XCOM 2 is a 2016 turn-based tactics video game developed by Firaxis Games and published by 2K. It is the sequel to 2012's reboot of the series, XCOM: Enemy Unknown; it takes place 20 years after the events of Enemy Unknown. XCOM, a military organization trying to fight off an alien invasion, has lost the war and is now a resistance force against the occupation of Earth and the established totalitarian regime and military dictatorship. Gameplay is split between turn-based combat in which players command a squad of soldiers to fight enemies, and strategy elements in which players manage and control the operations of the Avenger, an alien ship that is used as a mobile base for XCOM.
Following players' feedback on Enemy Unknown, Firaxis added procedural generation of maps and mod support to the game. The developers set the game after the bad ending of the 2012 reboot because it allowed them to change gameplay, introduce various new features and redesign some enemies. To encourage players to play more offensively, the developers introduced time-based objectives to boost the game's pacing. Compared with its predecessor, XCOM 2 has more emphasis on narrative. The artists drew inspiration from sci-fi movies including Elysium and Oblivion when creating the game's aesthetic. The game is powered by Unreal Engine 3.5.
XCOM 2 was released in February 2016 for personal computers; PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions were released in September 2016. Upon release, the game received critical acclaim. Critics praised the new concealment system, which they said adds a new layer of depth, and the procedural generation of maps. The game was also praised for its difficulty and the addition of modding tools; criticism was mainly directed at its poor performance at launch. It was nominated for multiple year-end accolades by several gaming publications. Firaxis supported the game with downloadable content and released XCOM 2: War of the Chosen, the game's expansion, in 2017. It was released for Nintendo Switch and iOS in 2020, and Android in 2021.
Gameplay Turn-based combat
In XCOM 2, the player-character is the commander of the XCOM military organization that is now reduced to a resistance force opposing the ongoing alien occupation of Earth. Played from a top-down perspective, the game uses turn-based tactics in which players issue commands to a squad of human soldiers to eliminate the aliens in a map and dependent on missions, complete secondary objectives. Many of the missions are timed, requiring players to complete it within several turns. Maps are procedurally generated to create a wide variety of levels. Every map features different terrain and buildings in each playthrough. The game offers four difficulty settings: Rookie, Veteran, Commander and Legend.
After players complete the campaign, they can start a new game with the "Ironman" mode enabled. In this mode, the player's save file is overwritten whenever the player performs an action, making it impossible for players to revert to an earlier save after making a poor decision. Players can create campaigns, cosmetics and enemy types, which can be shared through Steam Workshop. The game features a one-on-one multiplayer mode in which the player chooses the side of either XCOM or ADVENT, receives a pool of points with which the player can build the composition of their force (similar to a tabletop wargame), and then attempt to eliminate the opponent's squad on a battlefield.
At the start of most missions, the player's squad is concealed and will not be detected by enemies unless they attack or move too close to an enemy unit. This allows players to ambush enemies, which provides combat bonuses. Fog of war hides the aliens and their actions from view until the player's soldiers are in range and have line of sight on them. Squad members can take cover behind objects which reduces the chance of being hit. Enemies will attempt to flank targets and exposed soldiers are highly likely to get hit and suffer critical damage. Each squad member can perform a limited number of actions before the enemy takes their turn. Players can also choose to end their turn early. Soldiers can be instructed to move, attack or both depending on their available action points. The game will inform the players of the possibility of landing a successful shot and the amount of health the enemy will lose. They can reload, remain in overwatch to shoot any moving enemy in their line of sight, hunker down, and hack into enemies' mechanical weapons such as turrets and temporarily shut them down or take control of them.
The game has five character classes, each with its own unique abilities and equipment: the Ranger can make melee attacks in addition to shooting, the Grenadier carries a grenade launcher and explosives that can destroy enemy cover, the Specialist acts as a combat medic and uses a drone that improves the team's defense and can hack robotic enemies and electronic devices. The Sharpshooter is the team's sniper, and the Psi Operative—which is unlocked late in the game—uses a selection of telepathic and psionic powers in combat. Enemies from the first game in the series, including the Sectoids, returned while Firaxis introduced new enemies including the Vipers, a snake-like enemy who can drag soldiers out of their cover or constrict them, inflicting damage over time. When a soldier is injured or about to bleed out, medkits can be used to stabilize his or her condition. Soldiers in the squad can be permanently killed by enemies. If it is deemed necessary to abandon the mission, a soldier can carry wounded soldiers to extraction where they are revived upon leaving the map. The bodies of killed soldiers in the squad can also be carried back to extract their equipment. If the soldiers survive and complete the mission, they gain experience and will be promoted, unlocking new options in the skill trees and customization items.
