XCOM® 2

Enjoyable.
It takes a while to learn how to navigate and the War of Chosen expansion complicates things all over again, but that adds to the fun.
Its going to take a longtime for this oldie, to be comfortable doing a legendary ironman run!

Very difficult even on the second difficultly, but fun nevertheless. Fun game as a lot of modern games are too easy in my opinion.

One of the most infuriating games I've ever played. I love strategic games, but this is just RNG slot machine with elements of strategy.
You constantly hear from the fans of the franchise about learning risk mitigation to prevent failing, but even if you do everything right you can still lose everything because of bad luck (one time my troops failed to shoot aliens almost point-blank 4 times with 95% chance of hitting).
I know that this is probably because devs wanted us to feel like we are in the guerilla army, but this is just nonsense. If you ever feel like you hate randomness in your games, then don't pick up XCOM.

Great game! A few QOL improvements to XCOM make it even better. It's generally the same game with some enhancements. This is my first time playing it
playing with mods: evac all, true concelmant, gotcha again and perfect information.
link to full list:
https://www.reddit.com/r/XCOM2/comments/v0ltof/comment/iahlnue/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

Excellent tactical turn-based strategy game. I love the opportunity cost dilemmas present during the planning/building phases, and the fighting phases are always fun. Pulling extra enemy squads accidentally makes for fun and frantic fights.

800+ hours spent. The game feels good when you're winning. Losing is okay if it feels 'fair'. Unfortunately the game is anything BUT fair due to the massive amounts of bugs and questionable gameplay design decisions that can sabotage your game or ruin your experience, especially if you're playing in Ironman Mode.

Furthermore, there's no point in filing a bug report to the developers. They've abandoned this game years ago. This game is only kept afloat by mods nowadays.

Gameplay-wise it's a huge improvement over enemy unknown, especially with wotc. 10/10

10/10 Would recommend this game, but only if your playing with mods, mods make everything better

This game is so good when you're winning. But sooo tedious when your losing. But to me, that's what makes it fun. Even on easy, you can still feel the struggle and the stakes. you can't risk losing a soldier so all of your moves need to be thought out.

I will also say, I am ALMOST positive, you will not beat this game first try. It reminds me of a rough-like in the sense that sometimes you will encounter something that could take multiple trying to take down, but since death is permanent, one failed mission that resulted in a squad wipe, could very well be the end of a save!

With that said, I still HEAVILY recommend this game! Maybe not for players that want an easy time!

One of my Top 10 games of all time. Incredible game. The WotC DLC is just such a massive overhall as well.

Amazing game, crossing my fingers Zero Squad is even remotely this good. SW deserves a good game again.

To this day this game remains one of the best to ever do it in the genre. The game and its DLC are an amazing playthrough and will squeeze some 40 hours out of you. The beauty of the game however is in its magnificent and still present(as of writing this review) modding scene.

The Long War 2/ Long War of the Chosen mods are in my opinion a staple of the franchise and what made me sink so many hours into it. These mods completely change the way, adding so many features that it could be classified as a sequel. It has insane replayability, the difficulty can range from easy to truly masochistic and punishing.

No game since this one has truly scratched the itch XCom2 does with all its mods in full glory. 12/10 game

9 years and still the best turn-based game - speaks for it's self.

A big improvement since Xcom 1, also community made mods makes it even better ! Totally worth it

Yes, it's still here: 1. Lots of terrifying randomness
2. Implicit hit counting
3. Misses from killer positions
4. Spawning enemies in the most inconvenient places
5. System requirements are too high for the graphics displayed by the game
6. Uniform and predictable AI behavior pattern.

BUT to my great regret, there are no or very few worthy competitors with a decent level of technical (gameplay and mechanics) and technological (graphics) performance in a similar techno-fiction setting. Therefore, the rating is 7.5 out of 10.

Be sure to try Phoenix Point, Gears Tactics and the previous part (XCOM: Enemy Within).

