A Brief Post-Mortem: XCOM 2: War of the Chosen

Last night, I finished my XCOM 2: War of hte Chosen Campaign. You can watch it over at @dlive, part by part, just be warned, it's over 20 hours of alien killing. What follows is a brief post-mortem of the game.

As it began, it ended. With a spray of gunfire, the war was over. Between every gunshot, every move, and every single choice you make, there's meaning.

XCOM2: War of the Chosen is an incredible game. The tactical depth on offer allows you to command exceptional and varied soldiers. Their mission? Destroy the alien threat that has enslaved the citizens of Earth.

The scene is set early. The XCOM operation begun in Enemy Unknown, and its DLC, Enemy Within, failed.

Now, you're in a mobile ship, with a drop ship attached, and travel the Earth. Along the way, you'll find pockets of resistance, increasing your income and resources.

All along the way, you'll find hordes of aliens out to ruin your day.

XCOM2: War of the Chosen expands upon the original XCOM2 with new foes, new weapons, and the titular Chosen. The Chosen are alien bosses who you will encounter in missions at random. You can defeat them, but they'll come back. The only way to end them from the world is find their hideout and destroy them.

At the same time, you're dealing with an ever-escalating number of foes, missions, and ways to die. The composition of enemy forces stretches your squad to ensure you are flexible.

Each enemy soldier type has a counter, and each type of soldier you command has a counter, too. They're not immediately obvious; but it isn't a hard counter system like many strategy games.

XCOM2: War of the Chosen doesn't hold your hand, either. If you lose a soldier, they're gone forever. Unless you load a save file. There's a hardcore mode to prevent that, known as "Iron-Man" which deletes all but the most recent of your saves.

The difficulty arcs upwards the worse you perform, and is very tight if you perform well. There's so much variety in the missions that you go off on, not in terms of final objectives, but based on the fact that levels are procedurally generated, meaning no two play throughs are the same.

XCOM2: War of the Chosen is a competent expansion to an already competent game, and is a masterpiece of its genre. If you like turn based strategy like Fire-Emblem, or tactical strategy like Company of Heroes, stop reading this and go obtain it immediately.

Very clearly, 10/10. Screenshots from my victory below:

What's next from me? Continuing on with my A-Z through my Steam Library! Some of it will even be streamed!