I remember the final moments of XCOM. I was on a roll, slowly moving forward through the temple ship, entrenching myself positively before bombarding something like a Sectopod with anything and everything I have.
And when I reached that final room, the last thing that went through the Uber Ethereals head was enough plasma to power Australia for fifteen years. And that's only from a couple of shots from my Sniper.
Anyway, my Volunteer did what any semi-omnipotent Psion would: He saved the Fuckin Day. Everyone watched the Temple Ship rise up from it's place, floating up out of the Atmosphere, and loudly implode.
Lets move 20 years ahead. All that I described above? It never happened. Humans didn't win the war. Hell, they didn't win the battle. Aliens descended and we were overrun by Technology and Numbers. Seems the more likely outcome, no? But hey, at least it's nice to know what could have been.
Now we walk the perfectly paved streets of Alien Megacities, stalking the shadows before ambushing the alien forces policing their new home, before stealing back to their new mobile headquarters, dubbed the moniker "Avenger".
I am super excited for Xcom 2, especially since Ive been playing Fallout 4. Weird comparison I realise, but the reason is because Fallout feels like a Turn Based game. Every time I trigger V.A.T.S. adjacent to an enemy, I usually have a 95 percentile to hit, and usually the game rolls the 5% needed to miss. Immediately I'm reminded of a grinning meme saying "THATS XCOM BABY".
That was when I stumbled across the Lets Play Videos that were recently released, and began to salivate all over again, wishing I could satiate my thirst on the death of various and numerous aliens. I comtinue to watch long into the morning, yearning to be behind the controls of the demonstration the video reviewers are posting, while debating on trying to accomplish Impossible Ironman on my own console, along with purposely ramping the difficulty by refusing to create the powerhouses known as MECs.
The Videos were incredibly enlightening, showing us a handful of the secrets allowed by the developers and company, focusing on Soldiers, Combat, and some Strategy Layer features. It is noteworthy the information provided from soldier profiles, informing not only of their Health, Aim and Will, but also Movement, Armour, Dodge and Hack scores.
But what I'm really happy about is how the combat hasn't changed, it has Improved. Rather than throw the magic of their first reboot out the window and starting afresh, or reusing everything and just chinging a few names and locales, they just tacked on new features that I wish were in XCOM Enemy Unknown/Within.
Weapon Modifications, Grenade Launchers, Computer Hacking... So many improvements that I cannot wait for. But have to as I am going to get a console port if and when that happens.
