XCOM 2

Conefed said:

Expansion art design is too "kewl" for my tastes, but adding factions may really open up content

I have a feeling the chosen will be like rulers, which I haven't tried - but don't like

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I like rulers, but they definitely warp the game pretty dramatically due to the different rules governing them. Once you've activated rulers, you really have to go into every single mission prepared for the possibility of a ruler showing up, because if you're not carrying at least some sort of anti-ruler crowd control, you're in for an ass-pounding, especially if the ruler shows up while you already one or more pods active.

Again I haven't played expansion, so they may have this covered, but rulers feel out of place and not part of story, non-canon, tacked on, and stand out compared to how battles have been fought this past twenty years

Conefed said:

Again I haven't played expansion, so they may have this covered, but rulers feel out of place and not part of story, non-canon, tacked on, and stand out compared to how battles have been fought this past twenty years

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From reviews thusfar, doesn't sound like it for the mostpart - apparently lots of the "game flow" sounds different during the expansion so there will be some serious "relearning" to happen anyhow. (AWP apparently is completely gone now, replaced with extra attributes that units can learn from either doing things that make the factions happy to earn faction points or by building up relationships with other squadmates - and never hidden like before)

And apparently for during combat the Chosen just screw with your dudes in an attempt to get them captured, not to directly kill them - that while you're working on your research and intel they're doing the reverse by screwing with your squads and activities. And apparently giving commentary after missions in taunts sort of like the Council does currently.

One review claimed it was actually planned as XCom 3 - but then they realized they could make it work within the XCom 2 framework as a massive expansion pack. I took it as hyperbole not reality, but I think regardless the intent was to give an idea of the scope of the changes being pretty massive - with shared guts but almost everything else will be drastically different. (along the lines of Long War 2's level of tweaking everything)

Conefed said:

Again I haven't played expansion, so they may have this covered, but rulers feel out of place and not part of story, non-canon, tacked on, and stand out compared to how battles have been fought this past twenty years

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They are somewhat tacked on, but the narrative mission that activates them explains it a fair bit. Shen's Last Gift is a bit smoother since it's just the single narrative mission and now you can build/use Sparks.

Gavinmad said:

They are somewhat tacked on, but the narrative mission that activates them explains it a fair bit. Shen's Last Gift is a bit smoother since it's just the single narrative mission and now you can build/use Sparks.

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Well Sparks seem like an extension of technology
Rulers seem like teleporting super soldiers that would've completely altered the 20-year war of humans vs aliens
And with all their bio engineering, there should be a proliferation of ruler clones, mutants, and minibosses.

Conefed said:

Well Sparks seem like an extension of technology
Rulers seem like teleporting super soldiers that would've completely altered the 20-year war of humans vs aliens
And with all their bio engineering, there should be a proliferation of ruler clones, mutants, and minibosses.

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There was no 20 year war, Earth was conquered in a couple months. It didn't look like there was even much of an active resistance until the game begins, just people trying to hide out from Advent. As for the rulers themselves, I'm still not 100% sure how the Viper King was created or what Vahlen actually did, but it seems like they're more experimental rather than a mastered technology.

Regardless, way I'm not disagreeing that they're pretty tacked on.

TLDR: I was right about War of the Chosen effectively being the new Enemy Within, but holy fuck shitting ass damn WotC looks like it's going to absolutely blow EW out of the water.

Seananigans said:

Sounded like a bunch of "TURN IT UP TO ELEVEN!!!"

The one thing that piqued my interest was the "beta strike" mode, increasing HP across the board creating longer fights. That's one large thing I miss about EW/LW1, engagements that lasted more than one turn. X2 is "engage pod, destroy in one turn, repeat."

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I'm dubious
On my second playthrough of vanilla modded, with higher difficulty. Roulette often lowers health considerably, which has certainly added tension. (Sound pack is from original game too, so one shot kills are nostalgic. If only there was sound pack for footsteps and doors...)

Seananigans I get you now.
And I agree that a fine tuning of enemy hp could be good.

Picked this up on summer sale. Next in game queue after I finish Divinity Original Sin. Loved Xcom 1.

I love hearing Jake talking about flank preview like it's this incredible new creation of theirs and not something that was created as a mod within weeks of the game coming out lol

I'm waiting for the inevitable GOTY edition on sale that will cost 40€ anyway.

Mist said:

This looks great but 40 dollars is ridiculous.

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Negro is you high or something? Enemy Within was 30 bucks, didn't have a quarter of the features War of the Chosen has, and I didn't feel like I wasted a penny.