History YMMV / XCOM2

** Compared to the Assassin and the Warlock, the Hunter is an absolute breeze. Unlike his siblings, who can stun or mind-control your soldier with no recourse, the Hunter can...take aim at one of your soldier and give them a whole turn to move away before he shoots. That's it. He doesn't do anything else unless you actively chase after him, so unless you want to kill him for ability points, you can safely ignore him in any mission he appears in. The aliens that he can summon are way more dangerous than he is.

** On Platform/FanfictionNet, the most popular crossover for XCOM is ''Franchise/MassEffect''. Now, this game arrived, and we have:

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter: Outside of a small number of VIPs for specific missions the game is rather coy about explicit human LesCollaborateurs with Advent, with the seemingly human soldiers being quickly revelaed to be clones and even the Speaker being a breed of alien. The characters even remak they never heard of a single volunteer in the service of the Aliens. Which given the popularity of Advent for having cured various sicknesses and considerably raising the populaces standart of living seems rather odd. It is possible the developers wanted to avoid the moral conundrum of having to fight actual human forces in Advent's armies but as is it comes of as rather strange that the population apparently loves Advent... but barely anyone would be willing to fight for them against the "XCOM terrorists"...

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter: Outside of a small number of VIPs for specific missions the game is rather coy about explicit human LesCollaborators with Advent, with the seemingly human soldiers being quickly revelaed to be clones and even the Speaker being a breed of alien. The characters even remak they never heard of a single volunteer in the service of the Aliens. Which given the popularity of Advent for having cured various sicknesses and considerably raising the populaces standart of living seems rather odd. It is possible the developers wanted to avoid the moral conundrum of having to fight actual human forces in Advent's armies but as is it comes of as rather strange that the population apparently loves Advent... but barely anyone would be willing to fight for them against the "XCOM terrorists"...

* TheComputerIsALyingBastard: The stated hit percentages are clearly completely made up, given how often what should be banker shots by your soldiers miss and yet wholly unlikely shots by the computer land at the worst possible time. Crosses over with TheComputerisACheatingBastard given how much it skews the odds in its own favour.

* CompleteMonster: [[NotSoWellIntentionedExtremist The Angelis Ethereal]] is the true head of [[Characters/XCOM2ADVENT ADVENT]], and the leader of the Ethereals. Originally heading the invasion of numerous planets and the enslavement of their natives, The Angelis Ethereal would lead a successful takeover of Earth, and oversee the creation of ADVENT. Upon the Commander of [[Characters/XCOM2TheResistance XCOM]] being freed from the Elders' grasp, the Angelis Ethereal sends her strongest minions, the Chosen, to use whatever brutal tactics they deem necessary to find the Commander, including mass exterminations of humans living outside ADVENT's control. XCOM would soon discover what the Angelis Ethereal truly wanted: [[HumanResources the harvesting and resulting genocide of Humanity]] to provide the Ethereals new bodies known as Avatars as part of the Avatar Project. Upon XCOM killing one, the Angelis Ethereal orders all of humanity to be immediately and rapidly processed, and subsequently exterminated when XCOM gets Humanity to rise up against ADVENT. A loathsome {{hypocrite}}, the Angelis Ethereal even fails to truly care for other Elders as she doesn't even acknowledge the death of one of her kin in words, and is ultimately just out to dominate and exterminate things out of her control.

** On Website/FanfictionDotNet, the most popular crossover for XCOM is ''Franchise/MassEffect''. Now, this game arrived, and we have:

* EvilIsSexy: The opinion amongst many regarding the [[SnakesAreSexy Vipers]].

* TheComputerIsALyingBastard: The stated Hit Percentages are clearly completely made up given how often what should be banker shots by your soldier miss and yet wholly unlikely shots by the computer land at the worst possible time. Crosses over with TheComputerisACheatingBastard given how much it skews the odds in its own favour.

** [[spoiler:The Avatars]] can seem unimpressive compared to the Rulers or Chosen that you encounter [[SoLastSeason before them]]. [[spoiler:[[GameplayAndStoryIntegration Makes sense, given how you can only encounter them after really gumming up any attempts to fix the bugs]].]]

