XCOM 2 - Xbox One

My personal favourite game of all time. I spent around 200 hours playing vanilla Xcom 2 on the PS4, put another 200 or so hours into the WoTC expansion on PS4 (easily my favourite DLC as well), and then bought this collection once I got a PC laptop and sunk yet another 200 hours or so into modded gameplay (the Steam workshop community for this game is incredibly expansive). I greatly enjoyed each of my playthroughs over the years.The customization of soldiers is great for getting attached to them and making their deaths impactful.The combat is well-paced and encourages strategy without being overly complicated for new players.The base-building is a tad lacklustre, but the rest of the in-between-mission-gameplay, such as research, skill building, and tech ... MoreMy personal favourite game of all time. I spent around 200 hours playing vanilla Xcom 2 on the PS4, put another 200 or so hours into the WoTC expansion on PS4 (easily my favourite DLC as well), and then bought this collection once I got a PC laptop and sunk yet another 200 hours or so into modded gameplay (the Steam workshop community for this game is incredibly expansive). I greatly enjoyed each of my playthroughs over the years.The customization of soldiers is great for getting attached to them and making their deaths impactful.The combat is well-paced and encourages strategy without being overly complicated for new players.The base-building is a tad lacklustre, but the rest of the in-between-mission-gameplay, such as research, skill building, and tech development is quite well done. What you choose to focus on can shape your playthrough, and their is no 'right' answer, allowing for variance on future playthroughs.All together, this is a fantastic collection. It's well worth full price, but it goes on sale often enough that you might want to wait for one.

Absolutely the most intriguing and fun turn-based combat! Get attached to your own soldiers and wish they were never set in combat, as you are putting them into danger.Tons of variety and customization and whatever you wish to bring at your plate with the steam workshop.Make sure you grab one of those tasty yummie super delicious Advent Burgers!

I love this game! Played it since it was first released and enjoyed every dlc and update. Finished the game more times than I can remember and will continue to play it for a long time. Great replay value because of the great mods that are available.

To be completely honest, I’m actually horrendous at this game. The kicker is, I keep coming back! So why does this extremely difficult tactical squad-based shooter have me coming back for seconds, thirds, and desserts? Because every battle matters. You spend hours investing time and energy into your ragtag assortment of recruits that have gone from regular ol’ Joe Schmo shooters to snipers, tactical covert ops, and grenadiers. Then you take them into combat and they DIE. The worst part is, THEY DON’T COME BACK. Can there be anything more impactful/frustrating? The game is otherwise excellent, with great enemies, and time-constrained decision making. Absolutely recommended to anyone, but if you’re new to tactical shooters, have some patience and play on rookie, ... MoreTo be completely honest, I’m actually horrendous at this game. The kicker is, I keep coming back! So why does this extremely difficult tactical squad-based shooter have me coming back for seconds, thirds, and desserts? Because every battle matters. You spend hours investing time and energy into your ragtag assortment of recruits that have gone from regular ol’ Joe Schmo shooters to snipers, tactical covert ops, and grenadiers. Then you take them into combat and they DIE. The worst part is, THEY DON’T COME BACK. Can there be anything more impactful/frustrating? The game is otherwise excellent, with great enemies, and time-constrained decision making. Absolutely recommended to anyone, but if you’re new to tactical shooters, have some patience and play on rookie, because you’re in for a world of alien hurt!

