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. 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
  2. tommh
    Feb 9, 2016
    10
    This is a true realization of what a X Com game should be. Tense tactical games that feed into a strategy game that is constantly presenting you with tough interesting decisions.
  3. Tobus
    Feb 9, 2016
    9
    This game is awesome. It grows on me and I feel I'm becoming attached to my soldiers in their rise of the ranks and accompanying customizations. It feels solid on both tactical and strategic level. I don't like the timers on certain missions, making you rush into certain death if you don't watch yourself. That's my personal taste though.

    My gripes are small and I'm sure to be adressed    This game is awesome. It grows on me and I feel I'm becoming attached to my soldiers in their rise of the ranks and accompanying customizations. It feels solid on both tactical and strategic level. I don't like the timers on certain missions, making you rush into certain death if you don't watch yourself. That's my personal taste though.

    My gripes are small and I'm sure to be adressed in a patch: the difference between difficulty levels is large. The manual is lacking with respect to the impacts of strategical decisions made earlier in the game. One could (I did) lose the game several months after a certain decision to something (or not) on the map.
    The game tends to stutter a little due to grapic updates since Xcom, although I've also found better performance on lower difficulty levels. Some of the aliens are a little buffed: the Codex can teleport to anywhere, outflanking your team and thus seriously undermining any tactical plan you've thought up. The Vipers can pull you from very long range through walls and doors, basically doing the same.

    All things I'm sure will be adressed in a patch. The game itself as a whole: just awesome!    … Expand
  4. Kingbingo
    Feb 9, 2016
    8
    This game easily has the potential to be a 10 out 10. But for some reason the developers decided to add timers to most maps which will often ruin the experience as it stops you being tactical. So I’m giving it 8 but if you download the timer mods from the workshop you may as well add those 2 points back.
  5. Rtheom
    Feb 8, 2016
    7
    XCOM 1 is one of my Top 5 All Time games. XCOM 2 is okay, but not quite up to snuff yet, as others have said.

    Performance is just sad. The is the first game I've really had any problems with and its sounding like it isn't actually my computer doing it. Gameplay is good, very similar to the original, but it is all new levels of punishing. I like my XCOM challenging, but a team wipe    XCOM 1 is one of my Top 5 All Time games. XCOM 2 is okay, but not quite up to snuff yet, as others have said.

    Performance is just sad. The is the first game I've really had any problems with and its sounding like it isn't actually my computer doing it.

    Gameplay is good, very similar to the original, but it is all new levels of punishing. I like my XCOM challenging, but a team wipe every mission gets old fast.

    Major plus is the ability to pre-create and share characters. I used to spend hours every game making up new characters for my team. It's fun to just create a bunch and see who gets randomly thrown in there. This is a HUGE improvement over the last game.

    Verdict: Die-hards will still be pleased. New folks should just get XCOM 1 on rebate with the expansions and wait for this one to cook a little longer.    … Expand
  6. lassek1981
    Feb 8, 2016
    10
    This game is sooo cool! I am like another gamer and reviewer a veteran in the series.. played since child in DOS and later Xcom and Xcom EU...

    While the gamer suffers from missing performance optimizations and has some bugs here and there it is fully playable and never crashed on me one single time in the 4 days in a row 15 hours plus every day I played to complete it! I CANNOT    This game is sooo cool! I am like another gamer and reviewer a veteran in the series.. played since child in DOS and later Xcom and Xcom EU...

    While the gamer suffers from missing performance optimizations and has some bugs here and there it is fully playable and never crashed on me one single time in the 4 days in a row 15 hours plus every day I played to complete it! I CANNOT remember when I sad up playing 15 hours straight since I was a boy.. I mean its very addictive.

    I love everthing about it and it is really a 10/10 game!

    However I think allthough the music, sfx and is great! there could be more music score like XCOM EU, that soundtrack was epic.. they should have hired them again for sound! :)    … Expand
  7. TerenZ
    Feb 8, 2016
    9
    I don't believe I ever reviewed a game before but this is one I will. Since I discovered XCom, and played it, I have never found any better games. With Enemy Within, things really got better - until it became "easy"; finally I discovered the mod LongWar. Now playing LongWar is tough; so I started with Veteran. I have played a total of 120 hours; have lost only 1 soldier and only haveI don't believe I ever reviewed a game before but this is one I will. Since I discovered XCom, and played it, I have never found any better games. With Enemy Within, things really got better - until it became "easy"; finally I discovered the mod LongWar. Now playing LongWar is tough; so I started with Veteran. I have played a total of 120 hours; have lost only 1 soldier and only have needed to restart a mission twice.
    This is an awesome game! And I have no idea what to expect because I have not reached the end yet.

    Graphics - comics like and beautiful.
    Sound effects - fantastic
    Strategy - far more realistic (of course it is unreasonable to believe the aliens would not be alerted an enemy is there after the first attack!)
    Enemies - Each enemy is unique and requires a different approach
    What has improved in my opinion?

    - a better use of a mixed squad
    - As with Longwar sometimes you have to sacrifice a member (not necessarily dying)
    - Timed missions add an edge; your soldiers will be hit and you need a depth of squad like Longwar
    - You need to upgrade as many soldiers as possible

    Addressing Negative Reviews

    XCom 2 is a difficult game. Not for the feint hearted. Sometimes you need to think how and from where to approach the enemy; the first ambush is critical so your soldiers do not take any damage. Try to avoid multiple sets of enemies from joining forces

    Timed missions. yes they are tough. But many succeed. As with any difficult mission; try and try again.

    Some hints which help me

    As with XCom I find that leveling up Sharp shooters is a priority. If you like using 2 snipers like me, a sniper with killing zone, and another on standby to finish one or 2 off (quickdraw)

    Unlike previous previous Xcoms it works to your advantage by spreading your soldiers yet keep them covering each other; the enemy is too adept at flanking. Having Snipers high is a risk, but can cover many units

    If you can't see the tactic, it is because you didn't think about it yet. I think Piraxis did a fantastic job for us players to think outside the box and make the game more realistic (ie when facing drastic odds what are the chances of coming out of a fight unscathed?)    … Expand
  8. GeneralGonzo
    Feb 8, 2016
    10
    Maybe one of the best startegy games in years. A perfect improved XCOM with better graphics, deadlier aliens, more depth in character development, always new generated battlefields, many more options in the tactic (round based) part and more flexibility with the new flying HQ.
    All in all everything has been polished and improved since XCOM and if you have anyinterest in really good    Maybe one of the best startegy games in years. A perfect improved XCOM with better graphics, deadlier aliens, more depth in character development, always new generated battlefields, many more options in the tactic (round based) part and more flexibility with the new flying HQ.
    All in all everything has been polished and improved since XCOM and if you have anyinterest in really good strategy games, you can´t miss this.
    But beware of the difficulty - even without ironman mode on, you will be challenged hard. Nothing for rookies in this genre.
    Remember: Join us or become them !    … Expand
  9. Pleiadesu
    Feb 8, 2016
    10
    For all of you who are complaining about how the game rushes you and how that's not tactical-
    That's the whole point of that setup. You must rush as quickly as you can WHILE utilizing tactical cover to hide your forces while your enemies attack you. Great gameplay mechanic in my opinion, great job there Firaxis.
    Next comes the story. I feel that the story ties in well with the gameplay    For all of you who are complaining about how the game rushes you and how that's not tactical-
    That's the whole point of that setup. You must rush as quickly as you can WHILE utilizing tactical cover to hide your forces while your enemies attack you. Great gameplay mechanic in my opinion, great job there Firaxis.

    Next comes the story. I feel that the story ties in well with the gameplay mechanics, and while it's not something stellar like The Last Of Us it works well enough for a game like this.

    Now, the cover/aiming system. Yes, the fact that even a 99% shot can miss is annoying at times, but unlike games where every shot flies true to a straight, horizontal line from the barrel, the soldiers in this game actually have to aim.

    If I had anything to complain about, it'd be the fact that you can't utilize vehicles anymore- probably one of the only flaws I saw so far, although it might be related to the whole 'renegade' scheme.
    Thankfully, I haven't seen any bugs yet, and the game runs fairly well on my multipurpose laptop.    … Expand
  10. max1c
    Feb 8, 2016
    7
    The good:
    - Art/Graphics
    - Music - Cut scenes/Voice Acting - Story - Customization options The bad: - Numerous bugs - Sluggish interface - Inconsistent mechanics - Overly Repetitive I really want to give this game an 8, but I simply can not. I'm sure once all the bugs get ironed out and some performance improvements are made this game will easily be deserving of an 8 - 8.5    The good:
    - Art/Graphics
    - Music
    - Cut scenes/Voice Acting
    - Story
    - Customization options

    The bad:
    - Numerous bugs
    - Sluggish interface
    - Inconsistent mechanics
    - Overly Repetitive

    I really want to give this game an 8, but I simply can not. I'm sure once all the bugs get ironed out and some performance improvements are made this game will easily be deserving of an 8 - 8.5 rating. The biggest problems with the game are it's poor performing interface and a very inconsistent behaviour in mechanics. AI cheats/performs moves that simply should be impossible according to the rules of the gameplay.

