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. Lasa
    Feb 18, 2016
    8
    XCOM 2 have some performance issues, glitches and so on but play like it is great.
    People complaining about forcing player to finish mission fast like in 8-12 turns.
    Those people like to stay in overwatch for 15 turns until eventually enemy runs into them, or when they run into a tough encounter they dash out off sight and wait again in overwatch, and they call it strategy well i am glad    XCOM 2 have some performance issues, glitches and so on but play like it is great.
    People complaining about forcing player to finish mission fast like in 8-12 turns.
    Those people like to stay in overwatch for 15 turns until eventually enemy runs into them, or when they run into a tough encounter they dash out off sight and wait again in overwatch, and they call it strategy well i am glad that kind of strategy is not possible.
    if you claim the game is to difficult it means you are rushing through the game and not planning your moves. I recommend to watch beaglerush videos who is like an expert in the game.

    The AI might shoot you when triggered if you out of cover, great
    No more overwatch camping, great

    the only thing it botters me is the fact the AI is still so damned stupid like sectoid is last enemy and he is flanking you and he raises a zombie instead shooting you in the head. sectoid never uses the plasma pistol unless he is flashbanged    … Expand
  2. Blahqqbirds
    Feb 20, 2016
    8
    Great game but gets repetitive. For people complaining about it being too hard; research faceless asap and get as mimic balls. This will make even legend ironman mode a joke.
  3. shinyary2
    Feb 24, 2016
    8
    Wow, this game has really divided the fan base. Personally I really liked it (as I'll explain in my review), but I can understand why some people didn't and I wonder if Firaxis made some huge mistakes.

    To establish credibility, I have completed two runs: one on Veteran (Normal), and one on Commander (Hard) with Iron Man turned on. I would like to address the following: timed    Wow, this game has really divided the fan base. Personally I really liked it (as I'll explain in my review), but I can understand why some people didn't and I wonder if Firaxis made some huge mistakes.

    To establish credibility, I have completed two runs: one on Veteran (Normal), and one on Commander (Hard) with Iron Man turned on.

    I would like to address the following: timed missions, difficulty curve, and what I can only call terrible design decisions.

    - Timed missions
    The timer forces you to spend a lot of time on every turn planning out the most efficient possible way to use every character in your squad. If one character is out of position and you can't wipe out the current pod of enemies in a few turns, you are probably in trouble. Flanking is incredibly important in this game, as is getting a bigger squad and getting the right offensive tech to give you enough firepower to very quickly overwhelm the aliens.

    This is different from Enemy Within, and I understand that it's a change a lot of people don't like. Yes, it does limit what decisions you can legitimately make and still expect success. Does that make the game worse? I suppose it depends on your point of view. For me, the answer is no; it makes the game better, because in a way I never felt in Enemy Within (one of my favorite games, ever), I felt an incredible weight behind every decision, knowing that if I don't make a good decision, my game could end very badly.

    - The difficulty curve
    This one's sticky business, and one of the reasons why I'm giving the game an 8 instead of a 9. In my opinion the difficulty curve is almost inverted in this game. The first mission is incredibly difficult on Commander and Legend difficulties and I felt very much at the mercy of the RNG in a way that the second mission and on simply didn't. Aliens can and very often do hit you even if you are behind full cover and they should supposedly have very low odds.

    As I said before, the game is about efficiency. You will absolutely not survive an extended battle against a pod of aliens without a scratch (until you have better armor), but on the first mission your classless soldiers give you nearly no options for finding a more efficient strategy for killing your enemies. This is the only mission where I felt that the only way to survive intact was to save scum. It's really too bad, as once all of my soldiers were promoted at least once, I don't think I ever felt that something bad happened to me that wouldn't have been avoided with a better overall strategy. It's a particularly awful problem on Legend, where they throw a mind-controlling Sectoid at you on the first mission with no chance of getting the items that counter them.

    Then again, maybe I am simply doing something wrong.

    - Terrible design decisions
    This is a catch all category as there are a number of really bizarre design decisions in this game.

    The worst one is the fact that the game is constantly pressuring you to make bad decisions. You absolutely should not rush to complete the story objectives; you should mill around, doing random missions, collecting resources, and leveling up your squad. The global game timer does not count up as quickly as the NPCs want you to think it does, and what this does is force people to lose because they were playing the way the game tells you to play. I understand that the devs wanted to create an atmosphere of tension, but it's a problem when the only way (as far as I could tell) to enjoy the game is to ignore everything it tells you.

