Since the game has been out for a bit, and that I managed to beat the game on recruit, I decided to come on over and start this thread here for us all to put our heads together and share our thoughts on this latest title.

NOTE: This thread is the "Non-Spoiler" section, and any spoiler material will be off-limits because of such. I will create a thread for the spoiler material so that new players won't have anything spoiled for them and so that people who have played the game quite deeply can discuss the overall story and their thoughts on things that have and might possibly happen. Game mechanics, game modes, and equipment are open to discussion so long as any story links to them are kept spoiler-free.

Now that we have that out of the way, I'll just say what's currently on my mind concerning the game so that we can start off.

First off, I do think that this game exceeded my expectations. As of this current time, I have already sunk 39 hours into it, and I do foresee myself putting even more once I mod the game to be a *bit* less stressful.

The game seems to be poorly optimized, which is very unfortunate, but the game genre and amount of enjoyment that can be had seems to help offset it to more of a "tolerable" issue that the game has. Turning down your graphic settings is definitely a thing everyone will need to do until some sort of fix is set out to patch up the fps issues and bugs.

The "timed" parts of missions were not exactly the worst thing, but I do see the small timers to be a bit restrictive in how much a person can plan out in a limit to the game just forcing people to make non-strategic rushes just to get to the objective in time. I downloaded a mod that only extended the mission timers by a little bit when applicable.

The civilian rescue missions also seemed to be a bit like the timer missions where you are in constant pressure to get the bare minimum of civilians while also trying to keep your troops in one piece. The fact that the aliens are actively hunting the civilians in the fog of war is a bit of a "timer" issue on its own, but it seems to be a bit better than the rest of the timed missions. I'm not sure how it plays off in harder difficulties though.

A particular game mode mechanic that I'm hesitant on is when the enemy forces call in reinforcements (Even when all enemies in an area are killed off at times). Their area of insertion is marked by a red flare and the troops are dropped off in the next alien activity. The very presence of this mechanic is something that I'm quite fine with. Having some enemy units responding to a nearby threat is something I can see as reasonable. It's when reinforcements are being called in on an indefinite amount that leads to a few issues. I will most likely dig deeper into this in the "Spoiler" section as discussing it further can lead to story-related content.

I'll leave it off with this for now. I'm looking forward to seeing everyone else's impressions towards the game, and I do hope that this thread, in particular, will be of great help to those who are curious about the new game without treading into spoiler territory.

As someone who hasn't bought the game yet (yeah, so sue me), I'd just like to express my appreciation for the non-spoilery nature of this thread.

Every complaint I had with the first XCOM game was vastly improved upon. The classes are all much better balanced, the strategic game is much better, the psionics are badass and optional, almost every piece of gear is useful, there's less slow creeping across the map, and the finale is infinitely more badass than last game's boring curbstomp mission.

Only weakness is that it's very glitchy, particularly with animations. It's a shame, since otherwise the game looks amazing visually.

5036799
Same. My next paycheck is Already earmarked for bills this month, so I have nothing to spend on beautiful, succulent new games to devour.

Er, play, that is.

5036799
Thanks! I appreciate the appreciation.

5037041
On the bright side, the game will probably get a much needed patch by then so your first play through the game will not be as buggy as mine.

Have you ever seen a Chyrssilid jump over 15 feet in the air? I have, and it was just terrifying!

5036941 I've had more than a few times where my sniper overwatches would stand over empty air while taking their shots. Pretty amusing but kinda breaks immersion I guess

5037503

Screwy overwatch animations are nothing new to XCOM. Picking up fallen bodies often animates with an invisible target. Muton Berserkers often bounced around on the screen while moving (a shame, since their move animation is pretty awesome). The camera is pretty terrible at deciding what to watch, too.

Also a Sectoid reanimated my mimic beacon hologram after it "died".

But don't get me wrong; in general the improvements in soldier, alien, and terrain graphics are awesome, and the whole thing looks great. The game had a lot of cinematics as well; last game's base defense and finale have nothing on XCOM 2 for cut scenes.

The story in general is like they stepped enemy unknown back for a second try at the underlying lore to the invasion. I don't want to spoil anything, but there is literally no comparison; it is like some ultimate synthesis of previous XCOM titles, new and old.

