XCOM Enemy Unknown Angry Review

what girls command Joe we have multiple reports of an alien battle fleet converging on earth fire team has already begun with alien scouts around the world my god it's not going well for us Kazakhstan Zimbabwe and Burkina Faso already fallen whoop by my calculations the earth will be overwhelmed within the year how could this happen come in transmission it's from the alien fleet on screen hello angry Joe Turrell from Battlefield Earth you're the one leading this invasion again as you can see I quickly destroy your planet pitiful military resistance in you are at my mercy why have you attacked us unprovoked what is the meaning of this a stupid rat's brain I can't expect you to be able to understand my motives when you were still learning how to spell your own name I was being trained to look at galaxies I've already taken Zimbabwe Kyrgyzstan and Burkina Faso and soon I will take the rest those are countries yes and if you don't believe me you can always go check your board game copy of risk now if you'll excuse me I'll expect your unconditional something new within the hour Hayley bastards there's only one way to stop him now assemble a council and activate the XCOM project if you've ever wondered what my favorite game of all time old or new is it's the original XCOM in 1994 it is widely considered the best strategy game of all time and I have very fond memories of playing this game on my dad's old 486 BC finally after blood 18 years of waiting we have a new ex-con not a first-person shooter or a third-person shooter but one that's true to its strategy ruse but I've worried how our Call of Duty generation will take to it and end turn button I didn't actually play for 10 hours and lose what the devilry is this quit your whining boy this is war the original game was hard it was rudl but that was a part of its charm the whole point of X come is to get your ass whooped and try to find ways to overcome it it's like a really good game of chess with aliens check oh come on prometheus that's not cool not cool man if you are familiar with ex coms gameplay it is a split between a strategic global view of the invasion where you're the commander and you have oversight of everything from base construction research engineering to intercepting UFOs on that global view the other half of the game is the combat missions these combat missions are in a tactical turn-based battle scape and unlike other games you could just as easily huddle around your computer with a good plate of food while you play as you can just be riveted to the edge of your seat as your guys are getting killed left and right biting your nails as you barely squeak out a victory with your last guy no no how how I almost died are you little [ __ ] now as much as our nostalgia my deny it the original did have a few issues it had some pointless busy work games could slow to a crawl where they became a hunt for the last alien on the map and it also suffered from overpowered exploits at the end game a lot of which have been addressed here in the remake now the originals gameplay has been streamlined without being too dumbed down it was a good idea to remove stuff like fuel consumption and low-level staff management in favour for the high level operations it's also gotten the benefit of in-game cutscenes in between missions to help drive a narrative now in true fashion it has an easy normal and classic mode for XCOM veterans there's also an impossible difficulty level with an Ironman saving option which basically disables saving and sweet Jesus this last up is a Brutale even classic mode is no joke flying in the face of recent easy ass games the developers embrace how hard this game used to be and teach you that yes it could be fun while still getting your ass kicked and losing i'll screaming my head off is i was trying to get Joe back to evac at a busted mission be back we need him for feedback now damn it down screw this I'm gonna [ __ ] outta here later sucker central fix guys coming home mission aborted mission three out I was losing I'll admit it I had to crawl back to normal difficulty after all my friends got slaughtered but now that I've got one game under my belt I want to go back and I want to show those aliens what's up what's up this new XCOM plays faster time units have been replaced with two actions for every character and while with the old time units you can sometimes squeeze out maximum efficiency from your characters against a few extra moves this new system works beautifully on its own - with one puzzling exception that you can't normally fire before you move without some special ability which we'll get to later they also heighten tension by limiting your squad to just four members and later six as opposed to the original games 814 and later an unwieldy 26 this is one change that I thought I'd hey but I ended up loving though I do think they can increase it up to a further 10 late-game but in addition to speeding up the game it makes each soldier that much more important it allows them to beef up these soldiers with the new class-based abilities special moves and actions that they can pull off there wasn't possible in the original like a grappling hook for snipers to get to elevated terrain or various devastating psychic abilities in the right hands this suit could be the most dangerous thing we've ever developed I like the character classes and while your soldiers weapons are limited to his class it continues this choice consequence mechanic each class matters do you want