What We Said: "At the end of the day, XCOM 2 is the poster boy of the modern turn-based strategy game. The game can feel unfair at times, but Firaxis has crafted a dynamic experience with virtually limitless replay value and a constant level of challenge. Fans of the series will find plenty of enjoyment watching the XCOM troops struggle to protect mankind once again, and Firaxis can pat themselves on the back for making one of the most addictive and rewarding strategy SLG PC Games of all ti

Beyond this, players can bolster their own forces with a few clever additions to the original formula. Soldiers can now gain ability points for performing tactical moves, like flank shots or ambush kills, and spend them on additional skills to use in battle. While the original menu of two skill options still exists, a few seemingly random third skill slots are available for purchase now, making each soldier's respective skill tree even more unique. Soldiers can also bond with squadmates they spend time on the battlefield with (a la Fire Emblem ), and commanders will even be able to rank up these skills so that bonded soldiers can utilize unique combat moves in battle. Soldiers also require rest after each mission lest they become fatigued and more susceptible to developing fears that can impact them in bat

Why You Should Play It: The Witness is not going to be for everyone, but those who do buy into its puzzle-focused world will become instantly obsessed. Taking a very simple puzzle concept and expanding on it nearly endless ways, The Witness is the epitome of a layered interactive experience. It also does a great job of teaching the player new rules as they progress, ensuring that the lack of a clear narrative never gets in the way. Most importantly, the game offers the most a-ha moments of any game in recent memory, and that sense of accomplishment is enough to make it worth play

What We Said: "Even without much motivation to replay the short campaign, Firewatch is still well worth the $19.99 price tag for the beautiful landscape, compelling mystery, and amazing character development. Firewatch isn’t a game for everyone, but if you love a good mystery, this is a must pl

The world map also gets a facelift, and players will now find themselves flying their mobile base to different destinations. Everything takes time in XCOM 2 , including traveling to and setting up before missions. As a result, players will need to analyze which missions are worth doing and keep a constant eye on the clock. This is true in more than a sense of foreboding, as the game suggests that if a certain doomsday clock reaches zero, it's game over for XC

While some sidequests could only be available to players who made certain choices, the completion of other sidequests could potentially provide additional context to a problem at hand, giving the player insight into how making a given choice may impact the p

Unfortunately, the biggest and most heartbreaking problem with XCOM 2 is from the technical side of things. For one, after almost every turn concludes and there are aliens on screen, the game will stall for upwards of a minute until finally giving you back control of the squad of characters. It could very well be unidentified aliens moving around in the background, but considering you don’t know how many there are, it will test your patience to an unfortunate degree. This combined with load times that hang for far longer than they should create an experience that will artificially extend your playtime clock. This isn’t even the worst part, though as we also ran into various crashes, enemies being able to shoot through geometry they shouldn’t be able to, out of the ordinary performance issues and some of the visuals going haywire. The controls can also be a little clunky at times when trying to select an enemy to fire at, although it’s far from the worst problem here.

This would be especially effective if particular characters weren't locked behind single decisions, rather than chains of choices that would encourage the player to experiment with their choices and greatly enhance replay value through tangible assets that are only available under certain conditi

For whatever reason, very few tactical JRPGs in recent memory have featured PVP multiplayer. Allowing players to face off against each other simply adds more variety to the game as a whole. Additionally, as the game is centered around the player's choices, opposing players may have access to different characters, weapons, and other resources based on the choices they made, making combat even more var

Outside of combat, one of the key differences between a tactical JRPG and a more traditional turn-based RPGs is that players tend to have access to many more party members in tactical RPGs. As seen with the earliest entries in the Fire Emblem series, this can lead to many less important party members getting little to no character development. However, later entries in the Fire Emblem series introduced the support mechanic that allowed even the most minor of characters to still interact with the cast and show their character if the player desired. In order to make the player care about the characters in their party, the game should feature some method of interacting with their allies outside of com