Strategy and management Players take control of the Avenger, an alien ship that is the new mobile base for XCOM, commanding the engineering and research departments of the base between missions. Players can assign the research department to perform autopsies on alien corpses and study the technology found during missions, which unlock new gadgets, weapons and technologies to assist soldiers in battle. The engineering department can be instructed to craft new ammo types, armors, and weapons. The Armory allows players to recruit soldiers and customize their personalities, names, costumes, genders, nationalities, and weapons. Wounded soldiers will slowly convalesce at the base. As the game progresses, new facilities that allow players to increase squad size, improve combat performance, and craft experimental weapons are unlocked. Players also need to build Resistance Comms to establish contact with resistance cells worldwide, allowing players to expand to new territories and maintain their influence. Facilities must be staffed with engineers to ensure they are fully functional. These facilities can be upgraded.
At the bridge of the Avenger, players can access the Geoscape, advance time, move the Avenger, access scanning missions and combat missions, visit the Resistance HQ to purchase new engineers, weapons, and soldiers, trade with the black market, and discover supply caches and bonus equipment. The construction of facilities requires supplies that can be collected through the excavation of alien debris in the ship by the engineers. Intelligence is gathered through contact with resistance cells, which can then be used in trade. Other resources, such as Elerium, are materials needed for crafting new gadgets. While the player is managing the mobile base, the aliens also start up a research initiative known as the Avatar Program. It proceeds slowly and if completed is an automatic loss. Progress can be delayed by sabotaging alien research facilities and other semi-random events.
Story XCOM 2 is set in 2035, 20 years after the events of XCOM: Enemy Unknown and XCOM: Enemy Within, its expansion pack. XCOM proved incapable of resisting the alien threat and was betrayed by the council nations, who surrendered to the aliens shortly after the invasion began. Most of the XCOM members also submitted to alien rule but some, like Central Officer Bradford, refused the alien administration and went underground to operate as a resistance force. Earth is controlled by the aliens through the puppet ADVENT Administration. ADVENT has done much to improve public opinion of the aliens, especially by the propagation of the belief the aliens came in peace and that the forces of Earth retaliated aggressively and with prejudice.
The player assumes the role of the Commander, who had been placed in alien stasis so they could make use of their strategic thinking via a brain implant. After the Commander is rescued by Central Officer Bradford, XCOM launches an attack on an alien convoy and steals an elerium core used to power the Avenger, an alien supply barge that has been converted into XCOM's mobile base. On the Avenger, the Commander has the support of Dr. Richard Tygan, a rogue ADVENT scientist who replaces the missing Dr. Moira Vahlen as Chief Researcher, and Lily Shen, who assumes her late father Dr. Raymond Shen's position as Chief Engineer.
Plot The game begins with Bradford leading a raid on an ADVENT building to rescue the Commander, who had been captured and put into stasis. The Commander is brought to XCOM's mobile headquarters, where they meet scientist Dr. Richard Tygan and engineer Lily Shen. Tygan tells the Commander that while they were in stasis, ADVENT used their brain to gain tactical data and facilitate the conquering of Earth. The Commander is contacted by the Spokesman, the last loyal member of the pre-conquest XCOM Council, now a mole inside ADVENT. The Spokesman orders the Commander to unite the resistance groups around the world and to discover the true nature of ADVENT's top-secret Avatar Project.
The Commander leads XCOM to raid secret ADVENT facilities and discover clues about the Project. Dr. Tygan discovers that ADVENT's leaders, known as the Elders, have been dying from irreversible physical degeneration of their bodies. The Avatar Project is an attempt to escape this demise; it involves processing kidnapped humans into raw biological material, with which new bodies (literal avatars) are built for the Elders. With their hand forced, ADVENT decides to accelerate the project and process all "non-essential" humans into the Avatar project under the guise of curing all disease at their clinics. The Spokesman is presumed killed when he sacrifices himself to warn XCOM about the plan, ordering them to hijack ADVENT's global communication network before they can make the announcement. XCOM hacks the network and transmits proof of ADVENT's crimes to the world, causing a global revolution against the alien occupation.
With ADVENT busy trying to maintain order, the Commander takes psionic control of an uninhabited avatar stolen from one of ADVENT's facilities and raids the Elders' underwater headquarters. The Elders plead with the Commander to stop the fighting and rejoin them, claiming they are only trying to strengthen themselves and humanity against a greater threat. The Commander ignores the Elders' pleas and destroys all of their Avatars, triggering the destruction of the base. The Commander's Avatar stays behind to battle the enraged spirits of the Elders as the other XCOM soldiers escape.
Afterwards, the Commander wakes up in their own body and learns that without the direction of the Elders, ADVENT's grip on humanity has crumbled. People abandon ADVENT's cities to join the Resistance en masse, and the military remnants are ineffective without their leadership. In the ocean underneath the ruins of the Elder headquarters, a strange energy begins to glow.
Alien Hunters