Is XCom 2: WOTC a good replacement for PP?

Loved the first Firaxis XCom, played and replayed both EU and EW, but when it came to XCom 2!.. Oh boy! Never got into it. Can’t like it. Seems to hit so many levels wrong. The classes seem just a rehash of the original ones, like making a delicious dinner and having to eat it again next day for lunch, never the same thing. The idea of humanity surrendering to the aliens is a complete treason to everything we fought for in the first game. The time limits are such a f’cking lazy design choice (my favorite thing about Willpower in PP is just that it seems such a simple and elegant choice to add an extra layer of decision and reflection, and that was the kind of thing I was expecting in XCom 2, not timed missions!)

I WANTED to love the game, but even went so far as thinking that it had been made by a different team. That said, read several reviews stating the expansion really nailed it, and it was the definite game, and even the true XCom experience. Anyone can recommend WotC? Does it correct the vanilla game and adds the true experience? Can it be a replacement until PP comes along?

According to people that have actually played it: no; WotC makes XCOM 2 worse, both from a gameplay perspective and a story perspective

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Given that WotC is out and PP currently isn’t, I would say it’s worth it. Once PP releases? Probably not unless you’re more of a casual gamer.

WotC is good and imo better than base X2, not worse like another poster stated. Plus X2 as a whole is super moddable which can let you tweak things to your liking. For example I got a weapon mod and then tweaked the bullpups to be a cross between the AR and shotgun for accuracy purposes (which makes more sense than just using shotgun accuracy values).

I really like WotC, but for different reasons than I like, say, UFO:EU. WotC, and Firaxis’ XCOM games in general, focus more on small squad sizes and attachment/development of those soldiers. WotC doubles down on this with bonds, the photobooth (was surprised how much I liked that…) and the ability to get all abilities in the training center, for a select number of soldiers, provided you worked towards that goal. Late game you have some pretty powerful soldiers, but you’re lucky if you have more than six or so who are super-powered through training/cover tops. From what I’ve gathered, Phoenix Point will have a much larger range of squad sizes, so those two games might not scratch the same turn based itch for everyone. I haven’t really got into it yet, but Xenonauts is supposed to capture more of the old school XCOM vibe with larger squad sizes and the more robust base management present in UFO:EU.

Ended up a bit longer than I thought lol, hope that helped.

EDIT: Oh and those turn based missions are relaxed a lot in WotC. There’s more of the “destroy this relay to give you another turn” timer missions, if even that. Just seemed like I ran into less of them, and there’s faction orders that can make that part of the game even easier, if you wish to focus on it. I think I read somewhere that Firaxis responded to the backlash against timers by making these changes to WotC. All else fails, there’s more than likely a mod to fix something that bothers you (mechanically, anyway).

And the classes are different enough (I assume you’re comparing them to XCOM EU/EW) that by the time they’re up to colonel they’ll be a significant difference in options/abilities compared to their predecessors. The factions soldiers in WotC are also an awesome addition that adds a ton of tactical flexibility, and they’re each unique in their battlefield role.

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Xenonauts is a really nice game if you want something similar to the original XComs. It goes for cheap everytime there a full steam sale, I think I picked it up for about £5.

There’s also a Xenonauts 2 public alpha available to play on Gog. https://www.gog.com/game/xenonauts_2_demo

At the moment I prefer the look and feel of the 1st game, but obviously Xenonauts 2 is still in development.

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Personally I couldn’t get into Xenonauts. Not fully sure why but I think the aesthetics just really turn me off to it. Game just felt so grey and bland.

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I’ve heard the opposite. That without WoTC it is really bad game, with so many bugs that expansion fixes… I’m still not far in it, so can’t say anything about storyline thou.

And about topic. If you want to wait for PP then XCOM2+WoTC can be some replacement, but you will be really happy when next BB will be released. :smiley: Xenonauts also didn’t get to me. I would say dull and gray. Maybe check Phantom Doctrine. It has it’s flaws, but provide some entertainment.

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Played X2 since launch and experienced very few crippling bugs (not counting mod related ones), although game had optimization and fps issues at launch, that have been gone for a long time. There used to be a few annoying ones like smoke grenades not doing anything to your defense, which wasn’t really obvious at first since the cloud did display, but had no effect whatsoever.

I’d expect most bugfixes not to be tied to WotC specifically.

As far as gameplay, it’s not bad, definitely not worse than Vanilla, but it puts way too much emphasis on building super-supersoldiers, which isn’t as fun as it sounds (at least for me), and the reverse difficulty curve is even more frustrating as, all of the new alien content will really screw you over in the first few months before becoming even more trivial once your squad gains gear and levels.

I haven’t played for a while so I don’t know what kind of hardcore mods are predominant in the WotC community (I know Pavonis didn’t keep developing LW2, but maybe somebody picked it up), which reminds that, if you loved XCOM EU and EW and are looking at a new challenge, LW for XCOM 1 could keep you entertained for a long time (emphasis on challenge, EU and EW are basically a tutorial for Long War).

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LW2 was released finally. :wink: But I won’t install it. I plan just to finish WotC before Phoenix Point and that will be my whole experience with FiraXCOM until “Julian Gollop ultimate return”. :wink:

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It was released for Vanilla and has probably been made compatible with WotC since that time, but as far as I’m aware, Pavonis never baked in WotC features which makes for a weird experience.