    I enjoyed the cutscenes and the music. However, the game got repetitive and boring quickly. Overall, a good game plagued by bugs.    … Expand
  11. SYLOH
    Feb 8, 2016
    9
    I love this game.
    I've been seeing alot of people complaining that the turn limited objectives make the game less tactical.
    This is a position I don't understand. That's like saying having a limited budget in a management sim less managerial. There is no real time counter ticking down, you have to be tactical in your approach to survive the turn limit. None of the missions require you    I love this game.
    I've been seeing alot of people complaining that the turn limited objectives make the game less tactical.
    This is a position I don't understand. That's like saying having a limited budget in a management sim less managerial.
    There is no real time counter ticking down, you have to be tactical in your approach to survive the turn limit. None of the missions require you to kill all of the aliens within the turn limit anyway. You have to make the tactical decisions that let you turn off the timer. You got alot of tools in your belt to get to the timer location, armor that lets you walk through walls, remote hacking with a specialist, blasting a hole in a wall with explosives, a ranger that is still in concealment while the rest of the team lays down fire, the list goes on.
    The turn limit reinforces the theme of the game and provides a link between the overworld strategy and the low level tactics. You are on the clock, humanity's days are numbered, if you take too long the aliens will win. You are a desperate and hounded resistance movement going against incredible odds.
    Another criticism is the reliance on random events. Which I define as a core feature of the gameplay. This game is all about managing risk. You don't put all your Colonels in one mission, you don't dash out max distance into the fog of war, your plans don't rely on a single point of failure. All this risk management has to be weighed against the clock, adding another layer of complexity.
    Finally there are the bugs. This I have no counter to, the game is buggy as hell. Granted the majority of the bugs are graphical, and I haven't run into anything particularly game breaking. Also the text in item descriptions and tooltips outright lies in some places. (HINT: The haywire protocol tooltip is a lie, turrets are NOT permanently under your control). This knocks it down from a 10, but it's otherwise one of the best turn based games in the current market.    … Expand
  12. Undershaft
    Feb 8, 2016
    9
    Great game. If you liked 2012 XCOM (and the Long War), you should like this one just as much (or even more so).
    + sci-fi guerilla setting benefits the series, both aesthetically and regarding game mechanics
    + procedural maps offer great replay value + more options on and beyond the battlefield (greater variety of items, more choices on tactical maps) + contrary to what many people say,    Great game. If you liked 2012 XCOM (and the Long War), you should like this one just as much (or even more so).
    + sci-fi guerilla setting benefits the series, both aesthetically and regarding game mechanics
    + procedural maps offer great replay value
    + more options on and beyond the battlefield (greater variety of items, more choices on tactical maps)
    + contrary to what many people say, the frequent turn limits work great and heighten the tension without rushing you unduly.
    + customization improves identification (I hope there will be more soldier-languages soon, though)

    However, the game is not perfect (yet). Here are some of the issues I had - hopefully, most of them will be taken care of by Firaxis or competent modders in the near future:
    - long loading times and stuttering performance (apparently also on newer computers)
    - occasional problems with sightlines / melee attacks through walls
    - research tree seems a little too barren. I was hoping for more optional paths and branches
    - some of the designs are a little bit silly and don't fit with the guerilla style (3rd-tier armor, manga-hair Avatar etc.)
    - skill trees aren't perfectly balanced yet.
    - some repetitive animations (in-flight soldier gestures, contact new region sequence, etc.)

    All in all, I can only recommend this one, though. If you want to be on se the safe side, wait a few weeks/months until the bugs are mostly ironed out - but if you like tactics and strategy, you should definitely buy it.    … Expand
  13. dongsweep
    Feb 8, 2016
    6
    Last night I was playing and on my last move of the turn I moved a unit forward, from about two and a half screens away in the darkness a patrol spawned. Since it was my last move on the turn the faceless that spawned next to my guy (not the patrol, but at the same time as the patrol) pops up and smacks my guy and brings him to 1 health, the lancers from the patrol run across the entireLast night I was playing and on my last move of the turn I moved a unit forward, from about two and a half screens away in the darkness a patrol spawned. Since it was my last move on the turn the faceless that spawned next to my guy (not the patrol, but at the same time as the patrol) pops up and smacks my guy and brings him to 1 health, the lancers from the patrol run across the entire map and hit two of my other guys for half their health.

    Now I get to play my turn and I am guaranteed someone will die even if I take everyone out. This was a timed mission so you have to move forward to win but regardless, I was moving as tactfully as I could but it is ridiculous that you end your turn spawning a patrol who then gets a move for spawning (towards you) then gets a full turn to attack you. The game has a lot of great aspects but how is that fun. I save scummed and redid my move since I knew where the spawned from, kind of annoying it has to be like that. Should not be any spawns and if they are spawned they should not get a full move and a turn.    … Expand
  14. C0ncox
    Feb 8, 2016
    9
    How do people not like this game? This is a true sequel to Enemy Unknown. I have not seen a single bug or glitch either and even if there were, why are you surprised that a triple A game has bugs? And so what if it's not original to the very first XCOM games. There were things wrong with those games too. **** needs to be updated. ALSO GOOD THING THERES A DAY ONE MOD FOR TIMERS IF THATHow do people not like this game? This is a true sequel to Enemy Unknown. I have not seen a single bug or glitch either and even if there were, why are you surprised that a triple A game has bugs? And so what if it's not original to the very first XCOM games. There were things wrong with those games too. **** needs to be updated. ALSO GOOD THING THERES A DAY ONE MOD FOR TIMERS IF THAT BOTHERS YOU FOR SOME REASON. The game is also supposed to be harder turn down the difficulty if you're having such a hard time.

    The customization is my personal favorite part of the game because it was very lacking in Enemy Unknown. The character pool is great as well.

    This game is a classic. Runs great on my PC btw.    … Expand
  15. socokid
    Feb 8, 2016
    9
    Super fun game. I've been playing for almost 12 hours without one issue. I am also not staring at an FPS counter just waiting for something to be angry about... *eye roll*

    Enemy Unknown was a wonderful game. This is EU on steroids. Virtually every aspect has been upgraded and refined. I am having a blast, and back to the game!
  16. MrFelix
    Feb 8, 2016
    0
    if you like to to watch loading screens because you die in an unfair game with no tactical depth this one is for you!

    i really wanted to like this game but... -for a game that costs 50€ an looks like 2005 this game hast serious performance issues. i have a decent computer witch plays new games just fine just played rise of the tomb raider on high settings no problem. on this i    if you like to to watch loading screens because you die in an unfair game with no tactical depth this one is for you!

    i really wanted to like this game but...

    -for a game that costs 50€ an looks like 2005 this game hast serious performance issues.
    i have a decent computer witch plays new games just fine just played rise of the tomb raider on
    high settings no problem. on this i have to use the lowest of the lowest settings on my macpro.
    why no clue. would be ok with me but...

    -nearly every misson has a timer, and that sucks so much. i can´t enjoy this game at all. no matter
    how hard i try. if you like a tactical approach you are wrong here. you have to rush like a mad man to
    get everything done. if you like to keep you soldiers and do things carfeully not a chance. i even
    lowered my difficulty to veteran and it´s still not possible not to loose anyone. i have to reload all the
    time which i never did in xcom. it just feels unfair.

    i played the game for 16 hours, so i tried to like it.
    i would be fine if the game does not look top notch...but unfun, unfair, unpolished game NO.
    don´t understand how this got such good critics, all bought i guess

    don´t buy    … Expand
  17. 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
  18. RogalDorn01
    Feb 8, 2016
    10
    Outstanding game and a truly impressive follow up to Enemy Unknown / Within. The story is great and it really gives the feeling of trying to build up a global resistance. It balances fun and stress as well. The only downside is that at the time of launch the performance can get a little chuggy during cutscenes. Also sometimes the audio gets delayed when I stream to my TV.

    I am sure    Outstanding game and a truly impressive follow up to Enemy Unknown / Within. The story is great and it really gives the feeling of trying to build up a global resistance. It balances fun and stress as well. The only downside is that at the time of launch the performance can get a little chuggy during cutscenes. Also sometimes the audio gets delayed when I stream to my TV.

    I am sure these minor technical glitches will be patched out soon. I would honestly give the game a 9/10. But so many trolls who never even played the game are giving a Zero, so I will give it a 10 to help counter.    … Expand
  19. Carewolf
    Feb 8, 2016
    7
    Very addictive game, but buggy as ....!!

    it has several mechinics issues, some it inherited from its predecessor, but many new. In tactical combat, there is now only two states: Either the AI knows where you are, or they don't. You usually start concealed, but once unconcealed all AI that you can see will be omniscient and can find all of your members. The AI is also suicidal and    Very addictive game, but buggy as ....!!

    it has several mechinics issues, some it inherited from its predecessor, but many new.

    In tactical combat, there is now only two states: Either the AI knows where you are, or they don't. You usually start concealed, but once unconcealed all AI that you can see will be omniscient and can find all of your members. The AI is also suicidal and will rush any position to do any kind of damage without trying to protect themselves. Added to that is that melee now has twice the range than most "ranged" weapons, means suicidal melee fighters (half of all AI) can sprint from out-of-range to melee and make a full attack (which is 100% to hit and deadly) in a single turn. This means the only way to protect your troops is by playing as cheasy as possible. Abusing the mechanics that the AI only knows where you are if you can see them, so the best approach is to NEVER scout, since knowing anything triggers the AI.

    Overwatch is mostly broken. You only get one shot and only at longest range where you are sure to miss, and many enemy actions does not even trigger overwatch. For instance some AI can teleport right up next your soldiers and shoot them, but an enemy teleporting into the middle of your squad does not trigger overwatch.

    Also there are turn timers on more missions than I like, but they are not really a problem, only how common they are. Whenever there is a timer snipers are useless beause they take time to setup. On top of scouting being negative, it reduces the usefulness of most characters in most missions.

    Finally I had one great mission where I had to hack a computer. I managed to get all the way in without being noticed (by cleverly avoiding noticing any AI) hacked the computer and got out. The game considered that a mission fail because I didn't kill anyone!!.. The game really doesn't give a **** about strategy.

