XCOM 2 DLC Review (PS4)

I hardly ever buy DLC, but I really liked XCOM 2 and happened to see there was quite the sale on (the original three pieces of DLC reduced by 50% and War of the Chosen, the later, larger, expansion reduced by 62%). For the record, I played on an old, fat PS4.

The bundle of three include some new cosmetic options for customising your cannon fodder, ahem, beloved soldiers, the Shen DLC that adds the Spark class, and the Bradford DLC that adds some swanky one-off weapons and three tough bosses (I did a playthrough of the original XCOM 2 base game plus these DLC, and almost my only losses [I played on normal difficulty] were due to these bosses).

DLC Bundle of Three

The cosmetic options offer a nice range, but, despite how splendid midriffs are, this isn’t something I’d buy by itself. The Shen/Bradford DLC each includes an extra mission with some story background I won’t spoil (both refer back to characters from XCOM: Enemy Unknown, the previous entry in the series.

The Shen DLC adds the Spark class (think Johnny-5 meets Terminator). I quite like the class, as it comes preloaded with the very useful shred ability, and overdrive, allowing multiple moves/shots in one turn.

The Bradford DLC has some unique weapons you acquire through scanning, and three bosses that have multiple turns, (the normal one and reactions to everything your soldiers do, even reloading). The multiple turns appear toned down a bit in War of the Chosen. These bosses are variants of the usual enemies, and come with a bucketload of hp and a penchant for running away (which is handy, to be honest, as they’re pretty damned tough).

These are good additions to the base game, which blend in seamlessly and add a little more variety. They’re nice to have without being fantastic.

War of the Chosen

There are a huge number of additions, some large, some small, with the War of the Chosen DLC. A quick summary of my view is that I like it a lot.

The Chosen are three high-powered individuals that you may randomly encounter when you perform missions in their territory. There’s an Assassin, a Hunter, and a Warlock, each with specific strengths and weaknesses. Taking them down is challenging (they’re easier than the bosses from Bradford’s DLC but effectively immortal and thus come back unless you complete the story missions to kill them permanently) and if they show up during a tricky mission they can make it a lot harder.

There are also three semi-independent new resistance factions who co-operate with XCOM: Skirmishers, who are ex-Advent, Reapers, who are sneaky scouts, and Templars, who are slightly nutty psionic enthusiasts. Each one provides a soldier for XCOM with unique skills (personally, I like Mox, the Skirmisher who can fire twice in a turn, and has a voice a bit like Todd from Stargate Atlantis). The factions also offer missions via the Ring facility, which involves sending off soldiers to act outside your control (although if they’re ambushed you’ll get an extraction mission). Each faction can also fulfil orders which offer you bonuses for a month (like recruits who go through training becoming sergeants rather than squaddies).

Pairs of soldiers can now form bonds that offer bonuses when they’re on the same mission, with this can be levelled up to increase the advantages. Propaganda posters are automatically generated and can also be manually created to celebrate promotions, victorious missions, or midriffs.

Some facilities are new, and with the right one you can select extra abilities outside the usual class options for soldiers (from options randomised for each soldier). This is very useful, perhaps to the point of being a little excessive.

There’s also the Lost. The Lost are effectively a horde of zombies (independent of alien control so they’ll attack the aliens almost as much as you). They’re very weak but there are tons of them. Killing them with ranged weaponry refunds your actions and their attacks are weak. I’m less fond of the Lost than other new aspects of the game as their whole shtick is high numbers, which can make missions something of a lengthy meatgrinder. (One time I had almost my whole squad in a great, elevated position, but it still took me forty odd minutes to effortlessly slay the shambling fools).

Research has two additions: breakthroughs and inspirations. One means research takes far less time for a particular subject, the other offers a rare (some can be acquired through faction missions as well/instead) new bonus like cut-price facility construction or extra damage to a specific weapon type but only if the research is conducted immediately.

