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XCOM 2: War of the Chosen Review
Xcom 2 Workshop Mods
XCOM 2 – War of the Chosen, is a futuristic, turn-based, squad strategy game. Them aliens are back, and you’ve got to put your foot down a second time.
Spoiler Warning for XCOM: Enemy Unknown (and Enemy Within)
I’ll do my best not to spoil XCOM 2, but since it is a direct continuation of XCOM EU/EW, it will be hard not to have some spoilers.
Them Aliens are Back
As if they weren’t bad enough the first time, they’ve already taken over the world in this rendition of XCOM. You take up the role of the Commander, the same one who fought the aliens all those years ago in EU/EW. You’ve been…away for a while and when you get back, you realize just how messed up things have become in your absence. There’s no time to lose: you need to upgrade facilities, research (or steal) newer and better technology, recruit and upgrade soldiers, contact the underground resistance, and wage full-on guerilla warfare against the aliens.
XCOM 2 is an excellent upgrade and successor to its prequel. You’ll find the same style you know and love. You take a turn, the aliens take a turn. Then you take a turn, and the aliens take a turn. Of course, this is much easier on paper than in practice. There is a lot to do on each turn, and XCOM does not baby you. You need to manage your soldiers’ positions, ammo, enemies, timers, and mission objectives.
And Better than Ever
You’ll see some of your old favorite aliens but new and improved. A lot of the enemies have a newer look and new abilities, but play more or less the same as before. XCOM 2 features sectoids, mutons, berserkers, chryssalids, floaters, thin men, and more, just like in XCOM EU/EW. But most of them have upgraded looks, names, and abilities. The thin men no longer bother with their disguises. The floaters have a sleeker shell to hide how gross they are on the inside. Sectoids are taller than they used to be. It’s all got a new face, and it’s fun to re-learn how to play against these enemies. Your old tactics just might fail you this time around.
XCOM 2 also introduces a number of brand new aliens. I won’t bother going through a list, but the most common one you’ll see are the ADVENT foot soldiers. These guys will show up on pretty much every mission. ADVENT is the public face of the aliens, and its all got that “whited-sepulcher” thing going on. On the surface, everything looks clean and orderly, but you know that it’s just an appearance.
Almost Complete Freedom
XCOM 2 allows you to manage your squad pretty much however you want. You pick the gun, the grenades, the ammo, the outfit, and the abilities. Mods for this game are also abundant and relatively easy to install with the Steam Workshop. Want more outfits? There’s a mod for that. Want more guns? There’s a mod for that. Want more soldiers in your squad? There’s a mod for that.
Even if you don’t want to use mods, you still have plenty of customization options. As you progress in the game, you’ll unlock more ammo, grenades, armor, weapons, and more. You can choose what abilities your soldiers have, train them in abilities they don’t have, and then use those abilities in battle.
War of the Chosen is Almost an Entire Other Game
While it is technically an expansion/DLC for XCOM 2, War of the Chosen is almost an entire other game. Keep in mind that the base game is extraordinarily fleshed out and very well made already. War of the Chosen adds three main enemies called the Chosen to the gameplay. They’ve divided the world into three pieces, and they are rather territorial of it. These almost-immortals each have special abilities that make them a pain to deal with, and pop up almost randomly on any mission in their territory.
Most parts of the game play differently than the base game, even though the mechanics are still there. The tactical layer (from which you make your big-picture moves) now has you dealing with the resistance groups. Each of these has a rivalry with a specific one of the Chosen, and you’ll need to work with each resistance group to maximize your chances. You’ll take on missions for them, earn their trust, and help them with their objectives. In return they will give you special soldier classes that are not available in the base game, give you monthly bonuses, and they will help you track the Chosen down and finish them off for good.
War of the Chosen also plays differently in the battles. With new special units, you’ll have even more options for your decision making. All of the new units excel in a certain area. Reapers focus on stealth and sabotage. Skirmishers focus on tactical positioning (including repositioning the enemy), but are hard hitters both in ranged and melee. Templars focus on psi attacks and melee damage. You can never go wrong with any of these guys in your squad.
Also in battles you will occasionally encounter a type of enemy known as the Lost. Zombies in all but name, they are generally easy to deal with in small numbers, but become extraordinarily dangerous in large groups. Individually weak, the Lost tend to eat up your ammo quickly (because you can chain kills together without ending a turn) and try to overwhelm you with their numbers. If you try to use explosives, you’ll summon more Lost. You’ll have to weigh the pros and cons of every situation.
