XCOM 2

 PlayStation 4
User Score
7.2

Mixed or average reviews- based on 518 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 332 out of 518
  2. Mixed: 93 out of 518
  3. Negative: 93 out of 518
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  1. GlobalNightmare
    Nov 30, 2017
    4
    Enemy unknown was a fantastic game. Though not being the greatest player of turn-based strategy titles, I made it through to the end, and enjoyed every minute.
    I couldn't believe my luck when I discovered the sequel would be coming to the PS4. It was an instant-buy, no question about it.
    My excitement soon turned to disappointment however, upon experiencing the harsh, unforgiving    Enemy unknown was a fantastic game. Though not being the greatest player of turn-based strategy titles, I made it through to the end, and enjoyed every minute.
    I couldn't believe my luck when I discovered the sequel would be coming to the PS4. It was an instant-buy, no question about it.
    My excitement soon turned to disappointment however, upon experiencing the harsh, unforgiving difficulty. It was then that I realized that this game was not designed for me, or indeed a wider audience of gamers. It has seemingly been designed for hardcore xcom players only.
    I looked at my "Demon's souls" platinum trophy in disbelief; this game is too hard. Way too hard for the casual gamer, or novices of the genre. Even on the easiest difficulty setting. There's too much stacked against you here.
    My biggest problem is the inclusion of timed missions. Time limits in strategy games are never a good thing as far as I'm concerned. People want to play at their own pace. They don't want to feel rushed, or shoved head-first into a horde of enemies before they can plan or think. There's RTS's for that.
    I constantly felt outnumbered, outgunned, and outmaneuvered at every turn. Shouting at the television in anger as a 90% hit chance misses an enemy, yet again. I found myself constantly reloading my last save in an attempt to keep my soldiers from dying, but becoming frustrated as the lengthy load times here are an absolute joke.
    Eventually, I'd had enough. The aliens can keep the Earth. Its not worth my sanity. I'll go back to "darkest dungeon" for my strategy fix. The bad outweighs the good here, which is a huge shame as I loved the original, and there's so many good inclusions to the gameplay and presentation here worth talking about, but I just cant enjoy any of it to care. Its just too hard, and too frustrating.
    For hardcore xcom players ONLY.    … Expand
  2. huiboy
    Mar 24, 2019
    4
    Probably a fun game. But game is not optimized at all on the PS4. Clunky controls, huge frame-rate lags, and begins to become excessively slow paced due to these malfunctions. The only game where i cannot put it the background while watching Netflix because it takes a huge toll on the system.
  3. kobb
    Oct 12, 2017
    4
    'Normal ' difficulty is next to unplayable. Meta Game has terrible pacing for events demanding that you react to a contstant stream rather than actually making choices and planning. Massive disappointment.

    Waste of time
  4. Caputalis
    Jun 6, 2018
    4
    The biggest issue is easily the turn limits. It's been years since release, and they're still way too small and way too overused. It seems like a majority of missions have a turn limit, and this causes you so essentially toss out strategy and just rush to the objective. It's awful and pretty much ruins what I enjoyed about the previous game. It might as well just be called Turn Limit-ComThe biggest issue is easily the turn limits. It's been years since release, and they're still way too small and way too overused. It seems like a majority of missions have a turn limit, and this causes you so essentially toss out strategy and just rush to the objective. It's awful and pretty much ruins what I enjoyed about the previous game. It might as well just be called Turn Limit-Com 2. Ruins the game.… Expand
  5. Schplatt
    Nov 19, 2017
    4
    Could have been a great xcom game, but the turn limits ruin nearly every level. If it’s not a turn limit, then it is some enemy destroying some equipment in a few turn, that you need to advance.

    It almost seems like they ran out of time to make this game entertaining, and just slapped some cheap time/turn limits on. I love all other aspects of the game, but could never finish it due    Could have been a great xcom game, but the turn limits ruin nearly every level. If it’s not a turn limit, then it is some enemy destroying some equipment in a few turn, that you need to advance.

    It almost seems like they ran out of time to make this game entertaining, and just slapped some cheap time/turn limits on.