A huge thank you to the entire community of this game for a large number of wonderful mods from the Steam Workshop!

I've tried coming back to this game half a dozen times, and it ends the same way every single time: by the fourth mission or so, I'm completely frustrated with the entire game because skill has nothing to do with it. This is ***NOT*** a skill-based game, it is a LUCK-based game, and the house always wins. THAT'S what it's like to play this hunk of trash.

The concept is fine. It looks alright, the gameplay is serviceable, and the story is fine. What absolutely destroys this experience is the unreliable percentages. You can save-scum a single soldier's turn over 20 times in a row for a 75% hit chance and miss ***EVERY SINGLE TIME.*** Sorry XCOM devs, but that's not how percentages and probabilities work; if you have an 80% chance to hit, you WILL NOT miss that attack 9 times out of 10. That is not how that works. The math is not math'ing to a degree that it feels like every single move/attack you can make is PREDETERMINED to miss or hit, and the percentage has absolutely nothing to do with it. In a game that is this difficult and brutal, you CAN NOT take away the only assurances of victory that a player has by royally fudging how a percentage roll works. It is NOT FUN to have to replay the same early-game mission a dozen times in a row because the game decided FOR YOU that you don't get these hits. It is not immersive going into a mission with the dreadful expectation that everything will ALWAYS go wrong. Don't tell me to download mods, either, because YOU have failed if PLAYERS have to retroactively fix YOUR game for FREE.

XCOM 2 is not fun. It has a lot of potential to be fun, but on the basis of experience, it simply is not the overwhelming majority of the time. I refuse to mod this game to make it better when the devs themselves couldn't be bothered to fix their scrambled RNG programming.

While I do find the premise of "anti alien resistance fighters" a bit laughable the game play is solid and the modding community allows for a lot of replayability. The graphics are solid but the animations do drag out after a while.
All in all a solid game but I would wait for a sale before buying it.

XCOM 2 can offer you a hundred hours of playtime before the missions begin to stale. You can reinforce the experience with mods such as Long War, Long War of the Chosen, or ModJam and push that experience to a fresh strategic one that lasts over 500 hours. I'm at 357 hours right now, 2/3rd through my third LWOTC campaign, and looking forward to a 4th with a full Modjam install. Best $25.00 I ever spent.

One of my favourite strategy games of all time, a deep, complex game that is hard to put down. And with the mod support you have a bunch of mod support to play around with.

Best TRPG out there. Your actions here have consequences so you will really have to think about your every move. Its like playing chess but with soldiers sporting cools weapons and armors you havent seen before in other games.

Been putting off buying Xcom2 until now as I have too many game backlogs. So sorry no time to write long review as can't wait to jump back into the game. It's been a long time I have such fun!

I'm completely obsessed with this game. Insanely addictive.

I've played 20-ish hours on PC but over 200 hours on PS and Xbox. Easily one of my top 5 TBS. Certified GOAT status, hardest of the new franchise on higher difficulties. Worth the price when on sale. DLC adds a lot of replayability.

I love this game. It is incredibly addictive. For a full comprehensive review of why I love this game, please refer to other positive reviews with more detailed explanation. I am no good at reviews. Thank you.

Got the game because a streamer I watched seemed to be having a lot of fun, and I don't regret it.
The Classes, while not super numerous, still offer a pretty distinct playstyle.
The settings pretty cool.
Customization is good once you dive into the steam workshop.
The strategy is more about good decision making than complicated skills.

The one thing I actually hate is the crit mechanic, it just feels awful to permanently lose an invested unit because a grunt one shot you from full HP from behind full cover.

Also, while trying not to spoil anything, theres a certain earlyish game enemy that can hit you with one of their abilities from behind walls. They are the viper with its poison spit ability

Great graphics, gameplay mechanics, and fun elements of science and mystery.