War of the Chosen also unlocks a whole host of customization options that include some spoilers, so you’ll have to explore those for yourself.
Xcom 2 Mods Steam
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Super Brutal
XCOM 2 does not hold your hand or coddle you. Unless you’re playing on the easiest difficulty and/or save scumming, you’ll probably lose soldiers. Hitting aliens is very dependent on RNG, and you’ll find yourself asking how you missed that 99% shot yet again. And it seems like the aliens have perfect aim at the worst possible times.
Old strategies like spamming overwatch every turn no longer work either. The mission timers force you to move your soldiers into precarious situations lest you fail the mission. And more often than not you’ll find your soldiers suffering heavy, or even fatal, wounds.
XCOM 2 Stacks up to the Competition
XCOM 2 (including WotC) is one of the top contenders in its genre. There are many squad-based tactical games out there, and XCOM 2 is by far one of my favorites. Having also played XCOM EU/EW, Into the Breach, Divinity: Original Sin, and Fire Emblem: Three Houses, XCOM 2 matches up very well to the competition (you can find links to our reviews of Into the Breach and FE: TH below). If you are a fan of these other games, you will almost certainly enjoy XCOM 2 as well. And even if you didn’t enjoy some of these other games, I’d still suggest giving XCOM 2 a quick look-see because it might just surprise you.
You can check out 15 minutes of my gameplay with no commentary (but tons of mods and an OP late game squad) below.
XCOM 2 can be found on Steam here.
XCOM 2: War of the Chosen can be found on Steam here.
Check out our review of Fire Emblem: Three Houses!
Also check out our review of Into the Breach!
When XCOM 2 originally came out I liked it, as it was more of XCOM, and the first game was great. I didn’t love it as much as the original (which I played through twice, once on ironman), but I think that was a combo of it being a little too similar, and just at the time not being on a huge TBS kick like I was when XCOM 1 came out. All of which is to say that XCOM 2 hasn’t really been on my radar for a while.
I also never played the Long War mod for XCOM 1, as it came out long after I was done with that game. On paper I like some of what the mod does (more stuff), but wasn’t a huge fan of its main feature: making the game long via more missions to reach the end-goal.
Recently the Long War mod has been released for XCOM 2, and it really is a total overhaul of the game. I won’t do a full list of the changes as you can get that from the mod page, but I will touch on a few of them that I’ve noticed so far and that have left an impression.
First and foremost, the game even on veteran difficulty is brutally hard. The resource management part is even more difficult in terms of deciding when to spend resources and on what, and resources seem even more scare so far. Upgrading the base is slow, there are more choices for research, and I don’t know if I’m ahead, behind, or on-pace in terms of the progression (I’m only about a month into it in-game).
Combat is also much harder, with more enemies per map, the AI being smarter, and since you have to run multiple squads at a time (more on why later), you don’t just run missions with the same 5 super-soldiers, which means how you distribute weapon upgrades and such is also more important. Even when you win, if too many soldiers are injured, that will cascade down to make future missions either much harder, or basically impossible.
Speaking of squads, the mod increases the total size, and you can now bring up to 12 (or 10, not sure and traveling right now so can’t check), which also has a huge impact on the feel of the game. Combine this with new classes, new weapons, new enemies, and new abilities, and again, Long War feels almost like a new game, just using the same basics and setting.
One final item I really like but that I’m having a hell of a time managing is the new infiltration system. The way this works is that when a mission comes up, rather than immediately selecting your troops and starting it, you first send your squad to infiltrate the area. The more time you spend doing this, the easier the mission will be (starting at basically impossible at 0% infiltration). Missions have time limits, so you can’t go to 200% just by waiting, and other factors (squad size, the weapons you bring, weapon mods like silencers) also influence the rate. Finally, you can spend intel to increase infiltration, so on an important mission where you didn’t have a lot of setup time, this might be a necessary ‘last resort’ option.
With larger max squad sizes and the infiltration system, this means you use more soldiers overall than the base game, and the mod greatly increases the total roster size as well as the number of rookies you start the game with. What this accomplishes is that missions feel different not only because of all the new stuff, but also because you are using a different mix of soldiers as well. That’s huge, and a really enjoyable challenge.
Xcom 2 Mod Launcher
If you are in the mood for awesome TBS gameplay, and enjoy a challenge, grab XCOM 2 and the Long War mod. Just know you are signing up for a ROUGH ride, but one that feels especially rewarding when a solid plan gets executed to perfection (or the RNG gods play nice and that 17% hit chance is a crit that turns the tide for you).