XCOM: Enemy Within

So, near the end of last year an expansion pack for XCOM: Enemy Unknown was released.

I picked it up, played a tiny bit of it, and put it aside. There were just too many games to play, and I was a bit worn on XCOM at the time (due to how rough the game can be).

During my recent vacation days, I decided to play a little further, and I actually got into some of the new content. My gosh, this expansion is excellent.

The addition of new maps and new mission types is huge. The covert operative missions are especially fun, and I like switching up the pace by having your pistol toting, armorless covert operative exploring around while the rest of your party wipes the floor with EXALT. The new mission varieties also give a pretty big boost to your economy. EXALT is a fantastic source of weapons to sell early on, and once they hit Elite you can collect their laser weapons instead of having to craft your own (still have to research them, though).

Then there are the balance tweaks. My gosh, did this game need these. There are a ton of abilities which have been retuned to be better (case in point: Snap Shot now only penalizes Aim by 10, instead of 20, making it much more viable). Every character can now carry two items, instead of only Support classes. Laser weaponry is a lot more destructive to terrain. Windows are a lot less likely to block line of sight.

The best change of all: Weapons that destroy terrain are a lot less finicky about their line of sight. Previously, the game erred on the side of "well, you probably can't actually see or shoot them". Now, the game tends to let you shoot them a lot more frequently. This has led to some absolutely hilarious moments. Such as an EXALT agent charging up to the warehouse door to get to the agent he could see through it, only to have the entire wall next to him explode as he got hit by a giant ball of debris and plasma. Because my heavy got close enough line of sight, and didn't really care what state we left the building in.

Then there are the new mechanics. Meld is one powerful resource. It unlocks the ability to create MEC troops, or genetically enhance your soldiers. Both of which are incredibly powerful. MEC soldiers lose PSI abilities, and can't use cover, but are equipped with some of the game's most powerful weapons (basically equivalent to an extra tech level), and having fantastic mobility and incredible armor (I have not once had a MEC soldier come back wounded). Plus, they still level up and get more powerful, though it seems to take a little longer.

That said, gene mods are powerful too. My gosh, Mimetic Skin is broken. It lets a unit go invisible when it full cover. Oh, and Snipers treat half cover as full cover. So, yeah, that's fair. I have literally had my Snipers being my scouts now, moving them across the field, positioning, and taking potshots at enemy forces before the enemies even know they're there. You also get mods that boost all offensive stats after you kill an enemy, for any nearby forces on the map. The ability to ignore elevation. The ability to be immune to mind control. While there are a couple I'd change (Bio-Electric Skin is basically worthless, never ever use it), it's still a ton of fun.

Of course, both of these require the new Meld resource, which is scattered across maps and on a timer to get. While a single mission may provide enough to fully gene mod a soldier, getting it can be tricky. You don't know where it is in advance, and it is ticking down from the start of the mission to when it becomes unavailable. Fortunately, the game does prolong the timer as the maps get bigger and the missions get harder, but getting it can still be a rush. Which is good, because it's a heavy risk-reward mechanism.

Finally, there's the new base defense mission. Available shortly after you take down the alien base, it's a mission where your base gets attacked by the aliens, after they managed to mind control a large number of XCOM personnel. If most of the changes made this game easier, this one definitely did not. You have a force of four guys, chosen from your barracks personnel (mostly random, though it seems to prioritize high rank), and then a handful of XCOM security personnel, who are rookies equipped with basic gear and having relatively horrible stats. You then get to survive a half dozen waves of most of the hardest enemies in the game (fortunately, no Sectopods), as you try to secure your HQ. It is a royal pain of a mission.



Still, overall, I'm seriously enjoying the new content. I wish EXALT and the new mission types showed up sooner. I'm actively delaying on wiping EXALT out, though, because I'm enjoying the covert missions too much. This expansion has completely rekindled my love for the game, and allowed players to tone down the difficulty enough that I'm seriously considering restarting the Eyes on FF Let's Play I had going for Enemy Unknown. But, as fantastic as it is, it seems to have gone unnoticed, as I never heard anyone talk about it. Have you guys played it? What did you think about it?

As much as I loved this game, expansion packs just generally aren't my "bag". I would not be against another LP, though. ;)

I actually never got around to beating XCOM Enemy Unknown so I haven't put a whole lot of time into Enemy Within yet. I do like the addition of other languages and accents, although I want even MORE of those!

The other big advantage to doing a Let's Play of Enemy Within is more input from the forum-users. Because there are so many more choices, like whether to go for gene mods or MEC suit, and which of those choices you'll make.

People are definitely going to die, though. While the game itself may be a little easier, and the new EXALT missions actually takes a lot of the edge off the strategy game (because there are fewer Abductions to make room for more mission types, and Abductions are what kill the strategy level), the tactical layer is a lot more clutch. Between pushing for Meld and missions like the base invasion or the Chrysallis nest, deaths are going to happen. Which will make the LP even more interesting. But since tactical deaths don't matter for game completion, it'll still be less stressful than the original.

I need to start gathering names again.

I recently got onto an XCOM kick and among the things I've been playing are EW, with the Long War mod. It's pretty great so far, I've been enjoying it just as much as vanilla EU.

Ok, I have to say: A MEC soldier doing a melee kill against a Sectopod is one of the most glorious things I've seen in a video game.

Those cheap, annoying, bastard machines. They sucked in the original game, but in Enemy Unknown, they took it up to eleven. Fire twice, automatic Overwatch, damage hardening...

Then my mighty MEC trooper comes up and just SMASHES the thing into the ground. 27 damage. Instant death. So, so awesome.

EDIT: Just had another fun punching experience. My favorite MEC trooper (who is from Japan and called Aigis "Orpheus" Arisato) just punched an Ethereal. So hard that it flew threw a wall. I didn't even know that could happen, though I shouldn't be surprised. After all, if anyone can punch an enemy so hard that it flies through the wall of a starship, it's Aigis.