評論

• gamedeal user

  Feb 8, 2022

  This is the hands-down first-rate king of expansion sets for an existing tactical game. Firaxis wanted to do expansions and refinements for the successful XCOM 2 game. The resulting project nearly re-wrote the game, instituting changes to XCOM 2 that definitely changed and expanded game play. This review concerns the actual War of the Chosen modifications. For the baseline game, see my separate review. War of the Chosen (WOTC) is an excellent expansion for the XCOM 2 game. You do need XCOM 2 to use WOTC; if the price tag looks high, wait for a sale or get a bundle that gives you some bang for the buck. The story is still the same, but there are a few new features. The first is the addition of three specialized soldier types, each with an associated Resistance faction that is separate from XCOM, and which might have different agendas than XCOM. The game presents the new content in mission story form for the first playthrough. In a divergence from the original game, the second mission of March 2035 will not be a standard type, but instead will be new content named "The Lost and Abandoned". XCOM is forced to play mediator to two Resistance factions, the stealthy hunters named Reapers, and former Advent CQC soldiers named Skirmishers. The two factions stage a meeting in an old city ruined by the invasion, haunted by its zombified citizens. Just when it seems that differences will outweigh similarities, Advent shows up to remind everyone about "strength in unity". A third faction, the combat-oriented psi troopers named Templars show up later. The three hero soldiers automatically generated are made to be representative fighters of their factions. The Reaper combines the best features of a stealth-build Ranger and a marksman-build Sharpshooter. A Reaper can be used to scout ahead and mark enemy pods, allowing the squad to get closer to the mission objective before revealing themselves on their own terms. The Skirmisher is an agile close-range fighter, armed with SMG and combat claws to overwhelm their opponents. They have a built-in grapple, allowing easier use of elevated combat before the Spider Suit gets researched. The Templar is psi-based melee hell on wheels, able to one-shot foes in the early game in a single slash, then dash to a safe position. Their psi powers diversify with advancement, but remain active combat focused, unlike the typical Psi Soldier. The other factions' gear advances with subsequent tier development as per the standard R&D. Each faction has a base that gives XCOM's ship [i]Avenger[/i] a safe haven and provides a scanning bonus: the Reapers grant aditional Intel, the Skirmishers increase ship construction time, and the Templars provide accelerated healing. The existence of differing factions puts a renewed emphasis on the strategic level of the game. Gaining control of regions and using them is more important, especially as the WOTC game is longer than the standard game. A Resistance Ring is now available for construction, and should be built as soon as possible. Why? The Ring allows for 1-3 soldiers to be sent on covert missions, which if successful grant resources, give soldiers better skill sets, grant tech upgrades, hasten research, or sabotage Advent progress. Sending Rookies on covert missions automatically promotes them to Squaddie, so there is no pressure to build the Guerrilla Training School first, which is practically mandatory for the standard game. However, missions can negatively impact a campaign, resulting in soldiers being wounded or captured by Advent. (That brings on a new covert mission choice: find the POW and set up a rescue mission.) Ut's also possible the operatives run afoul of Advent, and have to run for their lives through a Lost City, pursued by Advent hunters and the Lost themselves. Since it is a longer game, the old XCOM technique of building several teams' worth of capable veterans has been officially added to WOTC. Soldiers that participate in multiple missions in a game month without a rest gain the Tired status. Tired soldiers can be sent on a mission, but they're more likely to get injured on a mission, are more likely to gain negative status, and will be given a mandatory leave from duty afterwards. Players who don't deliberately keep 3-4 teams in rotation as their character pool grows will see vital missions go undone because they have no healthy soldiers to send! But, soldiers who operate on the same team for a while also develop camaraderie in the form of Soldier Bonds. This mechanism allows two soldiers that create a bond to gain bonus actions when they are on the same mission squad. A Training Center is thus included for improving soldier bonds, and letting existing soldiers learn skills outside their specializations. Of course, Advent isn't left out of the fun, and there is a new threat. "The Lost and Abandoned" also introduces the Chosen, three elite antagonists that put a face on the largely anonymous enemy forces. They are the Elders' special minions, charged with counter-resistance actions while the Elders work on the Big Plan. The Chosen are anime-level antagonists, powerful and skilled opponents with a high opinion of themselves and a desire to tell you all about it. They will randomly drop into missions, replacing a standard pod, and will proceed to taunt and torment the active squad, adding a new level of complexity to what is often an already complicated scenario. Ridding yourself of these dangerous pests involves using the Resistance Ring to locate the specific bases of the Chosen, and then raiding them like a story mission objective. A third-party menace is the Lost, the wretched inhabitants of old cities that were ruined and mostly abandoned during the invasion. Contaminated and twisted by alien materials, the residents who didn't flee fast enough have become a zombie-like horde of mindless killing intent. That's right, XCOM has zombies again. Loud noises in a Lost City map are guaranteed to bring successive swarms of them, in increasingly larger numbers. (It's typical to meet at least 30 of them, and I have a personal best Lost kill score of 101, so you've been warned.) This makes the standard default tactic of making everything explode with grenades and rockets counter-productive, so it's best to send a squad that can shoot straight and run fast! On the bright side, the Lost will also target Advent opponents, which a clever Commander can put to good use. Toss in a few new maps for both the new content and some random variations, and WOTC is worth the price tag. The game is longer and has some more choices to make, especially in the early game, but it's worth it. The replay value on all levels of difficulty has increased at an algorithmic rate, The DLC packs for the standard XCOM 2 game are compatible, so with the full package it's possible in WOTC to deploy a squad that includes a SPARK, a Reaper, and mohawked street fighter, and then be pursued by an Alien Ruler through a Lost City. (It was an absolutely crazy and dangerous mission, 5 soldiers including the SPARK wounded, 10/10, would do it again.)
• gamedeal user

