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I practically live in XCOM 2 these days, but back in the day I was a big, big fan of XCOM: Enemy Unknown and its official expansion, Enemy Within. It's worth reviewing the game for the benefit of players new to the franchise, or want to progress from the older game series, or are XCOM 2-only players who'd like to know how the war was won, or at least how it could have been won in their timeline.

It's the near-future year of 2015. (Well, it was ten years ago!) A rain of strange capsules descend on Earth. People who investigate the capsules are surprised, then terrified, to discover that the capsules contain alien beings with a definite hostile attitude! A brand new international agency named XCOM dispatches a team to one site with orders to investigate. This investigation turns into the tutorial mission, which gives the basics of what to do during a mission, and how to do it. And also what not to do, such as leaving a soldier exposed to a flanking shot. *facepalm* One soldier survives the mission and returns home with confirmation that the alien invasion is on!

As it turns out, XCOM has been anticipating an alien invasion for some time, and is preparing to go into action to stop it. You the player take on the role of the Commander, XCOM's allegedly expert tactician. (Don't worry, you'll live up to the hype eventually.) You have three subordinates to give you assistance. Dr. Vahlen, the not-at-all gender-bent Dr Strange love stand-in who is head of Research. Dr. Shen, a cautious, ethial technocrat who is head of Engineering. And last but not certainly least is Major Bradshaw, who as Central helps run operations and helpfully reminds you at length about mission objectives and alien dangers. The game does further tutorials, introducing the NPCs, promoting your surviving soldier to Heavy, and introducing a large but unfinished base located in one of the 15 member nations that makes up XCOM's governing council. A mission comes up, and your Heavy takes three Rookies out on a mission. It's easy, take out some aliens, bring back some bodies for Dr Vahlen to study and some alien artifacts for Dr Shen to develop into useful gear for you. Hopefully all your Rookies survive, and you get one of each of the other classes: Sharpshooter, Assault, Specialist. Now, go save the Earth, Commander!

XCOM: Enemy Unknown is a tactical turn-based game. Your soldier team all take their actions, then the alien force takes their actions. the turn ends, do it again, until one side is eliminated and/or mission success requirements are met. It's not easy; the aliens aren't sitting ducks, and taking cover is necessary for survival! Patience and judging the best angles of attack are important for victory. Don't rush ahead, or your soldiers may activate an extra alien group or two, increasing the odds against your soldiers. As your soldiers gain experience they will increase in rank (level up) and learn new skills to use. The Science and Engineer teams will make discoveries which will be used to make equipment which will give your soldiers better chances of success. Be wary of the enemy though, since they have special skills of their own, and at higher levels of difficulty become better shots and will take more advantage of bad moves. Save often!

There is also a strategic level which is just as important as the missions, maybe more so. Alien UFOs will conduct raids to abduct humans, and too many of them in a given member nation will cause panic levels to rise. Too many unopposed raids and the nation will give up and leave the Council. That means less resources and less control of Earth. Shooting down UFOs and raiding them in turn keeps the skies friendlier and yields more rewards for the whitecoats. And every so often the aliens will carry out a "terror raid", aa massive attack intended to spread fear and destruction through a nation. Those will be challenges for your soldiers, so do your best on those!

If you do well on Enemy Unknown and want to up the challenge, get the supplement Enemy Within. The official DLC adds a new enemy, the Human secret society known as Exalt, which has their own plans for enemy prisoners and technology. They provide a new wrinkle for XCOM, since they are hostile to XCOM and their presence on a mission means a vicious fight against an enemy that operates on XCOM's level. A few new missions and maps are added to the overall game as well, keeping the game exciting and fresh.

This game is very challenging and exciting! I have played over a thousand hours on it, both on Steam and as a PS 4 game. I recommend it to fans of sci-fi games, turn-based games, and action games.

Tactical Legacy Pack (TLP) is a very optional official DLC expansion for XCOM 2: War of the Chosen. Yes, it's an expansion of an expansion. However, it's still worth checking out, for certain WOTC players. These players are the ones who've been playing various XCOM games over the year and want some nostalgia and extra content, without it being too much. I am definitely the the targeted audience, so I got it when I had a little spare $$ to spend.

