XCOM 2 | Game Review
XCOM 2 is the successor to Firaxis Games’ reboot title of the famous XCOM series: XCOM: Enemy Unknown. XCOM 2 was produced by 2K Games and released in February of 2016. An expansion pack, XCOM 2: War of the Chosen, was released in August of 2017. XCOM 2 follows right on the heels of Enemy Unkown’s premise and greatly expands on the story, gameplay, and experience of its predecessors.
XCOM 2 begins its campaign twenty years after Earth’s original attempt to fend off the invading aliens, the XCOM Initiative, suffered total defeat. The aliens now occupy the Earth through their puppet government, the ADVENT administration, and maintain a benevolent facade while developing their secret Avatar Project. XCOM has morphed into a resistance movement led by the Commander, the player’s avatar in the campaign. XCOM’s forces are now based out of the Avenger, a retrofitted alien supply ship that keeps XCOM’s assets on the move and away from ADVENT retaliation.
Total War: Warhammer II
Total War: Warhammer II, is the sequel to Creative Assembly’s landmark title Total War: Warhammer and is published by Sega. It is the second title in a trilogy of Total War: Warhammer games based off of Games Workshop’s Warhammer Fantasy Battle tabletop game. Warhammer II was released in September of 2017 and brings with it an abundance of new features to add to CA’s developing Warhammer series including a new narrative campaign, four new races, and an overhaul to many of the campaign map mechanics.
One of Warhammer II’s primary features is its new single-player campaign called the Vortex Campaign. Unlike previous DLC mini-campaigns in the first Warhammer, the Vortex Campaign covers an entirely new campaign map featuring the fictional New World continents of Lustria and Naggarond as well as the paradise island of Ulthuan and the Old World Southlands. The campaign is also the primary delivery vehicle for Warhammer II’s new mechanics and campaign overhauls such as the introduction of settlement climates and treasure hunting.
Episodic Sequels
Recently I watched a gameplay exposition and review for the upcoming Total War: Warhammer II video game, the highly anticipated sequel to Creative Assembly’s landmark title, Total War: Warhammer, set to release on September 28th. The review itself was straightforward and highly informative and I had no trouble with it. However it brought up an interesting point that relates directly to the nature of episodic titles in video games.
An episodic series of video games is a run of at least two titles with a single, overarching plot that runs through each title, tying the series’ storyline, characters, and even mechanics and themes together across the series. Normally the release dates, intended consoles, and even genre of the titles don’t define if a title is part of the episodic series; content is the only determining factor. Yet perhaps the most important aspect of an episodic series versus a franchise or saga is the proximity of each title’s release to the releases of the other titles in the series. It’s not enough to share the title, setting, and mechanics of prequels and sequels; an episodic title must be an indispensable part of a larger whole.
Total War: Warhammer
In 2015 Creative Assembly celebrated the 15th anniversary of the Total War series of turn-based/tactical strategy games. A few days later it officially announced the upcoming release of its latest Total War title, Total War: Warhammer. For the past few years Creative Assembly and its current publisher Sega had been teasing the development of a Warhammer title in partnership with Games Workshop, the producers of the Warhammer Fantasy tabletop battle game. Finally fans were formally introduced to one of the most ambitious strategy projects of the decade and the first Total War game to not take place in a historical setting.
Total War: Warhammer is rooted in the revised Total War formula that had been fully developed in Total War: Rome II and its Total War: Attila standalone expansion. Regions of the game’s world map are divided into provinces, which are further divided into two to four territories each containing a single settlement with one of these settlements serving as the provincial capital. The settlements generate income, provide build slots for the construction of economic and military buildings, and list provincial statistics for growth and public order. Armies are led by a general unit, termed “Lords” in Warhammer, and each have a distance they can move each turn and various stances they can enter to generate effects on the strategic world map or the tactical battle map.
Other mechanics also remain in their traditional forms, such as the interaction of agents, now called “Heroes”, with armies, provinces, and other agents. Heroes retain the ability to be embedded into an army to provide a passive buff and to gain experience over time. Settlements include a garrison of troops that don’t count towards army upkeep and cannot be ordered away from the settlement’s control zone. Certain terrain types hinder movement or cause attrition damage to armies moving through them.
Beyond these is where Warhammer’s unique nature and radical development noticeably change and improve the established Total War formulas. Warhammer features four playable factions which can be expanded to seven plus six minor factions with free and paid DLC. Each of these factions feature new racial mechanics as well as completely distinct unit and building rosters. The Dwarven faction can only settle in special settlements called “holds” and are notable for having no cavalry units but some of the strongest heavy infantry. Alternatively the Wood Elves can settle in any province on the map, but only construct outpost style settlements with a single build slot; elven units are also light and quick with the Wood Elf faction possessing more archer units than any other faction.