  Oct 10, 2022

  2K launcher provides no additonal features but demands you create an account. 2k then does not secure its (I mean, my) data and lets it leak onto the open internet. I don't understand why Valve allows these types of customer experiences.
• gamedeal user

  Jan 24, 2023

  When I bought the XCOM 2: War of the Chosen DLC in a bundle, I figured it was a short sequel set after the XCOM 2 story, since it launches separately from the main game. Having just played through the game twice (once vanilla, and once with the Alien Hunters and Shen's Last Gift DLC), I was initially a bit disappointed to find I was going to have to stop the Avatar Project yet again, because War of the Chosen is, once again, the base game with different DLC content woven through it. Still, though, the experience is different enough to be worth it. War of the Chosen introduces three factions separate from XCOM that have been fighting the Advent forces. These factions, as you might imagine, introduce three new soldier classes with new abilities to unlock. You'll have to work with the factions, in the form of completing special missions for them AND lending them use of your soldiers in order to gain their trust and further advantages. This last one's an especially strange and unsettling feature, as your soldiers may return wounded, get captured, or trigger special ambush missions where they have to fight their way out. Speaking of your soldiers, a series of new features get introduced to perhaps get you more attached to them, so as to make it hurt more if you lose them. Before, soldiers under fire could end up with the 'Shaken' status, which would lower their Will and make them more susceptible to Psi attacks, Panic and other ailments. Now, your soldiers have a whole host of traumatic problems they can suffer, which might for instance make them Hunker Down out of caution or attack on sight out of paranoia. It rather reminded me of the Quirks from Darkest Dungeon. It's a mechanic that's more likely to pop up if your Soldiers are Tired, which is a new feature similar to the Wounded state. Combat actions tucker your soldiers out, requiring you to leave them at base to keep them stable. All in all, I find it requires you to keep a bigger pool of regulars around than in the base game. Your soldiers, if they spend time in combat together, also have a chance of developing bonds, which provide them with little bonuses and special actions if they're fielded together. There's a slight adjustment to the Buildings, too, with the caring for the wounded no loner being done from the Advanced Warfare Center, but from the new Infirmary, which can also cure their mental issues. There's also a mandatory building added in the form of the Resistance Ring, to keep track of your Covert Actions with the various factions. Since the amount of space in the Avenger is the same, this means you'll have to consider even more carefully where and what to build, and what not. Aside from the factions and the heroes they send your way, there's the titular Chosen - three humanoid alien brawlers who will taunt and harass you through missions. The game tends to give you ample warning if they might show up on a mission, but get ready to see them a LOT. Though you'll be forced to put them down, they'll teleport out and unfortunately don't require the kind of recovery time your wounded soldiers do before they make a reappearance. The writers of this DLC clearly like these characters a lot, as they do a whole lot of trash-talking, either during missions or inbetween, as they mock you long distance. I couldn't help but feel like the writers rather wished they were doing fantasy instead of sci-fi this time. The Chosen kind of feel like they walked straight out of Warcraft, and both they and the new faction heroes talk and act like they're from a Saturday morning cartoon. It's all very heavy-handed with everyone getting quasi-religious, the faction heroes about their struggle and the Chosen about their Elder masters. The developers cast some recognizable Star Trek actor voices in this DLC, such as Marina Sirtis and Michael Dorn, who both kind of sleepwalk through the clichéd dialogue, and John de Lancie, who sounds like he's having a bit more fun with it. You can choose at the start whether or not to involve the the Alien Hunters or Shen's Last Gift DLCs. You can either have them as normal, with their associated missions coming up, deactivate them completely, or have them integrated without their associated missions, which is the default. This means you'll have the Alien Hunter weapons pop up as a research option, you can build SPARKs as soon as you build a Proving Ground, and you'll be warned if one of the Alien Rulers is set to appear at a location. It's your choice, but you might want to carefully consider if you want it all on together. Especially early on, the game feels really overwhelming as it just keeps throwing prompts at you about stuff that needs doing. The Chosen start showing up while you're still fielding rookies, XCOM and the Faction characters start haranguing you to do covert stuff, and all the while, the Avatar Project ticker keeps on ticking. Having to deal with the Alien Rulers as well might be a bit much, though the associated gear remains helpful. Not every new element that War of the Chosen introduces works as well as intended. Research now has a feature where your scientists frequently become Inspired, and either a unique research project will pop up, or the research time for one of your existing projects will be lowered, IF you immediately go for that project next. It's a nice idea, but it ends up feeling like your research gets railroaded along a path the game sets. But set against that, there's a lot to like. The presence of the Chosen adds a new element of suspense and danger to the missions (though I could see it becoming an annoyance after a while). There's new procedurally generated environments to explore, and if any of your soldiers get captured, you can undertake rescue missions that involve a lot of stealth, and there's zombies. The base game had Psi Zombies, but in War of the Chosen, there's the Lost - dessicated fast zombies that result from the bioweapons that the aliens attacked human cities with in the first XCOM. They like to swarm, which is offset by the fact that they have little health, can of course only perform melee attacks, will attack Advent forces as well, AND every succesful kill against them grants your soldier an extra action. Not only are they another suspenseful element, it also shows that the XCOM 2 playstyle could probably be adopted well to other genres than sci-fi. There's updates on the practical side as well. Notably, War of the Chosen seems to have much reduced loading times from the base game. Missions, briefings and actions load much faster, and while I'm sure there's a reason for it, I don't understand why the base game doesn't have these improvements. There's still considerable bugs that haven't been ironed out, though. On one occasion, I was unable to complete a mission where the final objective was to kill all enemy forces, because I combed the entire map, and there weren't any left. On another, reloading an in-mission save meant that two of my squad members got popped back to the location where they started the mission, with the rest fully entrenched. And later, a VIP was suddenly no longer selectable before I could move them into the evac zone. I guess it's just something to be expected, but it honestly makes the Ironman play impossible. While it's a bit of a bummer to have to play the Avatar Project scenario again, War of the Chosen adds a lot to make it worth going back in. Very pricey for DLC, so wait for a good deal on a bundle, as I did.
• Up&Up

