History YMMV / XCOM2

** Added in War of the Chosen are variants of Supply Raids, where XCOM must mark supply crates before ADVENT takes them away. Until now, Supply Raids were completely free of time restraints. The (relatively) high chance of The Chosen (or Alien Rulers) appearing during these skirmishes certainly doesn't help matters.

** The Alien Hunters DLC introduces the three "Ruler" aliens, that [[MyRulesAreNotYourRules act differently than every other enemy in the game]]. While some players like the addition, because it requires you to be careful and much more proactive to not get utterly destroyed by them, others despise it for the exact same reason because it essentially locks you into one style of play until the Rulers are all dead. It isn't even entirely clear what the new rules are other than they get extra actions sometimes but ''not always'' when your soldiers do things.

** The fact that Ruler Aliens move after each soldier's turn. Fire at it, it moves. Throw a grenade, it moves. Take out another ADVENT troop? Moves. Like the timed missions above, there's a mod on Steam to remove this mechanic from the expansion because it ticks so many people off; it's cited as a detriment in a large majority of negative reviews on Steam.

** There's a very, very subtle case in the Dark Event "ADVENT Bending Reed", which gives ADVENT Stun Lancers the ability to make an additional move after they make a melee attack. Normally this is almost a non-factor as long as you prioritise taking Stun Lancers out before they get to attack, which isn't all that difficult. Except ''it also applies to The Assassin,'' allowing her to rush across the entire screen, knock out one of your guys, then right zip back into cover again before you can do anything. This takes an enemy that is already really hard to pin down and get fire on (particularly as she's already immune to reaction fire and has insanely high mobility) and makes it almost ''impossible.''

** The Alien Hunters DLC introduces the three "Ruler" aliens, that [[MyRulesAreNotYourRules act differently than every other enemy in the game]]. While some players like the addition, because it requires you to be careful and much more proactive to not get utterly destroyed by them, others despise it for the exact same reason because it essentially locks you into one style of play until the Rulers are all dead.

** Mutons being able to randomly parry and counterattack melee attacks was annoying already in the base game when they would do it to your Rangers, especially since the counterattack was strong enough to kill them from full HP at low levels, but at least your rangers had shotguns to use instead. Them being able to do it to Templars in War of the Chosen, a ''melee-specialist unit'' who only carry a dinky autopistol, have to score melee kills before they can use their psychic powers, and are difficult to replace when they die? Total bullshit. And Mutons aren't even special elite troops, they're just basic (albeit higher tier) enemy troopers who you'll be fighting regularly in later missions.

** The final mission involves you [[spoiler:having to fight your way through a massive map holding a whopping 20+ enemies (most maps on their hardest difficulties only have 11 or so enemies). Not only that, but when you trigger the final boss fight, you have to kill not one, but '''three''' Avatars who will constantly be teleporting around the map and spamming psionic abilities. Meanwhile, the portals in the room are constantly spawning endless waves of enemies every turn, meaning that if you take too long to kill the Avatars, you will eventually get overrun through sheer numbers. The only real stopgap you have against such odds is the Commander himself in an Avatar, wielding a devastating Psionic Rift attack that can catch and severely damage huge numbers of enemies at once, and even this is hampered by its lengthy cooldown time.]]

** Jane Kelly, the unique Ranger that you gain after completing the tutorial mission, is very popular among the fanbase. Besides being a pre-made character who survives the tutorial mission ([[VideoGame/XCOMEnemyUnknown like Delta-2]]), that may have something to do with her [[FightingIrish Irish descent]].

* TheyChangedItNowItSucks: The complaints over how many missions now have limited rounds to complete is vociferous, to say the least. People were quick to mod them to reduce their severity or outright remove them.

** The Tactical Legacy Pack DLC provides us with Firaxis' own remake of [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbftQpzIyUk the classic "Intercept" music]] of ''VideoGame/XCOM''. It's as old-school as it gets and definitely deserves the "awesome" label.

* 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 from Bradford, Tygan and Shen does not help this one bit.

** [[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.]]]]
** In particular, some [[RandomNumberGod combinations of weaknesses]] can make the Chosen hilariously weak: such as an assassin with brittle (weak to melee/close range attacks) and a weakness to [[CloseRangeCombatant Templars.]]

** The Gateway mission can be this with the right setup, with a Blademaster Ranger, Templar, or SPARK, as the mission is more or less populated with Chryssalids and little else. Just be sure to pack some medicine to combat the Chryssalid poison.
*** Be careful, though: if you've dawdled enough that a Gatekeeper has shown up in a previous mission (which is likely with ''War of the Chosen''), then you'll get your standard complement of Chryssalids and a Gatekeeper...and a bunch of other alien races besides! In ''War of the Chosen'', the occupying Chosen will also be guaranteed to appear if it hasn't been killed beforehand, just like with the other story-based missions.

