XCOM 2/ The Plebby Reboots Combo Thread.

[TheFlyingFishy]

I searched back in time until I found the thread for the actual original XCOMs, and searching the board in general turned up nothing of the newer ones, so I made this thread, due to the new one coming out in a few days and all.

http://www.pcgamer.com/xcom-2-review/

Looks really nice, and am hyped. Wouldn't have it on day one, except my brother has rich friends and an attitude problem, so he gets bought off when he's angry, to my benefit. I'm very, very glad I'll have it on day one. The thing I wanted to comment on in the thread that I had hoped already existed is that I find it really odd that they went for the "T" rating. I hadn't even really noticed that Enemy Unknown and Enemy Within were "M," but looking back at some of those death animations, (especially Chrysalids) I can see why. I'm not one that has to have buckets of gore and such, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't going to miss the neat and ruthless kill cams. It'll seem odd seeing someone get eviscerated by all the horrible space monsters without the blood, and likewise, seeing all the horrible space monsters get shot with high tech pew pews and not oozing green fluids. At least I assume that's out. Unless ESRB has suddenly gotten cool with blood.

 

[Lerber]

I'm torn, really enjoyed XCOM and Enemy Within, but never even came close to finishing it. So... I'll probably wait til this one is < $30 before taking the plunge.

 

[Scuba Steve]

Same, it's $80 here in Canada. I loved the first one, and the series in general, but I'm not buying it at that price. I'll wait until it's 75% off or so.

 

[Kharille]

Fan of the series but I'm struggling to put in more than 20 minutes into xenonauts.  They'll be doing the movie before I got time to get into this.  I think I'll just watch a letsplay by metalcanyon or somebody.  I'll probably get a copy during one of the sales.

 

[russik112]

I really like how they established the narrative in Xcom2, the feeling of being a shoddy doddy group of resistance fighters fits really well with the notion of having a maxiumum of 6 soldiers on a mission at once.

 

[Harkon Haakonson]

On the other hand, it pretty much ****s on the entire existance / plot of XCOM : Enemy Unknown and your tireless efforts precisely to save the world so this situation wouldn't be what it is... "lol sorry, i know with the funding of all the countries in the world you had a small army and airforce to save the world mission after mission from being conquered by aliens, but we're just going to ignore that ever happened"

 

[Vovolov]

Yeah, a better premise would've been using the technology and invading an alien world instead.

 

[TheFlyingFishy]

Naaaaaah. The guerilla warfare is one of the most appealing things to me about the game. Also:

On the other hand, it pretty much ****s on the entire existance / plot of XCOM : Enemy Unknown and your tireless efforts precisely to save the world so this situation wouldn't be what it is... "lol sorry, i know with the funding of all the countries in the world you had a small army and airforce to save the world mission after mission from being conquered by aliens, but we're just going to ignore that ever happened"

The way I understand it it's meant to be based on everyone's first playthrough of Enemy Unknown. The one where you totally ****ed up and lost the entire save on your first terror mission.

 

[Harkon Haakonson]

Yeah, a better premise would've been using the technology and invading an alien world instead.

Yeah. I mean, don't get me wrong, the guerrilla warfare premise for this sort of game is in itself very cool, no doubt, but it's reaaally inappropriate for a sequel of a game where you prevent the precise inexplicable status quo. It ****s on the whole prequel's story in a way that disappoints me a great deal, honestly.

 

[Captured Joe]

For your convenience:

 

[TheFlyingFishy]

Yeah, a better premise would've been using the technology and invading an alien world instead.

Yeah. I mean, don't get me wrong, the guerrilla warfare premise for this sort of game is in itself very cool, no doubt, but it's reaaally inappropriate for a sequel of a game where you prevent the precise inexplicable status quo. It ****s on the whole prequel's story in a way that disappoints me a great deal, honestly.

bu bu bu harkoon

The point is that you didn't. It's meant to be based on the first run through which the vast majority of people ****ed up and the aliens won.

 

[Harkon Haakonson]

That doesn't make any sense. Primary canon is based on the guided progression of any game, otherwise no sequel of any game would make any sense ever. It's the very basics of storytelling. Think of something like The Witcher, (if you don't know its story, let's just say if you at one point somehow failed to heal the curse of a certain man, the second and third games' storylines would be entirely, utterly different assuming that) if every single game's story ran exactly opposite in the direction of how the previous game(s) in the series ended / developed.

 

[TheFlyingFishy]

Well yea, but a game like The Witcher is heavily story based. At best, the story in XCOM is just a cool background to give context for self-contained pew pew galleries that have persistent effects on the shooting galleries before and after them. Besides, like the Witcher games have multiple endings, think of this game as the result of the "bad" ending of the original game.

 

[Harkon Haakonson]

The multiple endings of Witcher, or Mass Effect, or whatever, never change the next game's story drastically, it's relatively minor things in the grand scheme of things that serve as more flavour for the player and his choices than anything, like a character or two being alive or dead, or the illusion of big things that are in actuality inconsequent and have no impact in the follow-up game except for in one given event, or a possible companion, etc. And that's fine. You'd need what, 3 times the budget for a game to enable major storyline changes based on consequences.

So this is as obnoxiously drastic as it gets, with no proper reason.

 

[TheFlyingFishy]

I guess.

Ever since I heard the premise, I just considered it more of a reboot of the reboot in a new setting, anyway, so I'm not all that bothered.

 

[Úlfheðinn]

Wait...people actually paid attention to the plot of the most recent XCOM games? 

Also, I am still mad that Jagged Alliance 2 is still a better turn based squad game.

 

[Antoine de Saint-Exupéry]

i read somewhere that the developers decided to make the Canon that xcom lost in the first game based on their own first (lost) playthrough.

It's probably bull, but I find it amusing and an acceptable explanation.

 

[Kharille]

Wish they could evolve further.  Even xcom apoc was introducing real time.  If you had 'intelligent' AI troopers who could operate independently with some very general instructions it would be great.  Something like laser squad nemesis without the micromanagement.  Guess that would be an entirely new game concept.  Something like MechCommander 2 with better unit AI. 

Its like, centuries on people are still playing chess on an 8 x 8 board....  or minor changes like 9 x 9 chess board....

And I think destructible terrain abuse would be nice.  You could do that now with openxcom.... 

 

[TheFlyingFishy]

They could make it real time if they wanted, but the fact that they chose not to is a conscious decision and in no way reflects the quality of the game. It's just the genre they chose to make it in. I enjoy it.

And your last line: I read in the PC Gamer review that he sent a guy running through the upper story of a building on fire and he fell through the floor unexpectedly.

 

[Harkon Haakonson]

I too, enjoy turn-based XCOM.