  Sep 17, 2023

  Very good, but, unfortunately, you can NOT marry the chosen hunter; I've tried many times to take his hand in marriage, IMPOSSIBLE, probably a glitch, please fix this ASAP.
• gamedeal user

  Aug 29, 2017

  Finished my first play through. God it was so fun! I could have clear the game much earlier but I wanted to explore everything first and I avoid touching the last two shadow chamber researches. [ New classes ] Reapers enable real stealth gameplay, with the combination of repeaters and talon rounds it is possible to wipe out multiple enemies without being touched at all. Skirmisher's grappling hook makes him a perfect disrupter:pulling strong enemies towards your team so your team can them quickly or lauch himself towards enemies for cancelling their overwatch. Templar is my favourite. They are like a badass psionic ninja/jedi hero that go up close using double blades to kill. Templars are fast, can reflect damage, and do decent AOE damage. New classes are fun as hell, they add so much variations into gameplay and strategic planning. [The Chosen] The three chose and enemies hero units that randomly appears, just like the special aliens in the Alien Hunter DLC, but less OP and more fun to fight against. They have different strengths and weaknesses (e.g. certain class or certain attack types) and have very different combat styles so it doesnt feel repetitive when dealing with them. Although they are not overly powerful, they still deal a lot of damage and can disrupt your team alot both IN and OUT of combat (by sabotaging your resources, for example). I actually look forward for their appearance in battle as its really fun to fight against them! You can assign your soldiers in factions missions to locate their bases and hunt them down. I am not gonna spoil, but the rewards of hunting them down are totally worth it! [Other changes] Ability points - Soldiers can keep learning skills using ability points accquired in missions after they maxed their level. You can have your favourite soldies to keep learning new skills and keep progressing - small change, but nice. Bondings - Soldiers that bond together have additional benefits in battle such as giving bondmate additional action or joint attack with bondmates. This makes you consider who to send out in missions for ultilize this benefit rather than sending out your "best" soldiers. Missions - More missions types, larger variation of maps. Much less repetitive. Factions - Factions missions are missions that you send your soldiers away for a few days in order to gain certain benefits such as intel, loot, huntung down the Chosen etc. You also gain faction influence by doing so, where higher influence means more help (order) from them. This is also the only way to hunt down the Chosen and recruit the three new classes. Researches - There are occasional research breakthroughs that enabled you to research current tech faster or improving current tech (e.g. increasing hp on certain armor type); small change, but now you have to make decision between researching a tech that you wanted or spend time on these breakthroughs that are available within a limited time only - spiced up the research process a bit. Story - The story is basically XCOM2 with new elements incoporated (just like how Enemy Within works with Enemy Unknown). There are also new cutscenes explaining a little bit more as well as a new ending sequence. Nothing too new, but its nicely done. Optimazation - I must say the game is a lot more optimized than the base game. Missions load much faster and framerates are more steady now. Mods - Most of the old mods wont work. Some modders are working really quick for updates though. Thumbs up for them. \\\ Old, first few hours of WOTC comments below \\\ Ok, its really expensive for a DLC. However, having few hours into the game, it does not feel like a DLC at all. Every aspects of the game has been revamped and improved, it's more like a sequel, or at least "XCOM 2.5". Gameplay is a lot more fun now: 1. Exploring the world map is now different, with so much more things to interact with and to do e.g. rescue and recon missions for factions 2. There are new techs as well as new ways of researching, occasionally tech breakthroughs or inspirations has spiced up the originally click-and-wait research 3. Combat feels different with the addiction of new classes as well as minor changes e.g. it is possible for soldiers to enter "berserk" mode in addition to "panic" 4. New stories, new cutscences, it even has a new tutorial which isnt grounbreakingly different, but cool. That's it for now, I will come back to add more comments when I progress further. \\\ TL; DR \\\ Pros: - Greatly improved gameplay - More variation and challenges - Better optimized Cons: - Expensive - Old mods won't work - I hope there's more new elements to the story All in all, it is expensive, but its like playing a completely new XCOM. Gameplay is improved, has more variations and feel much less repetitive. Totally worth it. Lookling forward to the next XCOM. Meanwhile, I will start my second play through.
• gamedeal user