    Still I find the game addictive, and can find amusement in twisting the games stupid design decisions against it.    … Expand
  20. Czar
    Feb 8, 2016
    8
    If you enjoyed XCOM then this is a no-brainer. Now with MOD support it will be even better. I have pt in 12 hours so far and found the campaign to be challenging. I typically have to reload most missions as my team gets mascaraed. The game looks great and runs smooth on my system, 980GTX. My only gripes are the timer in some missions. And the biggest is no Skirmish mode. I would love to beIf you enjoyed XCOM then this is a no-brainer. Now with MOD support it will be even better. I have pt in 12 hours so far and found the campaign to be challenging. I typically have to reload most missions as my team gets mascaraed. The game looks great and runs smooth on my system, 980GTX. My only gripes are the timer in some missions. And the biggest is no Skirmish mode. I would love to be able to load a map with operatives and enemies and just play the tactical game only.… Expand
  21. Vasot
    Feb 8, 2016
    6
    Most promising but also it's very buggy, unbalanced and very unoptimised. Even a GTX980Ti struggles which is ridiculous !! A lot of missions have a timer which puts me off personally. Anyway game has some great ideas but feels rushed i suggest you wait until the company releases some patches before buying it
  22. axxiusdecius
    Feb 8, 2016
    9
    finally a game not just as good as the first, but better, because it is much more complex, with many new layers added. What I mean: now there is a good dose of stealth, but not so much as to get annoyng; there is looting and plenty of different gun upgrades; the environment is destructible (need a door? make yourself a hole in the wall!); movement on the strategic map, Risk style; eventsfinally a game not just as good as the first, but better, because it is much more complex, with many new layers added. What I mean: now there is a good dose of stealth, but not so much as to get annoyng; there is looting and plenty of different gun upgrades; the environment is destructible (need a door? make yourself a hole in the wall!); movement on the strategic map, Risk style; events that influence the game for a while;
    Also, great graphics, new soldier classes, a better/darker atmosphere, more cyberpunk, the new feeling of fighting not a war, but a resistance guerilla against a pseudo-Communist dictatorship. And no more annoying dr. Vahlen voice (damn, I hated her!!!)
    On the minus side, a little less enemy variety (but some of them more remarkable); smaller battle maps; the scientist/engineers are now recruited through a quite unclear process. And what I really dislike, you are rushed in many battles by a turn countdown which takes away some of the planning.
    Overall, a 9,5 of 10 for me!
    And thank the Firaxis people for doing a good job this time, unlike the lame Beyond Earth and the dumbed-down Civ 5.....    … Expand
  23. masterhoodwinke
    Feb 8, 2016
    9
    Incredible game, if you enjoyed the previous Xcom you will love this one. There are a few minor bugs, they will be resolved soon. I will be playing and enjoying this game for years. Graphics are fantastic, attention to detail is exceptional. Read the PC Gamer review.

    It saddens me to see so much negative hate for a beautiful and clearly heartfelt development effort by 2k. Its not    Incredible game, if you enjoyed the previous Xcom you will love this one. There are a few minor bugs, they will be resolved soon. I will be playing and enjoying this game for years. Graphics are fantastic, attention to detail is exceptional. Read the PC Gamer review.

    It saddens me to see so much negative hate for a beautiful and clearly heartfelt development effort by 2k. Its not perfect, but what have you done that was?

    For those reviewers giving 5 or less... a few things I'm noticing. Either you don't know how to play this game effectively, or your PC hardware isn't strong enough to handle it. Experiencing very low frame rates? Your graphics card is most likely out of date. Experiencing tough AI? Go back to the drawing board and revise your strategy bro! But please, do not throw this game under the bus. It deserves better.    … Expand
  24. 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
  25. thaylonsen
    Feb 8, 2016
    8
    Great game, an evolution to the original. There are a lot of timers but there are also new tactics like remote hacking to help you along. All in all very pleased and the timers improved the game, not detracted from it.
  26. saintch
    Feb 8, 2016
    10
    An improvement in every aspect. I encountered no bugs, game is well paced, the timers in many missions add to the atmosphere, and are generously even with a defensive play style time was never an issue.

    Love the game, love the atmosphere.
  27. 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
  28. Tieger
    Feb 8, 2016
    9
    finally decided i needed to create an account, just to counter some of the pointlessly negative reviews, for what is really a highly enjoyable game.

    so lets address a few of their complaints: Game runs badly - I'm guessing this is on AMD cards, notorious for their driver requirements. regardless, its been fine for me (on an AMD card, and AMD cpu) and my friends I've spoken to (one of    finally decided i needed to create an account, just to counter some of the pointlessly negative reviews, for what is really a highly enjoyable game.

    so lets address a few of their complaints:

    Game runs badly - I'm guessing this is on AMD cards, notorious for their driver requirements. regardless, its been fine for me (on an AMD card, and AMD cpu) and my friends I've spoken to (one of them on a 4 year old machine), so this issue isn't as prevalent as people would have you believe.
    I've had it crash on me twice, but both those times have been when I've come back from tabbed out or sleep mode, so I've stopped doing that.
    loading also takes a bit long sometimes.

    Game forces you to rush all the time - no it doesn't. it does on missions where it makes sense within the story, but that's it. I've also never had a problem killing all the enemies and still getting to the objectives in time (maybe people are forgetting that Gremlins can hack objectives, so you don't need to physically run up to it?).
    people also say this kills the usefulness of people who aren't rangers... I disagree, all classes can be mobile as required. I've never once (in 20+ hours of gameplay) had a mission where, say, I couldn't afford to use my grenadiers/sharpshooters because they were too slow.

    Game doesn't introduce new enemies properly - why should it? are you expecting an NPC to say 'omg, that's a something! I hear you kill those by doing this. whatever you do, don't let it do whatever!'? deal with it. hide, shoot, hack it, whatever - and if you lose someone, chalk it up to experience, and remember for next time.

    '95% chance shots shouldn't miss!' - why not? that's a 1/20 chance of missing, it should happen occasionally - the same as I've sometimes hit with 20% shots.

    starting enemies are too hard - no they're not. oh no, they've mind-controlled someone?! well, guess you better kill them then. its not that hard to work out.

    now, is it quite what i wanted? well, no. I'd prefer it to be a bit less 'forced pace' for the strategic layer. i'd prefer it if R&D took longer and you had to spend time building the gear (so you'd appreciate the tech more when you get it). i'd prefer it if there were more than 3 tech levels (or, hmm, experimental weapons perhaps, as a 4th tier, that had to be built individually rather than for the group? like with the armour.). i'd prefer it if the Avenger could be stationed somewhere doing something, and the Skyranger sent out to missions around the world (come on, this is an upgraded Skyranger and it can't fly round the world?!).
    however... is it fun? definitely yes.
    does it work? yes.
    will i enjoy replaying it? yes.
    will mods eventually fix the issues i have? almost certainly yes.    … Expand
  29. Philsg1
    Feb 8, 2016
    10
    Phenomenal sequel to a modern strategy/tactical classic. Takes everything that you loved from XCOM EU and EW and chucks out everything you hated (except the 97% miss - that's XCOM baby!)

    Reminds me of the huge jump up from the promising Mass Effect 1 to the brilliant Mass Effect 2. Fantastic replayability - tense missions and full ongoing Mod support. Day one purchase and    Phenomenal sequel to a modern strategy/tactical classic. Takes everything that you loved from XCOM EU and EW and chucks out everything you hated (except the 97% miss - that's XCOM baby!)

    Reminds me of the huge jump up from the promising Mass Effect 1 to the brilliant Mass Effect 2.

    Fantastic replayability - tense missions and full ongoing Mod support.

    Day one purchase and pre-ordered - dream game!

    Odd slow and Frame drop - but these will soon be patched.    … Expand
  30. Alaskimo
    Feb 8, 2016
    7
    If you liked the first one you will like this one. i'm only about 5 missions in, but already have seen some of the annoying things about the first one( overwatched squaddies shooting the same guy at same time) improved upon. It is in some desperate need of optimization and bug fixes though. Wait for the patches guys. Can't comment on difficulty or game length, but i'm staying optimistic.If you liked the first one you will like this one. i'm only about 5 missions in, but already have seen some of the annoying things about the first one( overwatched squaddies shooting the same guy at same time) improved upon. It is in some desperate need of optimization and bug fixes though. Wait for the patches guys. Can't comment on difficulty or game length, but i'm staying optimistic. ill give it a 7 for now.… Expand
  31. CroGerA
    Feb 8, 2016
    9
    This is my first review because i do not agree with the amount of negative comments for this game.

    I played "XCOM 1: Enemy Unknown" and "XCOM 1: Enemy Within" (together for ~ 150 hours) and now XCOM 2 for ~ 20 hours at the moment. I think its a really good game and a good continuation to the first Part. Forget XCOM from 1994, it´s a different game, you cant compare it to each other.    This is my first review because i do not agree with the amount of negative comments for this game.

    I played "XCOM 1: Enemy Unknown" and "XCOM 1: Enemy Within" (together for ~ 150 hours) and now XCOM 2 for ~ 20 hours at the moment. I think its a really good game and a good continuation to the first Part. Forget XCOM from 1994, it´s a different game, you cant compare it to each other.

    "XCOM 2" is for me much better than "XCOM 1" from year 2012. I would write more if i had more time and my english grammar would not be so bad, but it´s enough to say that the whole game has improved. Better classes, better or equal good Story, better graphics, with a nice difficulty and a lot of fun. I had no crashes, no laggs, no problems and even the KI is the same like in "XCOM 1", sometimes really hard, sometimes with little dropouts, but hey, which game has perfect KI?

    In face of the bad situation in strategy games genre, we can be glad that games like this one are coming out. It´s not perfect (i vary between 85/100 and 90/100) but it is a very good game. The amount of negative comments is not understandable.    … Expand
  32. StrategyAddict
    Feb 8, 2016
    10
    Oh wow! Critics have hyped this game as an early "game of the year" and "one of the best PC games" ever. I've played it for 35 hours during the release weekend (taking almost no breaks). I say even though it has some minor technical glitches (performance, load times, physics) a rating around 90 is perfectly justified. It's superior to it's predecessor XCOM EU in every aspect and that wasOh wow! Critics have hyped this game as an early "game of the year" and "one of the best PC games" ever. I've played it for 35 hours during the release weekend (taking almost no breaks). I say even though it has some minor technical glitches (performance, load times, physics) a rating around 90 is perfectly justified. It's superior to it's predecessor XCOM EU in every aspect and that was a 89.

    So coming back to meta critic I see that it's getting mixed user reviews, seemingly for three reasons:

    1. technical issues. I say: Firaxis have done an incredible job at game design. I fully trust them to patch out the issues. Plus: we should be glad, that PC hardware is finally being utilised again.

    2. It's unlike the original XCOM. I say: Folks, get over it! There has been a pletorium of games reimplementing the original XCOM. (I have played them all, by the way.) Features missing compared to another game from another time is not a flaw. The current iteration of the XCOM universe perfectly captures the tension and challenge of the original game an surpasses all of the XCOM-alikes in many, if not all aspects.

