Loved it.

There are two kinds of people:

Those who find this game to be the perfect, refined form of "new" XCOM games (starting with enemy unknown) in maximizing tactical gameplay, variety, and eliminating chore work.

Or people who nobody wants to hang out with who actually think old XCOM games are better and should just play Xenonauts and shut up.

This was the ideal XCOM experience. Just wish it were longer and had bigger squads unlock later for some of the larger maps. But it is a very TIGHT and Good experience. It doesn't really have much of an endgame because, well, its a smaller game than XCOM2. Took all the cool parts of XCOM 2 (minus the chosen) and refined them into a more fun game, albeit shorter ~ 20 hours.

Game is divided into 3 chapters initially, which creates some replay value as those chapters will have minor tweaks based on the order you do them in. Final chapter seems anticlimacticly short, but hey -> this is the smallest XCOM so far, and its priced for its size. Still a great game!

Every move matters. Form your own team from your own squad meaningfully. No more meat grindees with unique equipment -> you get unique characters with unique equipment!

Ironman is also not a chore because forced restarts if your units die anyway, so... you can play ironman and then not also have to hate yourself. Save scumming not required for good wins, except for like, maybe some achievements? But there are easier way to get achievements, like modding.


Zephyr MVP