You play as a multiethnic resistance group that performs guerrilla warfare against an overwhelmingly powerful oppressor. Feels like a leftist dogwhistle, even if realistically its normal #resistance
In Xcom1 you basically play as a swat team against alien "terrorists", and then i think you play as cops in Chimera Squad. Xcom2 is that real shit
It's funny how everyone hated Chimera Squad, I personally hated it because you're just playing as cops. The epic gamers hated it cuz it had a "liberal agenda."
I love games discourse, it's the best.
I bet its fun, I'll play it sometime. Im pretty sure the theme is
👏more👏alien👏cops👏
but I wanna play as a snake girl so whatever
always sad in fiction when they jump cut into the future and the protagonists create neoliberal capitalism every time. They did that shit in Legend of Korra, kinda ruined the whole show because of that
Reminds me of how Tygan was talking about the ways Advent was appealing to ordinary people and Bradford simply responded with "We can't offer them that but we can offer them freedom". That feels so much worse when taking Chimera Squad into account.
if you wanted, you could probably read the gene therapy plotline as an attack on free healthcare, real "the mouse doesnt know why the cheese is free" hours. But im just gonna pretend that the commander purges reactionary elements in his army post-game, and creates socialism
True, but conversely you can also read it as a warning about neoliberal states creating the breeding grounds for fascism and desperation. The Earth before the invasion and alliance/puppeting by the aliens is obviously pretty awful. Aside from tidbits of lore, like 90% of the places to visit to repel the aliens in are slums to mega cities with occasional shopping mall thrown in Only in WOTC do you get the occasional opportunity to set off incendiary grenades in the nice suburbs.
I had higher hopes for Bradford, especially with his Corbyn-esque trademark jumpers.
If I had it on PC I'd definitely want to mod a voice line for the mission where you take him too so he could say "this jumper, I think my Mum bought it at the Co-Op" before slicing a serpent in half.
This is why character customisation for your squad is so important, as well as allowing myself to save scum when Karl Marx got blindsided by a hidden Gatekeeper pod.
XCOM 1 can be interpreted as you fighting against settler colonial aliens.
XCOM 2 WOTC with the tactical legacy soundtrack is peak XCOM. In one moment the game is a stress inducing nightmare as you struggle to keep your failing campaign alive against increasingly overwhelming odds. In another, it's the most ridiculous power fantasy ever as XCOM rolls through, alpha strikes every pod, blows up half the settlement they were supposed to protect, and leaves a shitload of dead
copsADVENT in their wake.Love a prison break mission success poster when you can tell my strategy was 'fuck this, go loud' by the mostly burning rubble that used to be the prison building behind my grinning squad. Top ACAB vibes.
Fuck yeah XCOM BABY. I love turn based strategy games lately bc the gameplay loop is just satisfying and addictive af. Xcom 2 was super slick. Finished it early this year, then went back to the OG xcom and started playing Long War which was fucking unreal. If you're a vet I'd highly recommend it if you haven't but it would be really off-putting if I was new to the series. I haven't played long war 2 and can't comment on it but I've heard mixed reviews.
Anyone fuck with other games in the genre or related genres? I loved divinity original sin 2's combat, it's like xcom mixed with DND. Has anyone played wasteland 3? I've heard it's like a crpg with xcom's combat and that sounds very nice to me.
Also if you're looking for other stuff in a similar vein...
Hard West plays like a country death ballad themed board game on the strategy layer, but then has XCOM style western shootouts. It oozes atmosphere and has a really interesting twist one the targeting mechanic where instead of hit chances characters (you and enemies) have a set amount of luck, which depletes whenever you're shot at or if you use it up on things like trick shot ricochets, and you only get hit when you run out of luck. It makes for longer exchanges of gunfire but really captures that western vibe and fits thematically with the cowboy meets the devil vibe. Also you can shoot people's hats off, so that's ace.
I also enjoyed Phantom Doctrine. It's a cold war spy game that let's you play as the USSR and has a genuinely convoluted (mostly in a good way with interesting detail, sometimes in an odd way thanks to procedural elements) espionage plot. The tactics layer (actual missions) play a lot like XCOM if it was a really, really bad idea to get into shooting matches. You're basically always outnumbered, usually outgunned, then there's alarms, reinforcements etc. It's predominantly a stealth game of neck snapping and timed sneaking, but it has a few cool mechanics that do make those short bursts of gunfire very cool.