* ComplacentGamingSyndrome: Psi Operatives and SPARK take a while to become available. Even after they become usable, players might already have gotten used to running with the standard four classes and neglect to put them in the team. It's even more displaced in '"War of the Chosen'', with the Resistance faction soldiers thrown into the mix.

** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o55lI6j-hZw Ready For Battle]];, the Squad Loadout theme, perfectly describes where you'll fight for the future of Earth and mankind.

* AnnoyingVideoGameHelper: Bradford just ''won't shut up'', interrupting you to tell you [[CaptainObvious when civilians are dying during retaliation missions]], confirming that [[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment the thing that's your objective is your objective]], and stopping your scanning dead for a good twenty seconds to tell you that the Avatar Project is progressing. An entire mod called "Shut Up Bradford" was released to get him to talk less during missions, but he still interrupts you whenever the Avatar Project progresses. The game in general feels like you're constantly being interrupted when you're on the strategy layer, and the repetitive dialog lines from Bradford, Tygan and Shen do not help this one bit.

* UglyCute: Even with the intimidating or outright grotesque appearance of the aliens, forcing them to panic sends them scampering and ducking in a rather endearing manner. For example, [[https://gfycat.com/PlasticUnknownGharial Vipers]] huddle down, peeking their heads around and waggling their tails in fright, and even the otherworldly [[https://gfycat.com/WickedLoathsomeHarrier Gatekeeper]] nervously shifts its armor plates and starts acting more like a [[Videogame/Portal2 Personality Core]] than an Eldritch Horror.
* UnintentionalUncannyValley:
** [[MouthOfSauron The Speaker]]'s limbs are a little too thin and long to be considered human. However, this appears to have been [[InvokedTrope invoked]] as he seems to be a "perfected" Thin Man.
** The faces of ADVENT troopers can still look a little strange from certain angles, even with their helmets designed to omit the horrific-looking changes made to their face. Again, this was likely invoked.
** Despite the aliens' attempt to avert this, the Archon's expressionless face and empty mouth just look ''wrong''. Additionally, the sheer dissonance of Archons looking like beautiful living statues and still ''behaving'' [[CyberneticsEatYourSoul like]] [[AliensAreBastards Floaters]] only serves to make them even more unsettling.

* {{Narm}}: When Shen, Tygan, Bradford or [[spoiler: the Speaker, in the last mission]] talk, they're presented on-screen as fragmented video feeds jerking about in an attempt to simulate the fact that they're talking, without having to lip synch. It looks absolutely silly when Bradford is jerking between two facial expressions when informing you that your objective is running out, or when Shen is talking about her father's legacy.

* TierInducedScrappy:
** There are many who consider the Skirmisher the weakest of the three WOTC faction heroes. Reapers and Templars have ability combinations that allow them to wipe out whole pods or bosses by themselves. Skirmishers don't. Their Bullpups have one less max damage than Assault Rifles but use the range tables of Shotguns or Pistols, something that shooting twice doesn't entirely mitigate. Many of their more powerful abilities are charge-limited, restricting their uses per mission. Their supposed signature ability, Battlelord, that was claimed to make them equivalent to an Alien Ruler is nothing of the sort; instead of letting a Skirmisher instantly take an action whenever a foe does, it merely grants an extra action for every enemy that moves, and only after the aliens' turn, though this was later changed to work exactly the way Rulers do, albeit with a nerf so it's only one for every alien's turn instead of one for every alien's action. Given the RocketTagGameplay, having to wait for the aliens to move in order to benefit is counterproductive.
** The biggest advantage of the Skirmisher is their mobility: all of their abilities are geared towards movement, or disrupting enemy formations, with a number of damage-dealing abilities added. While Templars and Reapers are deadly no matter where they are, Skirmishers have to work for it to become deadly, moving to the right position for a flanking maneuver, or exposing an enemy for the rest of the squad to take out. As a result, the Skirmishers are actually ''support'' characters rather than the (situational) damage-dealers of the other two forces, and it shows to the point where Reapers are better than them at support. It's little wonder why they tend to have the most "fix" mods on the Steam workshop to make them more viable.