    This problem pops up again where if you build base structures in the order the tutorial tells you, you will probably lose.

    There are also numerous other random issues, such as arbitrary "wait" times added to nearly every action (they are clearly unnecessary because there is a mod that removes all of them, making the game far better). When you return from a mission the game sits there "loading" for 30 seconds to a minute no matter how good your hardware is, and if you hit caps lock it will just skip immediately (thanks Reddit for this amazing time saving tip!). So, it was obviously unnecessary.

    I would also like to mention that most of the intro logos are skippable and the ones that aren't are quick. If you are really annoyed by them there is a launch option to get rid of them. Every cutscene in the game except the final one is also skippable if you hit the Escape key.

    - Final remarks
    I really loved this game. It is unfortunately plagued by a few issues, but the bottom line is: if you like the idea of spending every turn thinking about how to get maximum efficiency out of every squad member, you will love the game and should buy it now (if you have a computer that can get around the poor optimization). If you would rather try to create intricate strategies that take a lot of turns to set up and execute, maybe give this one a pass or use the timer removal mods.    … Expand
  4. Huzardadi
    Feb 26, 2016
    8
    Gameplay is 10 of 10. Lower score because it is GLITCHY.

    People who complain about the timers should lower the difficulty. Sometimes you get a bunch of missions in a row that have them and sometimes you don't. The timers make the game much more interesting forcing you to make risky decisions.

    BUGGY BUGGY BUGGY. Don't play ironman until this game gets figured out from the back end.
  5. Marcecritic
    Feb 27, 2016
    8
    This game is fantastic ! It is a worthy sequel with acceptable graphics and gameplay that grabs you from the beginning of the game. characters very similar to the first XCOM
  6. Cougargames
    Nov 5, 2019
    8
    Now please dont mind my seven just beacuse metacritic gives 7s a yellow colour doesnt men i hate the game its quite good in fact it does almost everything that xcom did right besides the fact that they have timed missions. One of the most satisfying feeling (atleast for me) is that i could creat the perfect stealth attack and suprise my enemies. You can still do that but its all veryNow please dont mind my seven just beacuse metacritic gives 7s a yellow colour doesnt men i hate the game its quite good in fact it does almost everything that xcom did right besides the fact that they have timed missions. One of the most satisfying feeling (atleast for me) is that i could creat the perfect stealth attack and suprise my enemies. You can still do that but its all very limited beacuse you almost dont have the option to take your time. Now Im not gonna spoil xcoms ending but what i can tell you is that everything you did in Xcom 1 basically dosent matter, wich fel like a big f*** you to the players.… Expand
  7. Metas
    Mar 28, 2016
    8
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I think it is an excellent game if you can learn to tolerate the resource hog of an engine that runs it.
    But the thing is, it is not hard. I played on commander (3rd) difficulty with self-regulated iron man mode. I just had one character (modeled after my wife) that I didn't want to lose. So I wowed to only load if I lost her, and this happened just once. To be specific, battles are maybe slightly harder than previous versions (first few battles should always be considered a proving ground for inexperienced crew) and that "shaken" status is just badly badly implemented. Unlike most I loved the sense of urgency turn counter in many missions gave me. My first lost soldier was not killed but captured because I failed to evac him in time. But my problem is not the slightly harder battle, Your crew is meant to die and you should feel the burn. it is the childishly easy global strategy.

