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

However, it's not just the new Chosen enemies and a few new ADVENT enemy types that these soldiers will be facing. Missions in abandoned cities are frequently overwhelmed with swarms of The Lost, a zombie-like enemy that attacks both XCOM and ADVENT forces upon sight. Any explosions in the map trigger a new swarm of these monsters, and pandemonium can quickly reign as they attack friend and foe al

Most games with a lot of text based dialogue usually have the option to let scenes play out automatically. Persona 5 Strikers is a good example that does this well. This game does not have that feature meaning one has to manually skip through text boxes as conversations wrap up. It’s not a huge grievance but it would be nice to see upgra

To combat the new threat, XCOM can recruit 3 new player-friendly factions into the fray: The Skirmishers are direct combat units with multiple actions, The Reapers are stealthier than anyone else in the game, and The Templars' unique melee and ranged psionic attacks can make a world of difference. As players perform certain covert missions on behalf of these factions, they'll earn the trust of their respective leaders and be able to activate monthly bonuses, like starting a mission with a turncoat ADVENT on the player's side, or have enemies drop more loot. As can be expected, learning how to use each Faction to its fullest potential is quite a learning process, and it's likely some bodies will drop during the proc

Now, this might be because the original Nintendo Switch hardware is struggling to keep up with development in its fifth year. Either way the frequent use of loads and the time itself adds up into annoyances however small they may

That is to say they released a demo to the public in the hopes that they can then gather feedback for the final release. Chances are they will launch another demo down the line showcasing their progress on Project Triangle Strategy. Hopefully they can change that name because it is a mouthful. There are bigger things in this game that need fixing tho

There is no function to skip conversations entirely though which is a feature that usually is in games. One may want to skip scenes for myriad of reasons like playing the same story twice, or someone more interested in the RPG gameplay rather than the st

The 2D pixels on 3D pixelated backgrounds is a cool visual gimmick. It was one of the best things about Octopath Traveler. However, that game had some issues that have carried over into this SLG game blog as well. The backgrounds, for one, are too dark. Even what seems to be the brightest of settings can look dingy because of the lighting. TV settings can only do so much so it would be good to see these backgrounds brightened, or touched up in any other

While XCOM 2: War of the Chosen does a great job shaking up the game from top to bottom, it isn't without cost: the Shen's Gift DLC mission is sacrificed by default to rebalance the game, being replaced with a simple research task. While player's can re-enable this in the options menu, we wish there was a way Firaxis could have kept the original content in balanced fashion. We also ran into a few minor glitches as late-game content progressed, so we recommend those trying ironman playthroughs perhaps consider a regular playthrough for now to avoid any potential post-launch err

We really wanted XCOM 2 to be something amazing, but unfortunately it falls short. From highly customizable characters to deep and meaningful combat that has been improved over its predecessor, there’s a lot here to like, at least on paper. Unfortunately, this is only when it all comes together properly. We ran into far too many technical issues to count that taints the experience and puts even more frustration on an already stressful campaign. If the game wasn’t so demanding in its design, then a lot of these issues wouldn’t be a huge concern, but that would require cutting out what makes XCOM so appealing in the first place. Unless you plan on save scumming your way through the campaign, the outcome will ultimately end poorly. XCOM 2 truly has the makings of a great game, but it’s hidden in the bloated technical issues that drag it down.