I don't really recommend buying this game. It's ok, but it ends up not being that much fun in the end. It's kind of sad, I was really hoping it would be as good as the previous one.    … Expand
  61. Dethstar
    Feb 16, 2016
    4
    I want to like this. It isnt terrible but far from satisfying. They learned nothing from the last one.

    The pros. Still, it is Xcom. Sort of. It looks pretty. Has a nice idea behind it in some elements. Personally, I have never experienced any crashes The cons. This is more strategy than luck. Core mechanics appear to be broken. (ie. Line of sight is really botched, some odd    I want to like this. It isnt terrible but far from satisfying. They learned nothing from the last one.

    The pros.
    Still, it is Xcom. Sort of.
    It looks pretty.
    Has a nice idea behind it in some elements.
    Personally, I have never experienced any crashes

    The cons.
    This is more strategy than luck.

    Core mechanics appear to be broken. (ie. Line of sight is really botched, some odd things happen, at times, the engine itself appears confused.

    I have had an alien run at my squad where they were on overwatch with high percentage chances. They all miss their shots. This is not unusual and the maths does not stack up.

    I have also hit an alien expecting 3 damage (as indicated) and done 7. It doesn't fill you with confidence that the game is ok.

    The odds are very stacked against you which makes it challenging unless your playing on very easy mode. However, what make the game annoying is that the missions are insanely repetitive. Some similarity would be understandable but it is so limited it is ridiculous.

    Worst of all, the missions are in the main time limited so its more a of run through, keep repeating until you get lucky and do it again. Very little strategy involved and at times, it is simply like repeatedly rolling the dice hoping that the line of sight doesn't botch and nothing weird happens until it works out. It isn't fun.

    The Global strategic outlout is very much the same. You are not choosing where you go, the game is really telling you what you need to do and giving a very poor illusion of choice.

    Runs very badly indeed. This is not subjective, I have extremely high 3d mark scores and spend a lot of time and effort building my PC;s (not to mention cash) My Titan X's are running at 1550-1600 during gaming and the CPU 4.7ghz (hexacore) yet the game though smooth doesn't run well. It feels like console port in terms of not being happy with hardware and seemingly not using properly. I see this seems to be across a wide range of builds.    … Expand
  62. Kennethbj
    Feb 7, 2016
    5
    There are 3 elements to this game that is important from a perspective of "judging" it.
    1) Game play loop
    2) Story 3) Technical issues Firstly game play loop. It's solid, the tactical strategies and choices you make both in the combat part and the "base building" matters. The combat game play is very solid, but will frustrate people who had degrees of RNG. The skill element to this    There are 3 elements to this game that is important from a perspective of "judging" it.
    1) Game play loop
    2) Story
    3) Technical issues

    Firstly game play loop.
    It's solid, the tactical strategies and choices you make both in the combat part and the "base building" matters. The combat game play is very solid, but will frustrate people who had degrees of RNG. The skill element to this game is much like poker. In poker you need to understand your strengths long and short terms, cards and chip stack size. In X-com 2, you need to understand the RNG and what leads to it. Sometimes you have to rush to complete a mission and maybe sacrifice a solider in order to complete the objective and progress long term. It's a good and challenging loop that rewards a thoughtful process of weighting pros and cons of you actions. It can also be extremely heartbreaking sometimes.

    Secondly the story... Oh boy... The world design is fine, but they've clearly not done a very good job at writing the actual story OR creating any sort of connection between the player and the characters. It's the most bland AAA title i've played in a very long time. I'd argue that some sports games like Fifa almost does a better job at creating a more engaging story. And this scars my soul as a big sci-fi fan and a player of the original x-com, i really thought they would have taken this into the brave new world of games, but alas, it wasn't anywhere near.

    On the technical side, It looks good... but it suffers from down right stupid design decision and poor performance in certain places. There are little animation sequences that slow down the game play something drastic, and after a while it'll start infuriating you. It's when you hack a terminal and you need to press a button to continue, there's a small delay from the time to press the key until something actually happens - it makes the game feel unresponsive. It's the same deal with reloading and attacking, and not to mention when you discover some enemies. The first time you encounter some enemies it's cool that the game slows down so you can acknowledge what it is you're dealing with, but after you've faced those enemy types just a few times, it becomes a very annoying slow down of the game play flow, which counts against the experience of the game. There are multiple examples of these slow downs of game play and it's pulling the score down for me, massively. Also, despite having a rather powerful rig with SSD and all the trimming, i suffered horrible load times and looking at the windows resource monitor while it loading, it really wasn't pushing the hardware, which is rather annoying. Also I had an issue when just starting a new map where the game would "time out" for upwards for a minute before actually starting... makes no sense.

    All in all - the game is enjoyable if you can see pass the technical issues and only focus on the game play loop, this will be the corner stone for many people, because we don't have many of these games around anymore. The step up in AI of the enemies was nice, but fundamentally i don't think this was a much better game that X-com from a few years ago. Personally it missed the mark for me, and the technically aspects and poor design decision ultimately pulled the score down for me.    … Expand
  63. theandersons18
    Apr 24, 2016
    1
    There really isn't anything good to say about this game. I very much regret buying it. All the strategy elements have been stripped away in favor of what can only be a future iPhone port. Almost every single mission is now artificially shortened by a forced turn timer that leaves absolutely no time to finish the objective. While I'm sure this length of level would be perfect for playing onThere really isn't anything good to say about this game. I very much regret buying it. All the strategy elements have been stripped away in favor of what can only be a future iPhone port. Almost every single mission is now artificially shortened by a forced turn timer that leaves absolutely no time to finish the objective. While I'm sure this length of level would be perfect for playing on the bus or waiting at the DMV, but as a tactical game it falls very short of what people want. The game play now is painfully frustrating as you are sprinting to the other side of the map to finish the objective and then to the evac site all while dodging through hidden groups of enemies. People will claim realism or whatever else to defend this failed game but honestly we are to assume they started deleting files before they knew we even got there or were about to finish uploading data minutes before the team arrived? This game seems to have ran out of ways to challenge players and just resorted to cheating enemies, a shoddy RNG and very very very limited time to muddle through their cheap levels. I simply cannot express how much I dislike this game. I wouldn't wish this game on my worst enemy, please please do not support these developers. They've destroyed the series in favor a future iPhone game. There are much better, less frustrating games out there more deserving of support.… Expand
  64. mggzer
    Feb 7, 2016
    5
    There is a good game here, it's just drowning in performance problems and questionable design decisions. This title is very iterative in some respects but innovative in the worst possible ways. I played a great deal of EU/EW on both Classic and later Impossible difficulty(as well as Long War, but I can't base this off something Firaxis didn't create), and never did I feel as though I wasThere is a good game here, it's just drowning in performance problems and questionable design decisions. This title is very iterative in some respects but innovative in the worst possible ways. I played a great deal of EU/EW on both Classic and later Impossible difficulty(as well as Long War, but I can't base this off something Firaxis didn't create), and never did I feel as though I was being hurt by circumstances out of my control.

