XCOM 2 Reviews
Exceptionally tough, rewarding strategy and a masterful reworking of the XCOM formula. We'll play this forever.
With a focus on variety and replayability, this sequel has an answer to most of my complaints about 2012's excellent XCOM: Enemy Unknown, and aside from some mostly cosmetic bugs, it comes together brilliantly. Thanks to a new spin on the same great tactical combat, plus unpredictable maps and randomized objectives and loot, XCOM 2 is an amazing game I'll easily put hundreds of hours into.
XCOM 2 succeeds in making a more cinematic experience for the story and adds a little bit more personality to the supporting characters of Officer Bradford and Proffessor Tygen.
With an arsenal of new gadgets and upgrades at your disposal, XCOM 2 feels like XCOM: Enemy Unknown with a million mods enabled, creating a deep and engrossing strategy game.
Firaxis turn-based strategy sequel brings major improvements to the multilayered XCOM formula.
In spite of a few glaring technical issues, XCOM 2 represents a high water mark for the entire franchise. Firaxis successfully tells an evocative story. It treats players with respect and includes so many small quality of life improvements over the original they are simply too numerous to mention. It is challenging enough at its basic difficulty level to feel like a complete experience. Despite the bugs, it's still the best-looking, most exciting turn-based tactical game I've ever played.
XCOM 2 updates the franchise's formula without sacrificing what works in the original game. You have more freedom than before, and relatively superfluous elements like the Interceptors have been cut. More importantly, the pacing and structure really does make you really do feel like a band of renegades taking on an occupying force. It's been a fun ride, and with more mods on the way, I'm looking forward to playing it again - the best possible compliment I can pay to a tactics game.
XCOM 2 more or less maintains the XCOM series as one of the best strategy titles today. The very nature of concealment and fast-and-loose guerrilla tactics lends itself to an almost obsessive amount of trial and error, but that doesn't mean you won't want to try over and over again until you pass unscathed. I've sunk hours into XCOM 2, and there's no doubt that you will too. With an unnerving sense of persistent tension and procedurally-generated maps that extend the value of every map, XCOM 2 survives the hype train with just a graze.
XCOM 2 doubles down on everything that players enjoyed about the previous game. A deeper story, more strategy options, more enemies, and just more mechanics makes for an improved experience all around. Some technical issues pop up, and newcomers will have trouble wrapping their head around the vast array of game mechanics, but once it all clicks there is a lot to love about this game.
It's a game that creates moments you'll remember with characters you've created and care about and is quite possibly the best example of its genre to date.
Hella hard strategy game outdoes its predecessor with deeper strategy, procedural maps, and a more progressive campaign
Overlooking XCOM 2's few problems is easy in the face of its overwhelmingly solid experience. Console players who had been eyeing this title since its release in February shouldn't hesitate to pull the trigger.
Firaxis continues its excellent work on the XCOM franchise with XCOM 2, a game that improves upon all the elements of its predecessor and delivers a phenomenal strategic experience.
It is rare when the sequel surpasses its predecessor, but XCOM 2 does it with style and verve. Unlike grenades in Enemy Unknown, everything in XCOM 2 matters. Choices have purpose, lives are no longer trivial. Maps no longer repeat, and neither do outcomes. XCOM 2 is punishing, but that just makes success taste that much sweeter.
XCOM 2's PS4 port is hobbled by some turgid technical issues, but it's a testament to how magnificent a game it is that it still rises above them. Outstanding, brutally challenging and endlessly enjoyable, XCOM 2 is a legitimate triumph.
XCOM 2 improves on its predecessor in almost every way, and proudly stands as one of the most deeply satisfying action-strategy games currently available.
XCOM 2 does everything Enemy Unknown did and improved on it with more variations as well as some very interesting game mechanics. Anyone who enjoyed the first game has no reason not to pick this one up. It has a few performance issues here and here, but it is still a challenging yet rewarding game that made me have every emotion from joyous to devastated. One of the early game of the year contenders for me, and a fine game any strategy fan should own.
While the occasional technical issues might hamper the experience somewhat, XCOM 2 remains a superb strategy game that expertly weaves stellar mechanics and emotional story-telling into an engrossing campaign in which every choice that you make feels genuinely important. It can be both brutally difficult and depressingly ruthless, but the scant moments of joy that you'll experience in your attempts to overthrow the alien regime should provide more than enough incentive to keep fighting the good fight.
Overall, the ingenious method XCOM 2 deploys is keeping so much of the same, but adding just enough new features and slight changes to make it absolutely phenomenal.
XCOM 2's brand of tactical strategy might have its roots in the golden age of PC gaming, but its sights are set square on building a future. By limiting your reliance on safe, defensive play styles and pushing you to work quickly and attack, Firaxis has built one of the most tense, demanding and addictive strategy games ever, where every choice has repercussions and every soldier, every victory counts. If you buy it, clear your schedule: this one will keep you gripped for months.