    I love all other aspects of the game, but could never finish it due to these ‘features’. Deleted the game, and regret spending money on it. Without the limits, this game would easily be a ‘9 out of 10’.    … Expand
  6. Bioware-Critic
    Nov 17, 2020
    4
    XCOM 2 is a game of many, many flaws. Sadly. This could have very much gone in a better direction but the developers seem to not know the very meaning of the word - polish. Almost every aspect of the game feels unfinished and that it could have been two to three levels better if only a little more optimization and care would have gone into it.
    There is so much to criticise here ... I will    XCOM 2 is a game of many, many flaws. Sadly. This could have very much gone in a better direction but the developers seem to not know the very meaning of the word - polish. Almost every aspect of the game feels unfinished and that it could have been two to three levels better if only a little more optimization and care would have gone into it.
    There is so much to criticise here ... I will only touch on a few points and leave it at that. Otherwise I will go on a full-on nerd-rage!

    - The difficulty: There is none. I am not joking! The game is stupidly easy. What gets you though to tear out your own hair is how mind-numbingly unfair this game is pretty much in every situation and how little is explained. You are expected to make everything up as you go, probably even decide 90% of every decision to be made correctly and then fail regardless. You then will go forward a slow death you see not coming until it is too late and you have to start from 0. The very concept of the game seems to be ... "to **** all over the player and his/her dignity". It is quite intelligence-insulting. These unfair results you earn by doing mostly everything right are something you simply overcome and balance out on the tactical level and maybe not in the moment but as fast as you can. What you will not be able to balance out however, is that in the long term, on the strategic level, the game maneuvers you into a dead end if you play it for the first time AND YOU DO NOT KNOW EVERYTHING until you simply are forced to give up!

    - The gameplay: The game gives you a lot of options but is otherwise very unimaginative. You are forced down every road you take and the freedom you have is pretty much impossible to enjoy since you are bombarded with a dozen things that ... have to be done "IMMEDIATELY or ELSE!" ... Seriously, I ask myself who is so lame and retarded to think of such idiotic ideas and think themselves to be creative? The balancing in this game seems to be done by breaking the "fourth-wall" and kicking the player in the crotch! You get punished for EVERYTHING. things you could never know will happen, things you did not know existed and things that will never be explained to you no matter what.

    - Performance: I have not have a single game on my PS4 which crashed so regularly. Especially not 3 years after release. Pretty embarrassing I would say. The engine performs horribly. Every turn the engine will produce bugs of various kinds, like actions not happening or animations and their respective sounds persisting forever and torture your ears! Or the camera angle will prevent you from seeing what you need to see and from reading what you need to read. It is quite the circus during the missions.

    If Firaxis really decides to make a third game they desperately need to get back to square one!!! ... at the drawing board. This title is a mess and quite literally all over the place. I don't care how many fans this series has. For a grown-up this product is a straight up INSULT!