The core of Tactical Legacy is a series of four mini-campaign story arcs, each consisting of seven missions. Each story begins with our main man Bradford and three other seemingly random selected Resistance soldiers on a basic level mission, and gradually progresses, adding recruits, gear, and skills, until Bradford is leading a complete six-soldier squad at maximum effectiveness to secure an important objective that will keep the Resistance going, and lead to the day where the Resistance can initiate Operation Gatecrasher. There is no Rookie level, everything is Veteran and up. (This DLC isn't aimed at n00bs who are feeling good about winning WOTC on walkthrough level.)

It's not all dry tactical gaming in the XCOM 2 'verse though. In between turns Bradford does his old veteran shtick, reminiscing about the bad old days when XCOM had to share a stick and a comeback win against ADVENT and their alien overlords seemed remote. The first story sends him out to re-create XCOM as a guerrilla force and stop a future threat before it can change the past. The second story is centered on the main DJ of Resistance Radio, a background NPC from WOTC. (You'll get to learn why Bradford doesn't like him very much.) The third story is finding and helping Lily Shen gather parts for Avenger. The fourth story is a series of missions to rescue NPCs who will play key parts in the XCOM story, and incidentally secure a particular piece of gear for Bradford.

Like I said at the beginning, TLP leans heavy on the nostalgia. The maps are all reskinned versions of classic EU/EW maps, incorporating similar scenarios that will make veterans of EU/EW smile...or twitch. Various map dressing also brings back memories as well. Each of the basic EU armors and weapons is made available and reskinned as well, with tier upgrades. It being XCOM 2, each weapon has pre-chosen upgrades added to it at each tier. There are some revised helmet types added as well. The new old gear also carries over to regular WOTC games, allowing for even more options when kitting out the toy soldiers from the character pool. The XCOM 2 horde also makes their appearances as needed, which sometimes leads to awkward retcon moments of a sort not seen since George Lucas decided to expand Mos Eisley. There are no new forms of the same old crowd, nor do creatures from earlier games make an appearance. this seems like a genuine missed opportunity for me, Then again, TLP is supposed to be a small expansion.

The story missions aren't the only ones included though. Instead of repeating the basic Legacy campaigns, the player can choose to create their own TLP mini-campaign. Four randomly created soldiers, gradually expanding to six, form the nucleus for a "side story" seven mission arc which results in a run on a certain XCOM 2 story facility, or its clone. This version can use the story maps or XCOM 2 maps for its scenarios, so there are no two of them that will run the same way twice. (I've done eight of them, so I can speak with certainty here.) If a player just wants to do a single mission, a Skirmish mode is available which allows a single TLP mission to be run, with some choice in picking the map, soldiers, gear, and skills. A random daily challenge mode is included for players who want to do something truly different on a mission.

A final bit of nostalgia and general flavor fun is included in the form of additional main screen shells and soldier personality bits. The shells are the pictures that incorporate your soldiers on the main screen; the ones for basic XCOM 2 and WOTC are fun, but limited. TLP adds more of them with different setups, which not infrequently call back to EU. One in particular strikes a real chord with the veteran player, and appears again and again on the screenshots page.For the soldiers, some new poses are added for the propaganda posters, which will be appreciated by budding Socialist Heroic Realism artists out there. There are also several new personality poses and animations, which allow your soldiers to appear as Angry, Cocky, Gung Ho ("Let's go!") , Smug, and Suspicious. And just to wrap things up, a variant version of the old Xcom: UFO Defense BGM is included so you can rock out to blasting aliens in true Eighties action movie style.

In the end, is this expansion of an expansion worth the cost and effort? It depends really on how much of a XCOM fan you are. If you are a big fan of past XCOM games, especially Enemy Unknown/Within, you will really appreciate this item, and use it a lot. If you are more of a casual fan, you'll pick it up on sale, dutifully play through the stories once, then enjoy the extra bits that have been seamlessly added to the general WOTC content. If you don't give a flying pig about XCOM back story or nostalgia bits, and just like repeatedly running your COD operator/militant stripper force through the regular WOTC games, just use the customization stuff and the BGM and be content. It's not if you'll have fun using TLP, it's the degree of fun you'll get out of it.

This is the hands-down first-rate king of expansion sets for an existing tactical game. Firaxis wanted to do expansions and refinements for the successful XCOM 2 game. The resulting project nearly re-wrote the game, instituting changes to XCOM 2 that definitely changed and expanded game play. This review concerns the actual War of the Chosen modifications. For the baseline game, see my separate review.

