I have never played a traditional 4X game and was hesitant to dive into the genre because of the complexity and scope involved. But it was always on my radar. If I could just find that one game I felt was worth my time and investment...

Age of Wonders: Planetfall peaked my interest. Here is a 4X strategy game, with turn-based tactical combat, set in a unique Science-Fiction universe of intergalactic planetary conquest among divergent aliens & humans. Immediately I was struck by the similarities with the old Heroes of Might and Magic games (from back in the day). However, Planetfall has much more going for it than those fantasy titles I grew up playing. For starters, the artwork is gorgeous. The variety of assets among the different planetary terrains, ancient ruins, faction units and heroes are heavily detailed, creating a rich environment to explore and expand your territory. The music and voice acting are serviceable in fleshing out your experience, but can sometimes feel repetitive after a fashion. Tactical combat offers a myriad of strategic elements like cover mechanics, operational support, unique technologies and unit mods, all designed for an engaging X-Com style showdown between two battling armies. While the game offers an auto-combat feature for a quick resolution, there is also a replay function to observe how the computer actually plays these encounters.

Aside from aesthetics and mechanics, Triumph Studios put a lot of effort in designing every playable and NPC faction truly unique from one another. Each group has a different set of racial abilities and yet are still balanced enough where no single faction is overpowered. You have an equal chance to win playing as the militant Vanguard as you do playing the swarming alien Kir’Ko. Players also have a variety of options to choose from in customizing heroes, from their uniforms to their stance, personality traits and vices, background image and even profile picture. All of which contribute to how you diplomatically converse with each leader either by making them your ally or insulting them to the point of war.

Exploration in this game was not what I expected, however. It felt more like a balancing act between micromanaging resources and army stacks as opposed to strategizing which victory condition to complete. There is a bit of a learning curve given the menagerie of tech choices and building options for you to unlock. So it takes a number of playthroughs to discover the best course of action.

Planetfall is a very good “entry-level” 4X game, but it’s incomplete without the subsequent expansions – Revelations, Invasions, Star Kings. These DLCs finish the overall game in terms of lore and endgame content (with Galactic Empire mode), but are not cheap to purchase, unless you wait for a Steam Sale. While the addition of 6 new campaigns, 3 new game altering mechanics, 2 new playable races, 1 new secret tech and a new game mode are great, some may wish to simply install community Mods from the Steam Workshop which also expand the core gameplay with a number of creative content.
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** Empire Mode Update **

As of this writing, I have completed my campaign of conquering the galaxy to unlock the remaining achievements. With a roster of 28 custom-made heroes, I've reached an Empire Level of 220 and acquired all relics from 14 "different" worlds. There are still a few unique planets I have not experienced because of the random generation of traits / relics / victory conditions I was looking for. The vast majority of worlds I encountered are the same barren-colored rocks, which in fairness, is mostly my fault for not choosing various other planets.

Unfortunately, there is a bug when trying to unlock The Grail relics from capturing planets with the same name. I acquired my first Grail relic with an Oathbound hero. When I completed the Grail Quest on another world with the same name as the previous planet where I unlocked a Grail....that original Oathbound hero received credit in her list of accomplishments for unlocking this new Grail, even though I used a different hero to conquer this new world. After that, the remaining Grail relics I captured on other planets, using other heroes, were all listed under my Oathbound hero - which is impossible, since she was never used or recruited on those worlds.

Needless to say, if you want to keep your hero's list of accomplishments as accurate as possible - don't play on planets with the same name, especially when trying to unlock all 5 Grail relics.

Long War of the Chosen 1.1 is the latest update to the popular Long War mod adapted for XCOM 2: War of the Chosen. This was a great opportunity to try Long War again, only this time to experience it with a myriad of other mods. Encouraged by Christopher Odds new season 8 play-through, I was meticulous in my selection since the recent update incorporates many features of older mods. While not as extreme as other players, this is the most mods I have played with, and I’m happy to report everything worked.

LWotC is different from Long War for the original XCOM: Enemy Unknown / (Enemy Within). Because the game’s lore shifts focus with you being a Resistance movement instead of a global military force, and because you now have Rebel Havens to manage, your gameplay loop goes something like this:

1) Equip fighters and organize them into squads

2) Send your squads to “infiltrate” select missions

3) Begin combat once infiltration completes

4) Use Intel and Supplies to upgrade your base & equipment

5) Manage Havens to gather supplies, intel, new recruits or go into hiding

In addition, you need to focus your attention on eliminating The Chosen, contacting new territories, operating covert missions and keeping the Avatar project from completing. This game really lives up to the name “Long War”. What really stood out to me with the new 1.1 patch was the variety and enormous number of enemies I encountered. I faced over 100 unique Advent and Alien units, including a Chryssalid Hive Queen, which was originally introduced in a separate mod called The Hive. Talk about terrifying!

Unlike the first Long War, where I said in my review how that mod really made the game feel like the ultimate form of XCOM, LWotC is not an evolution but rather an alternative. It massively overhauls the game with new soldier classes, perk trees, equipment stats, mission types, pod encounters, etc. But really only adds one new mechanic in the form of Havens. So it really comes down to how you want to play…the War of the Chosen expansion already completes XCOM 2 while the modding community continually adds to the game.

The choice is yours, Commander.

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<< Original Review >>

XCOM 2 improved on the foundation of what made this new XCOM special.
XCOM 2: War of the Chosen & Tactical Legacy expansions finally complete the franchise, making this one of the best (if not 'the' best) tactical turn-based strategy games I have ever played. It's not surprising to see many similar games adapting XCOM's style of gameplay and mechanics. When reviews and articles compare them to XCOM, that alone should tell you how successful / influential this game has become.

On its own, XCOM 2 is simply an improved or expanded version of XCOM, building on what made the first one work and adding more "features". Whether you love or hate it, what really sells this game for many fans are the MODS. So many Mods, there's practially a Mod for every mechanic and cosmetic in the game. So even if you finish the game, or never felt like it managed to reach it's true potential, you can bet the Modding community has you covered with more than enough content to play for many more hours - at least until XCOM 3.