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
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  1. Shadowxxx
    Jan 13, 2023
    0
    disgusting trash disgusting trash disgusting trash disgusting trash disgusting trash
  2. Alexrouz
    Apr 21, 2022
    1
    I have played this game for over 50 hours. At first I loved this game for the setting, level design and soldiers, I considered this game to be good and that it would become one of my favorites even then. But with every 5 hours of playing, I learned how terrible the gameplay of the game is and that this is one of the worst games I have ever played. Spoilers are minimal. 1) Even afterI have played this game for over 50 hours. At first I loved this game for the setting, level design and soldiers, I considered this game to be good and that it would become one of my favorites even then. But with every 5 hours of playing, I learned how terrible the gameplay of the game is and that this is one of the worst games I have ever played. Spoilers are minimal. 1) Even after releasing a large-scale addition to the game, the developers did not remove the huge randomness in shooting, when the machine gunner at point-blank range in 1-2-3 cells has a low chance of hitting and how miserable it looks in the game when he misses a huge alien that is standing right in front of him. 2) Bugs. They are everywhere. Bugs with shooting animations, bugs when the game is paused when there is a lot of shooting from spectator modes, bugs with grenade explosions, bugs with the abilities of the chosen ones, bugs when using engineers in the power relay. What the developers were doing preparing the addition to the game is unclear. 3) Stealth. It doesn't work normally. When successfully using stealth and bypassing enemy points, patrols at some point begin to go towards the player for no reason, and this happens all the time during missions with penetration to specific points. No logic, no development. Complete failure of the mechanics. 4) The worst is the sequence of moves, which is not reset if you are given an additional move of the last soldier for killing (for example), but the game does not allow you to do this and at that moment a plot event occurs (for example, the resurrection of the chosen one) and the game takes your turn, making a full one progress in the opponent's event, and you get back your half-one move left only for moving. As a result, the enemy makes literally 2 moves, until you absolutely could not do anything and this one does not depend on you in any way. Worst turn based game design I've ever seen in the history of gaming. 5) There is absolutely no tactics. It all comes down to random whether the enemy will hit through the cover / pass the stun / miss. The computer opponent does both completely stupid actions and brilliant ones at the same time, absolutely killing all the seriousness of what is happening, which you look at with laughter. Perhaps this is normal if you play on a low difficulty and score on logic and realism, but this is not interesting for experienced players. 6) Terrible development of the fog of war, when, for example, the Wanderers are close to Advent (which they also attack as a player), but until you open the fog of war, they just stand still and do nothing. And as soon as you opened it, they begin to act and then ignore the fact that they are point-blank to the enemy. They begin to stupidly run around and it looks like a clownery. And such missions also start in stealth, which absolutely destroys your tactics, since they can accidentally run out at the moment the fog of war opens and run out to you (although they break down exactly on the opponent of Advent according to the mechanics of the game when you are still in stealth). Summing up, I will say that this is only part of the problems and not all that terrible that is in the game design of the game. The game has a lot more problems and is more offensive just because the game initially seems good due to the setting and the design of the squad with the levels of locations. To bury such potential with such terrible gameplay I have never seen. I don't recommend anyone to play this… Expand
  3. Puppup
    Apr 14, 2022
    0
    Utter **** Controls are **** awful. no depth just full rush against turns all the time. cant spin the map or **** you chump. Even at £3 on steam or free on Epic its **** over priced. If you want cancer play this game.
  4. I3ordo
    Oct 4, 2021
    3
    Xcom is disbanded and what remains is a small faction and underdog!
    then WHY THE HELL the mission REQUIRES me to both rescue hostage, and then KILL ALL Remaining enemies on map? Why can't i get the hostage and F off? Cause , everybody calls you the "COMMANDER" but Firaxis is the actual commander and Demands you what do as exactly told and dont accept anything else.
    First game was    Xcom is disbanded and what remains is a small faction and underdog!
    then WHY THE HELL the mission REQUIRES me to both rescue hostage, and then KILL ALL Remaining enemies on map? Why can't i get the hostage and F off? Cause , everybody calls you the "COMMANDER" but Firaxis is the actual commander and Demands you what do as exactly told and dont accept anything else.