** Some people dislike the game taking place in an AlternateTimeline after the first game and would have preferred for it to be a direct sequel like how ''Terror From The Deep'' and ''Apocalypse'' were, especially as the former also has XCOM lose support from world governments before the events of the game. Others however are fine with the decision, as it allows for a VichyEarth scenario to be developed without turning the first game into a ShaggyDogStory, as well as being in line with the difficulty of the first game... making most campaigns [[MemeticMutation canon.]]
** The prevalence of timed missions with limited turns is also a point of contention. The two usual camps have been set up, one saying it is key to the tense mood of the game, the other an annoying ScrappyMechanic that should be at least be made optional to turn off. Also, one of the intentions of introducing turn limits was to discourage players from turtling up and crafting elaborate overwatch traps and just sitting and waiting for the aliens to come to them, [[ComplacentGamingSyndrome which they often did in EU and EW]], but many fans complain that enforcing a more-aggressive playstyle in such a ham-fisted way is needlessly-restrictive and clumsy.
** The Alien Hunters DLC introduces the three "Ruler" aliens, that [[MyRulesAreNotYourRules act differently than every other enemy in the game]]. While some players like the addition, because it requires you to be careful and much more proactive to not get utterly destroyed by them, others despise it for the exact same reason because it essentially locks you into one style of play (at least until the Rulers are all dead).

** A new feature in XCOM 2 is the ability to customize your troops so that they can appear as either [=VIPs=] you have to escort and save... or Dark [=VIPs=] you have to locate and kidnap or assassinate. People already name XCOM soldiers after themselves and their friends, and you now have the ability to mark people who you dislike as in-game enemies (just remember that capturing them ''alive'' yields more rewards than killing them).

* 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 trio Resistance faction soldiers thrown into the mix.

** ADVENT Stun Lancers are an early-game bane as they can incapacitate squad members in ''one hit'', leaving you down a member for the rest of the mission. What makes it worse is that they don't care about overwatch at all and will gladly risk running it so they can stab you in the face. And since you can melee attack after dashing, Stun Lancers have a MASSIVE threat radius. Furthermore, they have enough HP that, for how early they show up, starting weapons and frag grenades just won't cut it for a OneHitKill.

** Codices. Oh dear lord, Codices. You'll most likely meet your first one purely by mistake, as [[spoiler: Skulljacking an advent officer has [[ShmuckBait "Activate Advent Codex"]] as the default hacking option]] and not only can they teleport and clone themselves, they also have a psionic attack that disables your primary weapon (you can still use secondaries like pistols, swords and GREMLINS) and, if soldiers don't leave the radius of this attack by the next turn, it explodes dealing upwards of seven damage.
** Archons are almost as bad. They're some of the only flying units in the game, and can go up to absurd heights, making them nearly impossible to hit by all but sharpshooters. On top of that, they can unleash a MacrossMissileMassacre on your troops that waits one turn for you to get out of the way, but even then, it chews up cover. Thankfully, you encounter a fair few of them indoors, where vertical space is limited and they can't use that attack without destroying the terrain.

** And then there are the classic Chryssalids. First and most important, changes to melee mechanics (allowing melee units to attack after making a run move) ''completely'' negated their weakness from ''Enemy Unknown'' where they would often use both actions to run right up to one of your soldiers then just stand there in literal point-blank range without being able to attack. While their melee attacks aren't nearly as lethal as before, they will still automatically poison their targets. In addition, instead of making zombies, when a Chryssalid kills a person, it turns the corpse into a cocoon that if left alone lone enough, will hatch into ''three'' more Chryssalids! And to make them even worse, not only are they just as fast and nimble as last time, but they can burrow now as well, letting them ambush unwary XCOM soldiers that wander too close. Finally, they can use their melee attack when they are revealed, requiring you to move very carefully when they are around so you don't give them a double attack because you also ended your turn without killing them. Also, they seem to be behind one of the worst {{Game Breaking Bug}}s that can be encountered, and just saving on a map with them can stop an Ironman run from progressing.
** Andromedons are large, heavily armored aliens that love launching acid bombs that deal heavy damage both up front and over time. Also, when you kill them them first time, the suit's AI activates, meaning you have to kill it ''again''. Leave the empty Andromedon suit alive for too long, and it will track deadly acid puddles everywhere it walks and it still has a devastating melee attack.
** Sectopods are somehow even scarier than they were in the last game, with insane hp and armor and extremely powerful weapons that can potentially wipe out your entire squad if they are too close together.

** Specters come in with War of the Chosen, and they themselves are a nasty piece of work. They avoid the first overwatch attack directed at them, can drain health, and themselves have a lot of health, but what truly makes them tough is the Shadowbound ability. A move that disables a friendly operative, taking them out of the battle until the Specter or duplicate is killed or a revive ability is used, and creates an exact duplicate of said operative that fights for the aliens. If a Specter catches you off guard, that move can easily turn the tide of battle against you.