War of the Chosen (WOTC) is an excellent expansion for the XCOM 2 game. You do need XCOM 2 to use WOTC; if the price tag looks high, wait for a sale or get a bundle that gives you some bang for the buck. The story is still the same, but there are a few new features. The first is the addition of three specialized soldier types, each with an associated Resistance faction that is separate from XCOM, and which might have different agendas than XCOM. The game presents the new content in mission story form for the first playthrough. In a divergence from the original game, the second mission of March 2035 will not be a standard type, but instead will be new content named "The Lost and Abandoned". XCOM is forced to play mediator to two Resistance factions, the stealthy hunters named Reapers, and former Advent CQC soldiers named Skirmishers. The two factions stage a meeting in an old city ruined by the invasion, haunted by its zombified citizens. Just when it seems that differences will outweigh similarities, Advent shows up to remind everyone about "strength in unity". A third faction, the combat-oriented psi troopers named Templars show up later.

The three hero soldiers automatically generated are made to be representative fighters of their factions. The Reaper combines the best features of a stealth-build Ranger and a marksman-build Sharpshooter. A Reaper can be used to scout ahead and mark enemy pods, allowing the squad to get closer to the mission objective before revealing themselves on their own terms. The Skirmisher is an agile close-range fighter, armed with SMG and combat claws to overwhelm their opponents. They have a built-in grapple, allowing easier use of elevated combat before the Spider Suit gets researched. The Templar is psi-based melee hell on wheels, able to one-shot foes in the early game in a single slash, then dash to a safe position. Their psi powers diversify with advancement, but remain active combat focused, unlike the typical Psi Soldier. The new factions' gear advances with subsequent tier development as per the standard R&D. Each faction has a base that gives XCOM's ship Avenger a safe haven and provides a scanning bonus: the Reapers grant additional Intel, the Skirmishers decrease shipboard construction time, and the Templars provide accelerated healing.

The existence of differing factions puts a renewed emphasis on the strategic level of the game. Gaining control of regions and using them is more important, especially as the WOTC game is longer than the standard game. A Resistance Ring is now available for construction, and should be built as soon as possible. Why? The Ring allows for 1-3 soldiers to be sent on covert missions, which if successful grant rewards, such as: more resources, more skill points, grant tech upgrades, hasten research, recruit Engineers and Scientists, or sabotage Advent progress. Sending Rookies on covert missions automatically promotes them to Squaddie, so there is no immediate pressure to build the Guerrilla Training School first, which is practically mandatory for the standard game. However, missions can negatively impact a campaign, resulting in soldiers being wounded or captured by Advent. (That brings on a new covert mission choice: find the POW and set up a rescue mission.) It's also possible the operatives run afoul of Advent, and have to run for their lives through a Lost City, pursued by Advent hunters and the Lost themselves.

Since it is a longer game, the old XCOM technique of building several teams' worth of capable veterans has been officially added to WOTC. Soldiers that participate in multiple missions in a game month without a rest gain the Tired status. Tired soldiers can be sent on a mission, but they're more likely to get injured on a mission, are more likely to gain negative status, and will be given a mandatory leave from duty afterwards. Players who don't deliberately keep 3-4 teams in rotation as their character pool grows will see vital missions go undone because they have no healthy soldiers to send! But, soldiers who operate on the same team for a while also develop camaraderie in the form of Soldier Bonds. This mechanism allows two soldiers that create a bond to gain bonus actions when they are on the same mission squad. A Training Center is thus included for improving soldier bonds, and letting existing soldiers learn skills outside their specializations.

Of course, Advent isn't left out of the fun, and there is a new threat. "The Lost and Abandoned" also introduces the Chosen, three elite antagonists that put a face on the largely anonymous enemy forces. They are the Elders' special minions, charged with counter-resistance actions while the Elders work on the Big Plan. The Chosen are anime-level antagonists, powerful and skilled opponents with a high opinion of themselves and a desire to tell you all about it. They will randomly drop into missions, replacing a standard pod, and will proceed to taunt and torment the active squad, adding a new level of complexity to what is often an already complicated scenario. Ridding yourself of these dangerous pests involves using the Resistance Ring to locate the specific bases of the Chosen, and then raiding them like a story mission objective.