  Sep 1, 2017

  For all of those who think the 40 euro is too much for a DLC: This is not a DLC, this is basically XCOM 2.5 There are so many changes, so many content that it almost feel overwhelming at start. [h1]Pros:[/h1] [list] [*]Factions with unique soldiers, tons of new abilities, Chosens who wreak havoc in your lines, but not overwhelmingly (unlike Alien Hunters). [*]The campaign got so much longer that even after 40 missions, i still havent finished the story and still didnt get bored with them. [*]Maps are heavily redesigned, now if you are in a city, then you have the feel that this is really a gorram city (multilevel, all screen covering buildings not just the outskirt of cities) [*]Also there are actually not only ground and above, but underground levels (sewer canal or metro line) or even complete underground maps. [*]Game got significantly harder even if you try to save scum in normal level due to the fatigue system (soldiers get tired after fights, so no more train your 6 men "A team" to win), you really need to have a good rotation of 10-12 people even in normal level, to be ready for anything. [*]New base def mission (not really different from the UFO shutdown, just different and both can happen). [*]Lost are interestring add-on, that can make your life miserable, but also can be your best friend in some cases. [*]The new skill system is reaaaaaaly a huge tumb up. Now if you get 2 usefull skill at same level, you can actually get both. Battle medic with restoration AND capacitor discharge? No probz. Saturation with Rupture for your grenadier? You bet! Conceal and run and gun for your sneaky ranger? Absolutely! [*]The faction soldiers bring alot of tactical value to your team, but they dont overshine your standard soldiers. [*]Chosen strongholds are like a mini final mission, which will guaranteed to make you cry but the loot is really worthy. [*]Covert missions, covert missions, covert missions! It was freaking frustrating that all your soldiers were coming from an assembly line and had absolutely the same stats. Not anymore! Do covert ops mission and earn bonus aim/hack/hp/mobility/will for your soldiers, and you can actually dedicate a specalist to actually hack things reliably. Or a grenadier that has aim bonus so he surely will land those important shredding hits. Or a sniper that can reach 100+ aim even with deadeye penalty. [*]Weapon upgrades! More damage, more modifiers. [/list] [h1]Cons:[/h1] [list][*]The integration of previous DLCs are not really nice. Shen's last gift was literally viped and you just create your SPARK. They kept the Julian voice tho (edit: this is by the default settings, but you can turn the "story mission" back at the settings when you start a new game) [*]Sometimes autosave gets stucked and no autosave will happen in missions. You need to delete a previous autosave and it will fix it. [/list]
• gamedeal user

  Sep 2, 2017

  I would rather pay Firaxis $50 for an expansion than pay Ubisoft or EA $10 for microtransactions
• gamedeal user