    If you are a person who values his/her dignity, you should give this a wide birth. If you plan on buying it I would suggest you don't pay more than 5 bucks. I, myself would like nothing better than to get my money back. Since it is a bad habit of mine to build up a catalog of bought games which I play a good while AFTER I bought them this is not possible any longer.    … Expand
  7. nickojeda612
    Jul 15, 2017
    4
    Really fun game to play but way too difficult and relentless even on the rookie setting. I spent a ton of hours just trying to get by certain levels just to have my character one shotted by a boss or to have them crippled for a whole month. The gameplay is great, the story is interesting, character creation is fun, I enjoyed the time between missions, but the only thing I couldn't standReally fun game to play but way too difficult and relentless even on the rookie setting. I spent a ton of hours just trying to get by certain levels just to have my character one shotted by a boss or to have them crippled for a whole month. The gameplay is great, the story is interesting, character creation is fun, I enjoyed the time between missions, but the only thing I couldn't stand was how difficult it was to win a battle. NOT TO MENTION THE HIT RATES THAT DIDN'T MAKE ANY SENSE! It was the vipers and their tongues that could go through walls and over buildings that ruined the game for me.… Expand
  8. MT_Tombs
    May 13, 2017
    4
    I love these types of games. I wanted to love this. Seriously. Unfortunately it crashes over and over. The load times are INSANE. Seems "rookie" difficulty is actually "extreme" difficulty and it's gets worse from there. Progress become nearly impossible and you have to reload old saves to fix stuff. What's the point? Endless frustration?
    Developers, you're not cool and hardcore if you    I love these types of games. I wanted to love this. Seriously. Unfortunately it crashes over and over. The load times are INSANE. Seems "rookie" difficulty is actually "extreme" difficulty and it's gets worse from there. Progress become nearly impossible and you have to reload old saves to fix stuff. What's the point? Endless frustration?
    Developers, you're not cool and hardcore if you make your games impossible to all but the most die hard and dedicated fans. You lose everyone else.    … Expand
  9. BigTrustBoi
    Jun 16, 2018
    4
    Well, the xcom combat and base building are still fun, I have one major gripe with the game that ruined my enjoyment. The whole Avatar project timer is some of the worse game design I have ever encountered. The fact that you need a resource (intel) to even try and do the missions is idiotic. I got to a point where I had no way of getting intel for a month so I could do absolutely nothingWell, the xcom combat and base building are still fun, I have one major gripe with the game that ruined my enjoyment. The whole Avatar project timer is some of the worse game design I have ever encountered. The fact that you need a resource (intel) to even try and do the missions is idiotic. I got to a point where I had no way of getting intel for a month so I could do absolutely nothing to make progress. So I lost about 15 hours in despite getting excellent/ flawless on every mission because the games mission structure and economy is broken. Just let me play some **** missions to progress the story once in a while, how hard is that. Additionally, the game is still buggy and has suspect load times at best especially for the type of game we are talking about. Overall very frustrated with the changes they made over xcom 1 which I enjoyed much more.… Expand
  10. overratedhuman
    Sep 3, 2020
    4
    the loading times... holy, that's gotta be a record, it's terrible!

    and that last fight of the game barely runs, it's all glitchy, you gotta end it fast or it starts lagging like crazy, I also don't like that permanent death thing, what's the point, I'm going to want to reload from an old save every time it happens, it's better than retraining a new unit even with that awful loading    the loading times... holy, that's gotta be a record, it's terrible!

    and that last fight of the game barely runs, it's all glitchy, you gotta end it fast or it starts lagging like crazy,

    I also don't like that permanent death thing, what's the point, I'm going to want to reload from an old save every time it happens, it's better than retraining a new unit even with that awful loading time, and your load game screen sucks so it's not even easy to choose the right auto save    … Expand
  11. megapro
    Oct 3, 2016
    3
    The game is awesome. Great graphics, music, sound, characters... Fun to upgrade and fix with your base. Good enough story. But, it really tests your patience when it comes to waiting. It's fast in the beginning but a few hours in it takes forever to load a mission. This really lowers the score. Also, the controls are not the best, but they work.
  12. OortCloud
    Jan 2, 2017
    3
    I played and loved all the original XCOMS plus the first reboot and loved them. I've played this for 20 hours now and am going to sell it because...

    1) Load times are huge. 2) The campaign map is a confusing mess of poorly described events etc. 3) Its way too difficult, requiring constant reloads (remember 1 people). 4) Most missions have very brief time limits meaning you must    I played and loved all the original XCOMS plus the first reboot and loved them. I've played this for 20 hours now and am going to sell it because...

    1) Load times are huge.
    2) The campaign map is a confusing mess of poorly described events etc.
    3) Its way too difficult, requiring constant reloads (remember 1 people).
    4) Most missions have very brief time limits meaning you must charge about. This makes the slow tactical overwatch-style assaults often impossible.
    5) Avatar project and dark events nonsense seems unavoidable,so you never feel like you are doing very well or have any kind of control - even though you save and reload 15 times until you get lucky on every mission and get out alive. (again remember 1).
    Really disappointed, another great franchise milked dry.    … Expand
  13. V1L3
    Jun 9, 2018
    3
    Do not play this game unless you are prepared to either be rewarded for being lucky, or severely punished for being unlucky. Although a piece of this game requires skill, the massive amounts of luck are unavoidable, making the game unplayable at times. If you manage to get lucky and don’t miss 90% shots, you may enjoy yourself while playing this game, can’t stand being punished for beingDo not play this game unless you are prepared to either be rewarded for being lucky, or severely punished for being unlucky. Although a piece of this game requires skill, the massive amounts of luck are unavoidable, making the game unplayable at times. If you manage to get lucky and don’t miss 90% shots, you may enjoy yourself while playing this game, can’t stand being punished for being unlucky? Avoid this game… Expand
  14. MARXENZOLOPES
    May 27, 2020
    3
    I can't understand the fun of this game, in addition to a very deceptive deceptive advertisement from 2K games
  15. BigMatchu
    Oct 10, 2016
    2
    It's not fun. This game is a steaming pile of **** and a waste of money. Gonna sell it...Game mechanics are sinply messed up and its not fun when you see youe team destroyed in just one turn
  16. Hyde_333
    Jun 28, 2018
    2
    I really wanted this game to live up to the first, but I am afraid it severely disappoints on many different levels.