5037541 Quite so. I found the Mutons Troopers to be the most intimidating enemies in the game IMO with their melee pretty much OHK'ing my troops, their grenades heavily shredding and damaging multiple squad members and cover, and their primary cannons just sniping people down (Oh and shredding also as if it wasn't enough).

Chyssilids still scare me, but I've managed to evade them pretty easily somehow. Having two snipers on overwatch while advancing seems to help put my worries away. Considering how one of my snipers had over 135 aim, overwatch shots were pretty deadly and effective for me.

I still loved it when one jumped 15+ feet in the air. My sniper still managed to hit it though

5037627

What difficulty? I only lost soldiers early on. Other than brief scare early on with a troop shortage and midgame letting Avatar get a bit close, it was pretty easy on 2nd difficulty level. Going to try Ironman 3rd level next before trying legendary.

5037493

So here's how my first Ironman mission went (the starter one where you get 4 rookies that takes the place of the tutorial). I watched 4 rookies whiff about 5 times in a row against flanked or exposed enemies. Every single shot or grenade I landed did 3 damage (they have 4 hp). I didn't even manage to kill the first pack of 3 basic troopers before it was over.

5037712 I first began with the "rookie" difficulty in my first play through, and I'm going to go with "Veteran" as my second one. Just slowly progressing up the difficulty tree as I get better.

5037768
I loved that Johnny Bravo pic btw. You can check out the hopping Chyssilid again below. See if you can spot it

I have to say I'm nearly spot on with you. I'm an xcom vet and I felt that mechanism wise this game was a step in the right direction, however after awhile of playing I realized that there was still about the same amount of tactics and tech from the first, but they've added a lot of smaller nuggets that make it deeper.
For example there are only three levels of tech for weapons/armor, and about the same number of utility items, However with the ability to customize your soldiers weapons, you now have an extra part of customizing their playthrough.
The new 'stealth' mecanic is a nice thing, and if you play a ranger as the 'scout' class, you have an invisible eye in the sky for your snipers leading to many great cases of death from a distance.
By far the best update I loved was psi troopers. Now with 200% more death. While you probably wont train more than two, a psi soldier in their own right is a powerhouse with the right abilities. In the first game anyone could have added psi abilities, but not all of them were useful, in this version they are their full on class, and they are like specialists and grenadiers combined. There's nothing quite having 7 enemies all come barreling down a street at your team, only to have your psi troop psi lance them into oblivion.
Lastly I'm a little disappointed as to how short the story to the game is. If you were to take out all the tedious time waiting, you'd have a pretty short game. Thankfully the battles are always fun to go in with different tactics.
And with the game being highly moddable, i cant wait to see some of the cosmetic items/ new stuff people will make.

5038099
I reiterate my previous comment.

I'm about 40-50 hours into the game(a good part of it being time spent into causing the CUSTOMPOCALYPSE in the Character Pool)and I'm globally enjoying it so far.

I've seen only two things that are really bothering me:first,I'm not sure that having to spend 3 days searching for your monthly reward is a good thing,when you could just pick it up at the Resistance HQ.

Second,as I mentionned earlier,I spent a lot of time in the Character Pool.As such,it is quite irritating to have one of my pre-custom character appear and see even the smallest detail changed about them,the most frequent being their attitude,especially when I can't fix it because the right options need the soldier to be a veteran for them to be applied.

Well,I eventually found a mod unlocking all the custom options for any rank,but not before I kicked three dudes out of the Avenger just because of some small changes.Yes,I care about customization that much.

It also bothers me to not see them leveling up as the class I wanted them to be,but I can at least see why it doesn't do that.

Also,it's fun to see soldiers going through the roof only to bounce back on top of it when dropping of higher grounds.Guess ADVENT likes roof made out of jelly.

5045896 If I remember correctly, building the GTS (Guerrilla Tactics School) will give you the capability to train rookies into a specific class of your choosing. The AWC (Advanced Warfare Center) should help give you the capability to retrain a soldier.

The monthly supply drop has been an odd one for me. I see what they were trying to do, but it does cause quite a few moments where you know that there's going to be something happening very soon and you're racing to pick up the much needed supplies before it occurs.