  Sep 2, 2017

  Never has DLC deserved to be called an expansion than War of the Chosen as it creates an entirely new feeling of XCOM 2 that is distinct from its base-game as well as Long War 2. With nearly 300 hours, WOTC is without a doubt my preferred campaign as it manages to retain the pace of the base-game while incorporating new additions inspired from LW2 and new mechanics of its own to create the guerilla warfare that was missing from its original release. If you are wondering whether to play War of the Chosen (or the Reinforcement Pack) as your first playthrough, then the short answer is no. Both expansions rework the game from the ground up that will be overwhelming with the number of features now added to XCOM 2. If anything about this content is worth its praise, LW2 should be viewed as the tutorial for WOTC as it will truly test the limits of its fairness to create the most gripping XCOM campaign. [h1]XCOM, XCOM, Read All About It![/h1] Of all the new features that seemed frivolous, there is a surprising amount put into the game to connect with enemies and friends, new and old. In-between missions, voice-overs from the Chosen, the Advent Leader, and the Resistance Factions create a greater impression of the friendly and the hostile faces of XCOM 2. Propaganda postures show up during missions and on the Avenger that can be custom-made projects or quick snapshots after missions to celebrate your team’s accomplishments. Contrasted with these moments, the Chosen screen showcases their history and their progression towards finding your ship. Even the new bond system adds additional mechanical benefits (and dangers like multiple mind-control) between your squadmates. All these small additions create a more personalized journey that outshines the base-game with its character creation system. The major difference is these elements are more integral to the game’s progression as well as mechanically changing the experience within each playthrough such as the “Nemesis-Like” system of the Chosen and the changes to every squad member. [h1]Everything You Know Has Changed[/h1] Out of all the overhauls to XCOM 2, the most welcomed additions are the three additional classes and the revamped changes to the stat/skill system, which manages to increase the value of items like mindshields and stats like Will over the entire game. These changes also extend to the Avenger base with new buildings to assign covert op missions for intel, supplies, soldiers, etc. and the training room to access increased soldier bonds and additional skills. Combined with the previous content with Rulers’ gear and the SPARK units, there is also the addition of Chosen weapons for three of the four original classes. These three new classes include their respected factions, the Reapers, the Skirmishers and Templars. Reapers are essentially the new sniper class as they are stealth-focused for scouting and setting up ambushes; Skirmishers are versatile soldiers with a ton of combat options and mobility; Templars are even greater psi-soldiers that have insane mobility and lethality when given Reaper. Each faction will only assign one—at most, if you are lucky, two—of these soldiers within your ranks if you maintain a healthy reputation through ops and missions. If you lose a soldier, you can earn another replacement. With the changes to the stat system, you may find yourself only equipping one or two per mission and all three when a mission requires their combined efforts. As initially stated, stats have undergone an overhaul in small, though vital, changes. During missions, soldiers exhaust themselves by movement, damage taken, mental fortitude and a host of other reasons that will tire them out. Where X2 felt like the Will stat was only a number that became meaningless, Will now is a stamina bar to showcase the soldier’s mental state, which can result in a random negative trait after the mission, and tiring soldiers results in a post-mission status of