IGdood Posted March 20, 2016 Author Share Posted March 20, 2016 SO. That's that for XCOM 2. No doubt I was slow enough that most people who might have been following already got their own copy and finished it before I did. My thoughts on the game, if anyone cares to read. Highlights + Really digging the new customization feature. It's almost Sim-tier and really gets the adrenaline flowing when people who look more or less like your friends and family are close to dying. Also love the Character Pool. People infinitely more creative than I am get to share their awesome creations. + Mods: If there's something you don't like about the game, whether the way a certain item works or just how things look, there's a mod out there that changes it up to suit your taste. + Strategic Layer: I like the additional things we could do. The "air game" from Enemy Unknown/Enemy Within was essentially just you responding to things and choosing missions based on difficulty. Here there's a lot more thought with how you need to manage 2 resources: Intel and Supplies. +/- Time Limit on Missions: I really had to adapt to this one. Personally, I don't like it because it's different. I know, that didn't really make sense. But hey, we're the guerrilla force here, not the aliens. It certainly meant taking more risks. Same could be said for the Avatar Project countdown, but if you don't like it, you can just mod it out. +/- Story: Come on Jake, we gotta figure out who the ethereals are preparing for! - Glitches: I mean, I know no game is perfect and I seem to be luckier than most with the glitches, but the final mission bug really got to me. I probably could've done it without cheating, but I'd end up with everyone dead except the Commander and probably Kelly. Thoughts on the Classes Grenadiers: Quite possibly my favorite class. I like heavy guns with rapid fire, and discounting their accuracy they're practically a necessity for changing the terrain in the player's favor. Not to mention, AoE is a necessity when it comes to swarmers like Chrysallids. They're the powerhouse, and while they tend to miss, you're supposed to use them for their explosives. Compared to a Heavy, Grenadiers got buffed hard. I'm heavily biased towards the demolitions skilltree. The machine gunner skilltree depends too much on accuracy. Sure, they could be effective with a scope + tracer rounds, but why do that when I can take an extra grenade, slap on an EXO Suit/WAR suit and blow shit up with debuffs? Rangers: Swords are a necessity early game when your guys have shit accuracy and Sectoids and Vipers run around with high defense because they can take cover. By mid game swords get countered by mutons, and they do shit damage to anything with armor. Shotguns are better in most situations. Compared to assaults, lacking Run and Gun and early-game Rapid Fire meant they got nerfed as a damage class. I like the Stealth skilltree since squadsight cheesing is still viable even with a heavy time limit. Only bad thing is if the sharpshooter is too far away to evac. Sharpshooter: Synergizes so well with stealth Rangers. Sure, squadsight got nerfed but it's still incredibly powerful when you don't have a time limit. And even then, it's still good. But overall usefulness, I'd say the Gunslinger skilltree is better since they just spam shots all day long. Lightning Hands + Fanfire? A shredded Sectopod won't be standing after that. Since there's no more In the Zone from EU/EW, you can't pull off chain kills like you could. I'd say snipers got nerfed long-distance, but they got buffed short distance. Specialist: If everyone else was muscle, the Specialist is the finesse. Need that one little tap to kill someone off? Need a robot shut down/dead? Need a heal? Specialist can pull it off. Compared to EU/EW Supports, they got buffed in terms of what they can do. Long-distance heals are really helpful since you don't need to run enemy overwatches and risk getting your medic shot to death. Not to mention, guaranteed damage at long distances is also a godsend. Both the heal and hacking subtrees are useful, but capacitor discharge is a lot better than group heal in my opinion. Psi Operative: Amazing or useless depending on what the RNG gives you. Sunshine was lucky enough to get Null Lance as her 2nd ability. Imagine if she got Solace or Stasis or some other passive for three levels straight. That would've been horrible and she wouldn't see the battlefield for awhile. Soulfire + Null Lance already makes for a dangerous unit. If she got Rift in time....goodbye Avatars. They do have 1 really good advantage though, and that's being able to level up and improve without needing to fight. Rookies and Squaddies tend to get killed before they reach their full potential. Other Stuff Looks like Firaxis released a costume DLC for XCOM called Anarchy's Children, allowing players to give characters equipment that looks like it came from Mad Max or Fallout. All I see so far are screenshots of characters looking like Shulk in Swimming Trunks, which is kinda funny. Imagine taking on the final mission with these crazy fucks. A little late for this playthrough unless they add to it. More XCOM? I did an Enemy Within playthrough awhile back, so if you're interested in that one, look at it here. http://serenesforest.