A word on the older DLC Bundle: that’s included here. As mentioned above, the bosses are mildly nerfed, but that’s fair enough as they were perhaps overpowered in the original version. Neither Shen nor Bradford get their story mission, though, as the bosses have been repurposed as facility guards rather than appearing randomly, as that would coincide with the Chosen and open up the possibility of encountering both in a single mission, which might be too much (although it does sound quite cool).

I like the War of the Chosen expansion a lot. But there is at least one downside. I had two crashes, both around the end (one just before, one just after) a long mission involving the Lost. It was quite frustrating, especially as the first one cost me a soldier’s promotion which I needed to complete a certain action.

I don’t buy DLC often, but I’ve got to say I enjoyed this extra content. Would I recommend it at full price? Only if you’re Captain Moneybags. At a discount, give it a look, particularly War of the Chosen.

Thaddeus

XCOM 2 (PS4) Review

I really enjoyed Enemy Unknown for the PS3 (never played the expansion/DLC) and was delighted when the sequel came, after some delay, to consoles. I wrote this review right after completing a single playthrough on the standard (Veteran) difficulty, and amended it following the 1.02 patch (which makes some improvements I’ll mention below).

Gameplay

The doom counter of the previous game more or less makes a return, with the Avatar project. It’s an unknown project of alien dodginess, and if the counter fills all the way and the countdown hits zero, it’s game over for mankind. The counter can be reduced by progressing with story objectives and completing missions, and advances sometimes naturally over time, and sometimes in response to mission failures.

A second part of the overall strategy are the Dark Events. These are basically Bad Things (for example, doubling the cost of new recruits for a month, or rapid Avatar project progressions) that can happen. When you have a choice of mission you’ll need to weigh up the Dark Event that particular mission will avert, the potential rewards and how difficult it is. But you can only do one. The others (usually two) will go undone and those Dark Events will not be averted. XCOM 2 doesn’t give you a pain-free option.

Missions usually have a turn timer. Fail to complete it within that turn and, at best, the mission is chalked up as a failure and a Dark Event proceeds, or, at worst, your squad will not be evacuated and everyone still on the ground will be captured. I’m not one generally in favour of such things, but it does actually work very nicely because you can’t just crawl forward with multiple overwatches and one chap running forward. It creates stress between the need for safety (losing soldiers is very easy) and the time limit on the mission, so you need to take risks and use your limited resources wisely. Do you use a one-shot heavy weapon on the first enemies you meet to maximise the chance of killing them without suffering any damage at all, or do you save it in case more difficult enemies lie ahead?

Otherwise the mechanics are very similar to the previous game, with full and half-cover, multiple classes (four to start with, the Psi class requires a new structure in your base), and flanking bonuses. The skills have been nicely rejigged.

There’s a wide variety of customisation on both a cosmetic and gameplay level. You can alter the appearance, voice, name, nationality and biography of every soldier, and equip them with a variety of armours, weapons and extra items (grenades, ammunitions, medkits and so forth).

The classes (I have limited experience with the 5^th, Psi) are extremely well-balanced. Not only that, but at each rank (past the first, which assigns class) there are two skill options of which one can be picked. Most of these present interesting choices, and can feasibly be used to create substantially different soldiers (you might have two Sharpshooters, and make one focused on pistol skills and the other on sniper rifle skills, both being very useful).

You can also create your own characters in the character pool, which means they’ll persistently appear in your games. So you can have Zhuge Liang, Nicephorus Phocas, Arthur Wellesley and Benjamin “Dizzy Rascal” Disraeli in your squad. Unfortunately, and unlike the PC version, it does not seem possible to either export your soldiers so others can download them, or to download any (excepting some the developers made). That said, still a cool feature.

The counterpart to the missions is, of course, base-building. This time the base is an old alien ship, but functionally it’s very similar to the old base. It’s been streamlined, which is usually code for dumbed-down, but here the streamlining actually works very nicely. Facilities can be upgraded, often by employing engineers (which may reduce research times on Proving Ground projects, or increase radio capacity), so you could choose to have two bog standard radio facilities or just one, but fully upgrade it. However, whilst facilities are affordable, getting everything is tricky so, as ever with XCOM 2, you need to prioritise.