    Unfortunately this game is plagued by artificial difficulty due a combination of multiple factors.
    -You a railroaded into one playstyle(one very dependent on RNG, unlike the previous reboot) due to a limit of 8-12 turns on most missions
    -Procedurally generated maps add to this, as you can be placed in borderline impossible situations as a result of start positions and alien pod patrols(it's quite honestly a shame, the maps are a strength of the game in all other aspects).
    -Powerful alien encounters can be made unwinnable due to the above.

    Also if your hardware isn't top of the line, you may have problems even running this game. I myself haven't run into anything unplayable, but sporadic fps drops as well as stuttering and hitching have been encountered. This was even after playing with the settings quite a bit. I may have just been lucky, some have reported worse on better hardware than I have available. My PC is probably somewhere in the mid tier now, but it's by no means low end. Sandy Bridge i7 3820, GTX 680, 16GB DDR3 RAM, and no SSD.

    I mentioned there being a good game here despite these issues? Well there have been some improvements from the previous Firaxis XCOM.

    +Obvious graphical improvements in all areas.
    +Sound design is overall better, as in effects and such(though EU had better music in my opinion).
    +The procedural generation of the levels is fundamentally a strength(despite the way it's actually utilized).
    +Mod support is benefit to any title.
    +Customization is mostly better, though lacking in a few areas.

    Anything I didn't mention I feel is either the same as the previous game, or just overshadowed by more important things I wanted to stress here. Overall a 5/10(average game for me) is incredibly generous as I've been extremely disappointed with this release in more ways than one.    … Expand
  65. shag00
    Apr 13, 2016
    3
    The technical issues with this game are terrible, that said, as for the game itself, so much time is spent watching crappy animations that it almost becomes boring playing the game. After every mission several minutes are wasted just waiting until you can do something.

    I wonder how this is never mentioned by the, and I use the term loosely, professional game reviewers. Sitting at your    The technical issues with this game are terrible, that said, as for the game itself, so much time is spent watching crappy animations that it almost becomes boring playing the game. After every mission several minutes are wasted just waiting until you can do something.

    I wonder how this is never mentioned by the, and I use the term loosely, professional game reviewers. Sitting at your PC playing for 10 minutes and watching cut scenes for 3 minutes is not enjoyable.    … Expand
  66. malcolmm
    Jan 18, 2017
    4
    So many issues with this game, I'm glad I only paid $12 for it from Humble Bundle. As usual for a AAA title the "professional" reviews rate the game much higher than the general public.

    First off, the tutorial is terrible, pretty much completely useless. It hardly merits being called a tutorial, it is just a short mission with a few prompts. It misses many important parts of the mission    So many issues with this game, I'm glad I only paid $12 for it from Humble Bundle. As usual for a AAA title the "professional" reviews rate the game much higher than the general public.

    First off, the tutorial is terrible, pretty much completely useless. It hardly merits being called a tutorial, it is just a short mission with a few prompts. It misses many important parts of the mission interface. As for the rest of the game, good luck, no tutorial for what to do back at the base. I did play the previous XCOM but that was years ago, I've forgotten pretty much everything about the game. There is a manual but it is useless, it just repeats what the equally useless tutorial tells you.

    Most of the game consists of video sequences, it is obvious where most of the budget went. The missions themselves are extremely simple yet very frustrating. Still the same over emphasis on luck. Making most of the missions timed was a huge mistake, you mostly have to rush the target with little time for tactics.

    I normally don't buy AAA titles, mostly boring graphics showcases. XCOM2 is a prime example of this, all flash but no substance. Microprose did it so much better, Firaxis has managed to ruin both XCOM and Civilization.    … Expand
  67. game_over
    Feb 14, 2016
    5
    Bugs, poor optimization, turn limits, and uneven(and often harsh) difficulty are some of the problems with the game.

    Graphics, character customization, and a wonderful Xcom atmosphere are some of the positives of the game. The tactical gameplay is sometimes great fun and sometimes a frustration (and not because the enemy AI is good, quite the opposite). I am a little disappointed    Bugs, poor optimization, turn limits, and uneven(and often harsh) difficulty are some of the problems with the game.

    Graphics, character customization, and a wonderful Xcom atmosphere are some of the positives of the game.

    The tactical gameplay is sometimes great fun and sometimes a frustration (and not because the enemy AI is good, quite the opposite).

    I am a little disappointed that I paid full price for this. My bad 2k. Don't worry, won't happen again.    … Expand
  68. Sugminfeta
    Mar 2, 2016
    3
    Xcom 2 is bad all the way!

    Rant start: Its stressful, buggy, glitched & bad cheating ai on harder legend mode. Do NOT buy this if you hate things above. And why the time limits on almost every missions?? Idiotic is what it is. Also let me explain what I mean with ai cheating on Legend mode. Why dont just put in more & harder enemys. No they instead put ai that hits    Xcom 2 is bad all the way!

    Rant start:

    Its stressful, buggy, glitched & bad cheating ai on harder legend mode.

    Do NOT buy this if you hate things above.

    And why the time limits on almost every missions??
    Idiotic is what it is.

    Also let me explain what I mean with ai cheating on Legend mode.
    Why dont just put in more & harder enemys.

    No they instead put ai that hits through full cover half the map away.

    Ai that stays right out of your line of sight if your hole squad is on overwatch.
    Sneaks in perfect & stops before your guys get off a shot, even if they dont see my guys, bs that crap!

    Just make the ai with more life & more of them instead of stupid cheating ****

    Also I have completed the game on classic & that was way to easy but the ai didnt cheat at least!
    But the ai is really stupid, so thats why Fireaxis have too cheat on legend mode because they cant make the ai good enough!

    Fireaxis, kick your ai & graphics dudes, they all did a bad job on this game!

    Burp, (wait will get another beer)

    Where was I?? Ehh, fu it..

    Rant over:

    End    … Expand
  69. klepo
    Jun 6, 2016
    5
    I tried. I really tried.

    I enjoyed the original XCom and played though it several times. The reboot was a good time. Again, worth several play-throughs. This thing? It's just .. hateful. Sadistic. I don't know who they made it for, but it wasn't for a fan of the prior games. I tried to find the fun, I tried to find the enjoyment. But after dozens of hours I have to conclude    I tried. I really tried.

    I enjoyed the original XCom and played though it several times.

    The reboot was a good time. Again, worth several play-throughs.

    This thing? It's just .. hateful. Sadistic. I don't know who they made it for, but it wasn't for a fan of the prior games. I tried to find the fun, I tried to find the enjoyment. But after dozens of hours I have to conclude that it just isn't there.

    They need to acknowledge that they only made this game for themselves - an ultra-hardcore subset of the prior games' fans. Whoever backed this as a business venture was badly ripped off by a self-serving development team. The XCom brand hasn't been this badly mishandled since Enforcer.    … Expand
  70. Spx
    Feb 19, 2016
    4
    This game has been improved from the first chapter but still lacks the re-playability and the freedom of the original xcom. I think it could be a good game for a single campaign but it will become boring very soon. Again very scripted (probability to hit sometimes aren't real). However I would buy this for 20 usd at most. Waiting for Xenonauts 2 ;)
  71. MCopperhead
    Mar 7, 2016
    3
    Game is good, except of timers in almost every mission. TBS with timers, really, Firaxis? No way. The game is nearly unplayable because of this. No fun at all.
  72. Foonch
    Feb 23, 2016
    3
    This game is almost good, and i mean Damn good. Then you get a few hours in and it all goes down hill extremely fast...
    I wanted to love this game. I'm a huge X-Com fan. This misses the mark. The flying base the "Avenger" is just a frustrating waste of time, it bogs down the game.
    Some of the new enemies completely unbalance the game. Like the enemy that has the same ability as the    This game is almost good, and i mean Damn good. Then you get a few hours in and it all goes down hill extremely fast...
    I wanted to love this game. I'm a huge X-Com fan. This misses the mark. The flying base the "Avenger" is just a frustrating waste of time, it bogs down the game.

