XCOM - Enemy Within expansion

[you2]

so any good ?

 

[NickelPlate]

So far I'm liking the new expansion plus the patch that recently came added some nice useful touches. I picked it up on GMG with a voucher for $20 so it was well worth it.

 

[QuantumPion]

I'm liking the expansion so far. It has tons of new maps and council missions making the game seem totally fresh again. Most of the bugs I remember have been fixed (including the one where an overwatched flanked alien would skip its turn, making capturing aliens much more difficult).

The game is significantly harder on the Normal difficulty. The first council mission I had I think I killed 19 thin men (in month 1 mission). This required several reloads (screw ironman, ain't got time fo that). The zombie mission took me about 2 hours to finish, I killed 29 chrysallids. Good thing I had just gotten lasers or I would have been toast.

I haven't gotten to try out the gene or mech mods yet as you are just as tight on money as before even without all the new things to spend it on, meaning all the new goodies will have to wait till you are settled in with satellites and uplinks by month 3 or 4. I suspect that unless the difficulty ramps up, the game's difficult curve will be even more lopsided than it was originally (being really hard at the beginning and really easy at the end).

 

[taq8ojh]

29 chryssalids? wtf?

I think I know what am I buying after new year. I am terrible strategic player, so this will probably keep me occupied for quite some time.

 

[you2]

To be honest the increase in maps make it sound tempting. I played xcom twice and kind of got bored due to the same maps over and over....

 

[QuantumPion]

To be honest the increase in maps make it sound tempting. I played xcom twice and kind of got bored due to the same maps over and over....

I'm in month three and have not seen a map from the original game yet. Also the new maps are nicely designed and varied.

 

[acheron]

I've been playing a bunch (relatively, given I have a newborn) the past week or so. Agree it's harder on normal (so you need to get the augmented soldiers when you can; if you only have plain guys you'll have trouble). May have seen one or two original maps, but mostly new maps, and none of them have repeated.

Couple bugs: game crashed once, then had trouble when I reloaded the save, but a couple save/reloads and it fixed itself. Lost a soldier for no reason once too: finished one of the extraction missions successfully, and then at the after-mission briefing it said my operative had been KIA, and sure enough she is dead now. (Cause of death in the memorial says "Major trauma (unknown)".) Fortunately she wasn't promoted much or anything, but certainly makes me wary of using anyone good as a covert operative. (Doing ironman, so. Also is making me reconsider ironman for next time. I like the idea of not reloading after something goes wrong in-game, but having my game irrevocably jacked up due to a bug would be annoying to say the least.)

Overall it's pretty cool though. I still love that we got a big budget TBS in the first place, and now a real expansion instead of nickel and dime DLC.

 

[Ganeedi]

I'm having a great time with the expansion.

My new mech solider made me LOL a few times already. Her Sergeant nickname is "Big Mommy". Now outfitted with a flamethrower, she yells out "Kill it with Fire" when roasting sectoids.

All of my new UFO crash maps so far have been Urban sites, and are a blast to play.

No spoilers, but they made an obvious effort to make the XCOM sniper less OP.

No bugs or crashes so far.

 

[NickelPlate]

The new genetic lab is awesome. My soldiers can now jump on top of buildings without the need for ladders and have cloaking when in full cover. There are lots of other cool genetic mods too.

 

[acheron]

I'm having a great time with the expansion.

My new mech solider made me LOL a few times already. Her Sergeant nickname is "Big Mommy". Now outfitted with a flamethrower, she yells out "Kill it with Fire" when roasting sectoids.

lol. My mech dude is nicknamed "Forklift".

 

[QuantumPion]

Give the Mec troopers German voices for maximum terminatorness lol.

Personally I'm finding the gene mods pretty weak, especially for how expensive they are. The Mec troopers are good in the mid game but die too fast to sectopods late game and are too expensive to get early game without sacrificing countries.

 

[slpnshot]

Almost done with the game, and I've had a blast so far. But I do wish they did more with the expansion. The gene/mec mods were pretty cool, but the new missions were pretty hit or miss.

Base invasion was epic. I especially liked the fact that you're stuck with random soldiers and whatever equipment they have on them at that moment. It really heightens the suspension by having your high ranking soldier with crap equipment because you were trying to level your rookies in the previous mission. The main gripe is that it was a one off thing... I don't understand why they had aliens only invade once after they found out the location of our base... Imagine if they had base invasion directly following a mission. Something about the aliens following our bird back to base or w/e. That way a couple of your soldiers will be injured and some of the good gear is in storage.

