Man, remember when I used to write blog posts instead of just posting like a million videos every day? Yeah, me neither.
So XCOM: Enemy Unknown finally came out! I’ve been waiting for it forever and it has absolutely met expectations, so here are some things that I think.
Things I love:
– The palpable sense of dread when you send your soldiers forward. I took like five more turns getting into position than I needed to for one mission just out of fear.
– The RNG is brutal. Here’s the situation: Two troops minding a corner with Overwatch while another is pressing forward on that corner. TWO MISSES ON OVERWATCH and the alien ices my Squaddie. Farewell, soldier named after my father. You will be missed.
– Research trees: love choosing what to research and learning what benefits I get from that. The flavor text is pretty neat too.
– Hard decisions: Save India or save America? Balance the panic levels and try to keep countries investing in the XCOM project. It’s WAY harder than you think
– XCOM’s class system is pretty neat. I like how you have to think more about how to position and move your guys beyond just their loadout.
– Even when I feel completely outmatched, smart tactics can help me take out Mutons or survive dangerous missions…unless it doesn’t and they overwhelm me.
– The Sniper is a boss. Just sows seeds of destruction all over the battlefield.
– I’ve done plenty of chain reaction things with amazing results. For example, I shot a rocket at an alien in a desperate plea to save another soldier with only 1HP. The result: I murdered both of them with the shrapnel.
– The lose condition cinematic. Chilling. It haunted my mind before I went to bed.
Things I could do without:
– The interface was clearly designed for a controller first. The mouse stuff doesn’t quite flow right…
– THE INTERFACE WAS DESIGNED FOR A CONTROLLER! I’m not sure if this is related to that, but I tried to get a soldier in place behind cover…except the game was freaking out! Is it the higher elevation position or a square on lower elevation where there’s zero cover. Which do you think I was picking, game? Oh, the no-cover position? Yep. So that soldier gets shot to death and the mission spirals out of control, resulting in a loss. Thanks, UI
– Similar to above, the tutorial clearly killed one of my guys because it wouldn’t let me exit the tactical screen
– Free aim for all guns would be neat.
– Having no choice about class assignments is perplexing. What causes these assignments? How come I only ever get one sniper, but many Heavies and Supports. Is it tied to the way I play my characters?
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