    I understand the new system is much more promising than the original which just required you to spam satellites. But this one is too easy. Flag a few zones and you are set to go. There are no more irreversible losses on the global map. No bothering to cover the globe to improve reaction times since you ALWAYS get there in time. You can skip half the missions and make up for it by contacting regions, building radio towers and sabotaging facilities. (At least I suspect if I played in insane difficulty it would be viable). In both my playthroughs countdown mode only triggered when I willfully allowed it (because it looks pretty cool). I wish there was separate difficulty setting for battles and strategy, I would certainly increase the global strategy difficulty without making my battles any more harder..    … Expand
  8. ExtremeXT1
    Mar 29, 2016
    8
    Pros:Game characters and story is very good. The mechanics and graphics are also good. I got it installed with 3rd patch so no bugs or persistent crashes. Few occasional frame dips which occurs in most games. The upgrade system/weapons/armor are all cool.
    Cons: The Single mechanism action is not fit for games in 2016, if it was 1996 it would make sense. For instance, the player cant move    Pros:Game characters and story is very good. The mechanics and graphics are also good. I got it installed with 3rd patch so no bugs or persistent crashes. Few occasional frame dips which occurs in most games. The upgrade system/weapons/armor are all cool.
    Cons: The Single mechanism action is not fit for games in 2016, if it was 1996 it would make sense. For instance, the player cant move or give order to attack to multiple members. You gotta move em ONE BY ONE which is very frustrating and makes the game so unreal. This was mastered in SC2, you could select groups of enemies and give orders. Imagine how long SC2 would've been if we had to move every goddamn unit one by one!    … Expand
  9. ashyyay2
    Oct 7, 2016
    8
    بازی ایکس کام 2 یک بازی بسیار خوب است.اما متاسفانه برای افرادی که با ژانر استراتژیک یا حتی استراتژیک نوبتی اشنا نیستند بازی بسیار بدی است همچنین دارای مشکلات زیدازی هست و بهینه سازی بسیار بدی روی سیستم های ضعیف دارد
  10. Bruno2rech
    Jan 20, 2017
    8
    the game is brilliant I love the random generated maps and the intresting game play and tactics that you need to use is like playing chess on steroids. I also love the caricature props and the different research options thou I would prefer more of a research tree and I would also like to see. it would be nice thou if they could allow you to build your own resistance out posts at land basesthe game is brilliant I love the random generated maps and the intresting game play and tactics that you need to use is like playing chess on steroids. I also love the caricature props and the different research options thou I would prefer more of a research tree and I would also like to see. it would be nice thou if they could allow you to build your own resistance out posts at land bases at captured resistance settlements and then defend them against attackers. the only thing that bugs me with the game is the bugs and that at higher levels of difficulty they do not increase the amount of enemies you fight they only lower your percentage hit chance which is not all that great.… Expand
  11. Axilley
    Jul 22, 2021
    8
    good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good X2
  12. DeathReis
    Jul 5, 2022
    8
    GİRİŞ

    Şunu belirterek giriş yapmak istiyorum ilk oyun olan Xcom Enemy Unknown'u oynamadım yani her hangi bir karşılaştırma yapamayacağım Xcom 2 nedendir bilmem ilk gördüğüm anda beni kendisine çekmişti uygun bir fiyatı olmasından dolayıda direk aldım oyunu (full paketi 45tl) ve şunu söyleyebilirim oyunu modsuz oynamak kesinlikle işkence, gelin inceleyelim ARTILARI +Harika    GİRİŞ

    Şunu belirterek giriş yapmak istiyorum ilk oyun olan Xcom Enemy Unknown'u oynamadım yani her hangi bir karşılaştırma yapamayacağım

    Xcom 2 nedendir bilmem ilk gördüğüm anda beni kendisine çekmişti uygun bir fiyatı olmasından dolayıda direk aldım oyunu (full paketi 45tl) ve şunu söyleyebilirim oyunu modsuz oynamak kesinlikle işkence, gelin inceleyelim

    ARTILARI

    +Harika grafikleri

    +Güzel optimizasyon

    +Sağlam yapay zeka

    +Binbir çeşit upgrade seçeneği

    +Askerlerin "bio" kısımları oldukça detaylı ve bu sayede bazı askerlerle bağ kurmanıza sebep oluyor(cidden bazı askerlerim öldüğü için neredeyse yas tutacaktım)

    +Bölüm tasarımları şahane

    +Scriptli eventler fena değil

    +Hikaye tırt olsada nadiren "wow" dedirtiyor

    +Silah ve Sınıf çeşitliliği yeterli düzeyde

    +Düşman çeşitliliği ise çok iyi

    +Oyun süresi gayet iyi(dlcler ile uzatabilirsiniz tabiki)