    3. The game is too hard and the time limits too demanding. I say: The game has four difficulty settings, which seem perfecly balanced to me. On veteran (the second) I only got one little scratch during the first three missions. So i turned to "commander" the third and am now having a perfect struggle to stay allive. If I'm good, I can gloriously blast them before they even react, but most of the times more then half my squat will come out hurt. I even had to reload about three times because i'd otherwise lost a soldier.

    I hate timelimits. But in XCOM 2, they work miracles in forcing you to approach missions differently and in creating insane action. And still, you're not reliant on luck. There's so many special abilities to use, which mater way more then pure chance to hit.    … Expand
  33. HAMS
    Feb 8, 2016
    9
    As a sequel to XCOM EU:EW just about everything has improved. The tactical layer retains its simplicity but with some added mechanics and features. The strategic layer has been deepened and feels like a real part of the game instead of an after thought or purely story component like it did in EU:EW. The classes are different from EU:EW. I wouldn't say better or worse, just differentAs a sequel to XCOM EU:EW just about everything has improved. The tactical layer retains its simplicity but with some added mechanics and features. The strategic layer has been deepened and feels like a real part of the game instead of an after thought or purely story component like it did in EU:EW. The classes are different from EU:EW. I wouldn't say better or worse, just different and there is a lot to play around with and class combos to have fun with.

    Performance wise the game does not run well for me. But seeing that my hardware is well under minimum specs I can't really complain.    … Expand
  34. 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
  35. Stilljester
    Feb 7, 2016
    9
    This game is a must play for anyone who enjoys strategy games. The 1994 XCOM in on my top five games of all time. XCOM: Enemy Unknown took that game, chopped off the fluff, distilled it down to its basic components, and mastered them in a brilliant tactical shooter. Now XCOM 2, takes XCOM: EU's winning formula and elevates it.

    Enemy Unknown was a remake, and it felt like a remake.    This game is a must play for anyone who enjoys strategy games. The 1994 XCOM in on my top five games of all time. XCOM: Enemy Unknown took that game, chopped off the fluff, distilled it down to its basic components, and mastered them in a brilliant tactical shooter. Now XCOM 2, takes XCOM: EU's winning formula and elevates it.

    Enemy Unknown was a remake, and it felt like a remake. Hipper, slicker, more user-friendly. It channeled the base elements and focused them into a delightfully fun game. As a remake, however, it must suffer comparison to the original. In streamlining,EU lost much of the strategy layer. No more building a laser rifle factory to fund your operation. No more sending your interceptors out to scan for enemy bases.

    XCOM 2 is not a remake; it is its own entity. It kept the amazing tactical game from EU, but it built a whole new, different, and engrossing strategy layer. The resultant game is unlike XCOM 1994, and feel like it's truly "come of age." In EU, the strategy game is pretty much just waiting for the aliens to show up. In XCOM 2, you are active. You need to fly across the globe trying to marshal several different resources. Manpower is extremely limited. Every strategy decision is nail-biter, because you need EVERYTHING and don't have enough of it. What's more, the ALIENS are active. They have priorities and agendas, all of which will seriously screw you if don't counter them.

    The tactical game retains the brilliance of EU, and adds onto it. Each of the 4 base classes can follow two paths. Each feels like a class of its own. Do you want your Ranger to be sneaky and play with shotguns? Or in your face with a Katana? It feels like they took a page from "The Long War" mod for EU by making two variants of each class. The character customization is awesome, and makes the game feel incredibly immersive.

    I've heard two main complaints:

    A) it's too hard. To these people, I say: Shut up. That's why you can select your difficulty level.

    B) It's got some technical problems. This one is more true. It feels like it could use some optimization, and might have difficulty on lower-end machines, even on minimal graphics settings. This is not a game breaker. Ironically, the place that my computer has the most trouble is on the Base screen. Tactical combat is no trouble at all. Long-ish load times, as well. I, however, have not experienced any bugs or glitches.

    Get this game. You'll thank yourself!    … Expand
  36. ajc368
    Feb 7, 2016
    1
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Super corto y aburrido. todas las misiones son iguales.
    Las armaduras que trae son horribles
    los graficos peores que el xcom eu. (lo jugué todo al máximo con una gtx 970)
    cero estrategia en la misiones.
    El juego no engancha en ningún momento.
    los tiempos de carga espantosos (corei7 6700k -16gbram - disco ssd)
    Lo peor que perdió su esencia. es super aburrido, todas las misiones iguales si una pisca de extrategia. la personalización de las tropas que parecía buena termino siendo una cagada mucho peor que en el enemy unknow. las armaduras son horribles apenas trae un par de cascos de muy mal gusto.
    en resumen y sacando el tema de los bug que tienen arreglo en futuros parches el juego es malo muy malo desde su concepto. y perdió en opciones en táctica y en graficos con su antecesor.    … Expand
  37. 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
  38. aasmodeaa
    Feb 7, 2016
    10
    I have played 6 hours and I can say that I don t met any bug until now. It is true that sometimes my Pc feels a little overload by the game but I have just 4 gb memory. The tactical part of the game is ok the only thing is that the AI of the enemy feels sometimes little week: there are two enemies attacking and almost all members of my squad is exposed (4 men) and just a few square fromI have played 6 hours and I can say that I don t met any bug until now. It is true that sometimes my Pc feels a little overload by the game but I have just 4 gb memory. The tactical part of the game is ok the only thing is that the AI of the enemy feels sometimes little week: there are two enemies attacking and almost all members of my squad is exposed (4 men) and just a few square from the enemy and instead to shut on my men they are just staying in over-watch or turning their back to me ..… Expand
  39. kopes
    Feb 7, 2016
    9
    One of the best strategy games I've ever played. Improves on the last XCOM without losing anything. Complaints about performance are overblown due to poor understanding of graphics settings. (GTX 970 averaging over 70 fps fully maxed graphics except for FXAA)
  40. slipgatecentral
    Feb 7, 2016
    3
    I am raging so hard as I'm writing this. I'm so unbelievably mad right now, my blood pressure is ten times of a normal persons, I think I might have popped a vein or two.

    Firaxis, you made an awesome game and a very decent sequel to a very successful and creative Xcom reboot. You make people emotionally invest into your game, and **** is so intense and violent, it literally makes your    I am raging so hard as I'm writing this. I'm so unbelievably mad right now, my blood pressure is ten times of a normal persons, I think I might have popped a vein or two.

    Firaxis, you made an awesome game and a very decent sequel to a very successful and creative Xcom reboot. You make people emotionally invest into your game, and **** is so intense and violent, it literally makes your balls sweat. This game is always on your ass, and I mean it. I've never played squad tactics that felt like an actual action movie, where there's always a need to rush forward, and you can't just sit back or slowly proceed forward. Everything must be done quick, and this ****faced resistance guy that calls you "commander" only makes things worse, **** about how slow you are and "we must act faster". Oh **** you guy, for ****s sake, It's not like I'm not trying, but why the **** you pushing me so hard?

    Eventually player gets used to this mad pace, and gets better stuff and his squad of cold-eyed assassins will chew through packs of aliens like it's nothing. You get them cutting edge tech and armor that looks so badass, it scares even themselves. You start to feel it, you finally start to think you can make it and push Avatar project back to the stone age. You grow attached to this game.

    And then game ****s your **** up.

    Firaxis, you put this Ironman mode button there for a reason, right? You said something like "Do it only if you want ultimate Xcom experience". Well, I am no **** when it comes to this, I do want ultimate experience. I want to care, I want to be punished for wrong decisions, and greatly rewarded for success.

    What I do not want, is to be ****ed in the ass after playing for 15 hours, like it happened today. My save file got corrupted. The ONLY save file Ironman mode generates.

    What the **** happened to your QA for ****s sake. How could you not see this coming? Where is my backup file? Why do you do this to me?

    **** this, **** this **** I'm done, not playing it again, even if you fix this. **** off.    … Expand
  41. Zurpak
    Feb 7, 2016
    0
    1-everyone shooting through the cover (pistols doing max dmg through the wall)
    2-impossible line of sight (your unit in the middle the roof can shoot to enemy who is standing below youright next to the wall)
    3-mindcontrol and grab by thin man with no risonable range (your unit can be grabed from one end of the map o another end even through walls same with mindcontrol) 4-turn limits    1-everyone shooting through the cover (pistols doing max dmg through the wall)
    2-impossible line of sight (your unit in the middle the roof can shoot to enemy who is standing below youright next to the wall)
    3-mindcontrol and grab by thin man with no risonable range (your unit can be grabed from one end of the map o another end even through walls same with mindcontrol)
    4-turn limits killing strategy (most of the missions have such limits that preparing trap or locating your snipers is impossible, all you can do is run forward and shoot your shotgun...)
    5-terrible optimization (I7 2700k overclocekd to 4,9ghz 8gb ram 2xgtx970 msi not working smooth on high settings)
    6-terribly small maps!
    7- messy and chaotic camaign map (12 missions at the same time, constant massages from your base crew, losing control over camera because game wants to show you something, whole game feels like tutorial where you dont have control over things)
    8- cant skip any cinematics ant they are horrible quality
    9- much much worst then xcom 1 not to mention original series game feels like something you would play on your smart phone at work in toilet...
    10!!! Paid gaming magazines reviews, IT IS IMPOSSBLE THAT THIS GAME IS GETTING 9/10!
    REVIEWER MUST BE EATHER BLIND OR STUPID. I have lost 35 pounds because of those 9/10 reviews bought the game friday evening uninstalled it sunday evening. I wanted to uninstall it earlier but i thought it will get better but it dont.    … Expand
  42. Praxeti
    Feb 7, 2016
    10
    A sinply amazing game from what i have played so far. Its such a vast imporvment on the last one - a constant sense of tension and dread is added howoever.
    I also think its great how challenging it is (many people seem to dislike this, lowering their score because they couldnt pass the initial slaughter) and the procedural maps make the game a lot better.
    Going by enemy within, the    A sinply amazing game from what i have played so far. Its such a vast imporvment on the last one - a constant sense of tension and dread is added howoever.
    I also think its great how challenging it is (many people seem to dislike this, lowering their score because they couldnt pass the initial slaughter) and the procedural maps make the game a lot better.
    Going by enemy within, the difficulty and rng is one of the reasons the game is so fun - you never know if you will truly aucced.
    Would definitely recommend.    … Expand
  43. cervomix
    Feb 7, 2016
    8
    Seriously there are bugs, and some crashes, but it's not happening often. On a recent PC it runs very fine, maybe on some 5 years old pc it doesn't. More interesting than XCOM, more features, it's a great game !
  44. 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
  45. 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
  46. kmdcanada
    Feb 7, 2016
    10
    One of the greatest games ever made!!! 10x better than Xcom 1. Playing at Commander difficulty (just below the hardest), I've found it the right level of very hard but not put your fist through the wall hard. Yes i've had to reload a few times after a stun lancer messed me up, but the game forces you to change strats.