X-Com 2 is fixing a major complaint from the first game. Soldiers will now be able to sneak up and engage the enemy from concealment. This combined with procedural maps will go a long way toward fixing the repetitive nature of the 2012 remake.Playing through the 2012 remake of the beloved classic X-Com was an exercise in frustration. The game was much better than I had expected, my love of the original had made me very skeptical. The changes that were made were not always for the best, but they still held true to the original. The issues I had with the new version were few, but two of them were seriously hampering my enjoyment of the game. Allow me to explain by walking you through a mission from the perspective of the original, and then the remake.CLASSIC X-COMI ... MoreX-Com 2 is fixing a major complaint from the first game. Soldiers will now be able to sneak up and engage the enemy from concealment. This combined with procedural maps will go a long way toward fixing the repetitive nature of the 2012 remake.Playing through the 2012 remake of the beloved classic X-Com was an exercise in frustration. The game was much better than I had expected, my love of the original had made me very skeptical. The changes that were made were not always for the best, but they still held true to the original. The issues I had with the new version were few, but two of them were seriously hampering my enjoyment of the game. Allow me to explain by walking you through a mission from the perspective of the original, and then the remake.CLASSIC X-COMI get word that an alien craft has been sighted close to my base. I scramble interceptors and watch with tense excitement as a fighter engages the enemy. The alien craft goes down and I give the order to send a ground team in to recover what we can and wipe out any surviving aliens.My team is mostly recruits, still using Earth based technology. I send them out armed with conventional weapons and no armor. I know it is risky but we need to capture alien technology if we are ever going to be able to keep up with the invaders. I have eight soldiers all ready to go, assault rifles loaded, 2 extra mags each. They each also have a grenade in case they need to frag some baddies.It is night as the Skyranger touches down I am unsure what to expect. The enemy is out there, somewhere in the darkness. I move my first soldier to the bottom of the ramp and quickly spin him around. No enemies so far.I can see part of a barn nearby so I move him to the barn after making sure to reserve some time units for a snap shot. I move my next brave soul from the craft, this time making my way straight out. Again, time units reserved and I end my turn with him next to what look to be a horse stall.The aliens move around in the darkness during their turn but nothing is revealed. My turn again so I move the rest of the team out, forming up on the first two men, time units reserved. I end my turn, still no contact. The aliens move about in the darkness but one of them, a sectoid, steps into view of the team by the barn.The first soldier takes a snap shot, this is why I reserved time units, but misses. A second soldier shoots, hits, the alien falls to the ground. The alien turn ends and I move the team near the barn out and around the barn, a bolt of green plasma erupts from the darkness and one of my soldiers lets out a scream as his life is cut short. The others make it to cover.The other team fares a little better and finds the crash site. They also spot a few aliens but are out of time units. I end the turn and the aliens move out of sight, but they don’t seem to have noticed my team. The alien in the barn takes a shot at another soldier and hits him, but the brave warrior refuses to fall just yet. The alien turn ends and I still have yet to actually find the one in the barn.As my turn starts the soldier who was shot drops his weapon and runs. The one next to him freaks out as well and shoots randomly into the darkness. I have control of only 1 of the barn team now. I prep a grenade and toss it to where I think the alien is.The other team advances on the downed UFO. I spot a sectoid and drop him with ease. There are a few other sectiods already dead outside the alien craft. I end the turn with my team ready to enter the craft.As soon as I end my turn the grenade explodes and I hear the shriek of an alien as he is made to cease life functions. The alien turn goes quickly and I am ready to enter the alien craft. As my turn starts my wounded soldier dies, but his friend has regained his composure. I use the remaining two soldiers from the barn team to start a sweep of the area. The other team makes entry without incident. I end my turn and discover that there is certainly at least one alien still out there because I get told there is hidden movement.Over the next dozen turns or so I encounter 3 more sectiods in the wreckage of the UFO. I lose 3 more men too. The last remaining soldier from the entry team exits the UFO while the other two spread out and look for the remaining alien or aliens.Another dozen turns pass while I search for the last alien. I finally find him, in the corner of the map, unarmed. I let out a sigh of frustration. That last alien was the first one. I realize in that moment he did NOT scream when I shot him. That means he was only knocked out. I shoot him in the face, end turn, mission complete.2012 X-COMI get word that an alien force has been sighted in town. I give the order to send a ground team in to recover what we can and wipe out any aliens.My team is mostly recruits, still using Earth based technology. I send them out armed with conventional weapons and little armor. I know it is risky but we need to capture alien technology if we are ever going to be able to keep up with the invaders. I have four soldiers all ready to go, two assault, one heavy and one sniper, no need for extra mags. They each also have a grenade in case they need to frag some baddies.It is night as the Skyranger touches down but I have seen this map before and know what to expect. The enemy is out there, somewhere in the darkness. My soldiers exit the transport and await my commands. No enemies so far.I can see part of a store nearby so I move my team to the wall. I end my turn.The aliens move around in the darkness during their turn but nothing is revealed. My turn again so I move the team around the corner, no baddies still so I set everyone (except the sniper) on overwatch. I end my turn, still no contact. The aliens move about in the darkness but one of them, a sectoid, steps into view of the team.The first soldier takes a snap shot, this is why I put them on overwatch, but misses. All his friends react and run to cover. A second soldier shoots, hits, the alien falls to the ground. The alien turn ends and I move the team up the street and engage the enemy. My sniper drops one and my heavy kills the third, no more baddies. End turn.As my next turn starts I move up and spot a sectoid. He and his buddies react by scurrying to cover. My people do not have a good shot so I put everyone behind cover and set them to overwatch. End turn.The three sectoids are ready to fight. The first one links himself psychically to a buddies and boosts his stats. The buddy shoots and drops an assault troop. The third alien fires and misses.As my turn starts I move my remaining assault troop closer. he gets behind a bench and kills a sectoid, he also draws the attention of nearby thin men, three more aliens to deal with. My sniper drops another sectoid and his friend goes with him since they were linked, good deal. My heavy moves to an alley on the right and uses the corner of a building for cover, overwatch. End turn.The thin men move a little closer and the overwatch shot from my heavy misses, not a problem. They shoot and score a hit on my assault, but he is okay. They are in cover at the end of their turn. I am familiar with this map, I know it well so I take my heavy through the building and have him end turn around a corner behind the thin men. My assault troop drops one of the skinny freaks and my sniper misses another. End Turn.The remaining two thin men move again. One is in cover from my heavy, the other in cover from the assault and sniper. The one facing the heavy poisons him. The other manages to kill my assault. They end their turn and I drop the one attacking the heavy with my sniper, my heavy runs right up and murders the other. End Turn. Mission over.The Difference.The classic X-Com had aliens spread across a map that was random. They were not in groups and you could sneak up on them and kill them. The new X-Com used the same few maps over and over and the enemy was grouped together and would always know you were there the moment you spotted them. X-Com 2 is promising to make some changes to make it more like the classic.Among these changes is the inclusion of procedural generating maps. This is a big step toward making the game feel a little more like the classic. Not knowing the map when you start a mission really makes every encounter feel tense and dangerous. Of course that means you will want to scout properly.Well as it turns out the next big change will help with that. The new concealment system will allow for more covert operations. Aliens will no longer automatically detect you as soon as you see them. This is a welcome change and hopefully will mean that enemies will also be spread out more like the original as well. The ability to set up overlapping fields of fire from concealment will open up all kinds of new options.We will have to wait until next year to get our hands on the full game but these changes are making it look like it will be worth the wait.