    +Steam atölye desteği

    +Görevler öncesi doğru planlama yapmanızı gerektiren dizayn seçimi

    EKSİLERİ

    -Tırt hikayesi

    -Tırt karakterleri

    -Çoğunlukla tahmin edilebilir olay örgüsü

    -Silahlar ve Sınıf çeşitliliği "yeterli" düzeyde olsa da maalesef oyunun oynanış süresi göz önünde bulundurursak yetersiz kalabiliyor

    -Sonlara doğru tekrara düşüyor

    -Oyunun düşmanı vurmanızı hesaplayan sistem çok gaddar(bununla ilgili modlar var kullanmanızı tavsiye ederim)

    PUANLAMA

    82/100 100: Mükemmel(Kusursuz) 99-90: Harika(Kusursuz Değil ama yakın) 89-80: Çok iyi 79-75: İyi 74-70: Ortalama Üstü 69-65: Ortalama 64-60: Ortalama Altı 59-55: Kötü 54-50: Çok Kötü 49    … Expand
  13. Kotofon
    Jun 6, 2020
    8
    XCOM2 - это продолжение признанной игроками и критиками стратегии XCOM: Enemy Unknown. Двадцать лет минуло с тех пор, как человечество проиграло войну с захватчиками из другого мира, и на Земле теперь царит новый порядок
  14. GarethB
    Nov 2, 2018
    8
    An excellent turned base game full of action and plenty of customisation. There are a huge host of mods available to tailor the game further to your needs!
  15. PeetApiwat
    Nov 3, 2019
    8
    "Save scumming because I love all my soldiers"

    The Good: presentation, challenge gameplay, graphic, ability to customize soldier.
    The Okay: some camera angle problem.
    The Bad: some situation seems unfair where you just have to lose (or save-scumming :D)
  16. Genek13
    Nov 19, 2019
    8
    Great sequel to one of the best tactical games.
    Campaign is enjoyable and long enough.
    Visuals and sound effects are outstanding - especially comparing to the previous one.
    During playtrough had some technical problems, but not gamebreaking ones.
  17. DoctorDeath
    Jun 29, 2020
    8
    Continued and, in fact, a repetition of the first part. Few new ideas. But still good gameplay. For fans of the strategy and tactics genre.
  18. Gonzaked
    Jul 10, 2020
    8
    Hey... Do you remember when Donald Trump, Darth Vader, Hatsune Miku and the Ultramarines saved the World ? Yeah... Me too...

    Coded with the feet and optimised with knees, this game didn't get any real update to solved it issues. Like an other game who likes to shoot you in the knee, you HAVE to install mods to get an acceptable experience : Balancing the game, Getting new    Hey... Do you remember when Donald Trump, Darth Vader, Hatsune Miku and the Ultramarines saved the World ? Yeah... Me too...

    Coded with the feet and optimised with knees, this game didn't get any real update to solved it issues.

    Like an other game who likes to shoot you in the knee, you HAVE to install mods to get an acceptable experience :

    Balancing the game,
    Getting new classes, new weapons, new foes, new everything.

    The campaign is cool, the gameplay is okay... but it has some stupidities like stealth being misexploited.

    Soundtrack is great
    Graphism are mediocre.

    But hey, even Archer and his crew are joining the party !
    Thanks 2K games, but a bigger thanks to the modders !    … Expand
  19. S3XU4LH34L1NG
    May 5, 2022
    8
    A great game if you are into the genre. In my opinion its leaning a bit too heavy into the overworld / basebuilding management wich is janky and tedious. Be warned there are quite a few bugs (gameplay / audio / visual). Also the combat could be sped up just a tiny bit. The optimazation is also quite horrible. I liked the high difficulty of each mission.
  20. OldManGamerOMG
    Dec 7, 2020
    8
    While the game is leaps and bounds better than the previous XCOM, I would be amiss to not recommend that you play the previous XCOM to get the full amount of enjoyment out of this game, as well as back story.

    The previous XCOM was badly designed around RNG, but this game has fixed much of that, allowing for strategy to be stronger than the ridiculous RNG missed shots. There is still    While the game is leaps and bounds better than the previous XCOM, I would be amiss to not recommend that you play the previous XCOM to get the full amount of enjoyment out of this game, as well as back story.

    The previous XCOM was badly designed around RNG, but this game has fixed much of that, allowing for strategy to be stronger than the ridiculous RNG missed shots. There is still times that you will miss that 99 percent success shot, but it isn't game breaking as it was in XCOM Enemy Within. The game is also far more inclusive to the tempo that you take the game, as opposed to feeling rushed in every sense of the way.