    First off the melee combat is broken, and enemies can stab your soldiers through solid walls. Secondly, the overwatch penalties are too severe (yet these penalties dont seem to apply to the aliens, who can hit you with an overwatch shot almost every time from 900 yards)    I really wanted this game to live up to the first, but I am afraid it severely disappoints on many different levels.

    First off the melee combat is broken, and enemies can stab your soldiers through solid walls.
    Secondly, the overwatch penalties are too severe (yet these penalties dont seem to apply to the aliens, who can hit you with an overwatch shot almost every time from 900 yards) making it a very ineffective skill.
    In fact, the luck element of this game is its most prominent feature, and with enemies that can move from invisible to within attacking range (and attack (kill) you) whilst you are still in your turn, there is a high chance your soldiers will get repeatedly ganked with no other option but to reload the turn now that you know where the enemies will be.

    Great game if you like watching 5 minute loading screens, not so much for balanced yet challenging turn-based combat like the first.

    Oh, and hitting the touchpad auto ends your turn, no warning or anything. It is ridiculously easy to do and normally means you have to reload the game, which is highly infuriating.

    Glad I got this game on PSplus and didn't actually pay any money for it, appalling sequel.    … Expand
  17. Wigglesbury
    Oct 21, 2016
    2
    I really wanted to love this game. From UFO Defense to the new Enemy Unknown I've played them all over and over, and although the games have gotten worse over time, this one is the bottom so far. The idea is solid, and the research and engineering is good. Combat is cool, aliens are well designed. Even the learning curve for combat is excellent. The game itself is a buggy mess. It freezes,I really wanted to love this game. From UFO Defense to the new Enemy Unknown I've played them all over and over, and although the games have gotten worse over time, this one is the bottom so far. The idea is solid, and the research and engineering is good. Combat is cool, aliens are well designed. Even the learning curve for combat is excellent. The game itself is a buggy mess. It freezes, crashes, Ironman is almost unplayable. Near the end of the game I'm seeing a consistent 2-3 minute load screen after a level, followed by another screen with a mission summary with loading again. I might be a bit biased because I think the first few games killed the idea of overwhelming alien superiority and sent you into combat with 14 soldiers against 4 aliens and it was a tough go. Now alien superiority is 4 of you rolling 11 aliens right off the hop and it keeps getting easier. Anyway, all said and done, gameplay is solid, graphics are alright-ish with terrible collision and clipping problems, and wait times are disgusting.… Expand
  18. Lonit
    Sep 16, 2019
    2
    the timer in single player is really a deal breaker, it's so peopl don't take the time to get overpowered but it just adds too much stress, can't get the things done.
  19. egoBorder
    Jul 8, 2020
    2
    It breaks my heart to say it, but you should not play XCOM 2 on PS4. This version is so broken that unless you are supremely familiar with the game already and possess divine patience, you likely will not be able to complete the game. That's without even taking crashes into account, which can strike at any time regardless of your time with the game. Sad, because this is a great game butIt breaks my heart to say it, but you should not play XCOM 2 on PS4. This version is so broken that unless you are supremely familiar with the game already and possess divine patience, you likely will not be able to complete the game. That's without even taking crashes into account, which can strike at any time regardless of your time with the game. Sad, because this is a great game but unless the XBox version has a better reputation I suggest you stick to PC. I'm only rating the game a couple of points because if you really don't care about completing the game you could get this on sale just to have it on PS4, but I can't give them any more credit if the game is almost unplayable.… Expand
  20. warriorjoyaus
    Sep 12, 2019
    2
    Look it's a great game, but don't by it on the PS4.
    It crashes all the time, and the developer does not want to fix the problems.
    Buy it for the PC
  21. neetsky
    Feb 13, 2021
    2
    The game designers were too complacent leading to the failure of the game.
    That mission of New India is so disgusting. The difficulty suddenly became high. Enemies are laid out so fking much. Enemy turns can not fast forward or skip, very time-consuming.
    Your game designer's complacency is so fking disgusting. Hope it's your last game lol
  22. ameron
    Sep 17, 2022
    2
    The game is excellent as described. How ever be aware that on the PS4, as of 2022, the game crashes regularly on some levels. Making it almost unplayable on PS4.
  23. phoeniix23
    Jun 24, 2018
    1
    I remembered having a blast playing Xcom1 on PC. Finished the whole game and it was such a wonderful sense of accomplishment.