One of the best games of all time, especially with mods! It takes the foundation of Enemy Unknown and builds on it while also turning the premise around so that we're fighting to reclaim the Earth and halt the aliens' nefarious plans before it's too late. If you enjoy turn-based tactics abd don't mind the heavy RNG and a bit of 2016 jank, this is a great game to pick up (especially for the current sale price of $3).

One of those games where I can't understand the appeal at all, and the rating seems either flat out faked/bought or totally wrong. Completely RNG and random fighting, which is fine, if it wasn't for the fact that in most levels aliens are pretty strong, and they get stronger over time than you do. Your troops only get stronger if they stay alive, and it seems like the enemies target the strongest one, or weakest health one to kill them. Late game, this translates into a bunch of low levels that get crushed if something so much as blinks at them. I appreciate trying to take the story into a different perspective, where you try to reclaim Earth from the aliens, but the tactical and strategic part of it is literally nothing like actual XCOM, it's completely gutted.

You just run around the map from place to place, all the while there's a giant timer that counts down to you ending the game, which is so cheesy I almost always turn it off, that alone ruins the game. The whole game is just pushing back the "game over" timer, and then certain events will trigger that speed it up.... like who tf is responsible for this core gameplay? They should have been fired and replaced immediately. There's nothing XCOM about this game at all, except for the general setting, units, and overall theme.

You don't interact with any of the nations, or any key political figures to get one up on the aliens in a realistic way, you don't make any secret colonies trying to build a bigger army, spread the word, etc, yet the enemy can build complete BS that speeds up the instant death timer, or super buffs their units.

This game is literally just playing Fallout Shelter, with a death timer that you push back, running around the map looking like a monopoly piece, trying to get basic resources in RNG combat that usually cost you your current best soldier, all the while the enemy does whatever they want. The DLCs aren't much more substance, the "War Of The Chosen" isn't bad, until you realize that it just adds 3 bosses that also each do their own thing, and buff all the other units, and/or make the death timer go EVEN quicker. Strong support effects means the bosses are strong right? Nope, guess again. I found all of their actual boss fights, although pretty cinematic, painfully plain and gimmicky. The only ones that do anything for you, are just cosmetic minus the robot one, and pack, but that also seems like a shell of what it should be and is quite lacking.
All the "Reinforcement Pack" really does is add another class, some cosmetics, some random bs, and unkillable bosses that can RANDOMLY show up in levels that usually just keep attacking and taking multiple turns per turn until you lose everything. Btw, this pack contains those 3 dlc you can't buy separately. Guess just by the reviews, which of the 3 is the one that makes the game unplayable?

If you want to have some form of fun in this game, I forgot the name of it, but there's an overhaul mod that makes this game feel more like it's supposed to. Your units are weaker and progress slower, but it's easier to save them when they go down, and you can use like twice as many per mission. However, this is where tactics comes in, the mod has some proper stealth mechanics, including the bigger your mission squad, the more enemies they add to the area. It also adds the colony system, setting up little safe areas across the world where your rebellion works underground, recruiting people, and getting the previously tedious to acquire resources over time. Also fixes/changes lots of other stuff, more skills in the skill trees, more dynamic robot people, better, balanced versions of those op mini-bosses, making the game over timer feel a little more forgiving, making the enemies ramp up slower, and more reactively to you and your activities, and pretty much improvements everywhere.

As much as I like mods though, I will never play a game that's dependent on them to make it fun in the first place, that's supposed to be the job of the people the company hired and pay for, not unpaid people who wished the game was better. This reminds me of Dawn of War. First game comes out, rave reviews, one of the best of all time. Sequel comes out, entirely different gameplay and vibe that's an overall decrease in gameplay quality in exchange for cinematic quality. What will complete this comparison, is if XCOM 3 comes out, is entirely different from both 1 and 2, and so bad it immediately kills the entire franchise on launch.

My favorite game. Infinitely replayable turn-based tactics.