Fatigue. Fatigue is not a punishment; it’s rather a smart way to encourage players to vary their squads as you can send out tired soldiers at the cost of the possibility of negative traits and longer periods of rest afterward. This can be easily countered with mind-shields that resist mental statuses but also slow the degradation of stamina. On top of the stat changes, skills are no longer a binary choice; if you have the training room, you can purchase previous abilities and new ones with Soldier Ability points (individual) and XCOM points (shared). These points are earned for promotions, killing Chosen, mission objectives, etc. that act as an achievement system to reward players long-term. Covert Ops, Assassin’s Creed styled missions, can train soldiers who are lower ranks to maintain their relevance if you have no other options. Lastly, the new classes all utilize this system by default, which makes having to go to another screen for other soldiers an oversight modders will have to fix. If these mechanics were simply added without the additional map layouts, new mission varieties inspired by Enemy Unknown and Long War 2, new enemy types, the revamped research system, the new Chosen threats and the dozens of other improvements, WOTC would be worth its asking price. Together, these additions add a greater sense of direction with a higher degree of replayability (Second Wave options excluded), yet these latter additions appear to come at the cost of the game’s “fairness.” [h1]You Were Not Chosen for Success[/h1] Having given all this content praise, WOTC is perhaps where a default iron-man run without additional modifiers is perhaps not the intended experience. This is mainly due to the new Chosen enemies, the hunt for the Chosen, the new enemies/mission types, and the changes to the level design. The latter issues are easier to explain as you will get an insane number of enemies with the added Lost, which adds a “neutral” enemy that can refund action points with every kill and they can be summoned with explosives. You can flood ADVENT with an explosive to take them out or focus their attention on the new threats. However, some missions feel excessive with my worst case being a VIP escort with 22 enemies (Vipers, Spectres, Sectopod, etc.) and 30+ Lost that I managed to get everyone to the EVAC alive with a six-man squad. Level-design has changed with more verticality and less of the older maps, which is both a good and bad thing depending on each mission that brings only its balance into question. However, what is a more considerable challenge are the Chosen themselves, which may be greater threats than the Alien Rulers. Instead of having Ruler Reactions, the Chosen will appear in their dominated country randomly on missions to mainly daze your troops either to extract knowledge from them—and thus leaving with XP—or they will seize them as POWs. If you can defeat them in combat, they will vanish for that mission but they are not dead. Killing them requires a three-part covert-op mission with soldiers ranked as Majors to access these encounters for a final showdown. Picking troops up in-between combat scenarios with the ADVENT and Chosen isn’t the problem nor is their random nature a bad thing for the fairness of the game. What makes these units so diabolical are two issues: They are given randomized upgrades for every game that range from “No Overwatch for You” to immunity from melee attacks as well as having one—and only one—attempt to kill them at their strongholds. Failure to kill them will result in that opportunity never happening again, and you will be forced to fight them at the end-game maxed up. Individually, these enemies are fun challenges that have a general strategy to learn how to counter them, which makes them great. However, potentially having to fight all three in the final mission is a consequence that feels only tailored for XCOM veterans who accept XCOM was never meant to be a fair game.
• gamedeal user