to bring more mobile cover smoke grenade guys or more guys with three meta packs or more guys with the all-important rocket launchers it's a difficult decision it's a great addition and it places more emphasis where it needs to be on the actual characters within your XCOM squad you see arguably the best part of XCOM was its character development XCOM was able to generate memorable stories from the gameplay itself you form connections with the guys after you name them after you're best friends you want your favorite due to make it through to the end of the game your Rambo and you'll have all these stories about how your Rambo got taken out but he managed to take out to cyber disks with him or how that gam rukiye went Bazaar Cole and ended up shooting and killing his best friend I'm happy to say that [ __ ] is still intact in the 2012 remake and this game has even more character customization with Ray's face options facial hair armor color armor types unfortunately corporate commander thought it was a good idea to limit some of these to pre-orders and I'm sure it's going to show up as paid DLC after the fact no don't do this to one of the reasons that makes this game so fun just know no oh the game has an incredible atmosphere its creepy at times especially during the beginning in the tutorial levels is that your man Delta 4 negative sir that's someone else dr. Valen what's he saying he is saying help me I just wish it would have held that same amount throughout the rest of the game actioncam does a great job of getting you down close in the action making you more cinematic heightening the tension in each and every shot make it fire over here mission types are also pretty much the same you've got a lien abduction terrorist site assaults alien base attack and UFO landings but there are also some new ones now the council can actually request you go on special missions for them and some of these result into like bomb disposal missions or a VIP escorts sadly there's no XCOM base defense hey I desperately wanted them to find a way to make base defense work this was a mechanic from the original work you got to good at the game the aliens will chop you down to size by attacking your bases directly really giving it a good sense of what's at stake as you see all of your containment units and and your boxes and your [ __ ] just get blown up this is one of the only negatives that bothered me I wish they could have found a way to put it it looks like they've changed their tactics but why why do this it's a message to the entire world that nothing can stop them however what's really important here the tactical gameplay it's fantastic even old tactics work always bring medic it's always keep up with technology as soon as you give mind shields equip all your soldiers with them and never ever leave your troops out in the open ever however as with any old man set in his ways there are a few things that I didn't like about the tactical combat changes for example your soldier will act like an idiot and keep running or keep doing his move after he spotted an enemy which could end up parking him right next to that enemy he should be able to stop and react first you also aren't able to free aim anymore where you're able to directly target walls and the stuff up you can still do it with grenades and rocket launchers but it's a shame because the collateral damage in this game the destructible terrain is freaking awesome also don't like the unlimited ammo or the fact that you cannot pick up alien weapons those were two story creating situations that happened in the originally we no longer have this leads to a lack of detailed stats and and no inventory system I suspect this is a result of having to develop the game on the console as well so you know we don't get to equip our guys backpacks shoulder pockets side pockets pocket pockets leg pockets and just pockets and instead we just magically generate ammo after a reload it's a frustrating if understandable trade-off with the tighter more action filled maps and the faster playstyle ways now back on the strategic level the game is filled with tough decisions were to put your satellites where to send help for alien abductions because there's usually three and you can only pick one which countries will be ignored at the risk of them pulling their funding lose a country lose any satellites you have in orbit if you lose too many countries you can quickly become pretty screwed on screen commander Joe I regret to inform you that Nauru Palau believes and Papa New Guinea have cut their funding and withdrawn from the XCOM project goddamn Willie should have paid attention more in history class but hell are these countries that that's unfortunate sir but I'm losing men left and right it's hard to defend the entire planet I have what like 30 guys left at least some major countries that everybody knows is still on board with us and frankly sir for the best hope that you have that maybe so commander but we've decided that you failed to combat the alien threat but you don't understand there will be nothing left we've heard enough commander Joe no no no don't that doesn't make any sense who will protect you we're taking away your toys but and then we're letting the aliens have their way with us but oh yes in the bus the council spoken unbelievable also another major change was only being able to construct one base as opposed to having multiple bases around the world another change that was wind a lot about but ends up working for the better limited resources and