One big advantage of the base aspect over the previous game is that the latter was a bit passive. You had to wait for aliens to do things. Here, there’s always *something* to do, whether that’s contacting new rebel groups, scanning for Intel, visiting the Black Market or doing missions.

Story

Surprisingly, Firaxis has managed to make the story both less linear and more interesting than the last game. The narrative’s a bit stronger and there’s a fair degree of flexibility as to the order you do things.

The basic story is thus: the aliens won. Earth is under their control and Advent (think a global version of Vichy France) is governing a cowed people subject to widespread propaganda campaigns.

You, the Commander, get rescued from stasis by Bradford (the only main character to survive from one game to the next) and set about building a resistance movement and slapping the aliens across the face with the giant haddock of righteous indignation.

Graphics

As you’d expect, these are a bit step up from the previous game. There are some graphical glitches, with the frame rate occasionally stuttering (not a major issue with a TBS game) and the camera can sometimes be dodgy when trying to throw a grenade (only for the roof to get in the way). Generally, a good-looking game without being ground-breaking.

Sound

The main characters are nicely voiced, but the soldiers are where the improvement really comes from. No longer does the vaunted world-wide organisation only recruit people able to speak in an American accent. Now they speak in American, British, French, German, Spanish and Italian accents. A few more (Japanese, Chinese etc) would’ve been nice but there’s substantial improvement.

The effects of weapons fire and grenades remains good, and there are now fire effects, so you can hear the sizzle as the building around you is consumed by flames (and might partially collapse).

Music is good but prolonged loading times can make it a bit wearing (see the Bugs section).

Longevity/replayability

I’ve only played it once (hard to guess play time because I took a long break in the middle, but it took me perhaps 20-30 hours), but I think the game will have excellent longevity. Even on the standard difficulty it can be a serious challenge, and with two higher tiers and the Iron Man mode (no loading, it auto-saves after every action) there’s a lot of replay value.

Maps are procedurally generated, meaning you can’t just memorise the layout of critical missions.

The first thing I did after finishing it was start a new game on the same difficulty, but Iron Man mode.

Bugs and Other Issues

There are numerous bugs. Most are minor. Sometimes when an alien arrives their appearance is a little glitchy. The old XCOM problem of shooting through walls recurs (although this seems to be true for both humans and aliens).

More seriously, the game does crash sometimes (I’d guess once every 8-10 hours or so for me). The auto-save is so frequent it doesn’t result in much, or any, lost progress but obviously it’s still not great. Load times are long. Very long. Early game it’s fine but late game you can be looking at 5 minutes plus. However, Firaxis have recently released a patch which reportedly fixes that problem. [Update: with the 1.02 patch this doesn’t appear as bad. I’m fairly far into an Iron Man campaign and the problem seems diminished or absent].

Also, if you get a free mini-DLC be aware at least one item (the ski-mask, I think it is. In appearance, a balaclava with mouth and eye holes) means you can’t use a character with it. [Update: the 1.02 patch seems to have mended this].

Most importantly, you can make characters from the UK. Or Scotland. But not England or Wales. This is clearly in need of correction.

After two very late missions (the game tells you when you reach the point of no return), there are cutscenes which are followed by a few minutes of black screen, then the scenes replay and all continues normally. Just be aware of this.

Conclusion

A fantastic game that improves in almost every way on its predecessor, but which is hampered by technical flaws mostly corrected by the patch. I’d say it’s a 9/10 with the patch, and 8/10 without.

Thaddeus

E3 Ramble

This year’s E3 has been and gone and I thought I’d ramble about it. So I am.

Skyrim’s being remastered for the PS4 and Xbox One. Huzzah! It’s free for PC users who have the game+DLC on Steam already. Huzzah! It’s full-price for console users.

