Loyal XCOM player, know that your attempt to repel the alien invader in the first episode failed. Twenty years later, the aliens rule the planet, promise both technological and medical miracles, and name their militia "peacekeepers" responsible for putting down any rebellion. Formerly an international organization endowed with gigantic resources, the XCOM agency has now gone over to the side of the resistance. The first effect of this change in situation is to offer us a renewed scenario, the main lines of which have changed significantly. It is no longer a question of preventing the extraterrestrial invasion, but of countering a mysterious Avatar project, gradually set up by the aliens. This project punctuates the games, since its outcome is synonymous with game over. On the other hand, winning victories in the various missions allows you to repel it enough to be able to counter it definitively. To do this, you must operate from the Talion, an alien vessel captured by the resistance and remodeled into a mobile headquarters, which replaces the fixed base of the previous component. You can perform autopsies and various research, consult historical documents, recruit and customize new soldiers, make new types of armor and ammunition, and much more. The mobile character of Talion induces new game mechanics, since you can now move from region to region in order to contact new pockets of resistance, install radio relays and collect different resources. Without concession, the new XCOM 2 even places us regularly in front of "dark events", which present us with the next advances of the aliens (more reinforcements for the enemy in the missions, attack of Talion by a UFO, reduction of the next supply …). The player is free to counter these projects, depending on time and intelligence credits, or to focus on his main objective. In any case, it is totally impossible to be on all fronts at the same time, and you must therefore know how to use strategy to hope to emerge victorious in the end.
XCOM M'HABITE
But the heart of the game obviously remains the turn-based combat missions, in which our soldiers leave to steal elements from the beards of aliens, sabotage installations or quite simply exterminate as many enemies as possible. The recipe hasn't changed much, and we find the limit of two actions per turn (usually one movement and one shot), the low and high cover elements, as well as shooting statistics that make all the salt of the game On this subject, we will notice that the interface has made clear progress, since we can unroll a small menu which details the calculation of the chances of hitting. A statistic of 63% could for example be divided as follows: aiming +65%, weapon range +13%, good angle +5%, partial cover -20%. What better to understand what is happening, even if we do not escape a few aberrations, such as point-blank shotgun shots that screw up in a not very credible way, or sometimes very personal definitions of what is a good angle or a good shelter. Similarly, we find the problems of lines of sight of the previous episode. The graphic representation does not always coincide with the parameters used by the calculations, which results in funny scenes, where we can see our bullets and even our grenades passing through the walls. It's not catastrophic, but we expected all the same that these problems would be corrected for this second episode.
In addition, we are sometimes entitled to very annoying bugs which are almost equivalent to a crash (freezing of the action after certain turns, which forces you to find a backup). Fortunately, the many small novelties brought by XCOM 2 largely compensate for these small inconveniences. Special mention for the new class of Ranger, which offers us very exciting close combat, since its standard equipment combines shotgun and super-powerful katana. The Specialist class is not left out, since it offers us a support drone, which we can send to heal or defend an ally, attack an enemy or even hack an electronic mechanism. Hacking is indeed appearing in the game and, true to the "rolling dice and difficult choices" spirit of the series, it generally allows us to choose from several rewards and sometimes punishes us severely in the event of failure (for example by spawning new enemy troops on the field). Among the details that count, we can also note the new possibility for an able-bodied unit to carry a fallen ally on its back, as well as even greater destructibility of the scenery than before. Or the new mechanics of concealment, which introduces a very small amount of infiltration into the gameplay. Since XCOM soldiers are now more attackers than defenders, they often start missions camouflaged, i.e. undetected by the enemy. reconnaissance before attacking or even setting up ambushes. But the slightest shot instantly cancels this state of grace, which does not eliminate enemies one by one as one could do in a real stealth game. But after all, this is not the main purpose of the game, which favors strategy, tactics, the personalization of soldiers, the final death of these funds which adds spice, and the sometimes enjoyable and sometimes deliciously frustrating dice rolls . And all of this he does very well!