A third-party menace is the Lost, the wretched inhabitants of old cities that were ruined and mostly abandoned during the invasion. Contaminated and twisted by alien materials, the residents who didn't flee fast enough have become a zombie-like horde of mindless killing intent. That's right, XCOM has zombies again. Loud noises in a Lost City map are guaranteed to bring successive swarms of them, in increasingly larger numbers. (It's typical to meet at least 30 of them, and I have a personal best Lost kill score of 101, so you've been warned.) This makes the standard default tactic of making everything explode with grenades and rockets counter-productive, so it's best to send a squad that can shoot straight and run fast! On the bright side, the Lost will also target Advent opponents, which a clever Commander can put to good use.

Toss in a few new maps for both the new content and some random variations, and WOTC is worth the price tag. The game is longer and has some more choices to make, especially in the early game, but it's worth it. The replay value on all levels of difficulty has increased at an algorithmic rate, The DLC packs for the standard XCOM 2 game are compatible, so with the full package it's possible in WOTC to deploy a squad that includes a SPARK, a Reaper, and mohawked street fighter, and then be pursued by an Alien Ruler through a Lost City. (It was an absolutely crazy and dangerous mission, 5 soldiers including the SPARK wounded, 10/10, would do it again.)

This is a review for Shen's Last Gift, another DLC for XCOM 2 that is based around the support characters of XCOM: Enemy Unknown. This one concerns Chief Engineer Shen, who was in charge of R&D efforts for the older game. It is designed to give the player one big story mission and a new class (of sorts) to use in the game. Like Alien Hunters (see my review), it gives the XCOM 2 world a little more depth than the straight-up game would have.

In story terms, Dr. Shen escaped from the rack and ruin of XCOM HQ. He found a crashed alien spaceship, and began the lengthy process of restoring it, anticipating a need for the Resistance to resume the offensive. He also trained his daughter Lily to become his successor, which was a good thing because at the beginning of XCOM 2 he's been deceased for a few years. However, he left something behind. That something will make itself known in the second or third month of game play. A cutscene shows Lily receiving an electronic signal from an exterior source that's powerful and skilled enough to penetrate Avenger's systems. Lily believes it is a message from her father, and that he has something to give her and XCOM.

About 2-3 months later, the signal is backtracked to a ruined ADVENT industrial tower inside Resistance controlled territory. Lily requests to lead the investigation, and takes 3-5 other soldiers with her to investigate. There is no time limit, so there is no pressure to investigate right away. A Squaddie-level unit can succeed, since Lily is a master Specialist with abilities from both skill trees, but a Corporal-average squad will do better, with less chance of losses. Be prepared for a long mission; it lasts at least one hour, since there are three full maps with loading periods, and maybe two hours if some of the fights take a while.

The ruin has no living humans, but is populated by machines and....something else. A machine intelligence that names itself Julian makes contact. Julian claims to be Doctor Shen's true legacy, and he wants to be rescued from the facility that is confining him. This seems like a bad idea, since it is perfectly obvious he is psychotic, cruel, and possesses lethal snark levels. Still, something else might be present, so Lily leads the squad through a series of skirmishes with Julian's defensive units until they come to the thing she was looking for. Dr. Shen had built a SPARK, a truly independent and sentient robot based on the alien AI models, but with Shen's kinder direction. Julian wanted control of the body so he could become autonomous, but Lily gives him the brushoff in a cutscene and activates the SPARK, which becomes the squad's ally, and a new soldier class of sorts which can be constructed afterwards. This event really angers Julian, and he makes one last great effort to stop the squad before they can evac, taking Shen's last gift with them.

There's only one real thing to get in this DLC, and that's the SPARK unit itself. It fills in the heavy support function that in Enemy Unknown was filled by the MEC soldier augmentation. It is tough, carries a big gun, has the Specialist hacking ability, and has two development paths to give further capabilities. Tier upgrades for armor and weapon also become available as well; they are pricey but worth it. New units can be constructed as well, and there is even an achievement for deploying three or more of them on a mission! Character customization is available as well, of course. For War of the Chosen the DLC is even better; the SPARK has many more upgrade options, and the weapon can now use mods like soldier weapons. Want to get the new unit but don't want to repeat the fun but lengthy story in a campaign? Don't integrate the DLC at the beginning, and the SPARK construction option will automatically show up when the Proving Ground is available. Lily Shen's formerly unique tattoo is also made available for your other soldiers to copy.

