VideoGame An object lesson in listening too hard to the loudest fans.
The original XCOM: Enemy Unknown is a brilliantly-designed, classic game. Its hard parts are plenty difficult enough for the plank-chewing nutters, and its normal modes are... normal. The game has depth on both the strategic and tactical levels, without ever going too deep into unfun math homework minutiae. It has plenty of fun character designs and fun powers, with minimal "trap" options. And the expansion added, crucially, the right kind of attempts to encourage a less-passive playstyle, but without actually punishing the player if they wanted to turtle.
Unfortunately, well...
Let's start with the positives. X COM 2 does carry over the same strong gameplay core as its predecessor. Its story twists are fun, the character designs are still strong, and the varied classes and personalities, especially with expansions installed, make for a great experience...
Provided you mod it.
See, here's the thing: between the two games, there was a famous mod called "The Long War." Now I personally don't like that mod. It cranks the difficulty waaaay up, and adds a lot of fiddly bits to the game I do not appreciate. But the game designers loved it so much, they brought on some of the modders to design the core game for X COM 2.
And to that end, it positively drips with bitter, mean-spirited inaccessibility. Every mission is on a strict, brutal timer, with command characters yammering in your ear constantly about how much time you're losing, all in a ham-handed attempt to punish careful, defensive play. The difficulty is often random to the point of absurdity, with some mechanics like Dodge and the alien ruler's bonus turns having no business being released in the state they were in. The stealth system is indecisive to the point of annoyance, never sure if it wants to force you to utilize it or punish you for it. The designers seem to have gone out of their way to weaken and nerf any characters that surpass a certain threshold of power or usability, with the SPARKs in particular being nearly-useless.
In short: the plank-chewers, who, as always, saw the enjoyment of non-plank-chewers as an obstacle to their own, won.
With mods to remove or blunt a few of these frustrations, the came's core design is still strong. Even brilliant, in places. And the game's significantly-easier modibility is a big improvement over its predecessor. But I shouldn't be saying that about a sequel to a game as good as its predecessor was.
VideoGame Turn Based Tactics Noob Totally Enjoys XCOM 2
I bought XCOM2 Collection on the NintendoSwitch upon the recommendation of my brother-in-law. This game is my introduction to the XCOM series, and also my introduction to the Turn-Based Tactics subgenre in general. In 25+ years of gaming the only other turn-based strategy game I've played was Civilization III. Despite all that, I am finding it to be an extremely enjoyable game.
The game is notoriously hard. And it is, especially in the early game, even on Rookie difficulty. It never felt unfair though. Well, except for when I first encountered the Alien Rulers, but I looked up strategies against them and even they are manageable.
The main reason why the game is hard is that it constantly throws you into the deep end, and never bothers to teach you any of the mechanics. Nintendo games will have expertly laid out antepieces across levels gradually introducing new mechanics. XCOM 2 has none of that; there is a tutorial mission that teaches you the following: movement, using cover, picking up bodies, using a grenade, and evac. In the following mission, you're in your first "proper" mission and the game suggests you use your Ranger to slash the Sectoid (they take bonus damage from melee attacks). I didn't, and that's how I lost Jane Kelly and another rookie on my first playthrough!
That's about as much as the game tells you anything about the mechanics. Okay, maybe it tells you how to knock out an enemy VIP for capture. But after that, crickets. Here's a bunch of things we can research, which to take? Shrug. Your soldier just got promoted, and you have to choose a new skill for him (permanently), with a one-liner description for each choice, no demo or trial. New items to build, more one liner descriptions. Here's a new enemy, it looks intimidating and dangerous. Go deal with it.
So yeah, if you're new to this game, sacrifice a bit of your ego, turn the difficulty down to Rookie and search Google for "XCOM for noobs". Anyway, the missions being procedurally generated, every playthrough is unique, making the game extremely replayable.
Once you have a reasonable idea what you're doing, it's not really that hard. Every other review I've read mentioned something about timers, how unfair and brutal they are and how they force you to play extremely aggressively. Yet I've found the timers to be reasonably generous and I've always ended with 2-3 turns on the timer every single time. Seriously, again, I'm a noob to XCOM and to the genre and I found no issue with the timers, and all the mission types that are timed have them well-justified in my opinion.
Review summary: consult those strategy guides (there are plenty of spoiler free ones). Don't save scum (okay, maybe a little). Ignore everyone whining about the timers. Have fun!