Brutal difficulty curve, but a brilliant game.

After playing the absolute crap out of Unknown and Within, I was pretty nervous as to whether this new edition would deliver, or be stuck next to The Bureau on the shelf of games never to be touched again.Thankfully, I wasn't disappointed. Aside from fixing the almost gamebreaking bugs that plagued the first two (including an autosave feature that actually works!!), there was a decent amount of new content and gameplay to master. Even the set number of turns placed on most missions ended up adding an element of pressure missing in previous games, forcing offensive plays rather than whole squad overwatches. Plus, even if you consistently whipped alien ass in the field, the avatar counter meant that a single failed mission could often mean total defeat, so you could ... MoreAfter playing the absolute crap out of Unknown and Within, I was pretty nervous as to whether this new edition would deliver, or be stuck next to The Bureau on the shelf of games never to be touched again.Thankfully, I wasn't disappointed. Aside from fixing the almost gamebreaking bugs that plagued the first two (including an autosave feature that actually works!!), there was a decent amount of new content and gameplay to master. Even the set number of turns placed on most missions ended up adding an element of pressure missing in previous games, forcing offensive plays rather than whole squad overwatches. Plus, even if you consistently whipped alien ass in the field, the avatar counter meant that a single failed mission could often mean total defeat, so you could never completely relax.All in all, a worthy addition to the franchise.

Can be frustrating

I've played every title in the X-Com franchise, and none of the titles to date has been quite as frustrating as this one.For starters, it is reliant upon Steam, and although Steam is generally pretty good, if it goes down for any reason, you lose access to this game.The disks that are sent out do provide the entire installation for the game itself, but doesn't install all of the underlying software that the game requires, leaving you to find and install these items manually. While trying to find out why the game freezes, Steam support is its usual completely useless self, telling you about every possible error except, of course, the error you will get (error code 41)Unlike certain other titles that were heavily hyped before release (Watchdogs), it does tell you ... MoreI've played every title in the X-Com franchise, and none of the titles to date has been quite as frustrating as this one.For starters, it is reliant upon Steam, and although Steam is generally pretty good, if it goes down for any reason, you lose access to this game.The disks that are sent out do provide the entire installation for the game itself, but doesn't install all of the underlying software that the game requires, leaving you to find and install these items manually. While trying to find out why the game freezes, Steam support is its usual completely useless self, telling you about every possible error except, of course, the error you will get (error code 41)Unlike certain other titles that were heavily hyped before release (Watchdogs), it does tell you about its real system requirements.The game itself is of the franchise's usual good quality, but the occasional freezes because it relies on underlying software by Microsoft, a company that never gets things just so, it doesn't get a two-thumbs-up

Challenging and compelling

An improvement in terms of gameplay options, graphics and story on the original Xcom. Still really difficult, even with the setting set low. Some missions have so many difficult adversaries, its almost suicide. But that's where Xcom's charm shines through. You become attached to your soldiers and have to balance risk and reward with every move. Can still be very frustrating, when your entire squad all miss shots on an enemy when they had a 90%+ chance of hitting them. And the game itself crashed 10 or so times during the 40 hours of play I got out of it. I got a real sense of satisfaction when I finished the game - with my squad intact! But no desire to replay it, so re-sold.

For serious hard core gamers only. Or masochistic ones.

Before you think about buying this game, Google "Xcom 2 is too hard." and read some articles and complaints about the game's difficulty. Its not just hard, its punishing, and its supposed to be. Some people love it. I hate it. Its not my idea of fun.On my first mission, the "easiest" one, my team was in cover and in overwatch ready to ambush the enemy. By the enemy's second turn after spotting us three of my team were dead. I couldn't do anything with the last one so I just waited for the time to run out. Oh yeah, the missions are timed. In the first one you have eight turns to reach the objective.Apparently after the first mission is when it starts to get tough.Sound like fun-