What?

The Last of Us Remastered, Tomb Raider, Valkyria Chronicles: Europa Edition were all £20, not the £50 Bethesda want for Skyrim. Hell, XCOM 2 is being released on consoles for £40.

Now, I really like Skyrim. I’ve put hundreds of hours into it, and I’ll probably get the new edition [after waiting for a price drop]. But I’ve bought it twice (original and Legendary Edition for the DLC on PS3). Asking £50 more is taking the piss, especially contrasted against the price tag of £0 for PC users. I can appreciate that a free giveaway for PC users will help ensure mods (which are to be available for console players) get developed for the new edition, but that does not justify the full-price tag.

XCOM 2 is something I’ve wanted to play for ages but, being a mere console peasant, haven’t been able to. I do have some concerns about potential bugs so I’m not sure I’ll get it right away, but I’m glad to see it migrate to consoles. Already planning some squad members (Benjamin Disraeli, nickname: Dizzy Rascal).

Those saddened by the cancellation of bowel-emptying nerve-shredder PT may be gladdened to know that Kojima’s making a new game. It also features Norman Reedus, who had been set for a role in PT, but nobody has any idea what Death Stranding is about.

God of War returns. Kratos has a beard and a child. If he ends up killing his son, I may contemplate purchasing it. I’ve got the three main entries in the series, but have no especial interest in seeing the world’s angriest man murder everyone, again. [Unless he does it to his offspring. Again]. This time he’s battling the Norse gods, presumably because he killed all the Greek ones last time. Anubis, you’re next.

There’s a new Spiderman game, cunningly called Spider-Man. I had Spiderman 2, I think it was called, for the PS2 and that was hugely enjoyable. The physics worked so well it was great fun just slinging webs and swinging around the city or swan-diving from buildings. If the new game lives up to that, it’ll sell by the bucketload.

Mass Effect Andromeda reminded everyone it still exists. Should be out in the first half of next year. Not sure I’ll get it. I really like the first three games (Femshep may be the best acted videogame character I’ve ever encountered), but I’m increasingly not a fan of Bioware/EA’s approach to DLC, within both the Dragon Age and Mass Effect series. Money and time are tight, patience is thin and DLC that should be in the main bloody game does not amuse.

Speaking of DLC, I may actually get it (not on-disc) for the first time with The Witcher 3’s two expansions. Undecided, as yet. They do look very good, though, and I like the way CD Projekt Red has been doing things. [On a related, nostalgic, note there’s a Lone Wolf game for downloading, currently discounted to under £8].

Another promising game for the future is Kingdom Come: Deliverance. It’s a first person RPG set in 15^th century Bohemia (central Europe), largely based on historical events. I think it’s out for PC next year, with planned PS4 and Xbox One releases after that.

Last but not least, Dishonored 2 is out late this year. I played the first game and enjoyed it a lot (I felt the world was very interesting and could’ve been developed a bit more). However, it was something I only played through a couple of times, and I prefer to sink in many, many hours. May give it a look once the price drops.

Thaddeus

Fallout 4, XCOM 2, and Mass Effect 4

E3 is just around the corner, and there are a number of potentially great sci-fi videogames coming out soon, so I thought it’d be a good idea to have a little look ahead.

NB there will be some general spoilers, but nothing too specific. So, you’re probably fine reading this unless you’re on a full-blown blackout.

Fallout 4 has been announced, and the release date has not. Well, not officially. Unofficially, it’s rumoured to be 23 October (this year). If that’s the case, expect it to be confirmed at E3 this month. It’ll be out for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.

XCOM 2 (an intriguing title for a game which is either the 11^th or the 3^rd instalment depending on whether you consider the reboot XCOM: Enemy Unknown to reset the counter or not) has been announced for November (again, this year). Maybe they asked Xbox for help with the numbering. Anyway, it is PC only at launch, though some think it’ll come to the consoles in 2016.

