One of the reasons my writing is suffering at the moment is the amount of time I spend playing X-Com 2. So, in a vain attempt to at least keep myself in the habit, I’ve decided to write about X-Com 2.
For those unfamiliar with the name, X-Com is a long storied franchise where you command an agency dedicated to fighting the aliens menacing Earth. The lion’s share of that command belongs to directing the squads of elite soldiers (well, sometimes elite) as they undertake missions against the enemy. X-Com 2 is the latest edition (the number being misleading due to a reboot) and this time, the aliens won and you’re directing a guerrilla operation against them.
Those unfamiliar with the name will also be unaware of X-Com’s reputation for tense and punishing game play. Part of that is due to gamers getting attached to the soldiers under their command - particularly when they’ve customised them and renamed them after friends and family - and therefore taking every death personally. The other part comes from never knowing when a rash move will trigger a huge alien backlash and put the mission at risk.
Personally, I’ve yet to find this to be the case. That may be because I’ve only played on normal difficulty so far but mostly, I find the aliens a bit toothless. There’s a lot of frustration when you’re groping around for a contact - or worse, flanking during a firefight - and trigger the next group with your last soldier. But mostly I survive. The aliens seem to lack a killer instinct unless I’ve grossly underestimated who can see and reach me. Which happens less and less as I understand the maps and enemies.
No, my problem with X-Com 2 is it doesn’t go deep enough. Combat often feels a bit simplistic due to the best action almost always being to take the best cover you can and shoot. I don’t make too many squad alterations between missions as I don’t have to and in any case, I don’t have too many options. There’s four base soldier classes and I already mostly know what I want out of them. The strategic element bolted on top is very simple and rarely leaves me feeling stretched or forced to make hard choices. Its fun, but it feels a case of unfulfilled potential.
Enter Long War 2.
Long War is a mod for X-Com that does roughly what it says on the tin. It makes the war longer. A lot longer judging from reviews and information. And it does by introducing more depth all over the place. More soldier classes, with more options for each class to pick from and more gear per soldier. More strategic choices. A wider variety of missions, suggesting the need for multiple squad options - out and out stealth, run and gun, straight up fight, and maybe others.
I’d been meaning to install Long War after I finished X-Com, but this weekend I caved and went and did it.
To a certain extent, its done everything I wanted. The opening mission in X-Com features 4 soldiers. The opening mission in Long War features 8. That makes me feel like a real squad commander, with a huge amount of options. A problem arises though in that most missions in Long War heavily tilt the numbers against taking that many men, which sucks. It sucks a lot. I dislike games that promise what they don’t deliver.
Another problem is that when you start with 8 soldiers and there’s 8 classes, everyone gets promoted to a different class at the end of that first mission. So far so good, but the classes aren’t made equal. There’s a lot of classes dedicated to using really big guns, but only one dedicated to stealth and one dedicated to hacking. In my first go through, I had two soldiers wounded in the first mission. They wouldn’t be available for the first month of my campaign. Guess which two classes they were? Sure enough - my stealth specialist was out. I played on a bit, but it became obvious to me that I’d want my stealth specialist. Particularly as he’s also one of the few classes that can do guaranteed damage and even more particularly when the opening set of missions all needed stealth.
So I restarted this morning, played through the opening mission… and lost my stealth specialist to the hospital again. I didn’t even bother progressing past that moment.
At some point this evening, I’ll probably try again. I’m not sure what I’ll do if it turns out I lose one of my required classes in that first mission again. But I do know that right away, Long War has that tense and punishing flavour I never got from X-Com. The problem is that it does it more by utter randomness than punishing me for my mistakes. And I dislike having to play for an hour to find out how the dice fell.
I also really dislike that even with 8 classes, they still felt the need to pigeon hole such important roles into one class again. What’s the point of having all this variety and options if I’m going to dedicate nearly half my roster to Specialists and Shinobi?
But I will be trying it again. Because no matter what I dislike, Long War promises everything I ever wanted. Save having the time to write that is.
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