XCom 2 Review

[XOps]

TotalBiscuit's review for XCom 2 is out. His reviews are usually pretty comprehensive. No major story spoilers are in the review.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1dLGihV0No

He at one point outright said that if you liked the 2012 remake, then you will like XCom 2. Overall, he really liked it, but he liked the 2012 reboot as well.
Some other takeaways.
Needs optimization and is still pretty buggy. Nothing new there.
The geoscape seems much improved in that there is more freedom and less forced missions, but base building has been further dumb down. I didn't even think that was possible given how simplistic the 2012 base building was.
Tactical Combat is basically like the 2012, but more polished and faster paced. Also there are still soldier classes.
Still only three tiers of weapons, but lots of upgrades and misc equipment to add more variety.
Did not see a single HWP. Guess those are gone completely except for the support class's drone.
There is going to be a lot of mod support out of the box. I think there are already people modding it and the game isn't even out yet.

In summary, if you hated XCom 2012, then skip XCom 2 since it is basically XCom 2012 with more polish.

[Warboy1982]

on the other hand, if you liked xcom2012, seems like you're in for a bit of a treat.

[Hobbes]

The geoscape seems much improved in that there is more freedom and less forced missions, but base building has been further dumb down. I didn't even think that was possible given how simplistic the 2012 base building was.

Less base slots for facilities and it seems some facilities like Labs and Workshops aren't present anymore.

Tactical Combat is basically like the 2012, but more polished and faster paced. Also there are still soldier classes.
Still only three tiers of weapons, but lots of upgrades and misc equipment to add more variety.

Did not see a single HWP. Guess those are gone completely except for the support class's drone.

The current speculation is that the 'Shen's Last Legacy' DLC will add either HWPs or MECs.

There is going to be a lot of mod support out of the box. I think there are already people modding it and the game isn't even out yet.

You probably didn't see the Pax South panel on the weekend where they showed the modding features included. I'll only say that the map editing features completely blew my mind, since there's a mode for LoS checking, another one for map building testing, and even a replay feature. But then my reference are MapView and MCD Edit for the original game, so it's probably not surprising I'm so excited.

In summary, if you hated XCom 2012, then skip XCom 2 since it is basically XCom 2012 with more polish.

I agree with this as well.

[Phoenix7786]

How did he review the game if it isn't out yet??

[ivandogovich]

How did he review the game if it isn't out yet??

The publishers pre-release preview copies of the game prior to official release to members of the press.  Lately this has come to include Twitch Streamers and YouTube Producers as well as more established gaming media such as IGN, etc.  This is a pretty standard practice in the PC Gaming industry.  You can search YouTube right now and find many preview videos public right now, beyond just this one from TotalBiscuit.