XCOM 2, a game by Firaxis, is the sequel to XCOM Enemy Unknown. Although, taking a different approach to most sequels and continues with the premise that humanity lost the first contact war from the previous game and over the course of 20 years has let the aliens guide humanity "into a better future" under the new world government of ADVENT.
In this future, XCOM headquarters was raided and the Commander - the player, was captured. The introduction and tutorial mission both deal with the rescue and with it brings the reinstatement of the player at the helm of command of the XCOM resistance forces aboard a stolen alien craft called the "Avenger".
You are introduced to your new officers, with Bradford being the only remaining member from the previous game returning to their role. The new cast are good and they have their quirks, but are not as charismatic compared to your previous science and engineering lead.
The lead scientist, Dr. Richard Tygan, is an ex-ADVENT head research that found the extent of the alien's research too much and joins the resistance in an attempt to correct his past mistakes and the lead engineer, Lily Shen, who is the daughter of the late Dr. Raymond Shen of the previous game, who is something of a technical "wizard" with her mechanical skills and being seen not too far from her personal gremlin - ROV-R,
With every one introduced, the player can start their campaign proper, the familiar loop of research and engineering projects remain, the satellite spam coverage is replaced with establishing resistance cells in regions which now instead provide XCOM easier access to regions and the establishing of further resistance groups is an important aspect in being able to do missions in a region, specifically main mission progression.
The early game will consist of mainly to responding to leads the avenger is given and working on improving and building your resistance networks and forces while being a nuisance to ADVENT. During this phase it should be in one's best interest to get in contact with the black market as well which is location that has a random selection. that changes from time to time, of goods such personnel, research assistance, weapon upgrades or facility lead data to buy with intel and where one can offload excess resources for supplies - maybe even get a good price if one has spares of a resource the market is looking for.
ADVENT will eventually turn their ire towards your resistance and start targeting your cells in retaliation and if a resistance sanctuary cannot be defended it will force the survivors to go to ground and will cut the associated supply line it establishes and subsequent access. Fortunately one can re-establish a cell but it cuts into to resources that could be spent on more important tasks.
Resistance contacts work similarly to the continental bonus from the first game and when a resistance network is successfully established it can also provide a bonus from a randomly selected list that is picked from when one begins the campaign.
The choice to force a player to action and frame it as striking quickly before ADVENT can respond in force isn't as effective solution as the meld canisters from Enemy Within and I will concede that not all objectives make sense in the grand scheme of things when one puts it under scrutiny and Bradford's insistence to clear the area doesn't help the illusion but overall I like the pressure it puts the player under to make the gameplay "faster paced" and push one to take risks.
Missions themselves have a nice visual aesthetic to them and the areas one does missions on have visually appropriate feel, although it doesn't have a complete world comparison it does makes things visually distinct and helps sell the difference between the cleanliness of cities the Alien rule to the ruggedness of the areas outside of it.
Something of a nice touch in regards to completing missions is how your
performance can be seen in the how your team is reacting on the way back
from a mission, with the an intercepted ADVENT broadcast
adding to the overall mood of how the mission played out.
Mission type variety feels about the same with it being repurposed into a more appropriate type of mission of its type and the missions have some deviation with assassination, snatch and grabs and hacking being some of the newer objective types. The base defense mission type is now a part of the base game, although is more of destroy an object before being overrun when the aliens manage to force-land the Avenger, it can come around again if the respective Dark Event rolls around.
Dark Events can be considered something that can mix up both the strategic and tactical layer as it can accumulate up to three events in a month with XCOM receiving special Guerilla Ops to attempt to counter them. Without spending intel one is mostly in the dark what operation will counter what event, however more of these missions can also be found by getting a tip off and investigating rumours provided to the player. One should expect to run into the effects regardless and in some cases can be beneficial to XCOM operations by providing more corpses to use for equipment, but most will be a nuisance that will have to taken on the chin and work around or with.
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species.
ADVENT mentioned before acts as the "police and military" arm of the Alien occupation, their design hides alien features and favours aesthetic senses in an effort to provide a front of "we are not so different" comfort.
One can see how ingrained the narrative is when XCOM infiltrates cities
as civilians perceive you as a terrorist organisation and are quick to
give away your position, the statues show how it was the aliens that
"uplifted" humanity and in general with after-mission intercepted
broadcasts painting XCOM as a menace to society and it is a problem that will be contained for the betterment of mankind.
The alien forces, which act as a elite division, are similar to their first game counterparts but underwent genetic modificand in the case of one of the species being returned to their more natural state. It feels they underwent a standardisation of their forces, however it doesn't detract from their deadliness and it does spring a few surprises here and there in regards to the new enemy types.
Your soldiers are for, a ragtag bunch of misfits, adequately supplied to get started on liberating earth with the addition of a weapon upgrade system and each class getting a bit of a face lift with each getting something extra or being repurposed into something with more options. Soldier customisation options are improved and one can even recolor and name primary weapons as well.
Weapons now have a modification element to them and these modifications are mostly picked up off the bodies of defeated foes and add more versatility to primary weapon builds with up to three modifications on a weapon at a time . In addition to the mods dropped one can find data drives that can supply a nice bonus to intel when researched or things called Personal Combat Sims which act as a slot in bonus for your soldiers, it can be replaced but the older sim will be overwritten unless the associated continental bonus to be able to replace sims without losing them is earned ( which is not guaranteed to be available)
The most notable changes to the classes is the addition of a melee attack for rangers, support becoming a specialist with a gremlin drone that can perform remote hacking and tactical support, the sniper becoming a sharpshooter who is can specialise in either a long range sniping or pistol gunslinging and the heavy sacrificing their machine gun and rocket launcher for a mini-gun style cannon and grenade launcher.
Psionic soldiers are still available, but are more of an additional class now than a special sub-class that a select few can become. Their abilities are expanded and are better balanced in regards to the scope of the game.
Music is overall is a good fit in genre and does its job best as ambiance and
with pre-mission and post mission flow. The sound design has its highs, some
lows and the weapon sounds, especially in the higher tiers, feel appropriate
for what is shown on screen although the standard ballistic tier feels mostly muted by comparision.
Voice work is up to standard, although it does
feel more sombre compared to moments from Enemy Unknown. Most notable being:
Bradford's voice actor is better fit, although he does have the tendency to repeat himself quite often in the overworld and in missions
Dr Tygan comes across very professional and aloof but has his own weakness in the consumption of ADVENT Burgers
Lily Shen is okay but doesn't have the same gravitas that her father possessed
ADVENT Speaker who remains a constant reminder throughout the campaign through his rhetoric and speeches after every mission.
Resistance Radio that injects a bit of humour and resistance propaganda that is in opposition to the Speaker's line of framing things and can usually be listened to while visiting the Avenger Canteen.
XCOM 2, is overall an upgrade in most departments over Enemy Unknown, with enough additions and gameplay changes to justify a sequel. The story doesn't have the same gravitas as its the first game, but the production values, trimming off parts of the previous game that were weaker aspects and expanding on customisation makes the fall into this "comfort" level of enjoyment. It is story that has dark moments, but the player is far more in control of the outcome of the how they wish to go about completing the campaign.
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