    Some of the new enemies completely unbalance the game. Like the enemy that has the same ability as the Ranger class. Which is lazy and lame, the rangers ability should be unique to your squad. Your going up against a much larger force, they should'nt have the same abilities as you, and this ability allows them to move across vast distances and melee you, and it rarely misses, so basically you'll always have a wounded soldier almost guaranteed every mission once that enemy is introduced.

    When your not in missions the sheer amount of crap constantly going on is ridiculous. Its micro management hell. I understand your supposed to make some hard decisions, and I felt the original remake did a good job of balancing this.
    The sequel we got here though, my god... It's like getting piles and piles of little sticky notes constantly, meanwhile your trying to deal with another pile of sticky notes, and to top it off you are just constantly getting interrupted when you are just trying to get something done!

    Its buggy, choppy, and slow.

    Oh, and the amount of timed missions is completely awful! Once you get a few hours into the game the enemy troop difficulty ramps up VERY quickly. If your lucky you'll barely have magnetic guns at this point, and its not enough...

    Something is just off with this game, and leaves me just frustrated, with little willingness to play it anymore.
    I'm going to try getting a refund. This just just isn't the sequel i thought we'd get. It must have a new lead game designer or something.    … Expand
  73. bellerophon
    Feb 11, 2016
    4
    This is a shame since the devs were starting from a very good background, considering the numerous mods (like Long War) at their disposal on Enemy Unknown. Instead of this,we have now a rushed action type game, something between a blank RTS and a real tactical but with worse RNG, worse LOS, worse Cover animations than implmented in xcom2012, nothing really exciting when you just playedThis is a shame since the devs were starting from a very good background, considering the numerous mods (like Long War) at their disposal on Enemy Unknown. Instead of this,we have now a rushed action type game, something between a blank RTS and a real tactical but with worse RNG, worse LOS, worse Cover animations than implmented in xcom2012, nothing really exciting when you just played Enemy Within with some great mods.
    I can't recommend the purchase for this bad optimized / timer-based-difficulty / pseudo tactical game.    … Expand
  74. PsychoJonny
    Mar 8, 2016
    2
    I love X COM overall, since the original ones, I even somewhat excused Bureau Declassified, but this game is a nightmare of performance issues, bugs, and outright laziness. I would love this game if I could actually play it. Even on my custom gaming PC that can smoothly run the beast that is Witcher 3 on ultra settings on Xcom I lose framerate, crash out of cutscenes, and lost a 23 hourI love X COM overall, since the original ones, I even somewhat excused Bureau Declassified, but this game is a nightmare of performance issues, bugs, and outright laziness. I would love this game if I could actually play it. Even on my custom gaming PC that can smoothly run the beast that is Witcher 3 on ultra settings on Xcom I lose framerate, crash out of cutscenes, and lost a 23 hour save file to a crashing issue on the mission launch screen. I would strongly advise anyone on the fence not buy this until there have been patches to address the many issues.… Expand
  75. Cask_Fix_Sir_Us
    May 29, 2016
    2
    I've finally had it with this game. Every time Firaxis releases a patch for this game things get worse. I stopped playing it hoping it would get patched and it’s in worse shape than at release. It was already unplayable at release. Soloman really lost his way creating this un-optimized heap. He relied too much on gameplay from YouTuber’s and forgot to make a technically sound gameI've finally had it with this game. Every time Firaxis releases a patch for this game things get worse. I stopped playing it hoping it would get patched and it’s in worse shape than at release. It was already unplayable at release. Soloman really lost his way creating this un-optimized heap. He relied too much on gameplay from YouTuber’s and forgot to make a technically sound game first. How Firaxis allowed an adolescent, unqualified YouTube kid to infiltrate their business, influence design decisions, and upend their entire process is beyond me.

    Ignoring glaring technical issues in favor of one kid’s idea of fun, makes no business sense. How they got away with expending company resources chasing someone else’s dream, while damaging Sid’s good name and reputation, is just mismanagement.

    The changes being made late in the development and testing stage of XCOM 2, should have been decided long ago during discovery. Even the Agile process couldn’t adapt quickly enough to adjust to the mad rush to appease their new child master. It’s just baffling to me, the only conclusion I can come up with, Firaxis is just out of touch with their audience, got desperate and threw a Hail Mary to a spectator. I really wish I could get my money back.

    A great building is built with a plan, starting with the foundation, not the décor.    … Expand
  76. xKTN
    Jun 18, 2016
    5
    I'm new to XCOM series. Haven't played older games yet, so I decided to try this one. I like gameplay, except one thing - aim percentage. It's ridiculous when you miss, staying in front of enemy with 85% chance to successful hit. The other thing I don't like are time-wasting and completely unnecessary animations after all actions. Fortunately there are mods that allow player to skip them.I'm new to XCOM series. Haven't played older games yet, so I decided to try this one. I like gameplay, except one thing - aim percentage. It's ridiculous when you miss, staying in front of enemy with 85% chance to successful hit. The other thing I don't like are time-wasting and completely unnecessary animations after all actions. Fortunately there are mods that allow player to skip them. And bugs. Maaaany bugs. I think every player faced some kind of bugs in this game. Starting from jumping under ground, ending on game breaking red screens or mission crashes. The most of bugs are fixed but I can't rate this game higher than 5.… Expand
  77. daragard
    Feb 27, 2016
    2
    Extremely disappointing sequel to a great reboot.

    The original game did a lot of things right, but delved too much in oversimplification and catering to the console market. It was still a solid, balanced game, just not as good as the original. The sequel doesn't have a console version but is still commits all the sins of a rushed console port. In my opinion, a console version    Extremely disappointing sequel to a great reboot.

    The original game did a lot of things right, but delved too much in oversimplification and catering to the console market. It was still a solid, balanced game, just not as good as the original.

    The sequel doesn't have a console version but is still commits all the sins of a rushed console port. In my opinion, a console version probably exists, but has not been released or revealed yet because it is still looking for a publisher. You should expect poor optimization (if any), a weird mouse GUI, an abundance of bugs and glitches, and overall a disgraceful PC experience not unlike most AAA releases nowadays. For all the hate Arkham Knight got, it worked better for me at release than XCom 2 does, post-patch. There is also no reason at all for the poor framerate and extremely long loading times, as the graphics are definitively outdated and arguably worse than the prequel (probably in preparation for the inevitable iPad release), yet the performance is perhaps the worst I've seen in the last few years for a PC game.