Faction armies also benefit from unique mechanics and traits. The Chaos Warriors, as a horde faction, have no permanent base and must conserve some of their movement each turn in order to encamp and construct horde buildings, but as a result can simply run away to avoid danger to their faction. By contrast the Vampire Counts’ undead armies decay when outside specifically designated undead territory unless the level of vampiric corruption is high enough in the province they are invading, but at the same time areas of high corruption provide increased healing for undead units and cause attrition damage to armies of living units.
How all these unique factions mesh together and balance out is one of the primary design triumphs of Warhammer. Players are no longer promised the balance set of units and counter units from previous Total War titles; now faction compatibility depends on the player’s ability to utilize a faction’s existing units properly. An army designed to deal with monsters and heavy infantry will struggle against opponents fielding artillery and quick ranged units, yet each faction possesses the units and strategies to deal with both.
The units in each army are one of the two primary components of flavor, the other being faction mechanics, that enriches overall gameplay and are also one of the reasons Warhammer has a strong custom battle and multiplayer scene even within the Total War series. In previous titles it was not uncommon for a majority of factions to possess slightly altered unit rosters from a single template. In Warhammer the differences are so distinct that some preferred strategies from previous games aren’t even possible now.
Hero units are also a noticeable change, and improvement, from previous agent systems. When embedded in an army, heroes actually become powerful units with their own special abilities and combat statistics. They still provide passive benefits to the army they are embedded in but their true strength is revealed on the tactical battle map. Embedded heroes take up one of the twenty slots available for army composition, but the loss is rarely felt as only the lord units possesses more raw power and potential in combat.
Heroes, and lords, are also the medium for a completely new mechanic in Total War: magic. Heroes and lords with the spellcaster trait can learn magic spells as they level up. These spells are utilized in tactical combat and use a power reserve system dependent on the Winds of Magic mechanic, a constantly shifting pattern of strong and weak power reserves that covers the strategic map and changes the amount of power reserve available for tactical battles in the different regions. The magic system in Warhammer is another great design triumph as the new mechanic is woven seamlessly into the game. Spells are intuitive, easy to manage, and for the most part powerful enough to warrant their continual use but not so powerful as to break game balance. Each faction also possesses its own variations of spellcaster heroes and lords. The spells available to these units are determined by the magic lore of that unit and not all lores are available to each faction. Except for certain legendary characters, each spellcaster has only one lore.
Legendary lords take the mechanics of lords and heroes even further. These units are similar to generic lords of their respective faction, but feature unique appearances, voice acting, unique unit upgrades, and even unique mounts for tactical battles. Legendary lords can not be permanently killed, if they fall in battle they remain wounded for several turns then become available for recruitment once again. These special lords can be used in custom battles, but it’s in the grand campaign where their power and potential truly shine.
When choosing a faction for the campaign the player also chooses which legendary lord they would like to be the faction leader. Each of these lords brings its own command bonus and set of starting units. The other legendary lords are made available for recruitment when the player completes specific tasks like constructing special buildings or conquering certain cities. Throughout the campaign players are given objectives from a quest chain tied to a unique item for each legendary lord they control. These quests are optional and if completed allow the player to fight a special quest battle against pre-determined enemies using only the relevant legendary lord’s army. If the player is victorious, that lord gets the corresponding unique item permanently.
Many more subtle yet flavorful improvements populate the grand campaign and custom battle experience. The grand campaign itself can occupy many hours of gameplay per faction and with up to seven distinct experiences it makes Warhammer’s replay value one of the highest for Total War games of the decade. Even players dissatisfied with a faction’s campaign style can still enjoy its army roster in custom battles.
Multiplayer continues the Total War conventions of competitive custom battles and a co-operative grand campaign, both of which are stable and viable even on lower internet connections. The unique factions break up the metagame to a greater degree than any previous title. A competitive grand campaign between two players was also introduced, differing from coop in that the players are not linked by an unbreakable military alliance and do not share objectives. The players can still ally over the course of the campaign but need not even encounter each other if their faction objectives don’t call for it. This is a strength in that it gives players a great degree of freedom to interact with the AI and each other, but also a weakness in that the potential lack of interaction takes most of the enjoyment of the multiplayer experience away from overall gameplay.
Total War: Warhammer, is truly the crowning achievement for the Total War franchise and perhaps the greatest title of the series since Rome: Total War. It demands the most stringent graphics requirements of any Total War game, but is perfectly enjoyable on lower graphic settings and playable without error on systems that meet the minimum requirements. The game over-relies on DLC content and Creative Assembly rightly took a lot of heat from the gaming community for its overuse of the sales gimmick, yet with the DLC Warhammer becomes a masterful work of game design that can be enjoyed by gamers of any level including those who have never picked up a Total War title before. The gaming community deserved a cross-title compilation like this for decades and now that its finally here it’s a must for any strategy gamer.