    The first Xcom EU was pretty linear in research and options, but this    One of the greatest games ever made!!! 10x better than Xcom 1. Playing at Commander difficulty (just below the hardest), I've found it the right level of very hard but not put your fist through the wall hard. Yes i've had to reload a few times after a stun lancer messed me up, but the game forces you to change strats.

    The first Xcom EU was pretty linear in research and options, but this one really allows you way more freedom and many different options to explore improving your tactical or strategic progression.

    I'm absolutely loving this game, and I only hope after I finish it the first time it will still be near as fun. If you like strategy and swat team tactics this is a must buy!    … Expand
  47. 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
  48. Hohum
    Feb 7, 2016
    8
    Hello, Commander. You've been busted out of an Advent prison to frantically charge your way across maps in 8 turns or less. The aliens don't know that you're here, but that cache/computer/VIP/whatever is going to spontaneously combust in around 5 minutes anyway. Also, you're going to have to strategically command your troops at 10 fps each time the camera decides to move an inch. GoodHello, Commander. You've been busted out of an Advent prison to frantically charge your way across maps in 8 turns or less. The aliens don't know that you're here, but that cache/computer/VIP/whatever is going to spontaneously combust in around 5 minutes anyway. Also, you're going to have to strategically command your troops at 10 fps each time the camera decides to move an inch. Good luck, Commander (you're gonna need it).

    Let's start with the timed missions. I hated them at first. They completely change the dynamic of what an XCOM game has always been - slow, tactical and methodical progress across any given map to thoroughly obliterate your foe. That being said, they're growing on me. I still feel there are too many of them and the timer should start when concealment is broken, but they definitely add a feeling of urgency to the game which we haven't had before. A bit of patching here, and some modding there, and they could work pretty well.

    Secondly - the performance ranges to woeful to "wow, are these screenshots?". My Core i7 / 980 GTX can blast through the latest games on Ultra settings without a care in the world, but seems to develop some sort of crippling illness each time XCOM2.exe is fired up. Again, something I hope to be patched and modded in the near future.

    All that aside, it's more of the same (but better) from XCOM:EO. Those many little annoyances and quirks from 2012's game have been improved dramatically. I plan to play this one for a good long time, but really you should hold off for a major patch or two before checking it out. No sense in letting some day-one disappointments ruin what should be an awesome experience.    … Expand
  49. tsinik55
    Feb 7, 2016
    2
    The game is a complete cr@p . Why? One word: timers.

    I played first XCOM: Enemy Unknown back in 1995. That was a real gem. Often, the game was really chess-like: it forced you to plan your moves in advance, to think ahead. XCOM 2 it's more like a Counter-Strike with a save functionality: run, shoot, miss, reload, run, shoot, miss, reload... the whole concept of thinking is gone. I    The game is a complete cr@p . Why? One word: timers.

    I played first XCOM: Enemy Unknown back in 1995. That was a real gem. Often, the game was really chess-like: it forced you to plan your moves in advance, to think ahead.
    XCOM 2 it's more like a Counter-Strike with a save functionality: run, shoot, miss, reload, run, shoot, miss, reload... the whole concept of thinking is gone.

    I do not care about loading times, I do not care much about graphics. The only thing I ever want from strategy game is strategy. And in XCOM 2 there's no even slightest hint of it.    … Expand
  50. yogibbear
    Feb 7, 2016
    10
    So... this game is amazing. Oh. My. God. It's sooooo much more epic and thrilling and painful and rewarding than XCOM:EU/EW. But it's retained all the good stuff about those games while returning to a little bit more of the fear and bat **** frustration of X-COM. Where when things go wrong, they can go really wrong. But this time around you get a lot of new gadgets, and skills, and ways ofSo... this game is amazing. Oh. My. God. It's sooooo much more epic and thrilling and painful and rewarding than XCOM:EU/EW. But it's retained all the good stuff about those games while returning to a little bit more of the fear and bat **** frustration of X-COM. Where when things go wrong, they can go really wrong. But this time around you get a lot of new gadgets, and skills, and ways of dealing with things even when situations feel like they're spiraling out of control. Tactically it rewards you for considering all of these options. You'll encounter enemies the first time and be like "WTF so OP, GTFO!". Then on your third or fourth encounter, there'll be 3 of these guys and you'll be like "yo squadie, here comes some tasty XP for you! get in there son/lassie!". This is no longer the painfully boring overwatch death march steamroller simulator 9000. Instead it forcefully encourages you to engage with the game and use a little more guerrilla warfare tactics. Mission seems impossible? Objective too far away and too many enemies keep coming in? Well why not just hack that enemy MEC trooper over yonder and get him to fire his missiles on that objective and then you can keep your team nice and safe in full cover right next to the evac point. Oh the game lets you do that? Oh the game lets you 1-shot kill a sectopod? Yeah, it does. And it is soooo sweet when it happens. 11/10. P.S. I'm ~20 hrs in on veteran difficulty. Running on 770GTX at 1440P with AA & AO turned off and shadows on medium @ 55 fps.… Expand
  51. Bob68
    Feb 7, 2016
    4
    No Pad Support it's a Joke....My pad Xbox 360 don't work...lol
    And just a bugged game with Constant fps drops, hangs, graphical glitch
    unskippable cut scenes andd more...
  52. Hayward1066
    Feb 7, 2016
    8
    A very well done successor. If not the for the mod support i would of actually given it a 7 as many of the things i found irritating in the first game are still included such as small squad size and simplified base choices for example.

    I would take some of the low review scores from some people with a grain of salt as well (angry console players?). The most common complaint is the timed    A very well done successor. If not the for the mod support i would of actually given it a 7 as many of the things i found irritating in the first game are still included such as small squad size and simplified base choices for example.

    I would take some of the low review scores from some people with a grain of salt as well (angry console players?). The most common complaint is the timed missions removing the "tactical approach", no they dont, they just stop you cheesing the game with overwatch traps. You are in occupied territory of course there is going to be a response hence the timer. If its that much of a problem go into the core files and change it, or download a mod (there are several) from steam. The games "guts" are already fairly open and there are many things you can do to alter balance. I have already made several tweaks, its really easy.

    Another is the "unfair" % to hit system. Sorry your suffering from conformation bias. It can be maddening but that's why every action you take has a fall back plan, avoid last ditch attack scenarios like the plague. And the Psy operative's inspire is a literal life saver, use it as an "oh $£"$" button.

    I have experienced 1 CTD so far, and some slight slow down issues, not bad, but you may want to wait a week or two so Firaxis can role out an optimization patch as other people seem to having some problems. I have also not seen the shoot through walls bug, but i am just lucky i think.

    Overall its a very good game, with the same strengths and weaknesses as firaxis's first effort, however it is the modding community and the tools that are really going to extend the games life.    … Expand
  53. op8
    Feb 7, 2016
    9
    Putting aside the complaints I've heard about performance, of which I don't have any since I turned down AA, switch off DoF, and had to turn on V Sync; the game is a masterpiece. If you loved the previous game and are not afraid of being removed from your comfort zone of how you used to play, then you will love every second of this glorious game. The saltiness over the occasional timedPutting aside the complaints I've heard about performance, of which I don't have any since I turned down AA, switch off DoF, and had to turn on V Sync; the game is a masterpiece. If you loved the previous game and are not afraid of being removed from your comfort zone of how you used to play, then you will love every second of this glorious game. The saltiness over the occasional timed missions is hilarious. Firaxis have built another challenge for us to get our heads around, accept it and stop acting like children. If you actually continue with the game and make some serious progression you would understand. The complaints of the Advent timer and demands to remove it are equally hilarious. This is a core concept of the lore for this game, get over it. Buy this game now. 8.5/10 as it is now, but with some patches to fix some hang ups and graphical glitches this will be an easy 9/10. BUY THIS GAME NOW & IGNORE THE IDIOTS!!… Expand
  54. Xerxes72
    Feb 7, 2016
    4
    Leaving aside the many technical issues that plagued its launch, from performance issues to LOS malfunctions to vanishing savegames, that (if the first XCOM was any indication) will likely take them months to address and resolve, with XCOM2 Firaxis doubles down on some of the worst aspects of their successful "reimagining" of the venerable classic and stretches even further the definitionLeaving aside the many technical issues that plagued its launch, from performance issues to LOS malfunctions to vanishing savegames, that (if the first XCOM was any indication) will likely take them months to address and resolve, with XCOM2 Firaxis doubles down on some of the worst aspects of their successful "reimagining" of the venerable classic and stretches even further the definition of strategy when it comes to PC gaming.

    Their whole philosophy seems to involve replacing variety of choice and room for maneuver with a linear experience which uses the word strategy only as flavor for those who thought King's Bounty was an RPG. Want to stray a bit from the optimal path on the "strategic" layer, even if you're doing well on the tactical missions? Sorry, dead man walking. And when on the field, every guy in your inexplicably puny squad is essential. Got unlucky and lost a couple of soldiers to randomly spawning enemies, with 10+ still to kill and a stupid clock ticking down? Get used to it-- in Firaxis' twisted world, those things are necessary to cover the lack of a functional AI and a sound design. Aliens will still teleport under the FOW and trigger when they're scripted to while you're hopefully still gaping at the pretty graphics.

    And ahhh, the ultimate insult, the timed missions. It's all part of the same "philosophy", or rather lack thereof. Unless you believe Firaxis included the timers as a way to counter the creeping *their own design encouraged* with a "solution" that's worse than the original problem.