Is this DLC worth obtaining, buy itself or in a bundle? Yes! The story is probably the best one Firaxis has done for XCOM 2 to date, and yes that includes WOTC. Julian is worth the price by himself, as he is a fun antagonist with his own agenda, and his actor gives the role a lot of lively spirit. You even have the option of making a defeated Julian the controlling AI for a SPARK unit, which is its own amusing reward. So pick up Shen's Last Gift and have a spark of hope illuminate your game.

It's got to be said, XCOM 2 soldiers, while not looking quite as shiny and futuristic as those from earlier games, still look normal, even practical, when kitted out. Even the Resistance Warrior package is more of a casual-Friday version, or maybe a home-brew attempt to match XCOM's regulars using some salvaged gear. Well enough, and if you want to always kit out the Character Pool like a Tactical FPS loadout crew, knock yourself out. It's your game, after all. This DLC is not for you.

Now, for the rest of you players who like a little fun and, dare i say, variety in your virtual toy soldiers, let's take another look at the XCOM 2 world. It's been twenty years since the aliens kicked XCOM's butt, helped along by the courageous lack of support given by the sort of backstabbing money-humping, boot-licking bastards that are probably running your country right now. For every shining ADVENT city center and model urban community there is a Cyberpunk-like slum or struggling satellite community that still shows scars from the invasion. Or there is a squatter village or nomad compound or refugee camp where people are trying to survive as best they can. Now ask yourselves, what sort of Resistance fighters looking to join XCOM are going to come out of some of those places?

Firaxis definitely asked themselves that question. The answer is found in this DLC. If you want XCOM fighters who look like the supporting cast from cool Seventies and Eighties action movies, especially the post-apocalypse type; if you want to look like supporting cast from SyFy network movies that desperately want to be mistaken for the cool Seventies and Eighties movies; if you want soldiers that come from the Method Men, Suicide Squad, or any given Troma film; if you want to make cosplayers at war; yes, this is the best DLC for you. The character customization screens get a lot more detailed, in terms of, well, everything. More hairstyles, more facepaints, more tattoos, more armor & weapon patterns, more wardrobe choices, all geared towards soldiers that will definitely grab the eye in your posted screenshots! This has nothing to do with effectiveness or utility, it's all about, like, looking totally radical and out of this world, dude!! I's about being yourself and sticking out from all those ADVENT loving scum and their bogus mallwear "futuristic" look!! Free the mind, free the uniform, free yourselves!!

"Vahlen....w hat did you do?"Aiien Hunters is an official DLC supplement for XCOM 2, both standard and WOTC versions. It is intended to be a cinematic expansion for the game, and is set around Doctor Vahlen, the slightly mad chief scientist of XCOM: EU fame. It is meant to provide an additional challenge for players who have mastered the basic game and want to experience what would happen if James Cameron or Joss Whedon had made an XCOM 2 movie. That's if you play it right, anyways. Commanders who struggle with it may feel that their campaign has become some goofy monster flick Asylum Films knocked together, and their squad is the group of designated losers intended to become alien chow. Hopefully this guide will prevent that sort of bad experiment from happening to you!

Here's the set-up; the DLC activates on a new game. The story begins innocuously in the second half of the first month; the wrecked former transport for XCOM: Enemy Unknown has been located. Bradford gets all excited, and wants to take a look. Indulge him and take a few days to scan it. Several odd but useful weapons are found, and a mysterious message from Doctor Vahlen. Bradford is interested, since he hasn't heard from her since the HQ fell nearly twenty years ago. A month or so later in game time, a mysterious location is revealed in Resistance-held territory. A two-day scan reveals a hidden laboratory with a not-at-all sinister icon, with a garbled recorded transmission from Vahlen. Bradford gets so excited by the prospect of a union with Ilsa, She-Wolf of the Laboratory that he volunteers to lead the mission himself!

And there you have it, a select special mission with no real time limit. It can be done with Bradford and 3-5 Squaddies equipped with the new weapons and a few medkits. Yes, you want to have the new weapons. Yes you can win without them, but there is a greater chance of an ass beating in the finale if you don't equip them. Plunge into the laboratory, which is empty of living humans, but full of living Vipers, scaled to challenge but not overwhelm a low-ranking squad. Shoot, hack, and blast your way through them, thinking of turning Squaddies into Corporals in a single mission! it's a lengthy run at Veteran Squaddie level; I don't know if it's possible to finish it under 10 turns. All the while Vahlen voice records which are both ominous and amusing ('cause it's Vahlen) give the story of a 21st-century Frankenstein experiment that went off the rails in a major way!