    The layout of the base is not make or break based on the layout that RNG gave you at the start as well. This makes it less stressful in starting the game, and wondering where a steam vent is, or if you can get that Sat link without the Steam Vent being in the way.

    The engineers and scientists are far more interesting and fun. I wish there was more we could do with them, but they are vastly better than just getting a number higher.

    In short, I enjoyed XCOM 2 vastly more than XCOM EU and EW. I definitely recommend this game, though wait to get the DLC/Expansions until they are on sale. They are quite overpriced currently.    … Expand
  21. sparkdiamonds2
    May 12, 2021
    8
    One of my favorite games! I always have a good time with XCOM. Love the combat especially
  22. eefeef
    Aug 31, 2023
    8
    This game is about battles for the sake of battles, and those battles are fun every time, until you get tired of them and then the game is over.
  23. Hyperfailure
    Nov 27, 2022
    8
    (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻
    ┻━┻ ︵ ヽ(°□°ヽ)

    ┻━┻ ︵ ＼( °□° )／ ︵ ┻━┻

    ┬─┬ノ( º _ ºノ)

    (ﾉಥ益ಥ）ﾉ ┻━┻

    ┬──┬ ¯_(ツ)

    ┻━┻ ︵ヽ(`Д´)ﾉ︵ ┻━┻

    ┻━┻ ︵ ¯(ツ)/¯ ︵ ┻━┻

    (╯°Д°）╯︵ /(.□ . )

    ʕノ•ᴥ•ʔノ ︵ ┻━┻
  24. PR9Gaming
    Aug 12, 2023
    8
    XCOM turned up to 12, but on amps that should really be at 10 max. It gets way crazier, but still follows the formula of being a strugglebus in the beginning to being a cakewalk without any challenge at late game.
  25. CaptainChaos
    Jan 14, 2020
    7
    I loved XCOM1 and I wanted to love this game also. I do in many ways but there are WAY too many FRUSTRATING things about this game that wants to make me uninstall it every few hours.

    You should know that in my first full playthrough of XCOM I barely cheated (maybe reloaded a misplaced grenade shot I didn't understand where it was going), and playing on normal difficulty I almost won (I    I loved XCOM1 and I wanted to love this game also. I do in many ways but there are WAY too many FRUSTRATING things about this game that wants to make me uninstall it every few hours.

    You should know that in my first full playthrough of XCOM I barely cheated (maybe reloaded a misplaced grenade shot I didn't understand where it was going), and playing on normal difficulty I almost won (I lost the last battle). I LOVED the challenge and difficulty and brutality. I find much of this game is just nonsensical a lot. random and just frustrating. For example

    1. The ingame instructions are fair to miserable. Half the time I have no idea how to use certain weapons, or abilities or who has them, nor do I understand much of the UI.

    2. Unlike AOW Planetfall which tells you the percentage chance to hit something BEFORE you move to a tile this does not. I had to search REDDIT to even know that there was a tiny target thingy over enemy units that is displayed when you mouse over a potential tile to which you might consider moving, so that at least you know if you can even "see" the unit to shoot at it (you still don't know if your to-hit is 10% or 100% until after you move, although before you shoot).

    3. I'm stuck on one mission b/c one of the characters you find has an important weapon to use on the last encounter - only they don't warn of you that and I used it already. Thanks guys! Good thing I don't trust any game and have 100 saves. I feel sorry for anyone else playing iron man mode or who doesn't save every other turn. EDIT: I had to go back about 20 moves and reload that save and now I'm passed it. Ugh. In all fairness though, turns out you can use the environment to help you but I didn't know that (like exploding generators - but I found out by accident).

    4. There's just a lot of ways to screw up the game for not understanding it and it is a very challenging and unforgiving game. I like challenges, but I can't tell you how many times on a timed mission I couldn't even figure out where to go or how to complete the objective when I got there forcing me to reload 100 times.