    This is not a strategy game. It's a "corridor strategy" game. It's like calling the latest Call of Duty an open world game. The package is slick but there's no more strategy involved than in your typical CYOA book. If you're a real strategy fan and loved the original series, my suggestion is that you save your money and frustration, wait for Xenonauts 2 and avoid anything with the name "Jake Solomon" in the credits.    … Expand
  55. TheSon
    Feb 7, 2016
    10
    This game is simply amazing in so many ways. It is like a chess game but with a great setting.
    People are complaining about the time limit on some missions. 1st of all, the time is not limited on all missions and 2nd, frankly when it is, it pushes you to be a better military strategist.
    And you still have the time to think and figure out the best approach to the mission. Like I said it    This game is simply amazing in so many ways. It is like a chess game but with a great setting.
    People are complaining about the time limit on some missions. 1st of all, the time is not limited on all missions and 2nd, frankly when it is, it pushes you to be a better military strategist.
    And you still have the time to think and figure out the best approach to the mission. Like I said it is like a chess game but more awesome!

    I agree that the camera issues and the little hang time are sometimes annoying but in no way deter you from the great experience.

    My computer enables me to run this game way above the recommended specs but I noticed a huge framerate drop as soon as I enabled the MSAA above 2X, but at MSAA 2X or below (FXAA) it is great and smooth, other than that, no issues.

    This game deserves the title of game of the year, the first XCOM was great, this one is GREATER!
    Thank you Firaxis, you still need to fix the few bugs but overall your game is OUTSTANDING!    … Expand
  56. 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
  57. kosar1k
    Feb 7, 2016
    0
    I thought that I hate FALLOUT 4 but I was wrong ..... this game **** Developers themselves played it?BUGS BUGS BUGS....... I have to give a bad rating.
  58. Rockyboro
    Feb 7, 2016
    10
    Only performance issues otherwise its upgraded xcom. Overall it is decent and plays very well. Only timed missions sux big time. Still its better ok for a change.
  59. 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
  60. mightyprometeus
    Feb 7, 2016
    10
    This is the one and only game if you are a fan of turn based tactical combat. There is nothing compareable in complexity, challange, depth, quality, storyline, atmosphere, customization aso..
    Everything in this game is made with so much enthusiasm and love for detail. I was playing XCom, and all sequels of it. Loved XCom Enemy Unknown and hey XCom2 is OMG i will play this the next 10    This is the one and only game if you are a fan of turn based tactical combat. There is nothing compareable in complexity, challange, depth, quality, storyline, atmosphere, customization aso..
    Everything in this game is made with so much enthusiasm and love for detail. I was playing XCom, and all sequels of it. Loved XCom Enemy Unknown and hey XCom2 is OMG i will play this the next 10 Years!
    There was a game i always dreamed of and finaly Firaxis made it!

    Cons:
    1) Yes i think its released too early. It took me half a day to fix starting crashes and I'm pretty sure there will be more.
    2) Yes you need very good hardware. (Going to buy a new graphix card)

    Fazit: Little bit dissapointing they released it unpolished. I'm game developer myself and I know its always difficult to make a game really polished and perfect within the time and budget you have and you cannot always choose your release date. So I'm sure they will deliver a patch soon fixing all stuff that needs to be fixed.

    Love this game!
    BUT:
    - Its like XCom Enemy Unknown but improved in every single aspect.
    - Incredible graphics, camera animations,    … Expand
  61. Katrin
    Feb 7, 2016
    1
    üäAll the timers are way too annoying to enjoy the game
    - A lot of missions have a round timer.
    - People bleeding to death? Timer - People need to get to the escape shuttle ? Timer - Destroy the communication station? Timer - Destroy the Sting? Timer This game sucks so much because of the over use of timers. It is not even half as fun as part one and it is double frustrating. I    üäAll the timers are way too annoying to enjoy the game
    - A lot of missions have a round timer.
    - People bleeding to death? Timer
    - People need to get to the escape shuttle ? Timer
    - Destroy the communication station? Timer
    - Destroy the Sting? Timer
    This game sucks so much because of the over use of timers. It is not even half as fun as part one and it is double frustrating. I sitill remeber Some missions you almost have to replay because they get a lucky monstershuttle in and you come one round short. When playing again the mission gets way to easy its all a luck thing.
    I get the idea behind the bleeding to death timer but In my case whenever someone was bleeding to death there was nothing I could do about it. It was situational but there was nothing. Right now when someone is bleeding I just reload.
    I loved part one. Hate this part 2.
    Avoid at all costs when you are easy to frustrate.    … Expand
  62. Yusta
    Feb 7, 2016
    0
    I have waited to play this game so much (turn based game with rng are just my favorite cup of tea), unfortunately he refuse to run and just freeze forcing me bo manualy reboot my pc, lurked around for solution, discovered i'm not alone with similar problem.
    tried some solution, none worked.
    no official words/help from the devs. i'm unfortunate? probaly, still the other 30+ games i have    I have waited to play this game so much (turn based game with rng are just my favorite cup of tea), unfortunately he refuse to run and just freeze forcing me bo manualy reboot my pc, lurked around for solution, discovered i'm not alone with similar problem.
    tried some solution, none worked.
    no official words/help from the devs.
    i'm unfortunate? probaly, still the other 30+ games i have installed on this pc and work just fine will disagree.
    unstable beta for full price, good scam, that was my expirience, so... 0.    … Expand
  63. Tryium
    Feb 7, 2016
    9
    /! People need to stop whining about new features such as the "timer" to finish missions. AND PUT A F*CK*NG 0 BECAUSE OF IT /!

    WHY ? Because it's simply a huge improvement on tactical options. Even though you can't finish a mission with only 4 or 5 turns left ahead, it made EVERY decisions you made more important as ever. Each turn as to be think, like a CHESS GAME. Yes, like a    /! People need to stop whining about new features such as the "timer" to finish missions. AND PUT A F*CK*NG 0 BECAUSE OF IT /!

    WHY ?

    Because it's simply a huge improvement on tactical options. Even though you can't finish a mission with only 4 or 5 turns left ahead, it made EVERY decisions you made more important as ever. Each turn as to be think, like a CHESS GAME.

    Yes, like a chess game, because it's basically what XCOM2 is about : Measuring each turn, anticipating each situation. This is what i love in XCOM2, even though i'm more like a **** casual player who like perfection (definitly not here for the Iron Man Mode or whatever) and i'll reaload each turn where i've made a huge mistakes to understand what went wrong.

    BUT NOT EVERY MISSIONS ARE TIMED.

    Only most of the side missions, you have plenty of time to do your **** in most of campaign missions, and that's still pleasant.

    [END OF TIMED TURN MISSIONS REVIEW]

    For the whole game, well, it feels great to be back in the XCOM saga. The scenario is wayyyy better than the first one (which was more like a succession of non related missions). The new HQ system is just great and feel more realistic. The graphics are pretty good BUT it's not optimized yet, AT ALL. So handle to your patience. Even though it should have been done since the begining. It's still very pleasant to play, the game mechanics feels the same, with more props destructions. The new skill tree is just well balanced and so did the new customization system (even though it could have been great to have more masculin faces).
    The map management is more accessible and there's no more panic system (due to scenario reasons) which is a RELIEF (and i aint seen people talking about that). And you have now good reasons to let's the days flow.

    So far i've played 10H, and would played it for days...

    I'll give a 9 to re up the score a bit, but so far it would be a 7.5/10 because of the bad optimization.    … Expand
  64. ReviewCow
    Feb 7, 2016
    0
    They released a game that wasn't finished, as simple as that. Cant really comment on much else, since the game crashes constantly. Graphics are nice and the game got a nice feel to it. But, wait for the first major patch release, otherwise you'll just be doing their beta testing for them. I do feel kinda cheated though, should really stop pre-ordering games.

    I have to give a bad rating,    They released a game that wasn't finished, as simple as that. Cant really comment on much else, since the game crashes constantly. Graphics are nice and the game got a nice feel to it. But, wait for the first major patch release, otherwise you'll just be doing their beta testing for them. I do feel kinda cheated though, should really stop pre-ordering games.

    I have to give a bad rating, since the game is unplayable and expensive.    … Expand
  65. Pr8Dator
    Feb 7, 2016
    10
    XCOM: Enemy Unknown was what I regarded as the best xcom game ever... this is coming from someone who played all of the xcom series since 20+ years ago. Since then, I have pumped about 400 hours into XCOM Enemy Unknown. I tried looking around for a turn based strategy game that even come close to this standard and I found none... until now. Welcome back Commander! XCOM 2 surpassed XCOM EUXCOM: Enemy Unknown was what I regarded as the best xcom game ever... this is coming from someone who played all of the xcom series since 20+ years ago. Since then, I have pumped about 400 hours into XCOM Enemy Unknown. I tried looking around for a turn based strategy game that even come close to this standard and I found none... until now. Welcome back Commander! XCOM 2 surpassed XCOM EU in every single way I can imagine. From graphics to gameplay, everything is improved in what I deemed to be the best turn based strategy game in the history of mankind. On the very first day, I have already pumped in 18 hours into this game. That's something I have never done before. Everything in XCOM2 is now catered to more veteran fans of the series. The strategic game is now more complex and everything feels more "long-war-ish" now. However, the game is meaningfully complex, unlike UFO Aftershock which XCOM2 seems to be modelled upon. In that game, everything becomes tedious micromanagement that in the end have little to no impact on the outcome of the conflict. Firaxis cleverly and elegantly filtered away all the meaningless stuffs (like over 20 types of ballistic weapons? Whats up with that?). In the end, you are left with something that is not as tedious as long war used to be in XCOM EU so its more beginner friendly but still meangingfully complex enough to keep veteran players engaged. I don't know why others are giving such bad scores but this is a 10/10 for me for sure. Yeah, its difficult as hell and after 18 hours, I still had to restart the whole game... Welcome to XCOM baby!… Expand
  66. ppoulsen2007
    Feb 7, 2016
    10
    Good mix of strategy and tactical combat. Love the timers, which forces you to take chances. Best game in a long time, that are not nerfed down to children level.
  67. MINUAGE
    Feb 7, 2016
    5
    It's **** lie. Don't believe "METASCORE"

    1. UNBELIEVABLE TERRIBLE PERFORMANCE
    2. FAILLED LEVEL DESINED (DEPENDS ON YOUR 'LUCK', NOT STRATEGY)
    3. NO IMPROVEMENT UI FROM XCOM1

    I DON'T HAVE ANY IDEA HOW XCOM2 GET OVER 90 SCORES.
    IT TASTED LIKE UNCOOKED FISH STAKE.
  68. fearoftheduck
    Feb 7, 2016
    9
    Good successor of XCOM Enemy Unknown. Combat have been refined to fit more ,resistance / hit and run style. XCOM 2 encourages player to use any available means to eliminate enemy (weapon upgrades, stealth, ambush, installing soldier ability upgrades, hacking, experimental weapons, decoys, explosives (which no longer prevent recovery of the corpse), more explosives, exploding cars, gasGood successor of XCOM Enemy Unknown. Combat have been refined to fit more ,resistance / hit and run style. XCOM 2 encourages player to use any available means to eliminate enemy (weapon upgrades, stealth, ambush, installing soldier ability upgrades, hacking, experimental weapons, decoys, explosives (which no longer prevent recovery of the corpse), more explosives, exploding cars, gas tanks/barrels (which can be specifically targeted), demolishing enemy cover and so on.