Mass Effect 4 [which may well have a different title when properly announced] has been confirmed as in the works but very little beyond that is known. I’m hoping we get more info at E3. I’d be very surprised if it were cross-generation (as Dragon Age: Inquisition was).

It’s quite nice to have games announced just a few months ahead of release. Sometimes by choice, and sometimes due to delays, games can be announced a year or more ahead of time, and that just feels too damned long. So, what do we know so far?

Fallout 4

The game appears to be set in Boston, perhaps later than Fallout 3/New Vegas, and/or with a correspondingly superior level of technology. Lots of series favourites return (power armour, the protagonist appears to be a vault-dweller, and Dogmeat’s back).

The trailer ends with the protagonist’s voice. This has led some to believe there won’t be character customisation and you’ll be destined to be Johnny Whitechap. My gast would be flabbered if that were the case. The suggestion of the protagonist having a voice (or perhaps multiple, as per Inquisition) could be true, but I’m not sure.

The world’s also a bit more colourful (huzzah, Fallout 3 was the Land of Brown), and there may be gameplay in the pre-war era as the bombs drop (if so, it could well be a prologue).

It’ll be interesting to see whether there’s a ‘hardcore’ mode, like in New Vegas where you had to eat/drink regularly or suffer the consequences. The only thing we can be sure of right now is that it’ll sell by the bucketload.

XCOM 2

Massively disappointed this is PC-only. Enemy Unknown was one of the best games of the previous generation, all the more so because it was originally going to be another shooter before fans old and new pestered Firaxis into making it a strategy/tactics game [kudos to Firaxis for listening, and thus selling a ton of copies]. Anyway, it might yet move to consoles, but the initial launch will be just for the PC.

So, what’s new?

Well, you lost the war (or someone did, anyway). Aliens have conquered Earth and have been running it for what seems like a few decades. This time, you lead insurgents (although I suspect the aliens would consider XCOM terrorists) trying to free our beloved homeworld from the slimy grip of the extra-terrestrials. Insectoids have become humanised (whether due to genetic manipulation or human-insectoid frisky time is thankfully unclear), very cool-looking snake aliens are introduced (technically re-introduced, as they were in older games), and your base is now a mobile mothership rather than a subterranean refuge.

Gameplay hasn’t been revealed much, but one thing we do know is that if one of your veterans gets gunned down, you can save him/her by taking the wounded hero back to the evac point. Players of Enemy Unknown will be familiar with the problem of getting your whole A-team massacred, so the ability to withdraw with some but not total losses will help reduce that problem.

It also seems that customisation options will be improved, although details are scantier than a nudist’s bathing suit.

Mass Effect 4

We know this is in the works, and that, alas, Commander Shepard will not be the protagonist. I’ll miss you, FemShep. No date yet announced, and it’ll be interesting to see whether we get a trio of great sci-fi games close together or if Mass Effect comes out a little time apart [which may make more commercial sense].

The game occurs in the same universe as the three previous. So, expect Krogans, Turians and so forth to feature. However, it’s rumoured to be in the relatively distant future (compared to the original trilogy), so it’s unlikely we’ll see returning characters (perhaps excepting those with enormous life-spans). It’s also unknown what degree of character customisation will be available, or whether we’ll be human-only.

It’s said that the plot will involve civilisation looking for a home in a new galaxy, and that the protagonist will be a Path-finder, tasked with exploring the new galaxy for safe haven. And that’s about as far as whispers go for the plot. Reapers will not, I think, make a reappearance, having been dealt with one colour or another in Mass Effect 3.

Worth noting that all three are likely to have significant DLC (all preceding instalments did), so if you want maximum bang for your buck you could wait awhile and save [well, spend less] getting Game of the Year/Ultimate Editions.

It’s been a little while since the last blog. Personally, I blame The Witcher 3 for this (I think I’m near(ish) the end of my first playthrough. When I complete it, I’ll put up a full review).

Thaddeus