CHENNAI: Making a great game is tough enough, but making a great sequel is even harder. We’ve spoken about this before, usually when discussing some of the examples of the latter — Assassin’s Creed II, Uncharted 2, Inside, and so on — and we’re circling back yet again to talk about XCOM 2.
Picking up 20 years after the events of XCOM: Enemy Unknown, XCOM 2 is set in a world where humanity lost the war for Earth. Now the occupied world is under the rule of ADVENT, a puppet organization created by the alien invaders from the last game. From being a government-funded global organization, the XCOM Initiative is now a rag-tag bunch of guerilla fighters who must scavenge what they can to continue the fight. This narrative arc alone — effectively transforming from the Empire to the Rebels, if you’ll allow a Star Wars analogy — makes XCOM 2 worth the price of entry, because every facet of the game is designed to reflect the circumstances of your new reality.
As far as the gameplay goes, it’s still divided into a strategic overview interspersed with turn-based missions. You now have a mobile base with which to globetrot and make contact with resistance groups and other opportunities, which means there’s a lot more going on with the strategic half. Meanwhile, the missions offer greater variety (thankfully!) and a whole arsenal of new tricks and toys to play with. To make up for all the new weapons at your disposal, you’ll be going up against much tougher enemies — 20 years have passed, after all, and the aliens haven’t stood still either. The turn-based combat is arguably XCOM’s biggest calling card, and it’s every bit as satisfying (and punishing) as ever.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention War of the Chosen. Just as Enemy Within did for its predecessor, XCOM 2’s expansion elevates it to an entirely new level. The Chosen are three elite alien warriors who’ve each been tasked with bringing about your downfall, and they are frankly terrifying. In a manner that feels extremely inspired by Shadow of Mordor’s excellent Nemesis system, each mission that takes place in a region controlled by a Chosen has a random chance of attracting their attention and causing them to teleport in as well. They are orders of magnitude more powerful than your average enemy, and can seriously ruin your day. If that weren’t enough, the expansion also introduces the Lost — zombies, for all intents and purposes, but much faster than you’d like and with a fondness for swarming hapless XCOM soldiers. The deck’s certainly stacked against you, but balancing things somewhat are the new resistance factions — three groups that offer specialized operatives with entirely new skill-sets and abilities.
With just what you get in the box, XCOM 2 is a deep and rich tactical combat game. Add in War of the Chosen (and the legion of great mods out there), and what you’ve got is a game for the ages. If balancing the agonizing decisions of big-picture strategy with some of the best turn-based combat around sounds like your cup of tea, you just can’t go wrong with XCOM 2.