    So, how is the game regardless of those technical 'merits' conveniently not mentioned by any and all big-media paid-for 'reviews'? Well, unfortunately the oversimplification has been fully embraced and turned up to eleven. Now the game only accepts a single play style (what we could call 'the rushing YOLO') and will punish you severely for trying anything different. Almost every mission has a big on-screen turn timer or other kind of timed events forcing you to play in a certain way, and even the strategy world-map gameplay is a linear adventure thanks again to more timed events. The timers are deeply ingrained with the game design and balance, so unfortunately any mods trying to remove actually provide an even worse experience (and yes, I've tried them).

    In addition, the poorly designed RNG-based mechanics, one of the worst sins from the original, comes back with a vengeance. The combat has been tweaked in order to give way more importance to the RNG at the expense of tactical options, making the difficulty of the game essentially a random venture. Sadly, every mission is now filled with one-hit kill luck switches, including such shenanigans as having your squad leader mind-controlled by an off-screen enemy you haven't seen yet and wiping all your other teammates in a single turn (this happened to me *in the first mission* of the game). Sure, some times the RNG works in your favor, but many other times you'll miss multiple 80%+ shots in a row and get all your entire squad killed from situations that should impose no risk to you. It doesn't help when the few mechanics provided to tip the balance in your favor are introduced late in the game while the kill switches come in full force since the first mission.

    If you rush your way into tactic games, don't mind luck playing the biggest role in such games, and are in fact usually very lucky, you may still get some fun out of this game. But for the most part, you are better just playing the vastly superior prequel.    … Expand
  78. Mr_Zeedy
    Mar 16, 2016
    3
    I joined just to pan this game because its just ridiculously annoying. I'm a big Xcom fan and so wanted this to be good but its just a big old cheater.
    I thought one of the big ideas of turn based games is that the enemy doesn't move on your turn, not here.
    Sectopods appear almost straight away and start messing with your troops minds' and there is zero defence. Enemies make shots you    I joined just to pan this game because its just ridiculously annoying. I'm a big Xcom fan and so wanted this to be good but its just a big old cheater.
    I thought one of the big ideas of turn based games is that the enemy doesn't move on your turn, not here.
    Sectopods appear almost straight away and start messing with your troops minds' and there is zero defence.
    Enemies make shots you can only dream of whilst your troops miss the massive slob alien that's just magically appeared in front of you when you have no movement points left.
    Tactics are usually irrelevant as your under such a timer pressure you're guaranteed to run straight into a large groups of enemies who will appear out of the ether and you will have no movement left to take cover or run.
    Just now three of my four man squad were panicked when the other got killed for two turns allowing the ai free reign to just march about the map and wipe them all out.
    The enemy moves on your turn, huh? yes that's right a turn based game that ignores who's turn it is.
    add into the mix some rather odd LoS shots, getting shot through scenery, the car your hiding behind exploding without warning and sundry other bugs and its just a frustrating mess.
    I really cant see how people can rate this so highly so felt I just had to say something before other fall foul of the gameplay travesty.
    It's just no FUN at all.    … Expand
  79. crayven
    Feb 12, 2016
    2
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. PRO
    Superb customization ( I love dollies ) and it makes you care for your troops.
    A bit of graphical improvement.
    FULL destructible environment - anything that can explode and crumble...will if you throw enough "ka-boom" at it.

    CON:
    Timers- you enjoyed taking your time with each mission in EU/EW ?
    Yeah no more of that.
    Now it's run ahead and make mistakes or you lose.
    Catch 22 - you run and die in enemy fire or the god-timer **** you up because reasons.
    Annoyance 6/10

    Enemy free turn.
    Oh you sneak on the enemy? Haha who cares, unless you are concealed ( 50% of missions and only at start ) you get spotted and they TAKE COVER ON YOUR TURN !
    This **** was in EU and EW.
    And it is here.
    Annoyance 9/10

    Difficulty curve.
    I'm not Napoleon but this game is stupidly punishing.
    A SINGLE RNG miss can sometimes snowball into such a mess the whole CAMPAIGN is ruined since your rookies can never take down a sectopod not in a million years.
    Too much RNG.

    Colonel Sniper VS FAT mutton Berzerker in OPEN FIELD with NO COVER =70%.
    Yeah..i don't think so ****

    Oh and 70% = auto-miss usually.
    Annoyance 10/10 !

    RNG is just a trick to hide POOR AI.

    Speaking of AI. There are certain CIVILIAN RESCUE missions where you have to gather autistic "civilians" who run like suicidal idiots into enemy fire.
    So far so good, we're used to this in game.
    The best part is now.
    Enemy troops FLANKED and about to die in the next round - DO NOT retreat or fire at you or take cover or whatever.

    Nope they ...SHOOT THE CIVILIANS as if they KNOW that will hurt your mission ranting more.
    Spiteful AI - google it. This is the very example.

    Awful game, full of bugs, red screen errors and idiotic RNG.
    2/10 for customization - that's it. Rest is garbage.    … Expand
  80. Yemm
    Feb 12, 2016
    4
    Old and quite experienced gamer's review:

    Pros: - Xcom universe - Made me want to install Jagged Alliance 2/xcom again, and have some proper tactic rpg/strategy. - casualisation, (more people might get interested in STRATEGY games) -Story is decent and whole world got nice 80's cheap sci-fi vibe (which is good). Con's: - further dumbing down the genre. -Missions basicly finish    Old and quite experienced gamer's review:

    Pros:
    - Xcom universe
    - Made me want to install Jagged Alliance 2/xcom again, and have some proper tactic rpg/strategy.
    - casualisation, (more people might get interested in STRATEGY games)
    -Story is decent and whole world got nice 80's cheap sci-fi vibe (which is good).

    Con's:
    - further dumbing down the genre.
    -Missions basicly finish themselfs without any real tactic. (nope, its not tactic to move from cover to cover
    and clear everything)
    -cartoonish gfx. Its 2016, Just check what unreal enngine can do.
    - U cant crouch or lie down (unacceptable). ATM whole game got more in common with cover based shooter then tactic strategy game.
    -Bugs - opponents shoot/melee through concrete wall. Its unacceptable for this genre.
    - Base building is even more streamlined then before. No hard decisions.
    - weak research tree's, everything is tier based.
    - Boring/bland auto generated missions...
    - Boring, unrealistic sci-fi weapons, 1 type for every tier for each class...
    - 8-12 round timed mission(game got alot of those). Loading screen takes more then finishing this "mission".
    - In game difficulty only lowers weapon hit %, not actuall number/type of opponents, tactical decisions or anything else.    … Expand
  81. Slaunyeh
    Feb 14, 2016
    2
    Why do profissionals review this game so high and not the gamers. Simple, they are payd for and/or does not have the time or intererest to play it until a certain point.

    And most gamers haven t played enought to get to design traps, or avoided some of them by luck. Many hours played you ll see (on some platforms) are merely save and reload (remember they removed the restart mission    Why do profissionals review this game so high and not the gamers. Simple, they are payd for and/or does not have the time or intererest to play it until a certain point.

    And most gamers haven t played enought to get to design traps, or avoided some of them by luck.

    Many hours played you ll see (on some platforms) are merely save and reload (remember they removed the restart mission option, and modders are unable to bypass it because it activate a "rookifying" "bug" where your soldiers loose all skills for the rest of the missions hardcodded, this seem "on purpose".)