    So I was super happy to get Xcom2 on PS+ in June 2018. It started out great, just like how I remembered Xcom1 was. I was even impressed that it worked well on console as I thought the gameplay would be clunky without a mouse. However, after spending about 4-5    I remembered having a blast playing Xcom1 on PC. Finished the whole game and it was such a wonderful sense of accomplishment.

    So I was super happy to get Xcom2 on PS+ in June 2018. It started out great, just like how I remembered Xcom1 was. I was even impressed that it worked well on console as I thought the gameplay would be clunky without a mouse.

    However, after spending about 4-5 play sessions amounting to around 10hrs of gameplay, I was ready to throw my controller at the screen and one of my veins was about to burst. Xcom2 is crazy infuriating. I'm not a noob, and I'm not new to strategy games. The level of frustration in Xcom2 though was something I didn't expect. Bloodborne is fair. You know th mistakes were yours. Even Xcom1, I knew I made mistakes when I overcommit or misplaced my troops.

    In Xcom2 though, random **** just happens and I suddenly find myself in horrible situations, nothing to do with my troop placement. How do I know this? Cos I RELOAD the game each time **** hits the fan and each time I either try a new tactic or stick to the same path, weird random **** happens. I flanked an enemy soldier with 80% chance to hit, close distance with no cover and I frigging MISSED! WTF. Oh and the ALIENS. They're mind controlling everyone all the time and at random. My troops panicking at the worst times, which makes it super infuriating after carefully positioning them.

    Xcom1's difficulty progressed smoothly. I could feel the game's difficulty spike as I progressed through the game. But at the same time, I was also improving as a player and my squad was leveling up as well so the challenge felt manageable. The crazy high difficulty in the early game in Xcom2 coupled with just random **** happening just made this game unplayable for me.

    And the super long loading times didn't help. And base management felt convoluted this time. I remember enjoying managing my base and resources in Xcom1, and it felt more intuitive. Xcom2 however was more confusing and felt all over the place. Maybe they wanted to make it more story driven and cinematic as can be seen with the numerous cutscenes. I didn't really care for it cos the main gameplay was just so frustrating.

    And coming from Xcom1 when I believe Earth won, how the hell did the Aliens take over the world?! Doesn't make sense.

