a map like the freeway in EU), but maintained more of a challenge for longer, although various balance changes and the DLC weapons have severely reduced that and XCOM 2 now dips in difficulty after a couple of months almost as badly as EU did.

To me, the avatar mechanic is much better than the satellite one, which only really applied to the first couple of months of EU, but (on impossible) was entirely random at locking you permanently out of one or more continent bonuses, which felt really rough around the edges.ĭifficulty wise XCOM 2 started out at a lower point than EU, between concealment and the occasional plusone on grenade damage and the much easier initial map layout (access to full cover or high ground consistently on gatecrasher vs.

Admittedly an argument can be made that the 'lose your whole squad because you didn't reach the evac' on VIP missions is overly punitive though, especially given the occasional map where the extraction zone distance fails to account for the fact it's on a building where there's no direct approach due to lack of drainpipe acces to the roof from the near side. The timers are great for adding a sense of urgency and tactical tension (though meld had been an OK interim solution), the randomly generated maps and alien locations are good, both of these lead to a more diverse experience, especially on later playthroughs. The QOL of not having to watch a lengthy animation to swap weapon to pistol and back is awesome and a good exemplar of the wider change in design philosophy.

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