The grand finale to the mission is a boss battle with a Viper King. He is easily a match for a full-size squad, and without the special weapons there is little chance of defeating him before he makes a run for it and escapes. Now he's out there somewhere, and will show up the next month on a random mission, accompanied by a Viper or two. And he's not alone. There are two more alien rulers, who make the Viper King look puny by comparison. And they're out there too, ready to pop up on your squad. Are you running an Ironman campaign? HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!! The fear of the enemy unknown is back....

There is a trick to using Alien Hunters without the mission; if the DLC is present but not incorporated, the weapons will be present in the starter equipment pool, and can be constructed normally. But the Viper King and escorts will show up without warning, probably on your first Supply Raid. SURPRISE!!!

Now, there is some good stuff included as reward and incentive to put yourself through sci-fi action horror survival mode. The four weapons are good, with one each for the four basic XCOM classes. They're effective against non-ruler aliens, and three of them can be upgraded at each new tier. The frost bomb can't be upgraded, but there's no need since it's fine as is. However, do take Tygan's warning to heart; the weapons are unique, and if lost on a mission they are gone for good for the duration of a campaign. There is also a ghoulishly fun option of researching each defeated ruler and obtaining a unique armor from each of them, incorporating a built-in skill derived from the specific ruler. Some additional cosmetics are included for alien-mimic facepaints and Advent helmets. YMMV with the cosmetics as usual, but there it is.

So, is Alien Hunters worth it? Yes, because you are an experienced XCOM 2 player and you love both the challenge and the pain, and posting screenshots of the Viper King squeezing Bradford like a near-empty toothpaste tube. Currently available in a big bundle, so you can incorporate it as you see fit with the regular game or WOTC.

Like to play board games, family games, old-style war games, even checkers? If your idea of a good game with friends involves an unfolded game board, but your friends can't make it over? This is the game for you, then. Download or purchase a game, get the friends, or advertise for some new ones online there. Then play away!

Ever wonder what would happen in your favorite game if the bad guys won? Ever wonder what the world would look like then? Well, the development team for XCOM: Enemy Unknown decided to follow through on that question. For those not in the know, the XCOM game has an "Ironman" mode where there is a single continuously updating save. No save scumming, no re-dos, all triumphs and defeats are final! (Y'know, like real Commanders have to deal with out there in the world...) Needless to say, we XCOM vets lost a few of those (especially on the harder levels) before we got a win, if we got a win. So the designers made a game that was based on the idea that the Ironman game failed and the aliens won.

It is 2035, 20 years after the events in 2015 of Enemy Unknown played out to a disappointing finish. The triumphant aliens rule the world through an organization named Advent, and they have Big Plans for humanity. Of course, humans not wiling to play along with the Advent game are marginalized and oppressed. So a low-key Resistance goes on out of sight of the glittering Advent centers. One of those missions named "Gatecrasher" goes into action; its objective is to obtain a precious asset, a prisoner who can give the Resistance the edge it needs... "Welcome back, Commander."

XCOM 2 uses the same setup as XCOM: Enemy Unknown. It's a turn-based tactical game with a team of up to 6 guerrillas versus 6-12 Advent troopers and alien soldiers. You resume the role of the Commander, moving your soldiers, and giving them commands for action. Then when you are finished, the aliens take their turn. There are four basic types: the Grenadier (big guns & big booms), the Specialist (RPV-delivered healing or electronic sabotage), the Ranger (close quarter fighting with gun & blade), and the Sharpshooter (long range shooting). Soldiers who survive long enough get promoted, gaining new skills which make them better fighters. A built-in R&D mechanic gradually gives the Resistance new armor, weapons, and gadgets, hopefully in time to counter the tougher enemies being sent at them. An option to develop Psi Troopers lets the Commander use the aliens' greatest power against them. As with earlier XCOM games the strategic game of obtaining resources and public support is as important as winning the tactical game, and a Commander who fails at the first will inevitably fail at the second.