The other thing to bear in mind is that while LW1 had no competition, there is a plethora of mods for XCOM 2 that will allow you to enhance the experience without resorting to LW2.

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WotC is actually quite good IMHO. It changes a lot of the base XCOM2 game content and mechanics and generally made for a better experience. It’s all quite subjective though - while I found it to be a very fun experience overall, this obviously won’t be true for everybody. It doesn’t fix the problems like reverse difficulty curve and being at the mercy of RNG constantly but it does add some new dimensions that made the game more interesting.

As for your original question, WotC being a replacement for PP…well probably not in the long run. As things stand at the time of this thread WotC is obviously a completely finished game with a plethora of mods available to tailor it to suit your experience. PP is pre-alpha at the moment so it’s not really a fair comparison. If you can get WotC for a cheap deal on steam or GOG then I would say definitely go for it. Ultimately, only you yourself can decide whether or not you enjoy it :blush:

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XCom 2 sure seems a divisive game :smiley: Reading all you guys said, I guess I have a conceptual problem with it. What I loved about the first one was this feeling of humanity steping up to unsumountable odds, resorting to its best qualities of intelect, reasoning, union, science, sacrifice, to defeat a far greater enemy. The ethereals even said it in the final mission, humanity had evolved, and for me that was fucking inspirational. Call me pretentious, but it was almost like the end of 2001 - Space Odissey, when humans evolve to Star Childs.

Come to X2… Fuck, Humanity surrendered??? What were all the sacrifices for? Where were the learned lessons in the first game? And now there are no more normal soldiers, but super-soldiers, just a inch away from Superman coming down from the skies to save everyone. There’s even a theory that the Commander is in fact a renegade ethereal, and that’s what makes him so special… The Commander, in my mind, was a really smart guy, something like a cross of Churchill, Eisenhower and Julius Ceasar. But, oh no, in fact he’s not even from this world.

Am I reading too much into this? Ah, I don’t think so. That’s what makes great Art great (yes, I’m including videogames in Art, of course)

That said, I read Julian Gollop himself thinks WotC to be the best example of the XCom experience, but right now money is an issue. I’ll have to wait…

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I know this is a really divisive topic, but I thought basing XCOM 2 off of losing the first one was a brilliant move.

Those odds are even greater in XCOM 2/WotC. I mean, until the end game with super soldiers you’re playing as a ragtag resistance fighting for humanity’s existence. There’s still sacrifices that were made and are being made in the game fighting for that.

Having played The Bureau (gasp!), where that plot twist was hands down the best part of the game, the theory is a little more nuanced than that. Think of someone great, but having… a little help. I don’t want to spoil anything, but perhaps you remember the end of XCOM:EU/EW with the one dissenting ethereal talking to you.

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I heard… not great things about the Bureau :smiley: Well, but the idea of having an alien helping us seems… off! Odd. I don’t really recall the EU/EW ending, only the Ethereal saying that “we”, as in The Commander, had achieved what they couldn’t. Uplifting, the next step of evolution, yes? A Star Child of sorts

WoTC is excellent. And that new (released yesterday) free! DLC pack with Legacy Missions is cool as well.

WotC definitely improves XCOM 2, also I would add that there are many mods like LW2 or RPGO that overhaul the mechanics and can help you improve your experience. With that said, If you didn’t like XCOM 2, then I don’t think it will suddenly make you think it’s the best game ever. It doesn’t change the game. It is still XCOM 2.

Now answering your title question. No, they are two very different games.

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Surely, game is Star Wars XXX :slight_smile:

But I love that PP is supposed to be Laser Squad - Xcom - TFD/Apocalypse - PP Story
continuation where (fractions) soldier is a soldier.

I kind of believe, if Faxis worked harder, most of Xcom 2 feats would be in their “Xcom 1”
and if Xcom 2 was best in its genre, we wouldnt have market space for PP. But there is.

But its all players decisions.

Replacement until PP comes? Meanwhile you can play whatever you like, but grab and play new builds. Gradually improves minus bugs.

Please dont play X-Com Bureau.

I have tried with much love, but its hopeless.

While idea is great, I would buy PP style game in Roswell days, its implementations is a shame. Especially early versions were not buggy. Half-unplayable.

Simple “highlights”

Highs

Cool 1960s setting
A novel twist on Mass Effect's three-person squad shooting
Plenty of fedoras

Lows

Game-ruining artificial intelligence
Poor writing and storytelling
Generic settings and creature design 

User reviews also “ranking it high”

You do remember there were Xcom games earlier we shall never speak of :wink: Enforcer and several franchise milking titles.

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X2 really isn’t that divisive. The PP community who are currently following it are more hardcore and thus more likely to have an issue with the simplified system of the Firaxis games.

Given the user ratings of X2 it also appears that most other people think it was a good game, even if a larger percentage of people here think otherwise.

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That’s possible - different types of games for different folks and all that. In my case, I’ll take any kind of turn based strategy game :slight_smile:

I had worded it poorly in my previous post, but I was specifically referring to Firaxis deciding to base the sequel off of a lose state of the first game. I think it’s died down, but on release there was a lot of uproar about that.