EDIT: XCOM2 is saved by the modding community, and by the expansion packs. Common occurence with Firaxis games. Good on them for getting it right in the end, and good on them for supporting modding.
_________________

I thought long and hard about this, but I came to the same conclusion as everyone else.

XCOM2 is a very good, although unfinished game. It's funny to have to call it unfinished seeing how it is basically the exact same thing as XCOM1, running on the same engine, and fundamentally with the same gameplay, albeit with sensible balance improvements. What's new?

• The base is now a spaceship that flies around the map. Instead of building satellites, you build radio towers to gain region bonuses. Regions can be destroyed by terror missions, but you can rebuild them.
  
• Everything has a time limit. Even the map has a time limit. Each month the aliens get +1 victory progress or something like that. You have to take these points away by destroying alien factories. Almost every mission has a turn limit, so no camping.
  
• Three monthly random events, only one of which can be stopped. Lowered income, aliens get poison bullets for a month, more alien reinforcements for a month, +1 alien victory progress etc.
  
• Procedurally generated & fully destructible maps.
  
• Proving Grounds (AKA foundry) projects are now random.
  
• There's a building that lets you respec soldiers or train rookies as a specific class.
  
• A significant increase in customization options
  
• Weapon upgrades
  
• Concealment

These are very welcome and well thought-out mechanics, but it's also where the praise runs out. XCOM2 has all the glitches XCOM1 had, and then some. The optimization is absolutely pathetic - this game has higher requirements than GTA5 and unplayable with any kind of anti-aliasing enabled. During the last mission there were so many enemies on screen that the game's engine kicked the bucket multiple times and gave epileptic textures requiring a reboot.
The action cam is an incredible drag as well. XCOM1 could handle rapid fire in one animation, but XCOM2 pauses the game twice. Or three, or four, or five times. This is ridiculous considering how many abilities let you shoot 3+ times per turn, and since it used to work on the same engine in 2012. It's basically like aircraft animations in Civ5.
The frequent loading screens approach 40 seconds in length, despite using an SSD drive. Also the stats and leaderboards don't work.
One thing to be particularly weary of is being able to destroy the floor underneath an enemy. It seems like a great idea, but it guarantees that enemy will be glitched out and freeze the game for 15 seconds each time it moves or shoots. It also guarantees a desync in multiplayer.

Speaking of which, most disappointing of all is by far the multiplayer. It comes with questionable limitations (only 2 types of each class as opposed to 5, cannot choose weapons, cannot choose armour, not even half of the utility items are available, no PCS, no deep pockets etc.) These are the gameplay aspects. Gameplay aspects, however, do not matter if you can't play the game.
Once again, in this third installment, the multiplayer an unplayable and completely broken mess.. It is beyond unstable. It is even worse than EW, which, in turn, was worse than EU. I have yet to finish a singe game without it collapsing under desyncs and glitches, and finally disconnecting. How hard can it be to do multiplayer in a turn-based game? Legacy XCOM had multiplayer over email for crying out loud. It's unacceptable to sell this game as "having multiplayer".

But enough of that. I was going to give a negative review for as long as the extremely high price coincided with technical issues, but ultimately I chose acquiescence. It's a good game with tons of fantastic little flavours you won't notice, extensive moddability (!) and significantly improved balance (except for that one item). I'm sure that the modders will find a way to improve many completely of the broken aspects that the developers clearly didn't have time to finish.

I'll admit that I was worried about XCOM2 being geared towards "a wider audience", with a huge amount of guaranteed hit, guaranteed miss, guaranteed protection, never trigger overwatch, mind control lasts for ever and other such items & abilities, but they pulled it off just fine, it wasn't as bad as I thought. Token black guy and woman of colour turned out to actually have a personality instead of being there as a strategic resource. Higher difficulty still has an insanely low margin for error. You will always be gradually losing over time. Sometimes a screwup will cost you a near guaranteed game over 3 hours later, but you won't know until then. Time limits work, but they feel like a lazy and artificial solution to mask the AI's shortcomings.

XCOM2 will sell a lot of copies and make a lot of money. This means we'll see a lot more like it, and by that I mean games being released in an unfinished state. The complete lack of optimization feels like penny-pinching to maximise profits at release, while pissing off a lot of people in the long term. The "multiplayer" is blatant false advertising, there is no multiplayer. Personally, I am disappointed and would probably write a negative review if I paid more than I did.

You will have to ask yourself whether the couple of bullet points above are worth the incredibly hefty price tag. As with all Firaxis titles, it is a questionable purchase until an expansion comes out.

