XCOM 2 (for PC)

XCOM: Enemy Unknown (and its expansion, Enemy Within) took a archetype PC strategy series and made information technology modern, tasking you with saving the earth from mysterious invaders with turn-based tactics and stolen conflicting technology. The sequel, XCOM 2, assumes you failed. Firaxis' latest, PC-only, plow-based strategy game builds on the tense tactical planning and long-term development of soldiers from the outset game and adds some stealth, new tricks, and narrative desperation. The aliens won years ago in XCOM 2, and it's fourth dimension to fight dorsum. I played a few missions of the game at a preview event earlier this year.

Smaller Scale, Higher Stakes
The premise is dystopian, and the XCOM group y'all command has shrunk from a globally supported anti-alien chore force into a ragtag resistance group based on a repurposed alien cargo ship. The ship is the Avenger, and it replaces the underground base you lot built in Enemy Unknown. The ship may fly, but y'all still demand to dig out places to work; information technology's loaded with mysterious alien goop that you have to clear out, simply like the clay you needed to excavate with the underground base. You lot place different facilities on the Avenger to fit your needs, balancing research, manufacturing, and training while juggling increasingly limited resource. Enemy Unknown players volition feel at home edifice the Avenger into their ideal base.

New Classes
Soldier development and roles are like to the classes in Enemy Unknown, but tweaked to offer more significantly branching paths. The Ranger is the new version of the Assault class, sporting both a shotgun and a fell machete. Y'all tin can focus on making him a more potent gunner, or emphasize his melee combat for extremely powerful but much more risky options in the field. The Specialist is the new version of the Support class, equipped with a Gremlin drone that can aid heal and stabilize teammates, or sent out to attack enemies and disable guns.

XCOM 2 (for PC)

Sharpshooter builds on the Sniper class, offering either deliberate, long-range hits of sniping or much more than flexible, multi-targeted pistol wielding. They're the ideal counterparts for each other. Sniping with a burglarize drastically limits your movement and firing options, while gunslinging with pistols lets you target many enemies in one turn, but with nowhere near the individual damage offered past the rifle. Finally, Grenadier (the new Heavy class) lets you lot choose between area-of-issue demolition attacks to flush enemies out from encompass or heavy guns to destroy the armor of large enemy mechs.

Darkening
Too the new classes, XCOM 2 adds an important concealment mechanic to the game. Since you lot're engaging in guerrilla warfare confronting an entrenched enemy, rather than seeking out hidden invaders similar in the first game, staying hidden until you're ready to strike is vital. At the start of most missions, your entire squad is concealed. This means the enemy has no idea you're at that place. You can stay curtained as long every bit y'all don't burn down on anyone and keep out of sight by avoiding vision tiles surrounding units. When your soldiers are all in place and in Overwatch (the fire-when-able standby mode), you tin can open up burn down and trigger an ambush that can decimate the enemy.

Concealment isn't a total stealth system. One time concealment is cleaved, the enemy knows you're in that location and yous can't re-conceal yourself. The 1 exception is a specialized Ranger skill that lets you maintain concealment when the rest of the squad breaks it, for improve positioning. Outside of that, darkening is primarily for getting into position before the boxing begins. It adds a new aspect of planning and tension to the missions, and changes the balance from the kickoff game's dynamic of carefully sweeping through maps to notice pockets of resistance. This fourth dimension, you're that resistance.

Gameplay
The preview missions I played started with a tutorial battle similar to the very showtime fight in XCOM: Enemy Unknown. It introduced uncomplicated concepts like move, cover, and aiming, all of which were nearly identical to how they worked in Enemy Unknown. The missions after the tutorial introduced XCOM 2'south newer concepts to the mix.

XCOM 2 (for PC)

Besides darkening, which forced me to advisedly inch my team effectually guards as I tried to infiltrate an alien black site, XCOM 2 adds a looting mechanic. It's similar to the Meld resource in XCOM: Enemy Within. When you kill certain enemies, they drop glowing yellow loot icons that yous can send a squad fellow member to recover past touching them. This is intact alien equipment, which cocky-destructs if you look besides long to merits it. When you grab loot and complete the mission, you can then identify it on the Avenger and utilize it to straight enhance your soldiers with new equipment or further your inquiry into the enemy'southward technology. It's a split resource from your base's money and scientists, but it'south a bit more than flexible than Meld (which was specifically used for genetic alterations and mech suit structure).

The new class options actually shined in the missions I played. I favored snipers and long-range tactics in Enemy Unknown, but my pistol-wielding Sharpshooter proved to be very useful in shut quarters. She could tag multiple enemies in a plough, weakening some so my heavier hitters could terminate them off before they could respond. My melee-focused Ranger could deal brutal amounts of damage with his sword/machete, making him role more similar the deadly Chryssalid enemies in Enemy Unknown than a standard soldier. He had a shotgun equally an alternate weapon, only the melee attacks decimated sure strong units. The Specialist proved very interesting, thanks to her ability to send a drone to hack enemy guns and mechs. The drone let me disable gun emplacements without breaking concealment, letting my squad get into position.

Procedural Potential
Firaxis says XCOM two's levels are procedurally designed and offer much more variety than the generally copy-and-pasted maps of Enemy Unknown. I was unable to confirm this after but a few missions, but if information technology is the example it would make XCOM ii a much more broadly replayable game than its predecessor. The concluding version will utilize much smaller map components to assemble individual missions, providing much more diverseness in level design.

Mechanically, XCOM 2 is shaping up to exist more of the aforementioned we got from XCOM: Enemy Unknown and Enemy Within, with a few interesting twists and potential enhancements. If that's the case, and then XCOM 2 volition be very welcome. Enemy Unknown was an excellent turn-based strategy game that brought the classic franchise to modern platforms, and the injection of new missions, new classes, and much more map multifariousness could make XCOM ii fifty-fifty amend. We'll detect out when XCOM 2 comes out on PC in Feb 2022.