threat response capabilities definitely enhances the strategic choices in the game you could still span the globe with satellites stationing your interceptors two at a time at different countries but you only have one sky ranger which simplifies things in a good way cutting down on the needless garbage missions the ant farm look of the base is a wonderful idea and it's really cool to look at even if you won't be looking at it much during the game interception though feels half-baked now the originals mechanic was never extensive by any means but here it's even less so with only pretty much aim and dodge options is window dressing I think there was a huge opportunity here to do something really cool an opportunity that was missed now the vast majority of the tech tree has been recreated it's deep and it's rewarding equipping all of your favorite men with all the latest weapons and technology from engineering and there's even now a foundry to improve the weapons that you already have constructed it's a balance between building what you want with the alien tech that you've salvaged and the resources that you have available all while knowing that better stuff is on the horizon as your scientists work their butts off to keep up with the aliens now the way the game works is certain priority missions or research events will advance the game's story along so you have to be very careful about researching those before you're ready to now there's a good amount of map variety for a single playthrough it only had a few repeat over the 40 some missions that I went on but you can tell they're very detailed and handcrafted though without the procedurally generated maps of the original using a tile basis it would sign you will probably see some of these repeat especially if you plan to do multiple playthroughs of the game they even managed to squeeze in a multiplayer versus mode which works on a point allowance like a Warhammer 40k tabletop game you have a certain amount of points where you can mix and match units abilities and equipment hell you can even if you're feeling creative put humans on the same team with a ins but mainly the main reason to play this mode is to play as the aliens you have to play it at least once just to experience the game from the evil aliens point of view oh hell yes you screwed BAM is your face right there I don't care you got a sniper on the roof I'm gonna kill you right now point-blank range yeah that is so satisfying unfortunately it is a bit bare-bones only a handful of maps no rankings or or persistence rather I would have rather had some sort of cooperative mode or vs. aliens mode through that single-player campaign as our multiplayer option in my instance my personal single-player campaign ran about 30 hours which is great value of course I took my time I ignored the priority research triggers so that I can make sure that my squad was prepared with all the badass armors and weapons that I could research before that point making sure that I was ready for that final fight and even though the ending unfortunately is a bit disappointing now I still have no idea what the aliens motivations were but it doesn't matter because through it all I was able to forge my own stories through that excellent gameplay so bless you too Kay and for access bless your hearts for bringing back XCOM for people like me and for everybody out there to experience you choose where to fight you like direct the entire war its it'll get all my people killed yeah you will you make big epic decisions it's not needs me you know this and then this that brings me to my final verdict we've been waiting years I've been anticipating this game forever and I'm happy to report that it does indeed succeed I'm giving this game a 9 out of 10 it's a must-own and a badass seal of approval if there's one name that my heart tells you to go out and buy its XCOM it's a worthy successor to the original and it's good enough that it stands on its own in this modern age so even if you don't like strategy games trust me you're gonna want to try this one for me come on just for me do you like when I started the game on a higher difficulty on my second playthrough I was just as excited as the first time that I played and that says something about a game I hope this series does well and I hope it turns into a franchise I want to prove that isometric games are he'll turn based strategy games still have a place in today's market for the sequel they could go for the terror of the deep route but ah I'd rather than just expand on the core features of the game add a variation in the damage types like in Borderlands 2 it's reading so much stuff like electricity fire ice viruses diseases or acid it would be cool to see a rambo die in other ways besides getting shot in the head like getting his face melted off by flesh-eating bacteria guns I'll see you guys on the next on the next angry Joe show until then I'll see you guys on the next ingredient come in I've already taken Zimbabwe Kyrgyzstan and Burkina Faso and soon I will take the rest I need to fix my moustache this neck beard is the curse of my existence commander Joe I regret to inform you the narrow part of the Nauru Palau where are these where are these places from behind yes but this counsel spoken nah Oh

Channel: AngryJoeShow

Views: 2,032,894

Rating: 4.892869 out of 5

Keywords: XCOM, enemy unknown, review, angry joe, pc, steam, ufo, defense, parody

Id: J-bxlJN3z_o

Length: 24min 0sec (1440 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 14 2012