** The Vipers, for their fairly unique and cool design. Also for... [[SnakesAreSexy some]] [[NonMammalianMammaries other reason]]. [[spoiler: This is likely why the Alien Hunter DLC largely revolves around them.]]
** Jane Kelly, the unique Ranger that you gain after completing the tutorial mission is very popular among the fanbase. Besides being a pre-made character who survives the tutorial mission ([[VideoGame/XCOMEnemyUnknown like Delta-2]]), that may have something to do with her [[FightingIrish Irish descent]].

* DarthWiki/MostAnnoyingSound:
** Central Officer Bradford cuts into your missions much, ''much'' more than in frequently than in Enemy Unknown, with reminders that time is running out on the objective. There's no variation to his lines at all, so you may be hearing the same dialog ten missions in a row, and it definitely starts to grate after a while. It gets more annoying when you realize that whenever you trigger one of those lines, your camera and controls lock up so you HAVE to listen to him before you can keep playing. Which flies in the face of the intent of these lines. You can't really "hurry up and save more civilians" if your camera and controls are locked up listening to Bradford rather than moving your troops into position or concentrating.
*** Also:
-->'''Bradford''': Commander, the aliens continue to make progress on the Avatar Project. If we're going to shut them down, we need to move, fast.
*** Mostly because this VO shifts your map screen to the Avatar Project icon and freezes it until Bradford finishes speaking, again preventing you from doing exactly what he's telling you to do, i.e. "move fast."
** Soldiers being alerted to enemies attempting a flank attack. You'll hear them bitch about it a ''lot'', especially when enemies spawn in from outside the map.
** The Chosen's constant mocking and comments that even happen outside of missions where they are involved can get tiring real quick, most notably with the Warlock. Seems to be a bit in-universe as well, as Bradford will sometimes comment on how their talkativeness is annoying, even commenting "[[TakeThatUs And you thought I talked too much]]".
*** Note that the Chosen's dialogue can also be amusing at times, especially if they're [[CurbStompBattle getting their asses handed to them.]] It's quite something to hear the Assassin quip about "how many more of your soldiers will die" when you're running an EverybodyLives campaign. There's also when [[ImprobableAimingSkills the Hunter]] [[EpicFail botches a shot.]]
---> '''Chosen Hunter''': (completely deadpan) IMeantToDoThat.

** Several portions of ''Enemy Within'' involving the Base Defense had already redeemed Bradford in the eyes of many. As of ''XCOM 2'', despite his DarthWiki/MostAnnoyingSound tendencies during missions, [[FrontlineGeneral his actions at the start of the game]] [[TookALevelInBadass have made him more well-liked]].

** Timed missions, to a significant portion of the Steam forums. While many people love the sense of mounting tension it brings to most Guerilla Ops missions, there's a reason one of the first fan mods released is to lengthen or remove the timers (or at least get Bradford to stop [[DarthWiki/MostAnnoyingSound verbally fretting about it ticking down]]). In War of the Chosen, there are four different natively-supported ways to extend timers (two gameplay options to double everything including timers, and a basic timer increase; two covert ops to pause timers while concealed and to increase timers by 2 turns). The Chosen are even nice enough to pause timers while they're directly engaged with you!

** Several portions of ''Enemy Within'' involving the Base Defense had already redeemed Bradford in the eyes of many. As of ''XCOM 2'', despite his MostAnnoyingSound tendencies during missions, [[FrontlineGeneral his actions at the start of the game]] [[TookALevelInBadass have made him more well-liked]].

** Timed missions, to a significant portion of the Steam forums. While many people love the sense of mounting tension it brings to most Guerilla Ops missions, there's a reason one of the first fan mods released is to lengthen or remove the timers (or at least get Bradford to stop [[MostAnnoyingSound verbally fretting about it ticking down]]). In War of the Chosen, there are four different natively-supported ways to extend timers (two gameplay options to double everything including timers, and a basic timer increase; two covert ops to pause timers while concealed and to increase timers by 2 turns). The Chosen are even nice enough to pause timers while they're directly engaged with you!

* MostAnnoyingSound:

** Rather than one mission, the ''entire'' 'Alien Hunters' DLC is extensively disliked, considered by many players to actually make the game worse rather than better. The [[ThatOneBoss Alien Rulers]] are considered irritatingly overpowered [[FakeDifficulty in a very unfair manner]], the unique gear you get looks ridiculous, and the missions themselves aren't considered good enough to make up for it, with a disappointing story that makes [[spoiler:Doctor Vahlen]] come across like a complete idiot. It actually has a mere 43% review score on UsefulNotes/{{Steam}}, the ''only'' non-cosmetic DLC content for ''either'' of the ''XCOM'' reboot games to have a sub-50% (or even sub-75%) score. Additionally, players resent the fact that they ''have'' to buy it (and complete some extremely difficult challenges, such as killing an Alien Ruler on the first encounter with it) if they want [[ThatOneAchievement 100% achievement completion]] as it adds 9 DLC-exclusive achievements to the game.