** The Tactical Legacy pack has a series of prequel story missions taking place shortly after the events of VideoGame/XCOMEnemyUnknown, which includes aliens not present in that era, including Codexes, Faceless, Archons, Andromedons, Gatekeepers, and [[spoiler:''Avatars''.]] This makes Bradford, Shen, and Tygan's voice lines when these aliens first show up in the base game hilarious, because either they've forgotten that these aliens exist, or they're feigning surprise.

* AuthorsSavingThrow: Just like in the previous game, a good number of soldiers die in the scripted tutorial to demonstrate the high stakes of the game. This time, it isn't Bradford's fault, and they die out of their own carelessness.

** Dodge. It gives some enemies (and XCOM soldiers with the right gear) a percent chance to take partial damage from an attack. But that this chance isn't shown, and it takes priority over critting. So, even if you have a 100% chance to hit and crit, you may only end up doing a tiny amount of damage. And did we mention the AsteroidsMonster that splits when it's ''non-''fatally shot has this power? Oh, and there's ''no'' way to mitigate it in the base game except using explosives (which are limited), Combat Protocol, or psionic powers. Alien Hunters gives us the Bolt Caster... and that's it. That's the only weapon in the game and DLC that can't be dodged. Some people say they'd rather just ''miss''. Firaxis eventually acknowledged the problem and patched out Dodge on 100% hits and shots from concealed soldiers.

** "Commander, the aliens continue to make progress on the Avatar Project. If we're going to slow them down, we'll need to move fast" [[labelnote:Explanation]]Bradford's monthly reminder of this has become a big in-joke, often resulting in AlternativeCharacterInterpretation of it as a {{Catchphrase}}.[[/labelnote]]

** The new design for Bradford has been nicknamed [[VideoGame/MetalGearSolidVThePhantomPain Punished Bradford]] ([[BossSubtitles A man deprived of his sweater]]) by some of the fans. Additionally, the Tactical Legacy Pack gives Jane Kelly the CallSign of "Quiet".
** Players often joke that they would spend hours customizing the Soldiers, only for them to die right in the [[NintendoHard next mission]]

** {{Music/DMX}}'s song "X Gon' Give It To Ya" has gained some notoriety in the XCOM community due to "X Gon'" being a mishearing of "XCOM", and has been used in several fan videos. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OU_QI61YI5g This]] is a prime example. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRJ7eCiWY7M A mix]] has also emerged. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3P3rj0v8Vfc Then someone merged the two.]]
** The plot similarities with ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidVThePhantomPain'' haven't gone unnoticed, such as the main character having been on a coma (induced or otherwise) for two decades, only to be rescued from a battlefield by an old war buddy, who later brings them on board their new base and to the armed group they raised in the player's absence. Interestingly, what the aliens did to the commander seems to be the inverse of what [[spoiler: Ocelot and Zero]] did to [[spoiler: The Medic while he and Big Boss were in a coma]]. Either way, jokes about the two games "having the same plot" abound in discussions of it. See also "Punished Bradford" mentioned above.
** "Hug that shit" [[labelnote:Explanation]][[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFDSFcyMpFg The Advent soldiers' alien language can be interpreted humorously]].[[/labelnote]]
** Some players joke that ADVENT Burgers are made of Film/{{Soylent Green}}.
** Tygen's intriguing VerbalTic intrigues people on the intriguing /r/XCOM [[{{Website/Reddit}} subreddit]].

* SpeedRun: The "Exquisite Timing" achievement requires you to beat the game by July 1st, and on Commander+ difficulty at that. Also becomes a MinimalistRun as the tight schedule means you'll be lucky to even have magnetic weapons and plated armour by then.

** The Lost, natively, have a 70% of targeting XCOM troops and only a 30% of targeting the aliens. One of the most popular gameplay mods within a week of launch changes this to a flat 50-50.