The first is a breach mechanic (that XCOM then kinda stole for Chimera Squad) where you position your team outside of a room, usually at different entrances, and then plot their simultaneous movement into said room and where they direct their shots. All kicking in the doors and bursting into a smoke filled boardroom at once, downing four CIA ghouls with four equally well placed shots simultaneously, one from each of your agents is incredibly satisfying.
It's also stricter about sightlines and not showing you the whole map when your characters can't see it, so you can also bring agents along as support like spotters where they'll be in a building to the North, East, South, or West with binoculars and can reveal who's inside a room that you can't see for example but has a window facing them. Likewise you eventually get snipers you can use like or with the breach mechanic. It's a great moment when you enter a room only to realise you're outnumbered but then your invisible sniper picks off the last guy from the window behind him before he takes his turn. Those movie moments are gold and the soundtrack (by the same guy who did the Witcher 3) is better than almost any actual spy movie I can think of.
It has some very cool other mechanics too, like the ability to brainwash captured enemies and then send them back only for them to show up in future missions where you can turn them to your side with a control phrase, but also the rare possibility that one of your own can turn on you mid-mission. You think losing your favourite soldier in XCOM is wonderfully bittersweet, try your favourite agent suddenly turning on your team just as you're about to complete an object and then executing your second favourite agent before trying to escape!
The downside is that it's ambition and lack of budget shows more than the others mentioned here. It can be a bit unbalanced, has moments of brilliance and frustration rather than being a really solid gameplay loop every time, and I know some people who just hated the strategy layer task of scanning documents you find for procedurally generated code words to gather intel and progress the plot (although with some headquarters upgrades you can largely automate that). Also, I really liked the board game style world map where you need to station spies around the world to limit travel time for objectives, but I had a friend who got very frustrated feeling like they never had the right person for the right job in the right place. As you can tell by how long I've been typing it's definitely a mixed bag, but really interesting and like nothing else at it's best.
Finally there's Empire Of Sin which has just come out and is a classic gangster themed game with XCOM style brawls and shootouts, but a really involved and detail criminal empire management and diplomacy management. It's had mixed reviews and I haven't played it yet as it's just come out, but it's on my list.
Bro thanks for the thoughtful and thorough response, I'm going to absolutely have to check out phantom doctrine. Hard west sounds interesting too, the luck mechanic sounds goofy and unique. I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on Darkest Dungeon.
You're very welcome. As a mostly solitary and cheap gamer I don't often have much to say about the stuff most people play, but you've stumbled into one of my favourite niches here. Plus if people might spend money, especially when things are tough right now, on something I recommend I want to make sure they'll actually be interested and no what they're getting.
Truthfully I haven't played Darkest Dungeon. I probably should, but I have a bit of mental block when it comes to fantasy stuff. It's just not my aesthetic really. People absolutely rate it though and say it's wonderfully harsh sometimes.
Darkest dungeon was a game I avoided forever because it came out back when fuckin' everything was a rogue-like procedurally generated dungeon crawler permadeath shitshow. On paper, the only thing about it that I liked was the aesthetic but I heard a podcast talking about their experience with it. Copped it on sale for like 8 bucks and holy shit it was worth it lmao.
I'd say the gameplay loop resembles xcom where you enter the combat layer, level your chars and gain loot to manage your base. The biggest difference id say is that personell mgmt is more important but also more rewarding. Low level characters are a lot more expendable than in xcom, but high level characters have a bigger impact. Base mgmt is mostly choosing from new recruits, managing the sanity and diseases of your troupe, upgrading their equipment and special abilities, and upgrading buildings with various resources. I would say it takes up about the same amount of time as base mgmt in xcom but it doesn't feel as rewarding as xcom because there aren't big upgrades that give you a major advantage (e.g. first round of armor upgrades in OG xcom). Upgrades are more just plain necessary to take on harder dungeon levels and I found that out the hard way.