    Save scuming is the timesink that make the "played hours" rise.

    The game is an entire constraint and limit to the tactical choice, it end up being a Save scum because any mistake is probably your last. (tought you ll discover it latter in the game and with many restart all game.

    You lost your A team middle game (by wounded or death)? Game over. You tryed to spread to have ABC teams, most probably game over, as your soldiers probably will end up not being enought skilled to keep up with aliens advancement...skippping missions ? even 1 mission can be a game over (tough you ll still play the rest of the ingame month or you ll just realise this some missions later)

    The aliens advance fast in tech, and any mission you skip will be an advantage to them toward 2 goals:
    - Outclass you in permanent tech advancement or monthly boost;
    - Project avatar advancement.
    The latter ain t that bad, but the former make you outclassed and outnumbered, and if you follow the game "prioritary objective tech" its gameover due to the appearance of endgame ennemies that you won t be prepared to fight unless you already have developed manysecondary to terciary techs.
    Just to be sure you ll follow the wrong path the game press you every mission via someone hammering voiced sentences on you every mission start
    This until you are fed up, extremely irritating. many many repetitive useless voiced stuff.

    There is no way you can win the first second and third or whatever time, not because the AI is smart and challenging, but because the game has many design and executions traps (and bugs like ennemy shotting or grabbing you trough walls) that will make you loose trough the evolution of the history.
    Again You HAVE TO skip what the game hammer into you skull via unremovables voiced sentences or its game over.
    If you do not ignore the constant voice overs you ll meet ennemies early on that are simply designed to be endgame monsters.
    One of those has the following features:
    - Endgame hit point triple of your early hitpoints
    - Multiply themselves each turn, (original create a copy of itself, Nº2 create a copy of itself, and so on up to 4 at least), with halved HP to both original and copy;
    - Are able to disarm you each turn in a broad square (Psy tempest), and if you rearm and shoot your dead because you stayed on the spot, if you flee and rearm it will shoot you or another monster will get to you.
    - Are able to teleport in a broad area (so they always flank you) and shoot, or by the same skill are able to shoot/multiply and teleport behind cover,
    - To kill it, you have to kill all its versions not just the opriginal for example,
    - aim does not degrade with wounds, and its a snipers class.
    - From now ont this monster will appear on EVERY mission forward.

    All this in just 1 monster, you have all the rest still patrolling, far grabbers, runners and disablers, sharp shooters, AND time constraint to execute the mission AND secondary objective that become mandatory.

    Imagine you are playing a steal mission, you end up half dead team, you stole whatever you needed at high cost, you think now i can GTFO... then the "old man" appear and tell you killing ALL aliens on the map is mandatory now, if you don t do it, you get a "mission failure" status and a probable alien boost.
    If your not dead you are wounded, this mean you don t have an A or B to your next mission, this mean skipping or failure -> game over.
    As if it isnt enought recruiting is very costly and you start with very limited number of soldiers.

    Skipping mission hahahahaah.
    No real secondary mission, any mission is mandatory because if you don t attend and/or win a mission you lose territory, which cut you sparce income.
    Which by the way... income. You re income require that you sit in it several days to acquire your income, only those who have played it know how frustrating this feature is due to mission pop ups.
    And so on....    … Expand
  82. antonix
    Feb 24, 2016
    2
    As true fan of XCOM franchise I was waiting for this game to provide me with hours of fun and entertainment. Unfortunately this is not the case with the latest installment. The big disappointment begins right from the start of the game.

    Game mechanics: Enemy units can shoot through the floors, ceilings and other objects that normally would not allow for that. This makes the whole    As true fan of XCOM franchise I was waiting for this game to provide me with hours of fun and entertainment. Unfortunately this is not the case with the latest installment. The big disappointment begins right from the start of the game.

    Game mechanics:
    Enemy units can shoot through the floors, ceilings and other objects that normally would not allow for that. This makes the whole planning and strategy a very frustrating and unenjoyable. I often left with the feeling that game developers left product 50% finished just enough to make profit from sales and let the fans go to hell.

    Balance:
    What?! There is no balance what so ever. Seriously, none. Enemy units overpowered in every mission just enough to make sure that at least half of your team dies. And it doesn't matter how well you plan and play because game mechanics and timer will do their dirty work of forcing you into a simple run-and-gun path where you just engage head-on with enemy quads and then.. then you die or fail the objective no matter what you do.
    Overall story is randomized by advent events which are even more unbalanced in terms of rewards/loses. Every mission feels like a playing roulette.

    Resources:
    Supplies are always in shortage. It is impossible to keep your squad at it is required minimum to do the next mission while your wounded soldiers are heeling. As result you send your team as a unit of 2-3 or with no gear to fight effectively overpowered AI.

    Bugs:
    Oh dear, bugs were there core concept of this game. Loading times are eternal, waiting times between actions are beyond any imagination. On top of all this you get no less lethal bugs that leave you only with one option - uninstall this garbage. One thing that will remain though - is a regret about invested time and money on this game.

    My advise:
    Stay AWAY from XCOM 2. This game is not worth even a cent. A complete fiasco from Firaxis studios.    … Expand
  83. Salient0ne
    Feb 13, 2016
    4
    It is unacceptable to release a AAA game in such a buggy and unoptimized state. Is it playable? Sure. However, the constant slowdowns (even at reduced graphics settings), animation bugs, floating heads (armor doesn't load on background characters), and camera bugs definitely take away from the experience.

    It is very clear to me that the publisher said screw the polish, just release it.    It is unacceptable to release a AAA game in such a buggy and unoptimized state. Is it playable? Sure. However, the constant slowdowns (even at reduced graphics settings), animation bugs, floating heads (armor doesn't load on background characters), and camera bugs definitely take away from the experience.

    It is very clear to me that the publisher said screw the polish, just release it. It's been several days now and still no patch to fix any of these issues. $60-$75 for what? A bunch of reused assets on a three year old engine? AND it doesn't run perfectly? That is what really bothers me.

    Is XCOM2 better than the last one? Yeah, the game mechanics fit the setting a lot better. The world map is more interesting, even though it just feels like I'm playing a cheap board game. Is it worth the price they are asking? sadly, no. I should not have bought this, you'd be better served just waiting for the 'complete' version for 10 bucks. If you are lucky, by then it'll run properly.    … Expand
  84. PacoHolliday
    Feb 13, 2016
    1
    The game could be okay (say 5 or 6 out of 10) if it wasn't for the unacceptable performance and the many crashes and freezes, especially in the later game. Really annoying, the whole experience.
  85. jebise
    Mar 18, 2017
    3
    I am appalled by this game, it is such a step back from even previous title, let alone first UFO series.

    UI is a disgrace, selecting enemies is done horribly. Game has terrible graphics and runs slowly at the same time. I can play Civilization of Fallout 4 without much of a problem and this game sttuters all the time on low settings. TO me it seems like they fired anyone who knew    I am appalled by this game, it is such a step back from even previous title, let alone first UFO series.

    UI is a disgrace, selecting enemies is done horribly.