  Sep 3, 2017

  Massive improvement to an already great game. The simplest way to sum up War of the Chosen ( without too much of a spoiler ) : - RNG is now a much bigger influence on the strategic map, which in turn has a greater influence on your tactical combat rounds. - The timer on nearly EVERY tactical mission is almost completely gone, without resorting to mods. It's still there on some missions, but its much more subtle and managable. If thats still not enough, there's expanded options that allow you to double certain pressure timers if you so desire. - Stealth aka concealment is now a massive thing in some missions. You simply won't be able to cheese your way through things with overwatch spam like you could before. - There are now the Chosen in play on the aliens side, best summed up as three unique bosses that show up at various stages throughout your campaign and in tactical combat rounds. - Fatigue for your soldiers is now an added layer of management, It is also your 'will' stat on soliers, effecting their ability to resist will based attacks and influences. The best way to look at it is if you repeatedly use the same soldiers, they will become fatigued and suffer penalty's that result in alien psi powers hurting a lot more, and other negatives in combat. This essentially forces you to maintain much larger team of soliers than you would have previously. - 'Resistance' soldiers have been added, giving you three new troop types that bring their own unique skill set to your battles. One is a long ranged concealment specialist, one a mid to short range skirmisher, the last being a psionic melee specialist. - In keeping with just about every game in the last 5 years, there's zombies now, called the Lost, they represent a unique challenge on some play throughs, and require a specialist squad to be dealt with. This is probably the only thing I can fault the game for, though it's more of personal dislike of the zombie theme having been used to death ( no pun intended ) in games for so long. Overall a very solid expansion more than it is just another DLC. It's a bit pricey but well worth it as it's more like X-Com 2.5 than the vanilla version. You don't need to have brought the other lesser DLC's either, if you have them already great, but your not missing key strategic things without them either. There's also a very flexible options setup that allows you to choose any or all of the DLC's being a part of your current play through, along with other options that allow you to double the various countdown timers. War of the Chosen makes X-Com 2 much more RNG, but also adds far more in-depth strategy options, with a polished game interface, improved graphics and optimization, loads more options and this gives it a more complete feel. My praise goes to Firaxis, they have delivered a robust expansion in an age where average peicemeal DLC is the norm. Edit : There's also an online challenge mode, with leaderboards etc if your looking to scratch that competative itch. It's tactical missions done with set equipment and soldiers giving you a score at the end of the mission. The missions ( plus the soldiers and equipment ) change regularly so there's always something different and can be done relatively quickly, giving the ability to have a short play of what is an otherwise long game. 9/10 - though a bit pricey, much more akin to a proper expansion like days long past, rather than just another DLC. Highly recommended for fans and new players alike.
• gamedeal user