    First game was alright because it was based of some one else's work, now it s the second game and we all saw how moronic the melodies came out of their own guitar.    … Expand
  5. MusclePig
    Jul 24, 2021
    3
    Sometimes you can just tell when a game has been created with no love from the devs whatsoever. This was merely them doing their job.
  6. denissix
    Jan 3, 2021
    0
    XCOM 2 is unbalanced piece of s.... DLC Bosses with three life strips for first-level soldiers is "nice". The game is going too fast, very few resources. Improvements are very expensive. The Avatar project... who invented it?
    Max honest rate no more 75. Bad job Firaxis
  7. RealPlayer666
    Nov 9, 2020
    4
    This game is bad. Strongly not recommended. Everything inside is like a one big script (even shooting). 80-95% to shoot a target and miss. Load and one more try... miss again. One more try miss again and over and over again. You can move and shoot but you can't shoot and move at start. Many pointless skills. X-COM extraterrestrial gold edition is much better then this game (2007). AnotherThis game is bad. Strongly not recommended. Everything inside is like a one big script (even shooting). 80-95% to shoot a target and miss. Load and one more try... miss again. One more try miss again and over and over again. You can move and shoot but you can't shoot and move at start. Many pointless skills. X-COM extraterrestrial gold edition is much better then this game (2007). Another game based on very good (legendary) title f...d up. Sad...… Expand
  8. apjs
    Jun 9, 2020
    1
    The game is much worse than Enemy Unknown - which I loved. The performance is very poor even if you run it on a gaming PC with very good hardware. The level design is not good. You can shoot and fight through solid walls, pick up squad mates from the other side of a wall etc. The voiceovers are completely random. You will ge the "running low on ammo" voiceover from a soldier with *full*The game is much worse than Enemy Unknown - which I loved. The performance is very poor even if you run it on a gaming PC with very good hardware. The level design is not good. You can shoot and fight through solid walls, pick up squad mates from the other side of a wall etc. The voiceovers are completely random. You will ge the "running low on ammo" voiceover from a soldier with *full* ammo. The difficulty is very weird. The normal missions are super easy even on the hardest difficulty. And then the final mission is barely beatable on normal difficulty. The problem is the difficulty spike at the end. Either make it continuously harder each mission or leave the difficulty the same. But it is very frustrating if you beat all regular missions on hard withe a flawless or excellent score and for the final mission, you barely beat it after reducing the settings to normal difficulty.… Expand
  9. qrooel
    Mar 13, 2020
    0
    Timers in almost every mission. TBS with timers. Game is nearly unplayable because of this. No fun at all. Frustrating game ever.
  10. 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
  11. TheFrog
    Oct 26, 2019
    1
    Picture ugly-drawn graphics straight out of the PS2 era, and micro levels that still take longer to load than a sprawling open world with 100x the detail (my gods, loading takes AGES).
    The game consists of a gauntlet where your soldiers face superior numbers of superior enemies with far superior combat capabilities. Your snipers will almost never hit anything and cannot see an enemy    Picture ugly-drawn graphics straight out of the PS2 era, and micro levels that still take longer to load than a sprawling open world with 100x the detail (my gods, loading takes AGES).
    The game consists of a gauntlet where your soldiers face superior numbers of superior enemies with far superior combat capabilities. Your snipers will almost never hit anything and cannot see an enemy furthe than 6 meters. Your gunner deals minimal damage. Your scout is pointless, for stealth only applies to your very first attack. The specialist will heal you once per mission. Meanwhile enemies reanimate the dead, panic your troops (this may also occur if one of your soldiers gets hit!), take control of your soldiers, turning them into enemies that fire on your own troops. They pull your soldiers in a death grip that damages them, keep dealing damage and takes them in the middle of the enemies.
    The enemy spots you during their turn? You are in trouble. You spot the enemy? They get a free turn allowing them to disperse and get to cover before you can do anything. After a mission, your soldiers will be wounded, shaken and whatnot, introducing more handicaps for the next.
    Hitting is based on a RNG, so you often miss three times in a row even with an 80% chance to hit. It’s ridiculously easy to lose a soldier, and you only have four.
    Shouldn’t games be fun?    … Expand
  12. rbx775
    Dec 22, 2018
    2
    Amateurish crap, like the first xcom remake.
    I really love the artstyle though, it has a stylistic element to it which make the graphics both very readable and characteristic! GJ Artdirector!
    Also leveldesign & audiodesign seems to be well done. The gameplay let me down though, simply because it seems to rubberband you out of your silliest decisions. (maybe even your smartest, cant    Amateurish crap, like the first xcom remake.
    I really love the artstyle though, it has a stylistic element to it which make the graphics both very readable and characteristic! GJ Artdirector!
    Also leveldesign & audiodesign seems to be well done.