XCOM: Enemy Unknown
When I first experienced Firaxis Games’ and 2K Games’ XCOM: Enemy Unknown, the original UFO: Enemy Unknown, developed by Mythos Games and MicroProse and marketed as X-COM: Enemy Unknown, had already existed for nearly a decade and established itself and the resulting series of X-COM games as favorites of the turn-based and tactical strategy genres. Within a few years the game had become a cult classic and would continue to be a major influence to tactical strategy, adventure, and turn based games for the next decade. Thus its fair to say that XCOM: Enemy Unknown, as a reboot to the original UFO: Enemy Unknown, has an impressive legacy to uphold.
XCOM: Enemy Unknown puts its players in the role of the Commander of the XCOM initiative, a secret organization formed by a council of select nations to combat a new and mysterious alien menace that has begun abducting people around the globe. Gameplay is divided into two parts; the player commands individual soldiers in turn based tactical combat as they go on missions to stop alien abductions, investigate crashed UFOs, and save civilians from terror attacks. The second part of the game involves managing and upgrading the XCOM Headquarters, an underground base that the player views via a cross section type display and features the barracks, research lab, engineering department, and other areas where the player’s soldiers and resources can be managed and upgraded.
Single player is the heart of the XCOM experience. The principle plot of XCOM: Enemy Unknown follows its predecessor: a previously unknown extraterrestrial enemy has started abducting citizens from cities around the globe. The XCOM Initiative is an attempt by most of the worlds advanced nations to combat this threat. It could be said that the base plot of the game is not highly original; however it’s in the execution of this plot throughout the game that the story becomes intriguing. The aliens are expertly portrayed as an advanced and unpredictable threat, with the player having no sure way to predict where they will strike next or in what form. As the months of in-game time pass new types of missions appear and new alien species are added to the enemy’s growing arsenal.
Following a famous trend set by earlier X-COM titles the player is ‘invited’ to become attached to soldiers in their squad. Each soldier the player recruits starts with a random appearance (which the player can customize), nationality, and gender. As these soldiers advance in rank they gain a specialized class which defines the abilities the player can use to upgrade their combat performance. The soldiers can even be renamed, allowing the player to follow in the X-COM tradition of naming and designing soldiers to resemble friends and acquaintances.
There are few characters with actual identities and they play a supporting role for the player (none of them appear in combat missions). They advise the player on new developments, serve as voice assistants, and provide a conduit for the advancement of the single player story line before and after each scripted mission. The missions, aside from a few scripted missions that serve as boss encounters to advance the main objective, are also randomly generated based on what type of mission is currently in progress. The terrain is chosen from a series of pre-built levels and enemies are seeded on the map (although as the game progresses higher level enemies become more frequent).
XCOM is at its heart a single player game. It’s multiplayer aspect consists of matches similar in design to single player missions in which players are pitted against each other after selecting a team of XCOM soldiers, alien troops, or a mixture of both based on a purchasing system that is set by the match host. Combat in XCOM is turn-based, an element that is far more forgiving on lower bandwidth connections. Sadly no multiplayer aspect exists for the campaign mode with no possibilities for such an improvement in the foreseeable future.
XCOM’s lack of a heavily plot-driven campaign makes replayability a far more entertaining aspect of the single player mode. The many randomly generated aspects of the game ensure a wide degree of fresh experiences; the player can select additional features for single player to add random effects for their soldiers and special missions or increase the difficulty. The end game remains the same but the bulk of the game remains unpredictable and, depending on the player’s preferences, quite challenging.
The release of a dedicated expansion, XCOM: Enemy Within, increases replay options substantially. New sub-plot missions and enemies are added as well as additional upgrades and features for XCOM soldiers, including a new class of soldier, the powerful Mec Trooper, through the appearance of a new type of collectible resource called Meld, which the player must gather from the enemy during missions. Once again the endgame remains the same, which depending on the difficulty selected can feel a bit anti-climatic but overall has little negative effect on the experience.
XCOM: Enemy Unknown has many aspects which old fans of the series will recognize and enjoy. New players may find the wealth of different aspects overwhelming at first, but the game features a tutorial integrated into the campaign and very forgiving game play on lower difficulty levels. Also a single failed mission does not spell defeat for the player and a degree of sacrifice is to be expected throughout the campaign. Once familiar with the game’s aspects turn-based tactics fans of all skill levels should enjoy this remake of a venerable, time-tested series.