Finished XCom 2 a few days ago, I loved it to death. Enjoyed the final mission much more than XCom's.
Overall, it's easily my favorite in the series, my only regret being that they can't use this same desperate premise for another game. I could not get enough of the setting and the style of the resistance, fleeing from UFO patrols and carrying out terror bombing missions to roll back the Avatar timer (which was a delicious reversal). Actually being shot down by ETs and having to defend the Avenger was one of my favorite moments in the game, since the longer you wait, the closer you come to being completely overwhelmed.
Beyond that, everything relating to the lone remaining council member was badass (particularly his last transmission), I loved the occasionally synthy
soundtrack, and every new alien addition they worked in was just fantastic. I love shit like this:
A methane-filled alien encounter suit which, once shattered, lumbers toward you in mindless robotic automation, spilling toxic liquid everywhere as the limp body of its pilot flops about.
Liked the Sectopod redesign a lot too:
There is absolutely nothing more cathartic that hacking one of these things and turning it against its buddies:
Here's an unrelated image of my sniper getting clubbed by an Archon:
Near the end, I started focusing a lot more on psi training, and the payoffs are absurd. Here's a vid of Geo's guy kamehamehaing a gatekeeper right through it's fucking impenetrable armor:
Here's a mission I did using only four psi-trained soldiers, trying to get the "win with all units of one type" achievement:
Mind control alone turns your worst enemies into your best buddies.
Grath wrote:XCom 2 let's play when? :D
Mayybbe if I do another Ironman run, but that would be a ways off.
I could also see myself doing something for
this kickass OpenXCom mod X-Piratez I saw on RPS.
Been playing the shit out of it since I finally installed it yesterday. It's really good. DOES take some getting used to re: the pirate speak and some of the awkward anime pics they used for research screens.
It's all about looting the corpses of whatever you manage to kill, especially early on. You'll regularly get some kind of better assault rifle or laser gun, with about one or two extra clips of ammo. It makes it so your team always has a huge range of projectile, laser, plasma, and melee weapons, due to the scarcity of ammo and the variety of firearms.
One of my pirate gals is only strong enough to carry a sledge hammer, so she just hides around corners and slugs em over the head when they pass. Another one pulled a laser rig off the blue officer from Wolfenstein (I think he was a commanding officer of one of the militant groups?), which she's been scoring kills with left and right.
Slashing weapons like the cutlass seem to miss all the fucking time, so I wouldn't recommend them. That said, there's piercing damage from bullets, there's cutting damage, there's blunt damage, and so on, with certain enemy units and factions being better guarded against one type than others. Like, one group is decked out in anti-explosive armor, meaning you need to use piercing or slash damage.
So yeah, it's fascinating. Beyond the scavanger element, I adore how many different factions there are, and how they each fight each other during certain missions. Gives me a bit of an X-Com Apocalypse vibe in that way.