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=44271 Future I bought the season pass DLC for XCOM 2, so I might revisit this playthrough sometime later to unlock the other research options. There's supposedly a 6th class DLC and more enemies coming soon, so that's something I'm interested in. I might also do a short LP (well more like, I already did it and took screenies) of a little known XCOM game called The Bureau: XCOM Declassified. It was made by 2K and has a bit of a Bioshock vibe to it. Unfortunately, a troubled development cycle and overhype killed the game in how well it did. However, there's a lot of love put into it. The main story is crap, but there's some really nice twists that could explain the motivation of the Ethereals and the art aesthetics are really immersive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elieson Posted March 21, 2016 Share Posted March 21, 2016 That final mission is intense. I beat it with a hilariously accidental 15% Superior Repeater trigger on my gren's attempt to holotarget a 51% shot from across the map. It was so buggy, I had to reload my save four times before I could actually beat the game. Kudos, myfriend! Thoughhhhhhhh I disagree on Swords being SO GREAT, when you often need to dash ahead and risk activating more dudes at the expense of fullmoving your ranger into potentially 0 cover to gain a sword kill. It's rough to rely on those mid-90s when your Shotgun is often just as accurate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eclipse Posted March 21, 2016 Share Posted March 21, 2016 Congratulations on finishing~! Sunny's parents would've been quite disappointed in her career choice, if they knew where she was. Having such destructive powers will guarantee that she'll never be married, let alone to someone rich! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IGdood Posted March 22, 2016 Author Share Posted March 22, 2016 That final mission is intense. I beat it with a hilariously accidental 15% Superior Repeater trigger on my gren's attempt to holotarget a 51% shot from across the map. It was so buggy, I had to reload my save four times before I could actually beat the game. Kudos, myfriend! Thoughhhhhhhh I disagree on Swords being SO GREAT, when you often need to dash ahead and risk activating more dudes at the expense of fullmoving your ranger into potentially 0 cover to gain a sword kill. It's rough to rely on those mid-90s when your Shotgun is often just as accurate. Lol WTF, that sounds like a hilarious bug. I guess even with the delay Firaxis still managed to release with a few bugs. Well you got a good point, I've fallen into that trap a few times. I'm generally not good enough to get into flanking damage with a blue move + shotgun. Congratulations on finishing~! Sunny's parents would've been quite disappointed in her career choice, if they knew where she was. Having such destructive powers will guarantee that she'll never be married, let alone to someone rich! Hah! I'm sure she'll most likely support/end up with future psi operatives or others equally powerful within XCOM. Civilians got no chill and cannot deal with her. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elieson Posted March 22, 2016 Share Posted March 22, 2016 Lol WTF, that sounds like a hilarious bug. I guess even with the delay Firaxis still managed to release with a few bugs. Well you got a good point, I've fallen into that trap a few times. I'm generally not good enough to get into flanking damage with a blue move + shotgun. Hah! I'm sure she'll most likely support/end up with future psi operatives or others equally powerful within XCOM. Civilians got no chill and cannot deal with her. If you have someone else scouting ahead or it's late map, Slashing is usually pretty decent. The thing is Your accuracy on slashes until Lv 3 (Captain) is generally 85-95 unless you get Aim boosts (Scope on your gun makes your sword more accurate...PCS +Aim at least makes sense). By the time you're Captain or above, you can get the Tier 2 Shotgun, which both costs less to get and hits wayyyyy harder than swords against everything except Sectoids after Blademaster+2. It's niche, but swordweilders are just too gimmicky. Kinda like XCOM's Sniper gunslingers. Sure it was nice to pistol play back in the day but it was all for kicks and not something hardcore to fully rely on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IGdood Posted March 23, 2016 Author Share Posted March 23, 2016 They gotta buff swords. Damage, accuracy, criticals, armor-piercing qualities, whatever. They marketed it as a high risk, high reward attack but right now shotguns carry lower risk and still have high rewards. