XCOM EU General Comments about EW (possible spoilers)

[endersblade]

I completed my first play-through of Impossible Ironman mode in Enemy Within. Yes, the game has been out for only a few days, and I've already done it on the 'hardest' setting. That in itself is kinda depressing. I've actually completed it at least 3 more times since then, trying to get the achievement for starting in every country. Anyway, I noticed a few things in-game, as well as not in-game, that really made this sort of a letdown to me.

 

First and foremost, I think MOST of us can agree that the Gene Mod armor is ridiculously terrible. There was seriously no call for that, and I am counting down the days until someone figures out how to 'fix' it.

 

Reaper Ammo. Ok, cool, I really liked this idea. More gadgets, woot! ...except that by the time I researched it, I was already using Laser tech >.> Complete waste of research time. And even if I HAD researched it before I got to Lasers, I would've had to artificially extended the timeframe until I got Lasers just to make it feel like I got some use out of this. Respirators were basically the same - I think I had about 3 missions where I actually used them, and then I was getting into Titan Armor that made me immune to poison and fire anyway.

 

No new weapon or armor tiers. This one REALLY rubbed me wrong. How hard would it have been for them to make at LEAST another tier of weapons, if not armor? Sure, we get MEC Troopers, cool. And I'll be the first to say, those things impressed me to no end. Walking tanks they are. But the research tree in this game is SO short, they seriously could've extended it a bit with another tier of weapons to play with. Hell, make a 'special' tier of weapons. New weapons that are above and beyond Plasma. Require something crazy to research it, I don't know. Just SOMETHING would've been nice.

 

The game is just too damned short. Granted, this is of course a complaint about EU as well. Most of the research doesn't require much other than just time, so if you get lucky and have a few days between UFO landings, you can feasibly go from base armor/weapons to Titan armor/Laser Weapons between your first mission and your second!

 

The EXALT was sort of a huge letdown for me, too. First off, it drove me absolutely BONKERS that almost every month they'd steal HALF of the damned money I had! Now, the Covert Missions were actually cool, I did enjoy those. But taking out the final base...I expected a bit more than that. Something like 18 guys to kill, nothing special, just another mission? Really? I expected a multi-tier fight, like alien bases of the old days. Start at the top floor, work your way down sort of thing. And what do you get out of it? A handful of crap you can sell for a total of about $500. YAY. On top of that, you really don't know what EXALT is all about, other than being 'misguided alien sympathizers' or something. There's seriously no backstory to these guys at all?

 

Seekers. When you first run across them, they can really kick your ass if you aren't prepared. And by the time you ARE prepared for them, you don't see them anymore. Really freaking lame.

 

Base defense. That mission was absolutely AMAZING. But you only get to do it once. Really? The aliens have figured out where your base is, you'd think they'd do everything they could to try and take you down. Also, the fact that it gives you random security clones instead of using the roster of soldiers you have is kinda dumb. Hell, it would've been cool if the EXALT tried to breach your place every once in a while, instead of just stealing all your damned money.

 

The new psychic recruits you get via missions. When you first get Annette, it makes it sound like, "Oh man, this is some IMPORTANT stuff!" and you're just chomping at the bit for a new research tree, bit of tech, something. But no. And the only way you ever find out anything about Annette is if you sit at your base long enough at certain times to get the chatter about it. Then you get the mission to rescue her friends, and they just fall in line with the rest of your soldiers. No questions asked. The Aliens really wanted these people, I think the Exalt did too, but as soon as you get your hands on them, they're basically worthless.

 

I seriously think they could've expanded the psychic perk tree a bit. Well, a lot, really. I have never, not once, even bothered using Mind Fray in a mission, much less actually leveling someone's psychic abilities. By the time it becomes available, your troops are such murderous badasses that sissy mind games are just a waste of time.

 

Things I DID like:

 

MEC Troopers, again, good god those things are amazing. I had to run with just ONE in my party, because a party of 6 of them was just obliterating EVERYTHING and it wasn't much fun lol.

 

Gene Mods. I thought that was well done, just didn't like the armor.

 

Medals. I think this is a cool idea, and they really could've expanded it a bit. Really nice way to customize your troops. Though I think it would've been nice if each of your soldiers earned their own individual medals instead of them just going into a pool to give to anybody and everybody, but it's still a good start.

 

I liked EXALT in the fact that it was refreshing to kill something other than aliens. That's about it.

 

The new missions were really cool. I enjoyed the one on the Dam the most, I think.

 

I LOVE that you can use all the different voice files for your troops! Dude from russia? Use the Russian voice! So cool!

 

Now, don't get me wrong. I'm a HUGE fan of this game. I've played through EU at least 20 or 30 times. I'll do the same with EW. But I felt that there seriously should've just been MORE. More aliens, more tech, more playtime, just MORE of everything.

[sainttodd]

For the price, I suppose I don't disagree. But, I'm still happy to get more of a great game. And, frankly, you must be awesome, because I think this game is tough.

[jkjkhardcore]

Very nice review, I can't believe how fast you beat it, if I was not so obsessed with not losing a single country on Classic mode I'm sure i'd beat it too.

I am upset they don't have chinese or japanese for the soldiers :(

[mutonizer]

Same flaws in X:EW than in X:EU though there are little fluff things that are nice (soldier's voice, grenade UI overlay, etc). It still has the same cool things that makes some of us come back to it for a time, and the same INSANELY irritating stuff that will probably never make it last in history the same way the original X:COM games did (heck, people still do let's play of these games quite often).

 

Just need to take the game for what it is: a generation Y console X:COM game. Once that's accepted, you have fun where you can :)

 

The EXALT and PROGENY bits are in line with that concept. Superficial, nonsensical and only there for one reason: Fun. Most people like simple fun and don't need any reason, story or logic as long as something gets blown up so it's probably a good move money-wise. Why one base? who cares. Why one Skyranger? who cares. Why do I have to choose between 1 out of 3 abductions sites every time? who cares! Why seekers choke you while they can one shot your recruits? who cares! Why gene-modded can't wear sleeves? Who cares! It's a game, it's fun, play it and shut up!

 

I quite agree that they could have done so much more, it's crazy.

 

And I have to admit, I'm having fun when I play. The only issue is that I can never play long because very quickly all the completely abstract restrictions drive me crazy.

 

Anyway, nice one on impossible. Personally I get my butt handed to me in there all the time because I tend to "role-play" somewhat with the soldiers, never play with snipers and whatnot, which makes C:I my type of game. Finishing my X:EW C:I was a bore for anything past June though, with soldiers blowing through everything. Was already stupidly simple in EU but now with all the goodies added and no real new challenge, I didn't even get any injury whatsoever during the last battle. The first few months were fun as usual because it can be really rough but the mid/end game hasn't changed and is still has silly as it was before.

 

For now, I'm just waiting for some mods and the updated ToolBok if it ever comes so that I FINALLY don't end up with 90% of my recruits as females (it was CRAZY in my play through!) and almost 50% of them as snipers (so frustrating!)... No real reason to come back to it otherwise.

[DamarStiehl]

It was nice to revisit the old stomping grounds, I liked the new maps and new options. Totally worth thirty bucks. Especially since I had to decide between buying EW and X:Rebirth, and EW won by coin toss. And then we all know how X:Rebirth turned out.

[xX893kiraXx]

I think reaper rounds are only useful in marathon mode.

 

Also Exalt are quite tough it depends on your setting and making reaper rounds quite useful when doing marathon mode also Progeny is not good or bad. I am gonna say this DLC is really cheap compared to money making crappy DLC they released. Just imagine a Progeny DLC. Annette personality is really good compared to Zhang.