[i]EDIT: XCOM2 is saved by the modding community, and by the expansion packs. Common occurence with Firaxis games. Good on them for getting it right in the end, and good on them for supporting modding.[/i] _________________ I thought long and hard about this, but I came to the same conclusion as everyone else. XCOM2 is a very good, although unfinished game. It's funny to have to call it unfinished seeing how it is basically the exact same thing as XCOM1, running on the same engine, and fundamentally with the same gameplay, albeit with sensible balance improvements. What's new? [list][*]The base is now a spaceship that flies around the map. Instead of building satellites, you build radio towers to gain region bonuses. Regions can be destroyed by terror missions, but you can rebuild them. [*]Everything has a time limit. Even the map has a time limit. Each month the aliens get +1 victory progress or something like that. You have to take these points away by destroying alien factories. Almost every mission has a turn limit, so no camping. [*]Three monthly random events, only one of which can be stopped. Lowered income, aliens get poison bullets for a month, more alien reinforcements for a month, +1 alien victory progress etc. [*]Procedurally generated & fully destructible maps. [*]Proving Grounds (AKA foundry) projects are now random. [*]There's a building that lets you respec soldiers or train rookies as a specific class. [*]A significant increase in customization options [*]Weapon upgrades [*]Concealment[/list] These are very welcome and well thought-out mechanics, but it's also where the praise runs out. XCOM2 has all the glitches XCOM1 had, and then some. The optimization is absolutely pathetic - this game has higher requirements than GTA5 and unplayable with any kind of anti-aliasing enabled. During the last mission there were so many enemies on screen that the game's engine kicked the bucket multiple times and gave epileptic textures requiring a reboot. The action cam is an incredible drag as well. XCOM1 could handle rapid fire in one animation, but XCOM2 pauses the game twice. Or three, or four, or five times. This is ridiculous considering how many abilities let you shoot 3+ times per turn, and since it used to work on the same engine in 2012. It's basically like aircraft animations in Civ5. The frequent loading screens approach 40 seconds in length, despite using an SSD drive. Also the stats and leaderboards don't work. One thing to be particularly weary of is being able to destroy the floor underneath an enemy. It seems like a great idea, but it guarantees that enemy will be glitched out and freeze the game for 15 seconds each time it moves or shoots. It also guarantees a desync in multiplayer. Speaking of which, most disappointing of all is by far the multiplayer. It comes with questionable limitations (only 2 types of each class as opposed to 5, cannot choose weapons, cannot choose armour, not even half of the utility items are available, no PCS, no deep pockets etc.) These are the gameplay aspects. Gameplay aspects, however, do not matter if you can't play the game. Once again, in this third installment, the multiplayer an unplayable and completely broken mess.. It is beyond unstable. It is even worse than EW, which, in turn, was worse than EU. I have yet to finish [b]a singe game[/b] without it collapsing under desyncs and glitches, and finally disconnecting. How hard can it be to do multiplayer in a turn-based game? Legacy XCOM had multiplayer over email for crying out loud. It's unacceptable to sell this game as "having multiplayer". But enough of that. I was going to give a negative review for as long as the extremely high price coincided with technical issues, but ultimately I chose acquiescence. It's a good game with tons of fantastic little flavours you won't notice, extensive moddability (!) and significantly improved balance (except for that one item). I'm sure that the modders will find a way to improve many completely of the broken aspects that the developers clearly didn't have time to finish. I'll admit that I was worried about XCOM2 being geared towards "a wider audience", with a huge amount of guaranteed hit, guaranteed miss, guaranteed protection, never trigger overwatch, mind control lasts for ever and other such items & abilities, but they pulled it off just fine, it wasn't as bad as I thought. Token black guy and woman of colour turned out to actually have a personality instead of being there as a strategic resource. Higher difficulty still has an insanely low margin for error. You will always be gradually losing over time. Sometimes a screwup will cost you a near guaranteed game over 3 hours later, but you won't know until then. Time limits work, but they feel like a lazy and artificial solution to mask the AI's shortcomings. XCOM2 will sell a lot of copies and make a lot of money. This means we'll see a lot more like it, and by that I mean games being released in an unfinished state. The complete lack of optimization feels like penny-pinching to maximise profits at release, while pissing off a lot of people in the long term. The "multiplayer" is blatant false advertising, there is no multiplayer. Personally, I am disappointed and would probably write a negative review if I paid more than I did. You will have to ask yourself whether the couple of bullet points above are worth the incredibly hefty price tag. As with all Firaxis titles, it is a questionable purchase until an expansion comes out.