    XCOM 2 also make turtling and overwatch creep no longer a viable strategy on most of the missions, which have some timer limit. This requires different play style than XCOM EU and it tests players ability to use that inventory efficiently and to properly hedge bets. I personally find it more challenging (but still at enjoyable level of difficulty) and more interesting than slow walk on overwatch...

    There are, however, some minor performance problems like some stuttering, and fairly long loading times before and after missions.    … Expand
  69. Pech_SOG
    Feb 7, 2016
    10
    Incredible game. Best game of the last ten years, quite possibly of the last twenty. A joy to play, incredible depth. From the small details to the big picture it is a masterpiece. Ignore the performance issues. This is is very dependant on settings and pc config. Patches will fix any lingering issues. I am 30 hours in and no save or game breaking bugs. 3 crashes to desktopIncredible game. Best game of the last ten years, quite possibly of the last twenty. A joy to play, incredible depth. From the small details to the big picture it is a masterpiece. Ignore the performance issues. This is is very dependant on settings and pc config. Patches will fix any lingering issues. I am 30 hours in and no save or game breaking bugs. 3 crashes to desktop early on but that is all. 30 hours and still on my first campaign at 3rd highest difficulty. Game runs smooth as silk after I tested different graphic settings. Looks gorgeous also.

    Marvelous!!    … Expand
  70. segi
    Feb 7, 2016
    10
    El rendimiento en mi caso es bueno, no he medido fps en esta primera toma de contacto, pero lo noto fluido excepto un par de rascones sin importancia en la personalización de los soldados y alguna cinemática del avenger. (i5@4.5 y 770 4Gb en la configuración alta que viene por defecto en el juego, por ahora no me apetece medir y toquetear nada). Seguramente los votos negativos vendrán deEl rendimiento en mi caso es bueno, no he medido fps en esta primera toma de contacto, pero lo noto fluido excepto un par de rascones sin importancia en la personalización de los soldados y alguna cinemática del avenger. (i5@4.5 y 770 4Gb en la configuración alta que viene por defecto en el juego, por ahora no me apetece medir y toquetear nada). Seguramente los votos negativos vendrán de las rascadas que da en configuraciones ultra, supongo digo yo.

    Los gráficos son buenos, poco necesita este juego y lo cumple de sobra, las animaciones son notables y se nota que han cuidado el aspecto con mimo. Se agradece porque ahora puedes poner distintas animaciones dependiendo del carácter como, alegre, tranquilo y cosas así, lo que me lleva al siguiente aspecto.

    La personalización es magnífica, y además ajustada a los controles del teclado, fantástico sin lugar a dudas. Perder un soldado era un dolor en el alma ahora te cae hasta la lagrimita cuando los hieren, por cierto puedes editar hasta su biografía, packs de voces...

    El metajuego o el concepto en sí, hace que no sea un digno sucesor sino que supere al primero sin lugar a dudas. Ahora somos la resistencia y lo han cuidado, el tiempo pasa mientras estamos realizando alguna acción ya sea recolectar info, buscar recursos, investigar nuevas zonas, siempre estás haciendo algo, nada de esperar a que ataquen y cada decisión cuenta. Esto me sirve para explicar otro aspecto muy positivo del juego, la microgestión.
    Ahora somos la resistencia, se nota y los recursos escasean, por lo que ya no salvamos científicos ahora salvamos al científico Manolo Becario hijo de Conchita, todo tiene nombre propio, hasta las víctimas en las misiones de terror que ahora se llaman de represalía. Como he dicho han cuidado mucho aspectos en apariencia menores pero que refuerzan la atmósfera convincentemente.

    La estrategia es otra cosa, venía confiado del Long War y me he encontrado sobrepasado en varias ocasiones, la IA es una perra y actúa según la unidad lo cual está bien, las unidades cuerpo a cuerpo se lanzarán contra ti sin pensárselo mucho pero los comandantes si se ven solos ante el peligro retroceden a mejores posiciones. Por el momento no tengo queja.
    Las habilidades para que os hagáis una idea están diferenciadas en dos caminos bastante diferenciados, podemos mezclar a gusto pero por ejemplo un especialista tendrá una rama médica y otra más orientada al combate, el explorador tiene una dedicada a mejorar el tiro de francotirador y la otra al combate cercano.

    Es más díficil, sobretodo los primeros compases, también es verdad que nos confiamos y hay muchos tipos de enemigos como el Sin Cara, cabrón joputa, así que es normal que ya desde el tutorial te recuerden que no te flipes. En lo particular me gusta la dificultad, todavía no he perdido soldado alguno pero se nota la angustia en cada misión.

    En fin multitud de pequeños detalles conforman un juego que todo amante de la estrategia jugará tarde o temprano, por criticar algo pondría que algunas superficies son engañosas y te pueden disparar a través, poco más y eso que me gusta sacarle punta a todo.    … Expand
  71. SpardaKnight
    Feb 6, 2016
    10
    I can definitely recommend XCOM2, its brutal, its fun, and looks amazing. Don’t listen to all these people saying it’s too hard. XCOM is a game that will punish you for bad decisions, and it’s not meant to be easy. You’re not supposed to just run in and not care.
    Optimization issues: Yes there is some fps drops, but it only seems to be happening when you’re in the loading screen / when    I can definitely recommend XCOM2, its brutal, its fun, and looks amazing. Don’t listen to all these people saying it’s too hard. XCOM is a game that will punish you for bad decisions, and it’s not meant to be easy. You’re not supposed to just run in and not care.
    Optimization issues: Yes there is some fps drops, but it only seems to be happening when you’re in the loading screen / when the sky ranger lands and takes off, and occasionally when a short outseen happens. Let me be very clear IT IS A SMALLL ANNOYANCE THAT DOES NOT AFFECT GAMEPLAY SO CHILL THE **** OUT. The 99% of the time when you’re making moves and setting over watches it does not lag. The main issue appears to mostly be due to AA and MSAA settings. I’m sure these issues will be handled ether with a patch or driver update.
    As of this writing I already have 31 hours of gameplay and the game just came out, I’m hooked I have had to restart 3 times so far because I have made mistakes in the campaign, but I had these same thing happen when I played XCOM enemy unknown, I also have been playing Veteran With iron mode on, I’m sure I could have easily beat this game if I played normal and didn’t have iron man on. Xcom2 is a great game and you should give it a try.    … Expand
  72. 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
  73. 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
  74. Callabaddie
    Feb 6, 2016
    2
    XCOM 2 is a prime example of a game development company taking an already simplified and limited game, and then taking the bulk of the assets for that game. Porting it over into a shoddily designed engine. Adding in a bunch of overlapping and clunky special effects. Failing to address development issues such as (animations actually working, good lord) - before release. And then shovelingXCOM 2 is a prime example of a game development company taking an already simplified and limited game, and then taking the bulk of the assets for that game. Porting it over into a shoddily designed engine. Adding in a bunch of overlapping and clunky special effects. Failing to address development issues such as (animations actually working, good lord) - before release. And then shoveling it out at AAA price.

    XCOM 2 is Enemy Unknown with a facelift that makes it look more like a revamped Sectoid corpse.

    The game has no real RNG. The game actively cheats to counter you. The game feels soulless and tedious. The story is just as bad, if not worse than Enemy Unknown's. It is not mechanically satisfying. It is not anything new or engaging.

    It's the same old **** for 20% more than the old ****.

    If you can get it for less than 10 dollars, it might not be a waste monetarily. It'll last you longer than a cheap fast food lunch.

    On the downside, you'll have wasted every single moment, hoping that maybe it's as good as the hype.    … Expand
  75. lordzzz
    Feb 6, 2016
    10
    Horrible performance. Too hard missions / timer. No multi platform. Graphics are bland. Blatant failure until fixed. Dont buy or rent. Not worth it...
  76. 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.
  77. Glamredhel
    Feb 6, 2016
    4
    Forget the varied tactics of the first XCOM game. In XCOM 2 all of that has been thrown out the window by making the missions timed and having you start stupidly far from the objective. To cover the distance you will need to have your soldiers use both their turn units to make it in time. This results in not being able to shoot back when you stumble upon the enemies, of which they usuallyForget the varied tactics of the first XCOM game. In XCOM 2 all of that has been thrown out the window by making the missions timed and having you start stupidly far from the objective. To cover the distance you will need to have your soldiers use both their turn units to make it in time. This results in not being able to shoot back when you stumble upon the enemies, of which they usually throw quite a lot between you and the objective.

    Basically missions are summed up as run as far as you can as fast as you can, stumble upon a group of enemies who now get 2 turns (their reveal turn and then their normal turn) to outflank you. If you do make it to the objective after fighting through the enemy you will now have to choose a soldier you don't mind getting killed as they run up to the item that needs to be hacked to stop the countdown timer and are now exposed to being flanked.

