Continuation of the first part of XCOM: Enemy Unknown, which, according to the developers' plans (and not according to our heroic deeds), ended disastrously for Homo Sapiens.
Unfortunately, the colorful backstory didn’t fit here, so I’ll go straight to the pros/cons.
Pros:
1. History: interesting interpretation of the events of the first part.
2. New and old opponents: fighting is still interesting and incredibly difficult even at the second difficulty level.
3. New classes of fighters: I was especially pleased with the ranger! The rank of colonel is death itself in the guise of a man.
4. Customization of soldiers and weapons: I really liked this moment - finally the soldiers actually began to differ from each other!
5. Procedurally generated maps: this is what the first part was missing so much! Now cities, forests and deserts are completely different from each other! Also delivers destructibility of objects. For a mechanoid, for example, the wall is not an obstacle at all - it passes through it. And a Sniper, perched at a height, may well fall down and get hurt.
6. Time limit for most missions. Yes, most players didn’t like it, but I still consider it a plus: battles become more dynamic, and there’s usually enough time for all the actions. Although, there is a suspicion that when I play through it again on “Veteran” I will radically change my opinion.
7. Reaction of aliens to the events of the game: Great! Now the Alien Mission Control Center is also not sitting idle: it improves the armor of its soldiers, cleanses the Earth of partisans, sometimes sends a flying saucer to intercept our ship, and so on. In general, they interfere with resistance by all means, and do not wait until they get to them.
8. Ability to drag wounded soldiers from the battlefield: Oh yes!! Finally!!
Cons:
The most important disadvantage, in my opinion, is the developers’ abandonment of interesting developments in the addition of the first part - XCOM: Enemy Within.
1. Reward system for soldiers: not particularly annoying, but very satisfying! It is very nice to hang a medal “For Valor!” on the chest of your combat veteran, even if this medal does not bring bonuses.
2. Bio- and techno-modifications: This would greatly diversify the process of “customizing” soldiers.
3. Secret organization EXALT: this idea would generally fit perfectly with the plot of the second part. In any case, on a captured planet there will be a similar organization that openly or secretly supports aliens.
I would like to hope that these three points will appear in future additions.
4. Hit percentage: this disease is passed on by developers from game to game! Missing with a 100% chance of hitting is a big deal! And it would be nice if it worked both ways, but no - the opponents perfectly shoot through double walls and hit a soldier behind full cover with a critical hit! And this is not even the “veteran” level.
5. Ship: here we could turn around: after all, we have in our hands a completely unexplored alien vessel - who knows what it has up its sleeve? And we just took it and moved in, sorted out the garbage and set up a laboratory... boring. Although there is also a chance that this point will change in the expansion.
6. Voices of soldiers: Fuck it, with full voice acting... but it would be possible to add a few additional languages to the soldiers!! Why can my Russian, Pole or Ukrainian only speak German, English, French or Spanish? It's a small thing, but unpleasant. Maybe modders will correct this point in the future.
7. This is quite a trifle, but still: Biography of the fighters. Well, it's just a song: why was it added at all? Or at least left the field empty, but nooo, we'll write 3-4 biographies there. As a result, it turns out that out of my 20 soldiers, a third are runaway criminals, a third are seasoned soldiers, and the rest are nothing interesting at all.
To sum it up: the game is not without its shortcomings, but it definitely deserves its 9.5/10! And I want to believe that the missing half point can be added with additions!