Game:

XCOM 2 (2016)

Category:

Review

Duration: 23:36

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Even with its procedural maps, XCOM 2’s missions started feeling a little stale after a hundred hours or so. Enter War of The Chosen, a large-scale expansion which grafts on more than enough new variables to give that creeping sense of predictability a brutal beatdown.Variety is War of the Chosen’s biggest strength, and its long list of changes was very successful at making me rethink my established tactics. There are several new mission types, including clever new spins on Alien Supply Raids and Retaliations (the latter finally includes armed resistance soldiers who help you fight off the attackers – a little too effectively sometimes), extracting captured XCOM soldiers, assassinating Advent generals who’ll flee to extraction points when you break concealment, evading ambushes, saving VIPs from zombie hordes, and more. Few of them rely on do-or-die turn-timers, which was a good call on Firaxis’ part. I don’t mind the occasional timed mission, but we have enough of those already.Many of those take place on new map tilesets like the Abandoned City or the decaying underground sewers – both a stark, refreshing contrast to the gleaming Advent-built metropolises. Neither is what I’d call pretty or colorful, but they’re just as detailed as the original set of locations, and more is always better. Many of the original map sets have noticeable new elements to them, such as the Advent City’s new bridges.Any mission is subject to being affected by modifiers known as Sitreps that put random twists on conditions that can have major effects on what squad and equipment you’ll want to go in with. One populates the map entirely with beasts like Faceless, Berserkers, and Chryssalids; another removes the fog of war (for you, not the enemies); and one scatters high-explosive containers around that you can avoid or use to your advantage. On top of that, there are tons of new Dark Events, such as giving all Advent troopers Lightning Reflexes for a month, and a huge amount of new continent bonuses, including one that provides a chance for a random Advent soldier to defect and join you in a mission.A handful of new Advent troops joins the fray, and even though none is really game-changing they all demand new counter-tactics. The especially nasty body-snatching Specter can knock out a soldier and create a phantom clone of them, which is brutal, but I enjoy fighting them more than a typical mind-control unit because even if I can’t take them out I can still kill the clone guilt-free. The Priest’s psionic powers match up closely with a Sectoid Commander from Enemy Unknown, including a mind-link that fries the brain of the unit receiving the buff if you can take down the Priest (I kinda wished Firaxis had just brought back the classic gray Sectoids instead). And the flamethrowing Purifier just likes to watch the world burn.Some missions, especially the new Abandoned City maps, are also packed with the Lost, a creepier kind of zombie who’s hostile to both XCOM and Advent. T
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Source: http://www.ign.com/articles/2017/08/24/xcom-2-war-of-the-chosen-review

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