The dungeon crawling is the meat of the game, and I was surprised at how fun and fucking stressful it can be. Levels are randomly generated across a few different themes, and each of the dungeons have different enemies with weaknesses that can shape the team you choose to tackle each. The layouts of the dungeons are all on the same sort of grid system but have enough variety that they each feel distinct. Dungeons have hazards that can harm your party, damage their sanity, inflict disease, or even induce personality quirks. Loot and supplies share the same inventory space, incentivizing riskier provisioning that could invite bad things happening to your characters to take home better stuff. In fact, I think this game manages risk-reward better than most strategy and rogue-like games. The challenge does occasionally come from RNG (it is a turn-based game after all) but most of it is baked in and you're constantly making decisions before starting and while going through the dungeon that feel impactful.
Do I take fewer torches to open extra loot slots later? I know this level has less corridors and i might not need as many. Do I go straight to the boss or risk an injured party while scooping some extra loot? Do I snuff my torch to maximize drops but risk getting ambushed? Do I take an extra combat round to heal and risk drawing reinforcements? Instead of incentivizing the minimization of risk, it pushes you toward taking them; the boons are immediate and the punishments, disastrous.
Combat is simpler than xcom to an extent, but the characters have so much variety and situational synergy, the enemies are unique, and each encounter offers slightly different flavors of challenge. The bosses are spectacular and terrifying. It's especially challenging early on where you don't have the resources to respec characters or upgrade them, and the learning curve is hatefully steep. That said, you fuck with xcom so the threat of permadeath is nothing new lmao. I found the combat really stressful, every encounter feels like it can break bad and the game saves all the time. There's no restarting an encounter, no save scumming, you're beholden to your choices. Combat moves fast enough, and there are mods to speed it up further on PC. I had a lot of fun building little teams, experimenting with synergies, creating flexible free agents to round out other crews. Combat can see harm to your characters health and also to their sanity. Health is usually scarce but easily restored; sanity caps a bit higher but is expensive to restore at the base. Managing these two resources are integral to the combat and it's something you learn to do as you go.
The only major criticisms I have are the progression and presentation. The progression feels more incremental than dynamic, because characters will only go into dungeons at a few specific level intervals. Since you're only using low-level characters in low-level dungeons, the dungeons take the same amount of time and the characters level up at the same rate. Conversely, the higher level dungeons are gnarly and wiping means you have four characters that have to be replaced. It's challenging in a way that's incongruous with the other challenges in the game, in a way that's frustrating and tedious.
This game is also super ugly, mostly as a design decision. However, I think the UI and some of the character animations are a bit lacking. The gross, dingy aesthetic can be oppressive at times but I think it complements the theming pretty well. Your mileage may vary tbh.
Well, that was longer than I meant it to be, sorry about that.
You're a fucking champ for writing this in we much detail as you have done. Imma be real with you, you've made it more likely I'll actually play it rather than sticking it on the list forever as thwr s some elements that sound fucking great, but also less likely for it to be my next game I launch into a while I have an immediate (and easier) backlist. You've absolutely interested me in a way that I will play it rather than feeling like I should play it.
Hard West is another in the genre, with a fantasy western theme, with demons. It's more story-focused so the missions aren't random and the characters are less expendable. The game uses a luck stat that makes you harder to hit and depletes whenever you dodge a shot or use an ability but recovers when you get hit - the trick is to find good cover when you're low on luck so you just get nicked.
I also enjoyed the Shadowrun games. In Dragonfall there's a mission where you get to shoot up a bunch of fascists :no-fash:
I've finished Wasteland 3 twice.
It's good, with some actual good humour and decent satire, and while the plot is pretty rote it has some interesting digressions and interesting world building.
The combat is tactical and not too clunky, but it's definitely less snappy and satisfying than XCOM. There's less of it though obviously with it being an RPG and stealth and speech checks often being an option. You do pretty much have to have at least one stealth attack character and always ambush enemy groups though, especially on higher difficulties, which when you get decent means most battles tend to play out the same (surprise attack on biggest threat -> thin the herd -> overwatch to protect any squad mates in 1 turn danger -> finish stragglers on next turn). There's some fun wackier weapons that have odd buffs and debuffs though for if it's a bit easy/familiar like shrink grenades, confetti and more.