    5. Finally the overwatch / combat system is very very poorly implemented. Most missions you start off in concealment which is great. But then you engage, only YOUR FIRST UNIT and those units that were in overwatch basically get to attack (and those overwatch attacks only work if the enemy moves, not if they fire). That might have been an XCOM 1 thing also I don't remember, but then they should have fixed it. Every other "normal" system in the world would give your whole team a round of surprise attacks, but you have to set them all up in overwatch to do that. That also means you spend 3x as long as moving on the map b/c EVERYONE ELSE has to do overwatch FIRST (DO IT FIRST!!) b/c if your other team member stumbles on enemies when it moves, it blows it for everyone and anyone not in overwatch LOSES THEIR TURN essentially while the aliens go. STUPID. Really STUPID. Sorry.

    On the plus side, it is XCOM with way better graphics, so if you enjoyed the original and the frustrations don't make you pull your hair out, the rest of the game is quite fun and addictive.

    SAVE SAVE SAVE. Or you will put your hand through your monitor. You might still. I like this game. I want to love it. But ARG.    … Expand
  26. 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
  27. Skulb
    Jan 16, 2017
    7
    Easily the best Xcom game released since the 90s in my opinion. It addresses a few of the issues with the unimpressive first game in this particular reboot. The mission maps are larger so you have more tactical options and the strategic map has more interesting stuff happening on it. It's still far from perfect, and completely lacks the first contact element that made the original fromEasily the best Xcom game released since the 90s in my opinion. It addresses a few of the issues with the unimpressive first game in this particular reboot. The mission maps are larger so you have more tactical options and the strategic map has more interesting stuff happening on it. It's still far from perfect, and completely lacks the first contact element that made the original from 1996 so compelling. Instead the aliens are entrenched behind a global puppet regime, almost like real life bankers in our society. The problem with this is that it feels a lot less like a war against aliens and more like a war against uniformed goons, lab experiments and robots. There is a pop-up event where you get to salvage a crashed UFO, but it's the same one every time and offers no new opponents or anything else of note.
    Regardless; Xcom 2 is a lot of fun to play, and gives you a nice system of upgrades, promotions and researc. It even manages to give you a little base building inside your now mobile base. It isn't amazing but at least it's there this time.
    Still missing is a proper inventory for your soldiers, a more detailed action point system like the originals had, UFO hunting, actual aliens and above all a way to turn off the unskippable radio communications during missions. These are not fun when you're reloading a save.

    Pros:
    - Great graphics and physics. Even on low settings the game looks amazing, which is made even more impressive by almost fully destructible environments.
    - Satisfying tactical combat. Cover really matters, but almost everything you're able to hide behind can also be destroyed very easily. Moving around from cover to cover while trying to survive a hectic battle is always fun, and is done better here than in almost any game in the genre I can think of.
    - Good economy. Resources salvaged during missions are needed to build base improvements and gear for your soldiers, as well as providing you with objects for your scientists to research. This makes it hard to stop playing, as there is always something to upgrade or improve between each mission.
    - Good AI. Isolated enemies will sometimes retreat to join up with other groups of enemies, making the next fight that much harder for you. Enemies generally seem to want to stay alive if possible, rather than mindlessly suicide on your strong positions. They flank, teleport and do all sorts of things to get around your defenses, and it feels quite realistic sometimes. At least as realistic as fighting off an alien invasion could feel.

    Cons
    - Obviously designed for consoles and ported to the PC. The game therefore fails to take advantage of the PC's controls, and you end up with things like no inventories, simplistic menus and an overall reduction in the level of detail all over the place. The UI has to be kept simple for console users and this is a shame for PC users, who could handle more complexity. You're supposed to play this game with a hand controller, which PC users usually don't. It would be a very different game if it had been designed for the PC. More like the original Xcom maybe. Personally I would score it higher if it had been developed for the gaming system I am using. But it hasn't.
    - Horribly generic music. The usual awful horn assault to signify to simpletons that something heroic is occurring.
    - Similarly generic US brand militarism. This is of course completely nauseating to anyone who isn't an American, but also to quite a few people that are. Kidnap someone and they become a "package". Shoot or bomb them and they become a "target", a "bogey" or even "collateral", my personal favorite. The horrible man who serves as a narrator of sorts is something of a satire of a prototypical American war horse posing as a hero. Personally I wanted to go to war against him sometimes rather than the aliens. Go away John Wayne/Dick Cheney/generic Pentagon criminal!
    - Performance issues. Lags, crashes, long loading times and corruption of saves. Once all my saves even became completely impossible to load so I had to restart the game.
    - Unskippable parts are annoying. Some videos are like this and are sometimes tedious if you're seen them before. But mostly I have an issue with the awful, horrible man who keeps talking to me during missions so I have to stop what I'm doing to listen to his drivel. If you have radio communications during missions just run them in the background. Don't take control of the game away from me to tell me stuff I don't want or need to hear.
    - Skydiving mobs, groups of mobs that trigger fully if you move into the wrong square. This too is very console-y and a cheap, annoying way to structure the tactical combat. Trying to flank a group of mobs, just to take one example, is very likely to pull another group instead of giving you a tactical advantage. Individual mob reactions and some system of initiative would have been much better. As it is the game basically forces you to save scum to get anywhere    … Expand
  28. karmasleeper
    Feb 12, 2016
    7
    The game would deserve a higher rating, even with the massive performance issues most mainstream reviews ignored, if it weren't for the turn limits on most missions.

