XCOM 2 isn't a bad sequel.

XCOM 2 is a clumsy sequel.

Enemy Unknown showed us that this team could capture the original spirit of XCOM and refine it to appeal to the palette of XCOM fans and the world at large. This has showed us that there's a significant challenge to be faced when the systems that make up XCOM are expanded. It's unfortunate that on the surface that it looks like not much has been changed. What's even more unfortunate is those changes are what cause the game to fail hardest.

No, this isn't about timers. Okay, it's partially about timers, but it's more about a direction, a tone almost, to how the new XCOM 2 plays out. To steal a phrase, "I knew something was very wrong, just by the way it started." XCOM 2 starts with an intro that kills two squadmates one after another. Which felt a little odd, because that doesn't attach us to the characters--something XCOM is known for. The only other game that focuses this much on customization is The Sims, after all.

No, this is for the purpose of detachment. I'm convinced this scene is there to set the stage for you to feel less about the NPC's you personalize than ever before. Your squad will die, and it won't be your fault. You won't even be able to make decisions to prevent it from happening. The game will roll a die, ruin your squad, and you won't be able to stop it from happening. Again. And again. And again. This isn't due to the core of the XCOM experience, but due to the changes that they've made to it.

For whatever reason, it seems like they want to make the XCOM experience more active. Ambushes aren't something that you have time to prepare 99% of the time. They seem to be there for the purpose of adding more movement to the maps. The new class, Ranger, is entirely close-ranged. Sharpshooters have been re-tooled with a separate pistol tree as opposed to an alternative tree for alternative sniper skills. The specialist has to be in fairly close range to make the shots that it needs to, and the grenadier has this same problem to a far greater extent. Timers make it so that you're almost always on the move and not setting up and enacting a strategy. You're more reacting. You do what you need to do--move everyone as fast as you can to one particular spot--and you deal with the rest as best you can, as you go. You can see how this makes the game feel clumsy.

You were never meant to rush forward in XCOM, because you're meant to be afraid of uncovering enemies without enough actions to counter the fortified positions that they'd instantly slip into. XCOM is about thinking about who to move, where to move them, and when. Advancing in a particular direction had to be planned carefully to avoid hanging part of your squad out to dry, spreading them too thin to take down oncoming enemies, or clumping them together so that they could be grenaded or get in each other's way. So what winds up happening is that you are forced to do what other XCOM games painfully beat into you to avoid doing: charging forward and hoping there aren't any enemies there at worst, or at best, be far more reckless than tactical.

Not only is the XCOM combat system as a whole not geared for this, but the classes aren't either, other than the Ranger. A more close-quarters combat focus on the whole is still dragged down by the traditions of each class's role that the game strives to fulfill on top of that, and each near always feels like the worst sort of hybrid--too inept to fulfill either potential option you could try to make it into. Sharpshooters fare the worst. The pistol tree was clearly them recognizing that you needed to be more mobile in the sequel and allowing players to mix in some skills to make the class have more utility. In practice, it only just keeps them from becoming dead weight, with little real value when compared to other classes.

Granted, this seems to be a function of the randomly generated maps when combined with the timers, as plenty of missions gave me more than enough time to feel things out without making me feel the pressure of the clock. Others, however, did seem next to impossible, if not actually unwinnable with a squad that was well-geared and leveled for the stage of the game I was in. They were rarely as bad as that, and certainly in the minority, but the distribution leaves much to be desired. Even for XCOM, some parts of the game should have a sense of structure and clear progression.

It does make me feel a little better to think that while these are substantial problems, the mods to fix them will likely only need to change little. I'm not sure that adding more turns onto each timer is the right solution, as becoming too easy is as much of a problem as being too difficult, but it'd not take much to simply activate the timer only at a certain point in the mission. Skill trees can be changes and rebalanced, with new trees added or the old ones simply rebalanced. I just wish they weren't seemingly mandatory to fix some structural flaws that should have been evident early in development.

There are some improvements. This isn't a bad game, or necessarily a worse game than XCOM Enemy Unknown.