There's a couple of other issues too. The stat aspect of the character progression is unbalanced to the point of being nearly useless, and since positioning and action points are so important you'll dump nearly all your stats into maxing coordination first and then speed, regardless of a character's class or build. There's a few frustrating modern Fallout-esque choices too, where the text or short description of what you'll say / who's side you'll take doesn't really match up with what you'd think and undermines your intention, but it's not too common. It's also very all sides bad although at least it has both more fun and actual grey area with that than most games of its ilk. Finally it's still pretty janky and a bit unpolished in places. Fixes have done a lot for the terrible crashing and load times it had at launch, but I still wouldn't recommend an Ironman playthrough unless you don't mind repeating a fair bit of progress.
Overall though I thoroughly enjoyed it, found it engaging all the way through, genuinely funny quite frequently (which is a rarity for me), and went back for a second helping after the first. Also, it's robots are the best.
Yeah I've heard a lot of the same stuff about wasteland, particular regarding the jank but a lot of people have been praising the story elements and narrative structure. Sounds like a worthwhile investment for sure
Idk about it being leftist, but turn based squad games are my shit, so I really enjoyed it, even if it's a buggy mess some times. I love how War of the Chosen just turns the entire game into an anime for no reason lol.
Anyone played Chimera squad? I've heard mixed reviews.
Chimera Squad is buggy, everyone hates the art style, and every mission is a SWAT raid which gets repetitive and feels a little icky. That said, as a big XCOM fan, I enjoyed the different twists on the gameplay and I don't regret my purchase, I just wouldn't recommend it. The best word to describe it is experimental - they tried a lot of different stuff and some of it worked and some of it didn't. I'm optimistic that they can take the best parts of it for XCOM 3.
its not actually leftist, i just like pretending it is. i was super worried that war of the chosen would jump the shark with overpowered chosen and faction heroes, but it turned out to be a fantastic expansion, i loved it. never got to chimera squad but i probably will one day
I just got WOTC during the sale a few weeks ago and started my first playthrough of that (I played vanilla at release).
WOTC is vastly better than vanilla and, even though there have still been a couple of bullshit moments where I felt entitled to savescum, it's a really really well done game.
Buggy as shit though and the camera and animations are ass.
Yeah WOTC is like a whole new, brilliant game. The first playthrough can be gnarly though, especially when the Chosen show up and you haven't learnt all the strategies for them yet.
WOTC is brilliant because of how they addressed the complaints from vanilla.
Everyone complained that having turn limits in almost every mission was annoying and restrictive. Instead of getting rid of them they added enough new mission types to dilute how many you had to deal with. Then, on top of that you resistance orders to help you out with those missions when you can't avoid them.
Also the Chosen pause any timers when they show up, but are usually far-as-fuck away so you get to do all the mopping up and moving toward the objective without the timer really bothering you.
Yeah the character generation is super white, its a shame. Its weird to do a mission in west africa and the civilians are called Olaf Jorganssen or something
They have a really cool world to work with, its too bad they dont experiment with worldbuilding too much and just focus on the enemy designs. 20 years is a long time, and the only difference is that buildings look different? I guess thats what the imagination is for
I'm guessing it's sort of like a Half-Life 2 situation where workers are "voluntarily" rotated around the world (HL2 took place in Russia, for instance). But then again, it's slanted towards white people so...
new headcannon where "gene therapy" makes people white
(Picture of Marx) he wrote the theory
(Picture of me playing a strategy game at 2am) and ill do the praxis
Also the DLC gives you Worf from Star Trek as a companion, so pretty much game of the century
Wrong. LW is literally just "What if we made the game worse, but also longer, less engaging, and more tedious". It's literally just a list of bad design decisions.
I basically agree with that, but sometimes I actually want that. It's like that one time a year you want to play Risk even though you have loads of better wargames.
I guess sometimes you just feel :party-sicko:
Sometimes being annoyed and stressed out is the ideal XCOM experience, and LW/LW2 do that very well imo.
Having a handful of super soldiers winning nearly every single battle from the start doesn't feel as epic as growing from sending 12 rookies knowing 3 might survive to calling retreats early/ignoring missions because you're already stretched too thin to slowly putting together an effective army and carrying out every single mission.
Xcom without LW doesn't feel like you're fighting a guerilla war against an overwhelming force.
Yea but that's nonsense. LW just means you're sending the rookie on 900 missions which consist of 9000000000 aliens per mission, and its still not harder because you're still only gong to fight them 1 on 1.