    It's like they took the first XCOM game, decided to add 100 new features and then forgot about including any tactical decisions in the tactical missions beyond just run as fast as you can to the objective.

    Can not recommend in its current state.    … Expand
  78. 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
  79. 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.
  80. Kerimbahur
    Feb 6, 2016
    0
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. HUGE PERFORMANCE ISSUES!!!!!!!!! SO FAR ON STEAM 200+ Reports of Performance problems.

    2K YOU NEED TO PAY ATTENTION!!!!!!!!!!

    PEOPLE DO NOT BUY GAME YET PLEASE READ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! if people do want to try to play this torrent its not worth the money. you will be crying for a refund.

    Really ♥♥♥♥♥♥ at this release, after watching the cocky director for this game on presentations, sitting there taking the mick out of beyond earth makers im sure they wont have this sort of mess, this is a massive fail..... Ive read a few peoples discussions on this game, and i agree with what people are saying. The game has not been tested properly, no Quality control seems to have taken place. Shading and shadows and background lighting is flickering like crazy. even by turning all to minimal it starts fine but then game drops back to same state after half way through the first mission.

    I build pc's for a living and for this game not to work on my machine its shocking, even seeing the specs on most peoples comments it CLEARLY SHOWS the game is FLAWED. I bought the game yesterday not been able to play it once. I can not play a game with problems like this. Its unplayable. I think 2K Should do something for there MESS UP??? Alot of people bought the game in advance, alot of people waited months for it to come out. alot of people waisted there time going to these seminars showing how good your game is going to be just for it to be released and unplayable for alot. Are you not embarressed..... You Should be???

    Talk about kill the weekend CHEERS. back to work monday I guess.

    Now How do I get a Refund?????????    … Expand
  81. 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
  82. 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
  83. 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
  84. 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
  85. 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
  86. Dreezy
    Feb 6, 2016
    9
    First of all, the game in its current state is badly optimized especially when you're inside the base, it's really strange because XCOM EU doesn't suffer from these problems but hey...... just wait a bit and everything will run better .

    However, the game is just so **** good, it's a big improvement over XCOM EU, the game has tons of new ideas which make this game more than just a sequel    First of all, the game in its current state is badly optimized especially when you're inside the base, it's really strange because XCOM EU doesn't suffer from these problems but hey...... just wait a bit and everything will run better .

    However, the game is just so **** good, it's a big improvement over XCOM EU, the game has tons of new ideas which make this game more than just a sequel .

    Tons of new enemies, technologies to research, much more customisation, this game is a drug, you never know what to expect .

    This game renews itself all the time. Furthermore, i'm a massive fanboy of the franchise and this game is far from disappointing me.

    If I had to give you advice, if you are not confident about optimization, just wait for AMD/Nvidia drivers and you will enjoy this game to its full potential :)    … Expand
  87. 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
  88. 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
  89. EstariaValens
    Feb 6, 2016
    8
    I am surprised how many people are marking this game down for, what seems to me, ridiculous issues.

    1) Inventory management isn't gone. Anyone who says that, either hasn't played the game at all, or hasn't completed the tutorial. 2) A 95% shot misses 5% of the time. Not often, but it would behoove you to not put yourself in a position where a miss will cause instant death. I'm    I am surprised how many people are marking this game down for, what seems to me, ridiculous issues.

    1) Inventory management isn't gone. Anyone who says that, either hasn't played the game at all, or hasn't completed the tutorial.

    2) A 95% shot misses 5% of the time. Not often, but it would behoove you to not put yourself in a position where a miss will cause instant death. I'm sure those people aren't complaining about the one time a 5% shot hit.

    3) Just because someone rushes from point A to point B doesn't mean there are no other options. In most missions, I have had no issue developing tactical approaches; including split squad movement and ambushes. The people who complain about this are those that didn't bother to try.

    4) I am surprised how many people are comparing this to the 1994 game, rather than the recent remake this is actually the sequel to. The people comparing it to that old game are suffering from nostalgia glasses. If they actually went back and played that game right before this one, I wonder how low they would score that Xcom?

    Those are the primary problems I have read that people have with the game. Because anyone who marks a game down for optimization problems on first launch isn't very intelligent. If the game remains unoptimized, then there is cause to mark the game down. Not on day 1.

    With all that said, you may be wondering why I only gave the game an 8/10. It's tough to put my finger on exactly what was off about this game

    There are several new and interesting mechanics included; like carrying injured teammates out and enemies dropping items. I liked the look and feel of the mission select screen, and the more specific utility of engineers (rather than just having passive "engineers" you can assign each engineer to tasks). I liked the flying fortress concept, and I am a fan of leaving the air war out (for the most part).

    I do agree that the story, though it starts off interesting enough, seems a bit rushed. The method for getting new rebels in your camp is fine, it just seems like each step is a little too big. (1 week and all of Asia is on your side? Sorry. Not even close to believable.) Now that is likely a limitation of developing a game like this, but I still have to hit the game for it. Story, after all, is an important part of any game.

    I think, at the end of the day, I just felt that the new mechanisms were under-utilized. It's one of those games where you can see so much potential, but some of it is wasted. Undoubtedly the modders will make this into a truly epic game; but the base game is very good, but a little disappointing.    … Expand
  90. ishadow
    Feb 6, 2016
    9
    Short review:
    + game is way better than XCOM1,
    + there's way more procedural content and it's more of a sandbox than linear experience, + it's harder, and it's dark. You are an intruder here and everything reminds you that. + graphics are gorgeous - advanced lightning is stunning, + solid 60 FPS on GF 970 at 1080p with full detail without MSAA and SSAO disabled, + with SSAO enabled    Short review:
    + game is way better than XCOM1,
    + there's way more procedural content and it's more of a sandbox than linear experience,
    + it's harder, and it's dark. You are an intruder here and everything reminds you that.
    + graphics are gorgeous - advanced lightning is stunning,
    + solid 60 FPS on GF 970 at 1080p with full detail without MSAA and SSAO disabled,
    + with SSAO enabled it's 60 average FPS and 42-45 fps drops once in a while,

    + no DENUVO,
    + no crappy console port!
    + absolutely smooth experience, no bugs, crashes, or malfunctioning camera. At least running on Windows 7.

    There's only one con: X-COMs from the 90ies are still better. But while you could describe XCOM 1 as an inferior game in every way. XCOM 2 has it's own worthy unique mechanics.

    XCOM 2 is finally a good or even great game in the series. If you are a PC gamer go buy it now. We need to support companies publishing AAA games for PC. This game is an example how a sequel should look like. A lot of new mechanics and improvement. It's not a copy/paste game like in other sequels/reboots/remasters.    … Expand
  91. 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
  92. 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
  93. 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
  94. luislmf
    Feb 6, 2016
    10
    Awesome game, I love how there are several tactic layers interdependent. You need to decide what technologies to evolve, what missions to take, what soldiers to select to battle and on top of that you have the awesome battle tactics.
    This isnt a game for everyone, you need to think and some times to deal with frustration and keep pushing but its very rewarding.
  95. 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
  96. BossZW
    Feb 6, 2016
    10
    I read a lot of negative comments so far... While I can understand them from people experiencing technical problems due to poor optimisation at launch and while that type of game isn't for everyone, I really think the metacritic score based on players reviews is biaised and doesn't bring justice to the game.

    First, I am of the lucky ones for which the game runs like butter. A lot of    I read a lot of negative comments so far... While I can understand them from people experiencing technical problems due to poor optimisation at launch and while that type of game isn't for everyone, I really think the metacritic score based on players reviews is biaised and doesn't bring justice to the game.

    First, I am of the lucky ones for which the game runs like butter. A lot of folks with better configs are experiencing issues right now, while I don't with my old Phenom II, 12 go of ram and a gtx 960. Lack of optimisation at launch is irratating at best when you pay the high price for a new release, that I can understand.

    But the game, when it works, is a jewel as much as Enemy Unknown was in it's own right. Like many critics, I think the game expands on the previous iteration and really shines when it gets to immersion, squad control and personalization. I really care for my team and did put some time to choose their look, their voices and backgrounds. Those guys are bleeding, dying to save mankind and choosing the right strategies to keep them alive while doing so is intense, fun and rewarding.

    Once started, the game is hard to stop and while playing it, the time disappear: this is the sign of a great game. If you loved the first, I can't understand why you wouldn't love this one. The music, the story, the missions, gadgets... everything is there with new paths, graphics and options. A lot of mechanics have improved if you ask me, but even if you don't agree, there's a lot to love here.

    I suggest you wait for some patches if you fear of facing issues, but otherwise, go ahead and buy it with confidence as it is an easy recommandation.    … Expand
  97. 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
  98. 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
  99. ChadMan25
    Feb 6, 2016
    10
    One of the best games I have played! a robust strategy game that somehow delivers on visuals and gameplay in a way that makes every moment both tense and satisfying!
  100. vunacar
    Feb 6, 2016
    9
    People scoring this 0 need a reality check. XCOM 2 is an amazing game and upgrades the gameplay in almost every regard compared to the previous installments. New enemies are great, the graphics have improved, and almost every criticized area of XCOM 1 has been either removed or reworked.

    Some performance issues are there with AA enabled and some advanced options, but these can be turned    People scoring this 0 need a reality check. XCOM 2 is an amazing game and upgrades the gameplay in almost every regard compared to the previous installments. New enemies are great, the graphics have improved, and almost every criticized area of XCOM 1 has been either removed or reworked.

    Some performance issues are there with AA enabled and some advanced options, but these can be turned off, and the game has visual glitches from time to time, which can also be bypassed by not using the action camera, which can be turned off in the gameplay settings.

    From the gameplay perspective, the game could really have used less timed missions, which often isn't even that big of a deal, but due to the nature of randomly generated levels, the game can make the time limit strangely low for the task at hand, resulting in a frustrating mission. This is the only reason for me giving the game a 9, and I am pretty confident this will be either tweaked in patches, or a mod will come out to fix it.

    Overall, a great game, and a worthy sequel, and an early candidate for the game of the year.    … 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.
    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
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