* 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 rather than brainless orders.
** The pseudo-Second Wave options in War of the Chosen addresses some complaints about the base game, such as mission timers and the Avatar Project, as well as including some Second Wave options from Enemy Unknown. [=WotC=] also has additional ways to sabotage the Avatar Project without needing to rely on external factors, which was another complaint.

* {{Narm}}:
** Tygan's [[AccentOnTheWrongSyllable bizarre voice-acting]] during the gameplay trailer detracts from some otherwise-standard lines.
** After just about every successful mission:
---->'''Bradford''': Status confirmed, all hostiles are down and the area is secure.\\
{{Beat}}\\
'''Bradford''': [[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment Status confirmed]], mission accomplished.
** 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.
** When you reach the first of the Chosen's [[spoiler:fortresses, the Sarcophagus surprises Bradford. And [[WelcomeToCorneria again]] for the second.]] The third gets a different one, so perhaps the second instance is merely a bug or an oversight.

** Much, if not most of the dialogue in the "Lost and Abandoned" mission sounds incredibly silly because the delivery is so stilted and sincere without even a hint of levity or irony. Outrider is such an EmotionlessGirl that anything she says, whether it's a death threat or an offer of cooperation, sounds like she really couldn't care any less about it. Even Mox, who's a creature bred for war, emotes more, although his lines are only marginally less cringe-inducing than Outrider's even so. Thankfully, the matter is averted with [[AIIsACrapshoot Julian]] at least.
** The ''Tactical Legacy Pack'' includes a handful of new soldier personalities that are so over the top in their bearing that it becomes largely impossible to take soldier that have them seriously anymore.

** Looking at the length of this list, it'll be faster to list enemies who aren't DemonicSpiders....
*** Sectoids, if only because the worst 2 things they can do, mind controlling and raising psi zombies, are negated if you can either kill or flashbang the sectoid meaning their first turn often goes to waste. However, if you can't reach the sectoid quickly to disable them then they can quickly go right back on the DemonicSpider list.
*** Basic Advent Troopers who do nothing but shoot you, which is a welcome change from all the other units and their special powers. Note however that their elite versions are a pain because they will throw grenades at you for shredding armour, destroying cover, and guaranteed damage.
*** Mutons are otherwise just a tougher version of the standard ADVENT troopers, and they can sometimes [[KungFuProofMook blocks and counters ranger melee attacks]].
*** Something to note about Mutons that puts them right back in this status, is that their melee counter can be triggered by ''any melee attack.'' Including ''reaction attacks or counters.'' A muton runs up and tries to melee your Ranger - your Ranger procs an automatic counterattack (i.e. Bladestorm) - the Muton ''counters that counter'' and now you have a badly-wounded (if not bleeding out), unconscious Ranger, without you having done '''anything.'''
*** Advent Officers can mark a squad member, but it's better than a stun lancer who can run 30 tiles and knock someone unconscious or any of the aliens with their numerous powers.
*** Advent Shieldbearers, because their only ability is a defensive one. When they're paired up with the DemonicSpiders, though...
*** Faceless. The least dangerous of the alien units. Their role is to surprise you on missions by pretending to be a civilian, once revealed they are soft, squishy, have only a melee attack that is somewhat inaccurate, and can be killed easily, often by a single trooper.
*** Berserkers. Even though they have one of the highest HP bars of any alien, they are still little more than an upgraded faceless in terms of their attacking style, which is simply to run in for melee. They can even accidentally help you out because their rage state can cause them to attack their own troops. Also, they vanish from the game entirely about a month after you first encounter them on difficulties below legendary.
*** As of [[DownloadableContent War of the Chosen]], the Lost. Though they're far more numerous than any other enemy, they deal minimal damage, killing them doesn't cost an action, and they're just as likely to attack ADVENT as XCOM. On some missions it can even be beneficial to summon Lost swarms so that the aliens focus on them rather than you.
*** Also introduced in War of the Chosen are the Advent Purifiers, who carry flamethrowers. Thankfully they have a (reasonable) chance to miss their target and aren't very smart, but try not to walk in whatever terrain they torch, or [[SchmuckBait use melee attacks]].

** GiantBomb also caused some minor backlash with Dan Ryckert's 3/5 star review, citing technical issues of which a great many do exist, and for the reviewer himself, appeared to be a constant thorn in his side. Many complained about him playing on the easiest difficulty, although it wasn't a sticking point in the review.