XCOM 2 Review: The Stress Of Strategy Now On Consoles

If you’re playing XCom 2 , and you encounter a human-looking enemy that has white hair and a purple visor that covers the entire face, have all your soldiers target that enemy. That is probably the only chance of successfully completing that mission. That type of enemy is called an Avatar, and thankfully they are rare. They have extremely high mobility, armor, and damage potential. To make matters worse, Avatars have powerful psionic abilities as well. Many aliens can mind control the player’s soldiers; Avatars can mind control up to three at one time. This enemy can kill a well-equipped squad by itself if it’s not dealt with quic


These robotic horrors can mean death to entire squad if the player is not careful. Cyberdiscs have very strong armor and a lot of hit points; this is made worse for the player by the presence of drones that can repair Cyberdiscs. Their main cannon will usually kill a soldier without heavy armor. Cyberdiscs can also lob grenades across the battlefield; which means seeking cover isn’t as effective against them. Lastly, don’t get too close or a Cyberdisc will use their "Death Blossom" attack that does severe damage in a 360°

Greg Foertsh: In the storyline it’s 20 years in the future. It’s 2035 and you lost the fight in the first third of the campaign in Enemy Unknown. It’s where we’re mentally cutting it. So you never developed any of the crazy stuff, you lost early, and for the past 15-20 years you have been underground. Now the time is right and you’ve decided to come back and reclaim Earth.


Unlike most other classes, Skirmishers thrive off of mobility thanks to their close weapons and grappling hook. The problem, though, is that very few levels let you utilize this skill early in the game, and with the constant restarts that come with an XCOM 2 run, this means it'll be mostly useless for a lot of your ga


It's the kind of tense, story-driven stakes that have kept couch-based players on the edge of their seats, and thankfully, the controls have been adapted to a gamepad with as streamlined and intutitive a control scheme as could be hoped for. The controls will be second nature by the second mission or so, maintaining the tactical-over-twitch sensations. The only real cost of conversion to consoles is nagging framerate drops and flickering during cutscenes, specifically. They're noticable, and a shame; but if the game adapts the feel of playing the game, it's a worthy trade-off (especially with the troubled history of trying to make complex strategy games "work" away from a mouse and keyboa


The XCom games are famous for their engaging squad-based combat. The games have always featured a large collection of alien types – each with an ability that players must keep in mind if they want all of their soldiers to make it back to base in one piece. Some of these aliens can fly, some are advanced robotic killing machines, some are basically living tanks, but the deadliest of them have psionic abilities that are frustrating at best – and absolutely devastating at worst. These are the most difficult alien types a player can expect when playing the X-Com titles; minus the unique types like the Uber Ethereal or Warlo


The core thrill of seeing a squad erupt from 'Overwatch' to let barrages loose on an unsuspecting enemy is augmented by the new tweaks to Squaddie classes. The standards remain (Sniper, Grenadier, Specialist), but the 'Assault' class has been replaced with the fearless and furious Rangers. And before player assume the name means these fighters are ranged characters, realize that sprinting across a battlefield to unleash a sword attack point-blank has a distinct melee feel. The turn-based gameplay remains the same (although clearly increased in difficulty), leaving the fiction to inform the meaning of the mechanics - scrounging alien technology, attacking research centers and extracting assets - and in turn, letting the desperation of the campaign amplify the story ramificati


Ethereals here are the findings the leaders of the alien forces. They have numerous, and powerful psionic abilities that can cause havoc among the player’s squad and deliver significant damage. Their deadliest abilities are the ability to control the minds of the player’s soldiers, and the ability to drain a soldier’s health and heal itself at the same time with its Psi Drain. To make them even more difficult, Ethereals have the Hardened trait that makes them highly resistant to critical hits. Ethereals also have a devastating one-two punch with their Mindfray, which lowers a soldier’s Will, and their Rift ability which deals extra damage to a soldier with a low Will sc


This isn't even mentioning their powerful miniguns and additional late-game tools, making them incredibly powerful after already being all-star teammates. You don't want to ever rely on them too hard since they can destroy loot when you need it most, but most beginner players should never feel bad about relying on Grenadiers to carry their team early