The only way XCOM could have had a less intuitive interface would be if Randy Pitchford came over to work at Firaxis, but that doesn't mean I don't appreciate what it does, so to see it revamped is satisfying. It no longer feels like diving into the depths of an inky-black ocean and feeling around for whatever is inside. It's fairly simple and straightforward. Much of that is due to clearing out the clutter of resources and the amount of things to research and build. As a result, I never felt lost or unsure of what I was doing or why. Unlike the original, I felt like I had a solid understanding of the choices I was making in advancing my tech, and I could even keep track of how to move it in a certain direction.

Research was the most impenetrable and unenjoyable part of the original XCOM to me until I played it enough to know what to do by memory, and there's a part of me that wants to give the game a gold star for fixing that alone. There's nothing quite like feeling that you can explore the game without a guide, that you'll be able to catch on and not feel like a total moron for the first three playthroughs. It's simple to plan, to take actions to bring that plan to fruition, and to adapt to changes in the situation, and all without losing much of anything other than needless complexity. That could never be said about XCOM before. Although I suppose some would say XCOM is nothing without needless complexity, I don't miss it.

Whoever was in charge of sound design on this game should win an award, as I didn't know it was possible to feel so satisfied by the way something sounds in a game. It was something I found myself continually drawn to as I babbled to my friends while playing without noticing. There's something innately right about the weight that they lend to the combat that demands to be appreciated. It's not often you can say that something as mundane as how something sounds. You could say the same thing about the animations and the voice acting to a lesser degree. The sense of style to each never fail to make me smile with the repetitive, but always fun, odd moments of badassery by one of my squad members.

It feels like things have been streamlined and made more stylish and grandiose for the sequel, but a few missteps bring down the whole experience. This is a game that aims to expand upon its predecessor, but it all-too-often feels like the ideas that that original game was based on are still miles ahead of where the developers are trying to lead it. All the same, it isn't an bad experience, and with a few tweaks, it'll go from a 'good' experience bordering on 'great', to a 'great' experience borderling on the excellent. It's just a shame that the original XCOM will still overshadow it. Ah well. Better luck with XCOM 3, guys.

