better than its Firaxis predecessor for a number of reasons (the foremost of which is procedurally generated maps), and although it's very different from the original X-COM games that does not have to be a bad thing -- there is room for both after all. But the real selling point of XCOM 2, the thing that makes it not just good but great, is the modding system. Less than a year and a half after release, there are several major overhaul mods in addition to thousands (!!!) of smaller mods, ranging from gameplay tweaks, to cosmetics, to extra map plots and parcels for more procedural variety. Heck, there are even mods that lets you recruit members of alien species from Star Wars or Mass Effect to join XCOM. Long War 2 is probably the most well known of XCOM 2's mods -- after all, Pavonis Interactive (the studio behind that mod and its predecessor, Long War for Enemy Within) is most likely the reason XCOM 2 has such extensive mod support. My personal favorite is the Spectrum mod, which is currently in its Green iteration. And there are others. You can tweak this game to your heart's content. There is enough mod content out there for this game that if you want, you could completely change your lineup of mods for each campaign and never run out of XCOM. The game has major performance problems as well. This is frustrating and is one of the main problems with XCOM 2, but you can get it to run O.K. even on fairly low-end hardware by editing the configuration file "XComEngine.ini." There are guides on the internet for safely editing this file. Granted, you shouldn't have to -- optimization ought to be a priority for a game studio with such extensive resources -- but eh, it's not that hard to edit it down a bit and the graphics still look gorgeous. Ultimately, if you feel strongly that you do not want to futz around with mods (although it really isn't hard to do, with the Workshop and integrated modloader) or ini editing, then you should not buy XCOM 2. Otherwise, get ready to explore the best modding community I have seen for a computer game.

XCOM2 does so much right, and improves from the already great XCOM Enemy Unknown/Within. This time you are not fighting the alien invasion, but the aliens have already won. You are the rebels, trying to fight a losing battle and free Earth from the hold of the aliens. This reversal of roles is handled splendidly from both gameplay and storytelling standpoint. It's interesting to be on kind of the invading side for once. You use this huge airship to fly around the world, trying to hold off the Advent and stop their plans. One of the biggest changes from Enemy Unknown comes in the battles. In EU you would advance slowly until you finally see the aliens, they get in position and you just hope to god you did good enough job in positioning before triggering the aliens. Here the Advent are not aware of you, you're the infiltrator. How this works is when you see the aliens, you see a red are around them. Once you get on it, the enemy notices you and the battle starts. Before that though you have plenty of time to position your soldiers and catch the aliens off guard, killing bunch of them before they can do anything and be prepared for another wave. This is extremely satisfying to pull off, and it might seem like it makes the game easy, because you can basically do whatever you want and enemy doesn't notice you, but it doesn't. Many missions are on pretty strict turn limit, which I honestly recommend alleviating a bit with mods, there are mods that remove timers completely and some that add just a turn or two which makes a huge difference not necessarily in difficulty, but in that you're not being rushed all the time and you actually have the time to make strategic decisions, and not just blindly gunning it sacrificing every good soldier you have or risk failure altogether. Enemies often can come endlessly too, so hanging around too long with no turn limit at all can be very bad thing to do also. Soldier classes are also deepened, and you can really customize them the way you want. Not only are there loads of cosmetic options available in-game, the modding community has done some amazing stuff creating different armor. My favorite is definitely different Stormtrooper outfits to create my own clone army who miss every shot, classic XCOM style. And not only cosmetics, but also the abilities they have. You can choose different specialization for every character, and you can really make them how you want, for example sniper can be more classic sniper who shoots from far away, can shoot extremely long distances in overwatch etc. or become a gunslinger who uses pistol truly effectively. Modders also come in play here as they've created some great new options, many of them actually balanced too that fit the team perfectly, not just one man armies like some modders like to do. The gameplay changes and improvements really bring XCOM2 to whole other level in terms of tactical, squad based strategy games. And embracing modding gives it a lot of longevity and options to truly play how you want. XCOM EU did a fine job rebooting an old franchise, and XCOM2 innovates and improves from it in every aspect, modernizing it without sacrificing the core of XCOM.

