'XCOM 2' offers fresh take on first installment through bolder gameplay, presentation

By all accounts, players were generally pretty bad at saving the world in Firaxis’ 2012 game “XCOM: Enemy Unknown." In “Enemy Unknown,” players took command of the titular XCOM, a shadowy intergovernmental organization established to defend the Earth from unknown enemies. The unknown enemies that triggered the activation of XCOM turned out to be aliens intent on the invasion and conquest of Earth.Players faced the alien threat by issuing orders to squads of soldiers in turn-based battles while carefully allocating the limited resources of XCOM to the areas that needed them most. Apparently, the intense tactical battles and delicate balancing act of allocating resources were too much for most players; XCOM creative director Jake Solomon remarked toPC Gamer in September that, “We realized that most players lost their initial playthrough of Enemy Unknown, and we realized there was an interesting and unique opportunity to have XCOM 2 begin with XCOM losing the invasion.”

The bleak premise for "XCOM 2," the sequel to "Enemy Unknown," is that XCOM lost to the aliens, and the world now belongs to the extraterrestrials. Released on Feb. 5, “XCOM 2” is heavily informed by the notion of a beaten, broken and subjugated mankind. This idea is most clearly communicated in the game’s cover art, which features the series’ iconic Sectoid (a rendition of the grey alien so prevalent in pop culture) composed entirely of hundreds of human skulls. In keeping with the game’s premise, the player takes command not of a well-funded organization, but instead of a comparatively rag-tag resistance group working to establish a global movement to throw off the alien yoke and liberate Earth.

The core gameplay of “XCOM 2” is largely unchanged from its predecessor, as players still engage the aliens in turn-based battles while also establishing a base that is used to allocate resources to various anti-alien projects (such as improved weaponry).Although the game’s fundamentals remain the same, Firaxis has tweaked various aspects of the experience in order to reflect XCOM’s tougher circumstances. As XCOM now finds itself struggling against a dominant adversary, its soldiers can no longer simply engage the enemy with guns blazing as they could in “Enemy Unknown." Instead, stealth is now a priority, and in light of this, players' soldiers start each mission invisible to alien forces. This new mechanic, dubbed “concealment," allows players to set up ambushes that help even the odds.

XCOM as a whole is starved for resources, and this fact is even reflected on the battlefield. Occasionally, defeated enemies will drop loot, which will disappear if not collected within a certain number of turns. Given that enemies rarely die in a safe location, if players wish to claim loot they must gamble putting their soldiers at risk for a chance at gaining powerful rewards. The risk-reward calculation that collecting loot forces players to perform introduces a welcome tactical wrinkle that encourages bold, dynamic movements.

New recruits are also much harder to come by than they were in the first game. Players can no longer simply request additional soldiers when they find that their ranks are thinning. Instead, new soldiers must be acquired by completing tasks for resistance groups, a much more unpredictable supply that renders the life of each soldier doubly precious.

Firaxis has massively increased the number of customization options available to players, allowing them to alter almost every aspect of their soldiers’ appearances. Everything from the paint job on a soldier’s weapon to soldiers' accents can be modified by selecting from one of the dozens of options available. Seeing one's soldiers develop from raw recruits into grizzled veterans creates a level of investment that was always core to the “XCOM” experience, as is the pain of losing a favored operative to a tactical error. The comparative scarcity of new recruits, coupled with the amazing degree of soldier customization available, makes losing a prized and customized soldier more painful than ever before.

Players should expect to lose more soldiers more often in “XCOM 2." The enemy AI in “Enemy Unknown” was known for being somewhat boneheaded, but not so in “XCOM 2." Alien troops will regularly move to flank players' soldiers and will also make judicious use of grenades and other combat abilities. The tried-and-true strategy of advancing methodically through a level that defined “Enemy Unknown” is no longer an option.

Beyond this, the art direction of "XCOM 2" is top-notch. All characters look as if they are detailed, high-end action figures, and the story is told through cut-scenes that are gorgeously rendered, while making tasteful use of bokeh, lens flare and film grain. The soundtrack, while adequate, sits squarely in the territory of the “heroic horns and strings” sound that has come to define most action-packed summer blockbusters.

With a premise that suffuses gameplay and stellar presentation, “XCOM 2” is a worthy successor to “Enemy Unknown." The degree to which players can customize their soldiers is staggering, and the addition of mod support means that “XCOM 2” will only get better with age.