    Game has terrible graphics and runs slowly at the same time. I can play Civilization of Fallout 4 without much of a problem and this game sttuters all the time on low settings.

    TO me it seems like they fired anyone who knew anything and developed a game with a bunch of noobs and left quality control for later, after gamers give them feed back and if they will feel like it.

    Do yourself a favor and dont buy this crap.    … Expand
  86. Masterhummel
    Feb 6, 2016
    7
    Prepare to be constantly reloading.

    Xcom 2 is definetly more refined then its predecessor and i, personally, don't see the timers as inherently unfitting. They just may appear in too much missions. Xcom 2 tries a different approach on some things like the covert mode at mission begin. Also you're forced to use more soldiers, trying to make it less dreadful if you loose a soldier. And    Prepare to be constantly reloading.

    Xcom 2 is definetly more refined then its predecessor and i, personally, don't see the timers as inherently unfitting. They just may appear in too much missions. Xcom 2 tries a different approach on some things like the covert mode at mission begin. Also you're forced to use more soldiers, trying to make it less dreadful if you loose a soldier. And sometimes it works, but othertimes the mechanics trip over themselves.

    For example, during the covert mode you can't see the sight radius of an enemy that you haven't discovered yet. Also, if you attack a target during covert mode, you pull every enemy that is in your visibility into the fight. Which means that you want to have as little sight as possible or else you might easily pull a cascade of enemies that will completly destroy you.

    Enemies are far more dangerous now, with more special attacks and variety. Which is cool, but they're too strong fot the most part. A pack of 3 vipers will disable 3 of your soldiers in one turn, leaving you with another 3. If you have pulled two or three groups, you might as well reload. A mission may either run perfect or not at all. Which is a shame, because like this, there are no stories your soldiers can develop. Because they either suceed or die. There is no in-between.

    Also there are some bugs and a rather questionable performance.

    Overall, it's a good game. But it feels like it could've done well with three months more balancing and bug hunting.    … Expand
  87. 123456
    Feb 7, 2016
    5
    An RNG fest. A whole level will frequently be decided by one dice roll. Add to this that you are facing enemies far stronger that you from the second level, and the addition of turn limits on a lot of missions so you will frequently lose squad members to either death or recovering from their injuries for a month of game time.

    Fair enough, the game is tough but it is not tough in an    An RNG fest. A whole level will frequently be decided by one dice roll. Add to this that you are facing enemies far stronger that you from the second level, and the addition of turn limits on a lot of missions so you will frequently lose squad members to either death or recovering from their injuries for a month of game time.

    Fair enough, the game is tough but it is not tough in an interesting way. Arbitrary numbers and over-powered enemies result in simply reloading the game multiple times. It seems like the wanted to create an "against all odds" feeling to the game in terms of narrative, and that is exactly what it is - against all odds. It doesn't feel like it matters *that much* what you actually do, until you learn the mission by reloading and stacking the odds in your favour.

    The massive amount of pop-up information from research to building to missions that can't just be "done" but have to be scanned for, and whilst you're scanning 3 more things pop up which are "really urgent!" And an annoying guy keeps telling me what to do, but also calling me commander. Why even pretend that I am in charge!

    If your squad had some interesting abilities rather than just get in cover and fire a dice gun, some fun things like all the aliens seem to get, then you could probably call this a tactical game. But as it is it feels like taking on a whole chess set with 2 pawns, a bishop and a knight (why do you only get 4 people in a squad anyway!?), and having to roll a 6 to be able to take any of their pieces. Frustrating at first, but quickly dull.    … Expand
  88. Cidcaldensfey
    Mar 2, 2016
    4
    XCOM 2 is a decent game on its own and functions much like the previous game. However, it feels like the game itself, for me, is far more frustrating than it is fun. I like the setting and the customization, but it feels like most of it doesn't work well together, in particular customization and the nature of the game. Do you like to spend 20-30 minutes customizing a character only toXCOM 2 is a decent game on its own and functions much like the previous game. However, it feels like the game itself, for me, is far more frustrating than it is fun. I like the setting and the customization, but it feels like most of it doesn't work well together, in particular customization and the nature of the game. Do you like to spend 20-30 minutes customizing a character only to have them get lost due to some bogus rolls?

    Theres also some other nasty things. One of the things that really bothered me was how the 'Concealed' mechanic is actually not really a stealth mechanic. After a certain amount of turns, the AI patrols will walk towards your stealthed characters, basically creating an artificial confrontation when in fact the game itself is programmed to do that.

    I just don't really understand it. It's a neat game but at the same its just flawed. I would wait to buy it when its like, under $20. But other wise just avoid it.    … Expand
  89. DaEzz
    Feb 9, 2016
    2
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I wont go into the technical and optimization issues, they are well known by now by anyone playing the game. I just have to accept the fact that XCOM 2 disappoints in just about every aspect of actual gameplay it is built on.

    I played the original UFO:Enemy unknown 20 years ago. This sequel tries to fill its shoes and fails miserably. Gameplay/missions are repetetive and boring, difficulty scales poorly, and the so called "strategy" layer is nothing more then you flying around constructing radio masts and picking up crates while being pulled by the nose through the story at a pace that leaves you stressed out and frustrated. Its like the Devs want to force you to finish the playthrough as fast as you possibly can and I cant really figure out whay they were thinking in their design choices for the strategical platform.

    Strategic RNG is horrible, for example you can get well and truly ganked by what missions the ALIENS get and there is virtually nothing you can do about it regardless of how well you have played so far.

    Character customization is great though. Sometimes I find my self attending to every detail of my team for 30 minutes or so. Then I send them on another mission and someone comes back promoted to Captain.

    Now I have a squad consisting of 5 Liutenants and a Captain. Cool. Or not. Oh yeah, someone got a scratch in the latest mission, lost 1 of his 16 HP. Now he is out on medical leave for 18 Days. Ah well, plenty of more Liutenants where he came from...

    Well, you get my point. But it still blows my mind how the Devs can screw up like this given that they had the 1994 UFO:Enemy Unknown legacy to guide them and the excellent prequel XCOM to build on. So sad.    … Expand
  90. Silverqt
    Feb 6, 2016
    5
    wtf with the frame rate in this game?:) Using i7 + gtx 690 and can barely handle it, like 90% of playtime i am enjoying of average 24 frames...... and yeah for no reason, because the game looks like **** and must run like 300 frames with graphics like that. Also game fails to inform me about critical buildings that i must to build for not to lose my whole GAME!!! And when the soldierswtf with the frame rate in this game?:) Using i7 + gtx 690 and can barely handle it, like 90% of playtime i am enjoying of average 24 frames...... and yeah for no reason, because the game looks like **** and must run like 300 frames with graphics like that. Also game fails to inform me about critical buildings that i must to build for not to lose my whole GAME!!! And when the soldiers misses a target when the muzzle of the gun right at flesh of the enemy, stupid as ****… Expand
  91. AlphaIIOmega
    Feb 11, 2016
    4
    I made an account literally just to write this review. This game is crap, overall. I gave it a 4, because for a game that costs $80 Canadian, I have really high expectations.

    This game is challenging, too challenging. But it's not challenging because it takes skill, it's just challenging because it's REALLY poorly designed, and your success relies almost completely on RNG. I had to    I made an account literally just to write this review. This game is crap, overall. I gave it a 4, because for a game that costs $80 Canadian, I have really high expectations.

