Hi.
Finlay after 2 years I competed a full play through of this gigantic game so i want to provide some constructive feedback. Originally i played X-Com back in the 90s. I discovered open X-Com and this mode in late 2019 thanks to Meridian's channel. I think it is started playing it with K3 version and I continued to upgrade up to L7 version.
So basic stats of the Play through:
Paths choices: Gray codex, Male touch
date of victory: 26.IX.2604
difficulty: John Silver
average monthly infamy: 25584
Battles won: 1157
Battles forfeited: 54
Night battles 543
Most infamy: 3800
Least infamy: -1748
Hands recruited: 217
Hands lost: 12 (actuality it would be about 50, but reduced due to some moderate save scamming)
enemies killed: 8417
enemies captured: 5208
favorite weapon: sunblades
accuracy: 68%
biggest foe: Bandits
sick days: 17131
ships detected: 1339
bases detected: 3
governments denying payments: 2
Mutant pogroms: 38
craft commissioned: 42
runts: 1345
research: 2718
So to me best part of the mode is fantastic diversity of equipment and soldiers and play stiles that that diversity allows. What to rush in to melee, want to blow up half of the map, want to mechanized tank attacks, want to snipe from the distance, want to melt enemies with brains of your solders, or want to mix it all up? All is possible and viable, ad lest at John Silver difficulty.
Second part I really like is diversity of opponents and missions. It has nice spread from easy to hard, from melee to ranged, to funky ones with funky mechanics and opponents, to different environments... All fun.
Also I like the lore of the setting, nice writing, would make excellent RPG seating.
As for the flaws i wont quibble of over minor balancing issues, some weapons are more powerful, some are less, AI sniping mechanic is anoying but overall that not all that of an issue. However i feel like last last 1/5th of the game kind dragged on for multiple reasons:
- braners were increasingly idle, with much time spent waiting for relevant drops or captures of important opponents
- bounty tokes become useless as all the rewards are collected by the mid game
- managing manufacturing become excessive chore needing entire chains of separate products to get final armor
- collecting sufficient HFC to compete Conqueror took months of game time
- drop rate of some high end components such as various Orbs it not adequate so some high end shadow components cant be produced to desired quality and quantity. Sivalinga Stone could also probably drop more often. Passably they could be obtained by for high amounts bounty tokens, that would resolve both this issue and uselessness of those tokes in late game.
Overall I grade this mode as 9/10.