Play Enemy Unknown first. Buy this if you like that game. PROS - Unique take on classic strategy game, Solid successor to XCOM: Enemy Unknown, Adds much needed features lacking in predecessor, excellent workshop support and replayability. CONS - The game can be frustrating and unfair, different from classic XCOMs, not recommended as someone's first XCOM game, paid DLC is overshadowed by free workshop content and doesn't add enough, no major changes since launch. -PROS- Unique take on classic strategy game: XCOM has always been centered around an elite force fighting outside invaders. However, with XCOM 2, this changes. The aliens are controlling the planet, XCOM is disbanded and disavowed, and all known associates are gone. The game places the Commander in an all new role or Resistance leader, fighting an organized and controlling majority as an undertrained, undersourced minority. This new take is a breath of fresh air for the series, and I greatly appreciated it. Solid successor to XCOM: Enemy Unknown: 2011's Enemy Unknown was an excellent reboot to the XCOM series and modernized a series that is archaic in my opinion. The classic XCOM:UFO Defense is a great game, but is clearly aged and isn't intuitive to modern players. XCOM 2 builds on Enemy Unknown and continues gameplay that is smart, exciting, and keeps the classic XCOM blend of luck and skill. Adds much needed features lacking in predecessor such as excellent workshop support and replayability: XCOM: Enemy Unknown is a great game, but lacked features to make it truly perfect. XCOM 2 adds many of these features, such as full mod support from launch as well as developer commissioned mods adding anything from enemy types and weapons to overhaul mods like Spectrum and the fabled Long War 2 that increase replayability tenfold. -CONS- The game can be frustrating and unfair: This game is balanced towards aliens, as per the theme. However, sometimes this results in a game that almost requires "save scumming", that is, reloading a save over and over until RNG picks the result you want. This is partially because of hit percentage. Attacking someone who is behind full cover will almost always result in a miss, which is reasonable. However, when getting an angle on enemies, this is a gray area. Flanking at an almost 90 degree angle should provide major aim bonuses, however will act as if you are looking straight on, and will likely miss. However, when the game registers the soldier as flanking, this is much less of an issue. The lines of sight are also silly, sometimes firing through a wall or hiding behind a lightpost that's thin as wire and takes bullets like a magnet. This is able to be fixed with mods, and is included in some such as Long War 2. However, it should be noted that the base game has this problem. It's also of note that enemies rarely have this problem when hitting you, and a lucky shot on your recruit can turn him into a scared militia with a rifle to a puddle on a dirty street and a series of laser burns. Different from classic XCOM games: Classic XCOM games are simply more in depth and more strategic. This can be a pro or a con depending on your preference, and personally I like the newer system. However, if you're familiar with older games and are looking into XCOM 2 with that in mind, I highly recommend buying Enemy Unknown before hand to familiarize with the mechanics. Paid DLC is overshadowed by free workshop content and doesn't add enough and no major changes since launch: Workshop support is a double edged sword for developers. While the community is free to publish content, this leaves little room for developers to build on the game. As such, the DLC adds content that is easily outweighed by mods, and isn't worth the money in comparison. Additionally, the game has been optimized since launch, but no major additions or changes have been made. If it wasn't your cup of tea at launch, its unlikely that you'll like it now. -VERDICT- This game is great. I honestly love it. I am a fan of the Resistance theme, the concept of fighting as an underdog against a juggernaut of an enemy. The mods have made this game into something truly replayable and customizable, and I find myself playing it again and again, even moreso than Enemy Unknown. However, I can understand if it's not for everyone. It can be buggy, it can be unfair, and even I'm frustrated at times. Despite this, the game offers so much to draw me back in and change my playthroughs that I can't help but love this game. It has been one of my top played games since release and shows no signs of being replaced.

This game is a excellent follow-up to already excellent remake of already excellent game (say that fast few times). While Xcom: Enemy Unknown was great game, it had a lot of issues, be it limitless amount of enemies on map, which was incredibly unfair and cheap or permanent pre-made roll for the map, so no amount of reloading will fix the miss of 100% accuracy shot. Those parts were incredibly annoying, here though this is gone and not only that, but what was great in Xcom: Enemy Unknown with Enemy Within expansion is even better. Classes are actually great and all of them useful and thankfuly you won't end up with the awful roll of randomness like in EU/EW. Soundtrack is good, but what is disappointing is the performance, which is still not that great - while the graphics are good, there is no reason for this game to be this demanding. Also, canon ending they chose for this game is mankind being defeated by alien in the first game, probably because not that many people have beaten this game, but still, it feels kind of insulting and makes the first game pointless. Overall, while there are small problems here and there, it doesn't change the fact that this game is still one of the best turn-based strategy games out there or maybe even of all time. Strongly Recommended.

I played XCOM:Enemy Unknown and its expansion for many hours. It was such an amazing game. It goes without saying that I had high hopes for XCOM 2, but I was somehow left disappointed. The game is not bad, but it feels so slow and iterative. I did not play that long, but was never really surprised. It was XCOM all over again with not many new ideas. And the ideas that were new (like the timed missions) did not feel entirely convincing. If you never played XCOM and like the idea of the game, try XCOM 2. If you are an XCOM veteran, you could give it a try but don't have high expectations. The game might convince you more than it did me.