    This game is challenging, too challenging. But it's not challenging because it takes skill, it's just challenging because it's REALLY poorly designed, and your success relies almost completely on RNG. I had to stop playing out of frustration, or I was going to break my keyboard.

    The graphics are beautiful, but the combat dynamics are awful. Lazy, incompetent, unintelligent game designers made this game unplayable past the first 10 hours.    … Expand
  92. Tubey
    Mar 26, 2016
    6
    Does loads right, but forgets to be as fun as the original, as extreme difficulty punishes the simplest mistake or a missed RNG roll. Yes, it's a strategy game, but it feels unduly harsh too often - like a game of chess, but where every so often an attempt to take an opponents piece won't work, because reasons.

    On top of this, throw in a lacklustre story that promised to be so much more    Does loads right, but forgets to be as fun as the original, as extreme difficulty punishes the simplest mistake or a missed RNG roll. Yes, it's a strategy game, but it feels unduly harsh too often - like a game of chess, but where every so often an attempt to take an opponents piece won't work, because reasons.

    On top of this, throw in a lacklustre story that promised to be so much more than it ultimately was, and you have a single-player experience that is a slog to play through and unrewarding to do so.

    Not a terrible game by any means, but a missed chance to create a strategy classic. If there is to be an XCOM 3, I hope the devs take the best from both the original and sequel (but moreso from the original) and create something truly great - because this isn't.    … Expand
  93. ketamarine
    Feb 15, 2016
    1
    Seriously Firaxis? You call this an XCOM game? It's a watered down, terribly optimized, buggy mess of an RNG-fuelled "strategy-lite" game wrapped in once-great canon.

    I LITERALLY had more fun in the character creator BEFORE I actually started playing this game. But once my delightfully pre-built characters got gunned down for NO REASON other than BAD RNG LUCK and having to SPRINT    Seriously Firaxis? You call this an XCOM game? It's a watered down, terribly optimized, buggy mess of an RNG-fuelled "strategy-lite" game wrapped in once-great canon.

    I LITERALLY had more fun in the character creator BEFORE I actually started playing this game. But once my delightfully pre-built characters got gunned down for NO REASON other than BAD RNG LUCK and having to SPRINT through every map I lost all my remaining faith in this team.

    Not that much was left after the dumbing down hit a new peak in CIV BE (OOH let's put Civ V in space - Sci-fi's is so hot right now, we'll make a fortune!) and the abomination that was Starships.

    Pros:
    - Character creation/customization is fun
    - Concealment mechanic COULD be cool if it wasn't so EFFING ARBITRARY when you are spotted. Alien on the other side of a wall of a house that you are in while purposely sneaking around spots you??? They must have smelled you!
    - THAT is LITERALLY IT!

    Cons:
    - They killed xcom
    - Runs like TOTAL GARBAGE on a 980ti and 24gb RAM. Hangs for no reason after most actions, framerate drops to zero all the time. I can play Witcher 3 on maxed on 1080P and I am playing this STRATEGY GAME at min-low settings and still seeing huge stuttering/frame rate drops.
    - Buggy as all hell. Shooting through walls/floors. Grenades on rooftops are effing ridiculous. The aliens stand there on thin air taking no damage and laugh at you - and you take full grenade damage (3-4), then fall to the ground (3-4 more) insta-killing your elite soldiers.
    - Timers ruin all tactical depth. On higher difficulties you are forced to sprint to objectives and face RNG hell as the aliens rain down upon you. Most timer based missions are unwinnable without incessant save spamming once you know where every pod is and do the precisely correct maneuver on each turn.
    - Strategic game play is riddled with RNG nonsense. Whether you progress or fall behind is more determined by how far away the story critical missions are and by how many stupid distraction missions come up to kill and wound your soldiers. Take one tiny shot for 3 damage with your top soldier? Sorry they are "gravely wounded" for a month - which could be 2 - (literally) 8 missions depending on RNG stupidity.
    - RNG, procedurally generated maps and timer elements just seem to have been used instead of designing an actually compelling gameplay loop and story that progresses rationally.
    - I have never installed mods so quickly into a game just to make it actually playable

    Firaxis, I have been playing your (predecessor's) games since the 1990's and I've never been more disappointed in the direction of your company than I am right now.

    You killed my favourite game of all time.    … Expand
  94. SH1
    Mar 26, 2016
    2
    I wish I could give this a higher rating than 2, but XCOM 2's core mechanic is fundamentally broken and that means that it fails as a computer game.

    A symptom of this is "scum saving", where you have to repeatedly save and load the game to get anywhere. This makes game-play a chore rather than a fun activity. You are forced to "game the system" rather than play the game. The    I wish I could give this a higher rating than 2, but XCOM 2's core mechanic is fundamentally broken and that means that it fails as a computer game.

    A symptom of this is "scum saving", where you have to repeatedly save and load the game to get anywhere. This makes game-play a chore rather than a fun activity. You are forced to "game the system" rather than play the game.

    The statistics also feels broken, even after the first patch. This could be due to the counter intuitive nature of the math involved, but it detracts from the game-play experience.

    I gave it two points for having a good graphical presentation.

    I can't say that I will go back to XCOM in the future. They will have to completely rethink the probability model, and that could remove the basic character of the franchise.    … Expand
  95. darkdrone
    Mar 4, 2016
    2
    one of the worst performing games i have ever owned my PC exceeds the requirements however i can't run this above medium to low settings,constant crashes, animations not playing properly,texture problems audio stuttering all kills what could have been a great game
  96. EricKiza87
    Feb 9, 2016
    0
    This game is pretty much the same game as XCOM1 with worse performance, a turn limit, bad balance, and fewer things to actually do such as build space ships. It feels like a bad mod of the original.
  97. jcasetnl
    Jun 12, 2017
    2
    This game is such a hot mess, and couldn't be more disappointing given the amazing blueprint that was set with the first game.

    Like many of the "hardcore" trend of late, it mistakes poor design or outright frustration for genuine fun and challenge. I grew up in the 80s. I know those games well. You want hard? Beat Ghosts 'n Goblins on one quarter and come talk to me. If they took    This game is such a hot mess, and couldn't be more disappointing given the amazing blueprint that was set with the first game.

    Like many of the "hardcore" trend of late, it mistakes poor design or outright frustration for genuine fun and challenge. I grew up in the 80s. I know those games well. You want hard? Beat Ghosts 'n Goblins on one quarter and come talk to me. If they took save-scumming out of this game, all the people saying, "git gud, n00b" in response to valid criticism would also be trashing this game.

    At the heart of the problem is this is a tactical, methodical game that was force-fed high-fructose corn syrup. It comes in the form of mission timers for nearly every mission you'll play. And like pounding can after can of soda, it doesn't take long before you're sick of it, and start to ask an obvious question: "why did they think this is fun?"

    Then there's the broken game mechanics, like that time you ran your guy behind their guy and stuck your gun into the back of his head and it says you have 90% chance to hit? Yeah, sorry, that's more like 50/50. See this game is so clever it knew you'd do the, ya know, LOGICAL thing, so they made that not work anymore! So clever. Such good game design! 10/10!