Awesome game for anyone who is a fan of turn based tactical gun play, the best actually in my opinion, got the vanilla game and WOTC on offer for less than £6, best £6 i ever spent

If you enjoy a good Strat, turn-based RPG like BG3 then this is the game for you! This game was way ahead of the times when it came to a good turn based. I've owned this game for many years and played it many years. BG3 Revived that tasted for games like this. Only down side is, the base game itself is able to be beaten in a good 20-40 hours.

great turn based strategy game, be prepared to meet interesting soldiers , loose some and kill aliens.

long-time fan of the X-com franchise, and really love the framework X-Com 2 w/War of the Chosen provides. Every time that I play any other squad skirmish turn-based game, I end up wishing I was playing this game instead.

XCOM 2 is a true sequel in every sense, refining and expanding upon its predecessor in meaningful ways. The story takes a bold turn, flipping the dynamic of the original game. You’re no longer defending Earth from an alien invasion but leading a desperate resistance against a powerful alien empire.

The gameplay feels smoother and more dynamic. The addition of stealth mechanics provides more tactical options, while the expanded soldier progression options allows for deeper customisation and specialisation. Missions are more varied, the AI can be ruthless on higher difficulties, and the tension is ever present, making every decision count. Don't worry if you end up save scumming if you lose your favourite solidier, everyone does it at some point!

If you're considering playing, I highly recommend also getting the War of the Chosen DLC. It transforms an already great game into a masterpiece, introducing more factions and even more strategic depth. The Chosen themselves add a personal and unpredictable challenge.

I think that whether you're a seasoned XCOM veteran, a fan of turn-based strategy, or someone curious about the genre, XCOM 2 (especially with War of the Chosen) is one of the best games you can experience. A must-play for any strategy enthusiast!

4/5 (parts worth playing again)

It's quite good, and there are many clones out there as a result. It does have limitations and frustrating bits, and some bugs that will never be fixed, but you can work around them.

If you like turn based strategy and base building this is a great game

Especially with War of the Chosen added this is an AWESOME game that still keeps me entertained. Love the storyline especially.

Fantastic game! Bought for dirt cheap on a Steam sale, not expecting much, but wow. I was hooked the first run and couldn't leave the game alone for weeks. A must-buy on sale.

One of the most difficult and addicting games I've ever played. Absolutely amazing.

One of the great games out there. Especially with the War of the Chosen expansion. Only wish it could get a bit more challenging during the endgame.

XCOM 2 remains the best turn-based strategy game. Many aspects are handled just right—the background story, the unpredictability, the bonding with your characters, the development, and the complexity. Even little details, like the propaganda clips you hear upon returning from missions, add to the overall depth. And yes, it’s ruthless, unforgiving, and offers no handicaps.

Lots of cool character design options, can make some really funky fighters and give them a backstory.

Love the chosen fighters makes the missions more interesting, along with the weapons you get when defeating them. This also makes missions trickier.

Would highly recommend this game to anyone who has played any of the x-com series just a lot of fun with new features that also makes for a deeper immersion into the game and adds new levels of complicity.

Still a great tactical game with emergent storytelling through various events and tracking your soldiers with enough difficulty settings to challenge anyone (assuming you want a challenge). XCOM 3 when?

Very difficult, far more difficult than XCOM EU/EW

This is not a bad thing

The first few, 5-7(?) hours are incredibly annoying, more so if you are coming off an EU/EW campaign. If you can get past the hump just a bit, you begin to see your work pay off. I've got so much to learn, but it's still nice to see the fruits of my minimal labour so far.

One of the best Turn base Games lot of custumizations + mod community is awsome make game to different Level

One of the best turn based tacticals out there. Love the campaign progression as well, and the modding scene. The aesthetics, sound, flavor overall. Some minor glitches and issues, but nothing like modern games. Solid 9/10 highly recommended

This game has infinite content and replayability.... I wish I could be born again just to have more time to play it

Bad fighting mechanics, otherwise a interesting game. But what can you do if it´s core gameplay is total randomness.

Not as good as Xcom 2012. everything seems watered down or randomly extremely difficult.

excellent game! war of the chosen is alot more fun than the original version