Every player of XCOM 2 remembers that one specific moment. You have a soldier from your elite squad standing right in front of an alien enemy, likely a Muton. You aim your machine gun directly at its face. The game tells you there is a 90 percent chance to hit. You think it is impossible to miss. Your hands are steady, your aim is perfect. But then, the shot goes wide. It happens every single time. You are 100 percent certain it will miss. You shout at the game, but you secretly love it.
This moment is just one small part of the wild ride that is XCOM 2. It is a brilliant turn-based strategy game made by Firaxis that came out 10 years ago. It is hard to believe a decade has passed. Looking back now, the game has a strong story and excellent design. However, those moments that make you want to pull your hair out are what stick in your mind. These are the true XCOM moments that define how you play.
If you have never played it, the game focuses on class-based tactical fighting. You train a group of survivors to save the world. Each soldier has a unique style of combat. All of them are useful and strong in their own way. The Sharpshooter is your main sniper. But you can also change them into a pistol fighter for close-up battles. You can even give them custom colors and outfits. This makes the soldiers feel like your own cast in a thriller movie about humans versus aliens. It does not sound like much, but you get very attached to your crew.
You spend many hours with a soldier, let’s call him Paul the Grenadier. He has reached the highest level and carries the best weapons you have. More importantly, he is from Sweden and has a beard to prove it. He is a character, not just a faceless gun, and that is key. He has one shot to take down a Sectoid that is controlling one of your units. But he is just out of range to hit it with his grenade launcher. This is obviously your fault. You did not position him correctly. But sitting alone at your desk at 2 in the morning, it feels like another twist in Paul’s story. It is the time he let the team down again. Well done, Paul.
I am a big fan of XCOM 2’s boss-style encounters. These are walking struggle factories that create frustrating moments you have to fight your way out of. After certain story missions, these scary enemies show up unexpectedly during normal fights. They have a habit of appearing at the worst possible times. You might be taking down some human goo dispensers when suddenly, a giant frost snake appears. You can take it down, but maybe someone gets hurt? Maybe someone dies? Maybe an ankle is sprained, and your best sniper needs 25 days off while the world is on fire. This is XCOM at its best. To me, this is what the series is all about. I do not believe someone who saves their game constantly is getting the full experience. If you get your best soldier caught without cover or burned in a fire and then turn back the clock, you are missing the point. Being forced to adapt to rough situations is XCOM 2.
To be honest, you do not even need a boss to make things exciting. There is nothing like having a good plan just to see a Sectopod walk in from the fog of war. It is a total nightmare and another ordeal to overcome. You need a certain re
10 years later, is it still worth trying out XCOM 2? Absolutely. It may actually be the best time to do so. This is not just because of sharp discounts on the game, which seem to happen all the time. It is because you have 10 whole years of community content. You can get new armors and new maps to fight over. You can turn your brave soldiers of humanity into green and spiky cacti. You can load on heaping portions of quality of life changes. These come courtesy of mods like “Stop Wasting My Time” and “Evac All.” There is even a romance mod. This allows you to court your soldiers between missions. It is an HR nightmare for sure, but as one of the most popular XCOM 2 mods of all time, it is clearly not a concern for most players.
XCOM 2 is an all-timer. It still has a home in my installed Steam library a decade later. If you are looking back for older classics, I can promise you will hate it. You will love it, too, of course. That is why it makes such lasting memories.