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elieson Posted March 23, 2016 Share Posted March 23, 2016 If swords had like insanely high crit Or let you use a single non-shoot-weapon action after slashing Or carried Blademaster with +3/4 damage instead of +2 It'd be better. You need the goddamn Fusion Blade to make things matter with your sword, and still the Arc Blade is generally better since the stun rate from Bladestorm is generally more appreciated being as you aren't OHKO'ing Cryssalids anyway. Plus it takes for-ever to get Reaper. BReaking concealment with a slash and Shadowstrike is so dumb too, because you rarely need to dash in and break concealment for a Slash, when yuo can almost just as often have your Gren lob a grenade in to multihit, or have your sniper just outright kill something. Slash doesn't do jack v Armor, and if you get Talon Rounds or heck Dragon/Bluescreen rounds, you're in the money with 15-17crit shotgun hits over like what, the best being a 14 crit slash with hopefully cover. Like It's clutch sometimes, but yea a buff to Blademaster (+4 Dmg & +10 Aim) would be great. It'd let early game swordies have value since they'd like, have the high risk of questionable placement vs gaurenteed kill. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eclipse Posted March 23, 2016 Share Posted March 23, 2016 Hah! I'm sure she'll most likely support/end up with future psi operatives or others equally powerful within XCOM. Civilians got no chill and cannot deal with her. "Is he loaded? No? You are a disappointment, daughter!" That's their mindset, hence why Sunshine ran off and changed her name. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IGdood Posted March 24, 2016 Author Share Posted March 24, 2016 (edited) If swords had like insanely high crit Or let you use a single non-shoot-weapon action after slashing Or carried Blademaster with +3/4 damage instead of +2 It'd be better. You need the goddamn Fusion Blade to make things matter with your sword, and still the Arc Blade is generally better since the stun rate from Bladestorm is generally more appreciated being as you aren't OHKO'ing Cryssalids anyway. Plus it takes for-ever to get Reaper. BReaking concealment with a slash and Shadowstrike is so dumb too, because you rarely need to dash in and break concealment for a Slash, when yuo can almost just as often have your Gren lob a grenade in to multihit, or have your sniper just outright kill something. Slash doesn't do jack v Armor, and if you get Talon Rounds or heck Dragon/Bluescreen rounds, you're in the money with 15-17crit shotgun hits over like what, the best being a 14 crit slash with hopefully cover. Like It's clutch sometimes, but yea a buff to Blademaster (+4 Dmg & +10 Aim) would be great. It'd let early game swordies have value since they'd like, have the high risk of questionable placement vs gaurenteed kill. Good ideas. They can also do something the UFO: After_____ series did. Have different types of enemies be vulnerable to different weapon types. "Is he loaded? No? You are a disappointment, daughter!" That's their mindset, hence why Sunshine ran off and changed her name. Good riddance, I bet. I am happy she found purpose in killing off Ethereals and taking their money Edited March 24, 2016 by IGdood Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elieson Posted March 24, 2016 Share Posted March 24, 2016 Man I'm still salty that Arcblade costs more 30% more than the Shard gun. By the time you get access to the Shard gun (tier2 shotgun) you can probably have researched a Rounds and/or gotten lucky with an excursion giving you rounds of some kind. like if you ever get Talon rounds there's no point to using swords ever other than buffing it with Bladestorm for midgame clutch as a basically free overwatch in tigh quarters if you leave someone out for bait to draw them past your ranger. It's like the one thing I'm salty about in this game; there's just no reason to use swords as a primary over Shotgun At least Snipers can go either Sniper/Pistol with FanFire/Kill Zone both being super awesome skills and Lightning Hands/Quickdraw giving you a theoretical 5 pistol shots per turn (5 bluescreen plasma pistol hits kills a plasma shredded sectopod iirc) among other perks. Grenediers/Specialists have their roles to fulfill so their single weapontype isn't really a bother since you don't need to pick a primary to stick with. The worst you gotta decide is if you wanna give your Grenediers like Demolition or Suppression for more cover destruction support vs the zone locking support. Rangers get fucking extra scouting w/ shotgun perks or swordplay which demands the until endgame inferior generally shadowstep Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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