Reviews by Avalance24

XCOM 2 Collection
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Great game with great replay value!

XCOM 2 Collection gives you access to XCOM 2 and all it's DLC except maybe XCOM 2: War of the Chosen – Tactical Legacy Pack but it should be included and I did get it from here. [editor's note: the Tactical Legacy Pack was provided in 2018 as a limited offer from 2K]

Great game with excellent (or even great if you use DLC) replay value with some minor flaws. Almost all major bugs have been removed by Firaxis since the release though few (and I stress ONLY FEW) minor ones remain. Some people dislike Firaxis XCOM due to mechanics that are closer to puzzle games than to proper tactical games but there are still many strategic decisions to be made on Geoscape and as your soldiers progress and get higher levels and better gear there will be much more tactical options available than just puzzle like decisions and grenade spam. Sound and music are excellent, graphics still hold up even in 2022 and hardware requirements are not steep (for 2022 though they were in 2016).

I have finished XCOM 2 five times or more (1Vanilla Veteran, 1 Vanilla Commander and 1 WOTC Commander all with reloading, 1 WOTC Commander Ironman and 1 WOTC Legendary but with some cheese I admit and I enjoyed it every time even WOTC Legendary Ironman with cheese, though I did try to limit cheese but some of it is just too tempting, like relatively early second Reaper, Repeaters fro everyone and Mimic spam).

XCOM 2 Collection offers good and interesting DLC and it also includes expansion pack War of the Chosen. In my opinion War of the Chosen is great expansion packs that adds a lot new and interesting stuff to the base game, though it does make first third of the game considerably harder and XCOM 2 already had brutal start and on top of that it makes last third of the game even easier due to new gear, new overpowered hero resistance classes (Skirmisher is all right, Templar is very strong on Normal or Easy but not so strong on harder difficulty, but Reaper is INSANE). This expansion pack adds 3 new hero classes, new missions, gear, cinematics, and new and fun enemies (Chosen have excellent voice overs and cinematics). I would definitely recommend this expansion to anyone that likes XCOM!

Shen's Last Gift is nice DLC and gives you new buildable artificial soldier class (strong in early game, weak in later game but always fun with good aesthetics and voice overs) new narrative mission and new cinematics.

Alien Hunters DLC introduces huge plot hole (how did *SPOILER CHARACTER* find resources to create these super powered alien beings while on the run?!) some difficulty problems for new players (aliens rulers move each time any of your soldiers uses action point IF THEY see that soldier, so many players will just resort to long distance sniper cheese and/or Repeater cheese) but this DLC does add interesting new narrative mission, gear, cinematics and new and fun enemies.

Resistance Warrior Pack and Anarchy's Children are just cosmetic packs and not particularly good one at all.

XCOM 2: War of the Chosen – Tactical Legacy Pack might should be include and I did get it with collection. In Tactical Legacy Pack you command a squad of soldiers through a series of consecutive tactical missions. I did like this pack though it does get repetitive. I finished it twice one on Veteran and one on Commander difficulty (only 2 available difficulties for this DLC), missions were fun but they do not offer much replay value.

XCOM 2 offers much (I stress MUCH) better map variety than XCOM 1 and story missions are more interesting. XCOM 2 Collection gives you access to total of 9 soldier classes, all quite different and reasonably balanced (except for Reapers who are insanely overpowered but you won't get second one until late game and everyone is already very strong late game if they are a colonel with plasma weapons, alien hunter armor and mimic beacons). Story is told through cinematics and I do like the story despite flaws (XCOM 1 player's victory got retconned) and anime like purple hair Avatars.

XCOM 2 is more moddable than XCOM 1 and having all the DLC gives you access to even more mods since some mods do require certain DLC (mostly War of the Chosen) which is great since there are many good mods for XCOM 2.

To me game has only one major flaw: very difficult early game but very easy late game. Other flaws are in my opinion minor: early game is too puzzle like (but really only first 2 missions after that you start to level your soldiers and acquire new gear and this gives you many new tactical options), RNG is ... well it is a XCOM game after all so never mind RNG , Reapers are insane and overpowered, soldier class, Repeater and Mimics make game much easier than they should, other flaws are too minor to complain about or have been removed during the years (like many bugs that were present when XCOM 2 vanilla shipped in early February 2016).

by Avalance24, - Feb 15th 2022

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