    TLDR: FAILED OPPORTUNITY. FRUSTRATING GAME    … Expand
  24. MaxPayneIsGod
    Sep 19, 2022
    1
    Egregiously difficult to the point of being unplayable.
    There's something fun hidden under hundreds of poor design choices.
    Don't waste your time.
  25. KAKAOSKOS
    Sep 3, 2017
    1
    Had fun at first, but then small bugs began to appear before my ironman run save file got deleted. This was right before Fireaxis openly stated that they will not be patching Xcom2 anymore... Fine, so I began a normal run, just to get some value back at least, but now suddenly the playstation 4 console freeze entirely whenever I startup the game.. This is a huge disappointment and wouldn'tHad fun at first, but then small bugs began to appear before my ironman run save file got deleted. This was right before Fireaxis openly stated that they will not be patching Xcom2 anymore... Fine, so I began a normal run, just to get some value back at least, but now suddenly the playstation 4 console freeze entirely whenever I startup the game.. This is a huge disappointment and wouldn't recommend it to anyone.… Expand
  26. Volsyden
    Apr 29, 2019
    1
    I have played a lot of stupid games in my life... this is one of them... this game is stupid hard and the balance is extremely broken. it got it for free and i want my money back.
  27. SidW
    Jul 3, 2020
    1
    1. Heavy loading
    2. Extremely bad balance, extremely hard, making players to load a lot
    3. Suspicious rate of action. When rate of hacking is 53%, after trying over ten times, none was successful. You know, this situation will happen only at 0.47^10, I.e. 0.05%. Can’t trust the rate or this dishonest game maker anymore. 4. Stupid bugs. One of my teammate was blocked from entering the new    1. Heavy loading
    2. Extremely bad balance, extremely hard, making players to load a lot
    3. Suspicious rate of action. When rate of hacking is 53%, after trying over ten times, none was successful. You know, this situation will happen only at 0.47^10, I.e. 0.05%. Can’t trust the rate or this dishonest game maker anymore. 4. Stupid bugs. One of my teammate was blocked from entering the new area. So in every new turn, I need to order him to stay without doing anything. Auto-save should happen in my turn but after loading some auto-save, enemies came. Etc.
    5.Worldview and art are good. 1 score for that.    … Expand
  28. Bishop61
    May 15, 2022
    1
    I think this is probably the best game I've ever played. It has so much replay value and is so fun. Excellent graphics. Normally, I would give this game a 5 star rating. However...that being said, I give it 1 star. Why?? Because the devs created a game with more bugs than the Brazilian jungle and then did NOTHING...I REPEAT... NOTHING...to fix those bugs. The game is almost unplayable.I think this is probably the best game I've ever played. It has so much replay value and is so fun. Excellent graphics. Normally, I would give this game a 5 star rating. However...that being said, I give it 1 star. Why?? Because the devs created a game with more bugs than the Brazilian jungle and then did NOTHING...I REPEAT... NOTHING...to fix those bugs. The game is almost unplayable. It's such a shame that the devs didn't care about the user at all. All they did was produce a faulty product and take in the money. They should be ashamed and not allowed to work in this career choice ever again.… Expand
  29. Bulbotrax
    Jun 16, 2018
    0
    probablly one of the most irritating game ever made... everything is bad in this crappy piece of garbage... All of the worst ideas are in this thing... The timer on every phases, congratulations... it is the dumbest idead ever...
  30. Incubation
    Jan 22, 2017
    0
    Buggy as hell, takes an age to load, frustrating gameplay that requires save/loading frequently, stupidly difficult. Play the original much more fun and better gameplay.
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Awards & Rankings

13
#13 Best PS4 Game of 2016
32
#32 Most Discussed PS4 Game of 2016
34
#34 Most Shared PS4 Game of 2016

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
87

Generally favorable reviews - based on 29 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 27 out of 29
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 29
  3. Negative: 0 out of 29
  1. RPGamer
    Jan 3, 2018
    80
    XCOM 2 doesn't reinvent the wheel, which is a good thing. It takes the lion's share of the gameplay from the last game and embeds it into the new game's foundation, shifting around some pieces to support the new gameplay fixtures without really altering the heart of the experience. With new soldier classes, enemy types, mission objectives, an all-new base, and a story built on losing the invasion the last time around, the new game provides the same intense combat experience and resource management series veterans expect. It ups the ante in terms of difficulty, and the result is a nail-biting game of close calls and narrow victories. While this may turn off some, it provides an amazing feeling of victory when one finds the sweet spot between keeping troops alive and advancing the long-term narrative-driving projects.
    Read full review
  2. Playstation Official Magazine Australia
    Nov 27, 2016
    90
    While it’s a shade short of perfect, there is no comparison: you will find no finer strategy game on PS4. [Christmas 2016, p64]
  3. Playstation Official Magazine UK
    Nov 21, 2016
    90
    No mere sequel, XCOM 2 reshapes everything with lots of success. It won't coddle you, and the invisible dice hate you, but overcoming these odds is as sweet as ever. [Dec 2016, p.72]
See all critic reviews »