XCOM 2 isn't a bad sequel. XCOM 2 is a clumsy sequel. Enemy Unknown showed us that this team could capture the original spirit of XCOM and refine it to appeal to the palette of XCOM fans and the world at large. This has showed us that there's a significant challenge to be faced when the systems that make up XCOM are expanded. It's unfortunate that on the surface that it looks like not much has been changed. What's even more unfortunate is those changes are what cause the game to fail hardest. No, this isn't about timers. Okay, it's partially about timers, but it's more about a direction, a tone almost, to how the new XCOM 2 plays out. To steal a phrase, "I knew something was very wrong, just by the way it started." XCOM 2 starts with an intro that kills two squadmates one after another. Which felt a little odd, because that doesn't attach us to the characters--something XCOM is known for. The only other game that focuses this much on customization is The Sims, after all. No, this is for the purpose of detachment. I'm convinced this scene is there to set the stage for you to feel less about the NPC's you personalize than ever before. Your squad will die, and it won't be your fault. You won't even be able to make decisions to prevent it from happening. The game will roll a die, ruin your squad, and you won't be able to stop it from happening. Again. And again. And again. This isn't due to the core of the XCOM experience, but due to the changes that they've made to it. For whatever reason, it seems like they want to make the XCOM experience more active. Ambushes aren't something that you have time to prepare 99% of the time. They seem to be there for the purpose of adding more movement to the maps. The new class, Ranger, is entirely close-ranged. Sharpshooters have been re-tooled with a separate pistol tree as opposed to an alternative tree for alternative sniper skills. The specialist has to be in fairly close range to make the shots that it needs to, and the grenadier has this same problem to a far greater extent. Timers make it so that you're almost always on the move and not setting up and enacting a strategy. You're more reacting. You do what you need to do--move everyone as fast as you can to one particular spot--and you deal with the rest as best you can, as you go. You can see how this makes the game feel clumsy. You were never meant to rush forward in XCOM, because you're meant to be afraid of uncovering enemies without enough actions to counter the fortified positions that they'd instantly slip into. XCOM is about thinking about who to move, where to move them, and when. Advancing in a particular direction had to be planned carefully to avoid hanging part of your squad out to dry, spreading them too thin to take down oncoming enemies, or clumping them together so that they could be grenaded or get in each other's way. So what winds up happening is that you are forced to do what other XCOM games painfully beat into you to avoid doing: charging forward and hoping there aren't any enemies there at worst, or at best, be far more reckless than tactical. Not only is the XCOM combat system as a whole not geared for this, but the classes aren't either, other than the Ranger. A more close-quarters combat focus on the whole is still dragged down by the traditions of each class's role that the game strives to fulfill on top of that, and each near always feels like the worst sort of hybrid--too inept to fulfill either potential option you could try to make it into. Sharpshooters fare the worst. The pistol tree was clearly them recognizing that you needed to be more mobile in the sequel and allowing players to mix in some skills to make the class have more utility. In practice, it only just keeps them from becoming dead weight, with little real value when compared to other classes. Granted, this seems to be a function of the randomly generated maps when combined with the timers, as plenty of missions gave me more than enough time to feel things out without making me feel the pressure of the clock. Others, however, did seem next to impossible, if not actually unwinnable with a squad that was well-geared and leveled for the stage of the game I was in. They were rarely as bad as that, and certainly in the minority, but the distribution leaves much to be desired. Even for XCOM, some parts of the game should have a sense of structure and clear progression. It does make me feel a little better to think that while these are substantial problems, the mods to fix them will likely only need to change little. I'm not sure that adding more turns onto each timer is the right solution, as becoming too easy is as much of a problem as being too difficult, but it'd not take much to simply activate the timer only at a certain point in the mission. Skill trees can be changes and rebalanced, with new trees added or the old ones simply rebalanced. I just wish they weren't seemingly mandatory to fix some structural flaws that should have been evident early in development. There are some improvements. This isn't a bad game, or necessarily a worse game than XCOM Enemy Unknown. The only way XCOM could have had a less intuitive interface would be if Randy Pitchford came over to work at Firaxis, but that doesn't mean I don't appreciate what it does, so to see it revamped is satisfying. It no longer feels like diving into the depths of an inky-black ocean and feeling around for whatever is inside. It's fairly simple and straightforward. Much of that is due to clearing out the clutter of resources and the amount of things to research and build. As a result, I never felt lost or unsure of what I was doing or why. Unlike the original, I felt like I had a solid understanding of the choices I was making in advancing my tech, and I could even keep track of how to move it in a certain direction. Research was the most impenetrable and unenjoyable part of the original XCOM to me until I played it enough to know what to do by memory, and there's a part of me that wants to give the game a gold star for fixing that alone. There's nothing quite like feeling that you can explore the game without a guide, that you'll be able to catch on and not feel like a total moron for the first three playthroughs. It's simple to plan, to take actions to bring that plan to fruition, and to adapt to changes in the situation, and all without losing much of anything other than needless complexity. That could never be said about XCOM before. Although I suppose some would say XCOM is nothing without needless complexity, I don't miss it. Whoever was in charge of sound design on this game should win an award, as I didn't know it was possible to feel so satisfied by the way something sounds in a game. It was something I found myself continually drawn to as I babbled to my friends while playing without noticing. There's something innately right about the weight that they lend to the combat that demands to be appreciated. It's not often you can say that something as mundane as how something sounds. You could say the same thing about the animations and the voice acting to a lesser degree. The sense of style to each never fail to make me smile with the repetitive, but always fun, odd moments of badassery by one of my squad members. It feels like things have been streamlined and made more stylish and grandiose for the sequel, but a few missteps bring down the whole experience. This is a game that aims to expand upon its predecessor, but it all-too-often feels like the ideas that that original game was based on are still miles ahead of where the developers are trying to lead it. All the same, it isn't an bad experience, and with a few tweaks, it'll go from a 'good' experience bordering on 'great', to a 'great' experience borderling on the excellent. It's just a shame that the original XCOM will still overshadow it. Ah well. Better luck with XCOM 3, guys.