    The gameplay let me down though, simply because it seems to rubberband you out of your silliest decisions. (maybe even your smartest, cant tell... ;P )
    => was surrounded by 4 aliens upclose and they werent able to kill me after even 6 attempts.
    I made stupid choices => didnt die => deinstalled Xcom2.

    Hate rubber-banding whatever the inclination.
    rubber-banding isnt a sign of smart gamedesign, its a sign of stupid audience. You Loser.    … Expand
  13. SRKNZ
    Aug 5, 2018
    4
    Take a mediocre game franchise and make it worse. That's my impression of XCom 2. The first series was marred by an overly linear controlling approach to base management which is perpetuated in the second game. The horrible GUI is back too with all its quirks and limitations in place. The horrible counter intuitive R&D system is there too and its as confusing and unclear what you areTake a mediocre game franchise and make it worse. That's my impression of XCom 2. The first series was marred by an overly linear controlling approach to base management which is perpetuated in the second game. The horrible GUI is back too with all its quirks and limitations in place. The horrible counter intuitive R&D system is there too and its as confusing and unclear what you are supposed to do as ever. To really show up the glaring shortcomings in the aforementioned a time restriction is imposed making the whole frustrating, joyless experience even more crapulent.

    In short for me there is very little to like here aside from the overriding theme that I felt has been better executed in other titles like Xenonaughts.

    The only upside is the eye candy but its this title is so hamstrung by its awkward and clumsy game mechanics its not enough to really amount to anything significant. Played for a short time and quickly lost interest.    … Expand
  14. Zahrada
    Apr 23, 2018
    2
    The game is surprisingly unatractive from the very start. The strategy element is hard to find. It all seems to happen on a predetermined route. The missions are not designed for strategy, but for the fastest way possible, which leaves no choice, but to advance the shortest and fastest way and simply rely on rng. It's probably the first UFO/XCOM game in last 24 years which I did not like.
  15. nickdos
    Jan 22, 2018
    4
    There are a lot of bugs that remain from XCOM-EU and are because of the engine and persist with XCOM2.
    The game is unbalanced and ridiculous on higher difficulties because of the very short timers.
    I see the reason they added them, but they could do the same thing with a little more lax time frames. Shame that an amateur developer of a mod for EU can do a better job designing a tactical    There are a lot of bugs that remain from XCOM-EU and are because of the engine and persist with XCOM2.
    The game is unbalanced and ridiculous on higher difficulties because of the very short timers.
    I see the reason they added them, but they could do the same thing with a little more lax time frames.
    Shame that an amateur developer of a mod for EU can do a better job designing a tactical game than a AAA studio.    … Expand
  16. 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
  17. ChosenOne
    Sep 13, 2017
    0
    A more than a year after release, few DLCs is out. Game still crushes after tuttorial. No word from firaxis or 2K. Nice job! It seems like 2K policy - to ignore all, even critical bugs in their products.
  18. 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
  19. PogoTime
    May 25, 2017
    4
    Why I bought the game: Because there were a lot of good reviews and a perma-death game normally is always a good challenge with its special feeling

    Why the game lost me: Most of the game is so heavy on RNG that this kills my immersion completely. I stopped counting the situations where i sneaked behind an enemy with a shotgun, got initiative; an still misses 100% of the shot. This is    Why I bought the game: Because there were a lot of good reviews and a perma-death game normally is always a good challenge with its special feeling

    Why the game lost me: Most of the game is so heavy on RNG that this kills my immersion completely. I stopped counting the situations where i sneaked behind an enemy with a shotgun, got initiative; an still misses 100% of the shot. This is just too much RNG for me standing 1m behind an enemy and missing with a shotgun....come on.

    And this situations can often lead to complete wipes or death of you teammates.