    When a low turn limit requires you to rush forward to reach an objective on the other side of the map you can't take the extra turns setting up ambushes requires with the new stealth system. You can't cautiously make your    The game would deserve a higher rating, even with the massive performance issues most mainstream reviews ignored, if it weren't for the turn limits on most missions.

    When a low turn limit requires you to rush forward to reach an objective on the other side of the map you can't take the extra turns setting up ambushes requires with the new stealth system. You can't cautiously make your approach always sticking to full cover and creating overlapping cones of overwatch fire. You absolutely must rush ahead to get there in time. When the majority of missions have a timer, whatever sense of urgency you feel the first few times you play them evaporates quickly. It soon becomes a repetitious formula.

    Other than this, the game is upgraded Enemy Unknown and is a worthy successor. New classes are fun, stealth mechanic is a lot of fun when you aren't restricted by time to set up the perfect ambush, and the new overworld mechanics with the resistance and flying mobile base are a welcome addition.

    My only other gripe would be that attacks still fly through cover (even full cover) and world geometry as if they weren't there. Part of this may be due to the fact that everything is procedurally generated this time around. A new class also has melee attacks that can hit enemies through windows and the adjoining wall, often completely destroying the structure as if a bomb went off. Enemy melee attacks will also connect in physically impossible ways completely destroying immersion and your carefully laid plans.

    Wait for a sale. There will probably be great mods and performance improvements by then.    … Expand
  29. 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
  30. dobserver
    Jan 3, 2017
    7
    Never played XCOM before but played a lot of turn based strategy games before like Fire Emblem and Tactics Ogre. Obviously the graphics of this game are a lot better than those ones however the strategic element of it needs a bit of work. I played it on Veteran and found myself quite defeated as I got into the mid game with the enemies being much overpowered compared to my squad. INever played XCOM before but played a lot of turn based strategy games before like Fire Emblem and Tactics Ogre. Obviously the graphics of this game are a lot better than those ones however the strategic element of it needs a bit of work. I played it on Veteran and found myself quite defeated as I got into the mid game with the enemies being much overpowered compared to my squad. I restarted on Rookie, and amazingly it is still quite difficult if you do not research and prioritzie certain things over others. There are clearly 'better' research and resources compared to others in the game but the game does not really explain this. So a lot of the time is wasted doing things in a sub optimal way, which leads to the dark event bar filling up faster and the enemy progressing faster than you can. I am fine with restarting and retrying new ways, but I think the game is much too difficult in a 'rookie' setting then it should be.

    Good:
    - strategic elements like fog of war, cover, half cover, elevation, status effects,
    - squad customization, classes are interesting,
    - attack effects and destructible environment is fun and intersting
    - research options and engineering build options allow for a more varied squad

    Bad:
    - enemies some time ignore terrain effects and building cover
    - constant 'doomsday' clock and limited turns in both in game combat and the overall game
    - camera is frustrating when trying to zoom into multilevel buildings
    - research paths appear to be 'open' but in fact punish you for prioritizing and trying out new things
    - difficulty for 'rookie' is much too hard for a casual newbie in my opinion

    Verdict:
    - pick it up if you enjoy a good turn based strategy game, but understand the faults it has before and see if you can live with it    … Expand
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Awards & Rankings

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

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
88

Generally favorable reviews - based on 104 Critic Reviews

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