  Sep 15, 2017

  As with most other reviews here, it was a little pricey, and while I'm not sure it was quite worth the money, I don't regret buying it and it is certainly not something I think about while in-game. I'm not playing missions thinking "Oh, this is new, and it's pretty cool. Too bad it was expensive". The price doesn't ruin the experience at all, and if I could change the past, I'd buy it again. Now on the the actual review. I'll review each new piece of content that I feel is worth talking about one way or another. Ok, so first off: The fatigue system. Surprisingly, I really like it. I used to finish games with a god-like squad of 6 and a roster full of rookies and/or low-ranking soldiers. I played super cautiously and tried to ensure that none of my soldiers got wounded, much less killed. I would only occasionally be forced to sub in a rookie or something. But now? I don't have any rookies at all right now. I have a full roster of talented soldiers, at different ranks, of course, but none are useless. It's honestly kind of liberating. I don't have to worry too much if someone gets a little injured, there are plenty of other soldiers to sub in, and the guy can chill for a while. It's improved many parts of the game for me, and it feels a little like I'm a bird being shoved out of a nest and told to fly, or something. You get the idea. Next thing, the covert actions. I also like this, despite originally thinking I wouldn't. I didn't like the idea of having soldiers on missions where I can't actively guide them and keep them safe, I didn't like the randomness of it. But it turns out that you can negate the worst possibilities with some resources or another soldier or something, and even though they may still get wounded, as I said above, it's not too big of a deal. Plus this is a great way for me to let some greener soldiers get experience and get promoted without having to risk them on more difficult/dangerous missions. This is great stuff. If your soldiers get ambushed on one of these missions, then you get to take direct control of them and get them to the evac point. You don't have to fight or kill all the enemies, just escape. So I ditched the first enemies I encountered and dashed/snuck/blasted my way to the evac point. Scientific breakthroughs and inspirations: I feel kind of eh on this. It's certainly not a bad feature, there are no inherent negative things about it, but I could totally live without it. I suppose it is fairly useful when I don't have anything pressing to research, but I don't use it other than that. I guess it's a positive. The Chosen: I like them fine as well, I suppose. My only problem is that they kinda force you to take them on ASAP or risk them directly attacking your ship or permanently decreasing income, adding extra dark events, stuff like that. After they are gone that's it, they're dead, and you win the war of the Chosen. I wish they didn't progress as fast so I wouldn't have to kill them off so soon. But since my only complaint is that I wish they lasted longer in the game, they must be a positive, right? The Resistance factions: Pretty cool. They facilitate the covert ops, so there's that. I like the new classes they add, but I rarely upgrade those soldiers, and they have some downsides of their own, as they should. I like the factions' personalities, their backstories, the little bits of lore in quotes and the faction leader's commentary. So this is positive as well. New mission types and new maps: This is a great one. There are loads of new missions to go on, and new maps to get sent to. Like the sewer system of some abandoned city, or the abandoned city itself, where the Lost roam. And the abandoned cities are actual cities, filled mostly with apartment buildings and the like. And they are completely different from the ADVENT buildings in the new cities. There are also new missions from the resistance factions that you get occasionally, which are fun. The ADVENT raid missions where you have to save civilians has more variety to it. I did one where the local resistance soldiers were actually actively fighting back, they had their own turn and everything. It was pretty cool. The Lost: I wasn't sure how I'd like them when I first heard about them, but they are pretty cool. They aren't too much of a hinderence in-game, and when combined with the atmosphere and lighting of the abandoned cities, it makes for some pretty cool missions. Most of the other stuff isn't really important. There are some new enemies, some changes to the way the alien bosses from the Alien Hunter DLC work, there's the photo booth, which is pretty cool. Bottom line is, I recommend it, even at the price it's at, but if you can find it for a little lower or maybe wait until it's on sale, that'd probably be best.