TAKING ON THE CHOSEN IN XCOM 2 PART I

Facing up to elite aliens makes XCOM 2 a whole new game.

- Ian Evenden

The privilege of reviewing XCOM 2 – not for this august organ but for one of its stablemates – meant I played the game early. I’d completed it either by the time it came out or pretty shortly afterward, my memory is hazy, and I gave it the highest score I’ve ever given in a videogame review. I’m a fan.

However, for some reason I haven’t picked it up again on PC, despite a detour to the iPad version. The DLC came, years passed, but I didn’t play it. There were other things to play, too many tugs on my attention for the Avatar Project to have the importance it once did. It’s nagged at me ever since.

It’s not a game without replay value, though, so what happens if you go back in today, having not played it properly since launch? Wonderful things. It’s a different game, not only thanks to the new enemies but the way a War of the Chosen campaign can play out very differently to the vanilla experience. What’s also notable is how well this seven-year-old guerrilla war holds up.

War of the Chosen brings a lot of new content to the game, with additional baseline enemy units alongside the three ‘Chosen’ minibosses who disrupt your missions and abduct your troops. There are also The Lost, who are zombies, but the additions don’t stop on the enemy side. XCOM is now bolstered by new factions: the Templars (psychics), Reapers (assault) and Skirmishers (snipers), who all bring unique equipment and skills to the rebellion, along with plenty more comms chatter. Half the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation is on voice-acting duty for this game.