    This erased all the fun out of this game, cause you can be as good as you want, you will still get screwed by RNG.    … Expand
  20. mrdollar
    Mar 28, 2017
    2
    1. Tired of missing 90% hit rates, your soldier literately misses point blank shots without cover all the time.
    2. Almost every mission is timed of 6-8 turns and you are fighting 4-5 groups of enemies.
    3. Optimization of game is really bad, even high end pc lags using higher graphics settings. 4. Bugs and glitches, you can easily cheat saving the game before enemy turn and load. It will    1. Tired of missing 90% hit rates, your soldier literately misses point blank shots without cover all the time.
    2. Almost every mission is timed of 6-8 turns and you are fighting 4-5 groups of enemies.
    3. Optimization of game is really bad, even high end pc lags using higher graphics settings.
    4. Bugs and glitches, you can easily cheat saving the game before enemy turn and load. It will skip enemy turn lol.
    5. When you counter enemy on your last move, enemy gain second turn, not fair.    … Expand
  21. 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
  22. 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
  23. hassall
    Feb 17, 2017
    4
    I spent more time trying to firgure out how to get my fps to run smoother than playing the game, i dont understand why this game runs so badly. The enemies in this game has all the luck and in my first mission 3 of my men died. Im just gonner wait until they patch it or somehthing.
  24. Gustawosky
    Jan 29, 2017
    2
    i spent more time reloading saves files than playing the game, unfair enemies that had all the odds in their favor, you dont need skill on this game its just a coin flip that punish you hard every time that you lost
  25. eroeru
    Jan 19, 2017
    3
    It's a piece of garbage software. Runs horribly. Enemy Unknown ran perfectly on high settings, this one stutters on minimal. And looks ugly at it.

    As to the actual contents - it's cheesy and unconcincing as f***. A cut scene fiesta with "epic" music and dumb lines. As to the whole premise of fighting to bring back a commander from 20 years back who is so very special and without whom    It's a piece of garbage software. Runs horribly. Enemy Unknown ran perfectly on high settings, this one stutters on minimal. And looks ugly at it.

    As to the actual contents - it's cheesy and unconcincing as f***. A cut scene fiesta with "epic" music and dumb lines. As to the whole premise of fighting to bring back a commander from 20 years back who is so very special and without whom the soldiers are doomed - f'ing ridiculous.

    Free, more laidback and aplenty tactics options are taken away and you're left with running to some objective and trying to RNG oponents on the way. It also doesn't make an effort in regards to the cool options available - for example, even though there's an option to hear a soldier speak its mother tongue, most speak English. Is it somehow insulting to Americans that other, frankly more interesting languages exist? The few lines for Asian and smaller European languages wouldn't take any money, especially as to how XCOM:EU made the dev lots. This lacking seems just out of fear of alienating Americans.

    First game had a more believable and nicely eerie feel to it. This one's a severely unoptimized flunk.

    To paraphrase a title from fake game journalism: XCOM 2 is a far worse game than its predecessor in almost every way that matters.    … Expand
  26. 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
  27. Shatter77
    Dec 29, 2016
    3
    I'm not sure I can finish this game, because it has decided to crash again and again in the same place. Load, do a few moves, quickly save before it crashes may yet get me out oft his crash fest. Nearly a year old, and the game being in this state is unconscionable.

    Further boatload of criticism: - This game is essentially the same as Enemy Unknown: the mechanics are virtually    I'm not sure I can finish this game, because it has decided to crash again and again in the same place. Load, do a few moves, quickly save before it crashes may yet get me out oft his crash fest. Nearly a year old, and the game being in this state is unconscionable.

    Further boatload of criticism:

    - This game is essentially the same as Enemy Unknown: the mechanics are virtually identical.
    - Enemies are still grouped in mobs that get interrupt moves as you discover them, regardless of whether they can see you. Normally turn based games have an initiative stat to govern who goes first. Not here and it practically forces you to try to set up ambushes by reloading then preventing triggering seeing the mob before you are ready.
    - Game play is largely a matter of luck. I do not believe anyone can play this game to the end without relying on save/reload a lot.
    - Wounded team members are out of action for up to a month, which is extremely long.
    - It's extremely easy for your soldiers to die, and extremely time consuming to level them up. I've been playing for 40 hours and more or less just got a few colonel level soldiers. I doubt it's possible to lose a colonel, then level up a replacement before the game ends. So, lose a soldier and you're practically forced to reload.
    - A clock is ticking on the campaign map and nearly every mission also has a turn limit on it. So you are forced to take risks and push forward in a game that ruthlessly punishes that very behaviour.
    - The mouse interface is an insulting afterthought. Drag the world map, and pass an interactive icon will trigger that icon.
    - Did I mention the interface is atrocious?
    - Your base interface has you step through multiple layers with camera swivels in between all the time. Dizzying, useless. Slow.
    - The interface does nothing to help you select the best equipment for your current team, as wounded soldiers are rotated out. In one screen the "make weapons available" button is not there. Mostly those buttons don't even work. Prepare to spend several hours of your playtime hunting for that piece of armour or that weapon that's not on any of the selected soldiers.    … Expand
  28. supercagan
    Dec 18, 2016
    3
    If you like squad tactics games play Jagged alliance, even the old one is better than this one.
    Locate the aliens in building... check
    Approach in stealth and surround building...check When all members are in ambush position shoot 1 alien out of 4...check The other 3 aliens go alert, jump out of the building, pass all the team members as they watch, run down the street and hide behind    If you like squad tactics games play Jagged alliance, even the old one is better than this one.
    Locate the aliens in building... check
    Approach in stealth and surround building...check
    When all members are in ambush position shoot 1 alien out of 4...check
    The other 3 aliens go alert, jump out of the building, pass all the team members as they watch, run down the street and hide behind a truck. Now my guys cant shoot them because they are behind full cover, and the next turn I miss three 90% shots and the aliens shoot once and kill my sniper...
    UNINSTALLED, not to mention the other 2 groups of aliens hear all the explosions and do not do anything because they did not see me behind the corner yet...