    Seriously, check around the forums. I kid you not: the most oft-repeated strategy is to run forward and chuck grenades, for the main reason that grenades will hit 100% of the time. Let me be clear: in a turn-based, tactical game. 1) Run forward. 2) Chuck grenades.

    And I tried it. And sadly, they're right. The absolute dumbest, guaranteed to get your squad wiped move is a great idea in this game. That's how BROKEN the RNG outcomes are! No, you don't save grenades for tactical opportunities, like when two or more enemies are bunched up or you get in a jam. You throw all your grenades up front and pray it's enough that whatever's left over won't be able to full-wipe your squad in the face of the RNG screwing you over for the remainder of the battle. Gaming at its finest.

    XCOM 2 is the out-of-the-box paradigm shift of game design we don't deserve, didn't need and never asked for. Save the world? Nah. Save your money.    … Expand
  98. Xanatar
    Feb 9, 2016
    6
    I enjoyed playing X-Com 2, though not as much as X-Com 1;
    I would have given it an 8/10, but not as it is now:
    Pro: - The new difficulty in combat is fun AND manageable - even the teleporting around codex guys. Just need some clever layered positioning, not just simple cover and overwatch lines. The early battles are actually the hardest, cause the enemy compositions are quite serious    I enjoyed playing X-Com 2, though not as much as X-Com 1;
    I would have given it an 8/10, but not as it is now:

    Pro:
    - The new difficulty in combat is fun AND manageable - even the teleporting around codex guys. Just need some clever layered positioning, not just simple cover and overwatch lines. The early battles are actually the hardest, cause the enemy compositions are quite serious at the beginning - get 5 squadsize and some officer soldiers soon, and it gets better. And if you see a lonley human sitting in the middle of a burning refugee camp, not running into hiding from evil aliens...

    - New graphics look good, a lot of (mostly useless) customization options for your squad looks.

    - High level skills cleverly positioned and used can really turn around everything - had a sniper killing 5 zombies and an advent with a handgun and faceoff in one sequence xD

    Con

    - The metagame lost a lot of its predecessor's appeal - the worldmap is no longer an additional strategic layer, where you actually defend earth by "hunting" UFOs with your interceptors. It is just flying from mission to mission.

    - The graphic requirements, as some already mentioned, are insane and not really optimized. I had to scale down graphics (AA, TAF, shadows etc) a lot to get it playable and I don't have a low spec PC. That said, the game no longer looked as nice, but in some maps worse than xcom 1, which is sad. This will hopefully be adressed soon.

    - Too many "forced" missions. In X-Com 1, I often ignored smaller UFOs after some time, but X-Com 2 forces on you many missions you probably would'nt want to do anymore at this point of the game.

    - Some annoying bugs where your characters die suddenly.

    - I still don't like the strange shooting percentages xcom has - My soldier is 5m in front on an enemy, even flanking it - in short, presented with a perfect kill shot - and gets a hit chance of 65%. This can get a supposed safe situation into a **** up situation, which gets worse with a new stat they introduced (dodge for grazing shots). Compared to that, i like the armor mechanic, as its effects are predictable.

    - Some timer missions were really cool and gave me a feeling of accomplishment... but others didn't and those became too many. Better balance would have been good here.

    Fazit:
    In short, it is still a good game, but the launch version is very much flawed mainly because of the poor optimization; I would strongly recommend buying it some time (patches) later, especially if you don't own a high end machine.    … Expand
  99. SMIICE
    Feb 15, 2016
    0
    I have GTX 980TI, I5, 16GB, game is on SSD. If you go on forums its not only me. Came crashes non-stop only hard reset helps.

    I played the game on all max for 4 hours. Then I had the black screen out of nowhere. I thought maybe my rig is overheating. No, I started the game again and all temps are fine nothing even close to 60. Then same crash within 2 minutes happened. The first thing I    I have GTX 980TI, I5, 16GB, game is on SSD. If you go on forums its not only me. Came crashes non-stop only hard reset helps.

    I played the game on all max for 4 hours. Then I had the black screen out of nowhere. I thought maybe my rig is overheating. No, I started the game again and all temps are fine nothing even close to 60. Then same crash within 2 minutes happened. The first thing I verified game files, didn't help, uninstalled the game and reinstalled. Did not help. Started new campaign. Same black screen. Reinstalling DirectX, Vcredist, Microsoft.NET and updated all the drivers. Same thing black screen with a manual restart. Ran Windows System File Checker fixed corrupted files Still Black screen of death. Lowered all the setting and still black screen of death.

    All other games run absolutely maxed out and with zero problems. So playing Tomb Raider for now. Very disappointed that I lost pretty much 60$ because I wanted retail version and didn't want to wait for amazon to deliver it.

    I was so frustrated with it because I loved the game. But it is unplayable completely in the current state. I wish I had problems like some people, with low FPS, or stuttering. It's fine I can handle it as long as I can enjoy this game and actually play it.

    Wrote to STEAM they said that I played long enough not to get a refund. They recommended contacting 2K, I contacted them and I wrote what I did already and they gave me the same tips. When I wrote that nothing helps they stopped responding completely.

    2K does not care about its customers. Worst experience I ever had.

    Huge fan of Firaxis. Love their games. But I wish there was a negative rating because the way 2K treating their customers.    … Expand
  100. rawb
    Feb 21, 2016
    0
    I hate this game. If played as a game of save and reload, there is no challenge. Every action can be redone so that RNG is in your favour and that you know where enemies are etc. Therefore I chose ironman mode. The game clearly hasn't been playtested for it though, its just a stupid gimmick for sadists. So basically, choose between pointless none consequence gameplay or something brutallyI hate this game. If played as a game of save and reload, there is no challenge. Every action can be redone so that RNG is in your favour and that you know where enemies are etc. Therefore I chose ironman mode. The game clearly hasn't been playtested for it though, its just a stupid gimmick for sadists. So basically, choose between pointless none consequence gameplay or something brutally unforgiving that quickly becomes unplayable as your troops die faster than you can upgrade them ahead of the enemy. I **** hate this game and wish I never bought it.… Expand
prev
Page:

Awards & Rankings

8
#8 Best PC Game of 2016
6
#6 Most Discussed PC Game of 2016
19
#19 Most Shared PC Game of 2016

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
88

Generally favorable reviews - based on 104 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 97 out of 104
  2. Mixed: 6 out of 104
  3. Negative: 1 out of 104
  1. Wccftech
    Apr 22, 2016
    80
    Firaxis managed to improve upon the already great Enemy Unknown in almost every way, with the exception of multiplayer. Unfortunately, the shockingly bad performance prevents XCOM 2 from reaching the status of a true masterpiece.
    Read full review
  2. High-Def Digest
    Apr 10, 2016
    90
    It is a tactical experience without peer, better even than its predecessors. It is draining and agonizing, but in a good way. The high difficulty may turn off some gamers, but it’s worth every second.
    Read full review
  3. IGN Denmark
    Apr 6, 2016
    90
    XCOM 2 is a gem. There is more story in the game, and the ending does not feel as abrupt as it did in the first game.
    Read full review
See all critic reviews »