The new Psi girl and her rewards were pretty disappointing. Of course having 4 guarenteed Psi soldiers if successful is nice, but Annette is completely boring... Couldn't they have given her something to make her unique, but not overpowered? Like a passive that gives 10+ will to allies within 5 tiles? Or a 4th Psi ability?

The Exalts were novel and interesting at first, but only having 2 mission types associated with them until the end made them pretty boring rather quickly. It would have been nice if they had a sub-base on every continent that let you build up to the main base. And maybe let you loot one of their unique gene mods so that you can boost a single soldier...

And another criticism is that they didn't really add anything to the end game...

I would have enjoyed it if they brought in something new around the time you face Sectopods. Maybe as a result of the Exalt/Alien interaction that took place mid game? It's been revealed to the aliens that humans can develop Psi ability, so maybe a group of brain washed/mind controlled humans that can fight with weapons and Psi ability? Almost like a mix of Exalt with Psi ability, maybe even with late game plasma?

Overall enjoyed the game. I just wish they did more with the features introduced in the expansion. I actually like the fact that the gene mods weren't too impactful. It made them something to enhance soldiers, and because of the price it was something you had to be frugal on.

 

[taq8ojh]

So does the game still get boring when you get to the point of having researched most of stuff and have high ranking soldiers? That was my biggest complaint about EU. I just stopped playing roughly by the time I was about to get the overseer UFO.

 

[JeffNY35]

This is now ranking as one of my all time favorite games.

I was skeptical of this expansion but I am pleased.

There is so much new shit to buy and research I simply do not have remotely enough money. I am also taking a crack at Iron man so I am trying to not lose too many countries at the expense of buying all the new goodies.

Did my first "spec ops" mission. Pretty well done.

the challenge of collecting meld on regular missions is a nice addition. Often I miss the second meld container since I am playing pretty cautious on Ironman.

Note -I tried Ironman Classic at first. Damn that shit is tough. So, now I am doing Ironman Normal. Much easier but still a challenge.

Oh, and the "Whale" mission was Epic!

 

[thirdeye]

Oh, and the "Whale" mission was Epic!

F**k that whale mission.....

 

[acheron]

Whale mission was great, though the guy I sent to activate the transmitter got chewed up by Chrysalids after the activation. Just some rookie meat though.

 

[thirdeye]

I've already admitted to myself that I really suck at this game, though I actually do enjoy playing it. That mission, however, sent me into quite a spectacular rage. I thought for sure I was almost finished until I found the whale. Things went downhill from there.

 

[NickelPlate]

So does the game still get boring when you get to the point of having researched most of stuff and have high ranking soldiers? That was my biggest complaint about EU. I just stopped playing roughly by the time I was about to get the overseer UFO.

Yeah pretty much. The pacing at the end game is just mucking about while you wait for one of your guys to get psi. They need to work on this. I hope Firaxis continues to develop content and patches for the game. EW is well worth it IMHO but they could do so much more with it.

 

[WildW]

Can you shoot at scenery instead of just at aliens yet? I got so sick of the aliens taunting me by standing next to explosive barrels, petrol pumps and so on.

 

[acheron]

Can you shoot at scenery instead of just at aliens yet? I got so sick of the aliens taunting me by standing next to explosive barrels, petrol pumps and so on.

Mechs can. I shot up a car with two sectoids hiding behind it, the car blew up and killed them both. :thumbsup:

 

[Fanatical Meat]

Do the Aliens or human forces ever attack your base? That and being able to build more than one base are my only EU complaints.

 

[QuantumPion]

Yeah pretty much. The pacing at the end game is just mucking about while you wait for one of your guys to get psi. They need to work on this. I hope Firaxis continues to develop content and patches for the game. EW is well worth it IMHO but they could do so much more with it.

This is why I think Apocalypse is one of the best in the series. The real-time combat lets you run through later missions rambo-style and the endgame missions are really varied and continue to offer new challenges and technologies up to the finale.

That being said, I hope the guys that developed XCOM go on to make Civ6.

 

[kevinsbane]

The whale mission would've been a whole lot harder for me had I not invaded the upper deck before investigating the lower deck. Fortuitous for me; I had a support perfectly in place (by chance no less) to sprint over and hit the button and get out on the first wave.

That, and blowing up smoking sharks preemptively.

 

[slpnshot]

Do the Aliens or human forces ever attack your base? That and being able to build more than one base are my only EU complaints.

There is a base invasion in the expansion, but to my knowledge it only happens once per playthrough.

 

[Elcs]

EDIT: Issues with EW...

Actual problem: PEBCAK

Resolved by: Applying common sense and basic computer knowledge.