The story involves undercutting Advent's New World Order and thwarting the aliens' master plan for Humanity. (For EU veterans, yes the Elders are still hanging about, and yes they still have their we-know-what's-best attitude.) Missions are set to the options available to a Resistance high on mobility but low on everything else! Insert a team onto a mission map, accomplish the mission in 8-12 turns before the window of success closes, and get out before Advent reinforcements arrive to crush your team irregardless of heroics. Many times a full body count isn't necessary, as a successful but battered team can call for evacuation and leave with enemies still on the board. This is different on the whole from XCOM: Enemy Unknown, where the mission usually involved & required killing or capturing every alien enemy on the map. It requires a different mindset and tactics different from the earlier game. However the XCOM 2 soldier classes have skills and items that conform to the overall story, allowing for teams that can get the job done.

The gameplay is unforgiving in the best XCOM tradition; the enemies start with more advantages, and the enemy AI is remorseless & relentless about using them. Teaching a Commander through killing off valuable soldiers is a XCOM hallmark, and Commanders are supposed to know and use every advantage available to them. Your soldiers' aim (especially at low ranks) is less than Hollywood Hero levels, explosions affect both sides with equal viciousness, and soldiers can freak out when events turn against the team. So when the mission ends in a flawless victory status, there is a real feeling of accomplishment, especially on the more difficult missions.

A word should be said for the character customization & character pool feature for the benefit of new players. As in XCOM: EU, the soldiers are randomly derived from the 16 regions of the world. A variety of options for language, armor & uniform coloration, camouflage, physical features, and other characteristics are included. The approved final selections are then included in a character pool, which the game saves and references for future campaigns. This is a big improvement over the options available in earlier games. There is a RPG-style gloss to the Resistance fighters, and they feel more like actual persons instead of impersonal tokens. Attachment to favorite characters then becomes a game issue as well, since losing one of them to a plasma blast becomes very personal! A large workshop community has added a bunch of options here for players who want more strac or more wild options beyond even the DLC.

XCOM 2 has a fair amount of replay for the value, since game difficulty can be increased, and the notorious Ironman mode is available for veteran players. It's been given a lot of support by Firaxis, with a great deal of DLC, including War of the Chosen, which is an especially large expansion. As of this review Steam has an excellent deal for an XCOM 2 bundle, which is definitely an encouragement to buy & use it as you become accustomed to the vanilla game. Buy it, play the basic game a few times, then add the DLC story parts and give the game a little more depth and some more gear and cosmetic options. Now go save Earth, Commander!

This is the first DLC for the XCOM 2 game. It was originally a bonus item for pre-orders, and was later made available for general purchase. Resistance Warrior is a cosmetic pack that gives the player more options when it comes to making up starting soldiers in the character pool. That is its chief & only selling point; if you like having options starting out or for randomly generated Rookies, this official mod is for you. What do you get?

Face Paints: You can now utilize that customization slot with four face paint options, two of which are military-like and two of which are cinematic. How far dedicated/gone is your new Rookie in terms of prep or attitude?
Resistance Kevlar Armor: Equip a Rookie with this and choose one of five options, showing a Resistance fighter with various levels of scrounged-up gear worn over street clothes. This can serve as a nice counterpoint to the default military gear, and lets imaginative payers give some variety to the ragtag bunch Bradford is handing to you for missions. (The battered second-hand XCOM: EU armor option is a nice touch for EU/EW fans.) Colors & patterns are as per standard menu options for Pool characters. One downside is that the look goes away when the advanced armors become available; at that point the scruffy guerrilla is now a bona fide XCOM operative!
Hairstyles: These are only available at character pool generation or for random Rookies, which was a bit of a disappointment, but the wider variety of hairstyles brings the design options up to full Enemy Within/Long War standards, and even a bit further.
Headgear: A few more hats & hoods become available, including a much-needed hood, ski mask, and a nice boonie hat. A Workshop mod "Free the Hood" fixes the official oversight for facial options being displayed.
Scars: More scars, including some painful ones, but not as far gone as some of the other DLC.
Existing Character Pools: So you don't want to do the work & let someone else have the fun? No problem! The game design staff have provided two character pools of original characters using the full range of options. Select those characters for your pool, and be amazed/amused at the fighters who show up to kill aliens & free the Earth.

This is currently available for about $5 US including tax which was my purchase price. Users who purchased it earlier for more money weren't very happy, but five bucks is about right for some official flavor.