    Horrible AI
    Horrible team tactics -especially aliens run 100 yards and hide behind cover when you are discovered
    Would definitely Uninstall again...    … Expand
  29. Garingo41
    Oct 9, 2016
    1
    Too many timed mission, which is a boring incentive to rise pressure to the player to hurry with the mission.
    The only way to pass time on the world map is to scan some stupid **** icon that does give you a marginal improvement in currency, so youcan buy some other ****...
    1 Hour in the game and i already lost 7 people because of stupid RNG missing enemys 1 meter in front of the    Too many timed mission, which is a boring incentive to rise pressure to the player to hurry with the mission.
    The only way to pass time on the world map is to scan some stupid **** icon that does give you a marginal improvement in currency, so youcan buy some other ****...
    1 Hour in the game and i already lost 7 people because of stupid RNG missing enemys 1 meter in front of the soldiers.

    I read this game has some performance issues (cynical brit) on release date so i didn't bought it and forgot about it.
    So now, half a year later, I played this game and it still performs like ****.

    The game flow is very ugly. You don't have enough time to micromanage your base and build equipment like it was in the older games. You click on the scan icon and 1 second later another stupid mission pops up that you have to attend to, or else you will loose instantly.

    This game is not worth the money.    … Expand
  30. choppy
    Oct 2, 2016
    4
    The cosmetics change from Xcom 1, but little else. In order to make it seem like a new game, and to please all the long-war geeks, the difficulty is cranked up in a bunch of artificial ways. Almost every mission has a timer or constant stream of scripted enemy drop-ins. And this is the overall theme of the game: you are constantly being spammed with so many events and non-meaningfulThe cosmetics change from Xcom 1, but little else. In order to make it seem like a new game, and to please all the long-war geeks, the difficulty is cranked up in a bunch of artificial ways. Almost every mission has a timer or constant stream of scripted enemy drop-ins. And this is the overall theme of the game: you are constantly being spammed with so many events and non-meaningful choices that it's almost impossible to keep up with basic tasks, and eventually you will be forced to make a detrimental choice. Strategy gaming at its finest!

    Once again, all percentages are pre-determined at the start of every mission, so an 80 or 90 percentage shot is completely meaningless - it doesn't matter what you do or where you move, from the beginning of the mission it's been determined whether you're going to hit or miss (this is true - search the forums for discussion). You can stand right next to an enemy, going full auto, and still miss every time. So ridiculous. You the mouseclicker aren't even necessary for the game, because everything's already determined. It could just run the percentages itself and determine the same outcome. Your actions have literally no effect on whether you hit or miss - just like real life and real combat, right?

    Given that every mission relies on pre-scripted events and pre-determined enemy placements, the only "strategy" or "tactics" are remembering where the enemies are going to spawn and pre-placing your troops to ambush them. So, the only thing that matters is positioning, based on either luck in the fog of war or your knowledge of previous failures.

    This game might as well be calling "Pathing Manager 2016", since pathing is the only meaningful thing you control and the singular thing that makes the difference between success and failure in the mission. If most of your paths succeed on the first try, you got lucky. If most of your paths fail, suck it up and lose, or try new paths on a reload. And that's it. That's all you do in the entire game. This is obscured by other crap like "Dark Events", which are basically 'pick which 1 out of 3 bad things you want to try to stop' through another 'pick-a-path' mission. Again, totally meaningless for the overall outcome, but it's very deep "strategy", right? Not so much.    … Expand
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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.
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  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.
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  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
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