MadJim61

I enjoyed XCom 2 when it came out, but felt that the game finished a bit too quickly. I had to move swiftly to the endgame before I'd finished a lot of research, to stop Advent completing the Avatar project. I waited until WOTC was on sale at Steam before giving it a try, and (as others have said), it really re-invents the game. Now more challenging, more varied and more enjoyable. There are still a few **** that stopped me giving it a straight 10: missions are a bit repetitive; dialogue even worse; and there are some odd annoyances -- such as Dark Events that threaten you with increased Chosen activity even after you've eliminated them all. But, overall, it's a lot of fun. If you're too slow (and too old in my case) for real-time strategy and games that rely entirely on quick reactions, this is for you. it's a game that makes you think and has enough depth to make it more than just blasting aliens. Highly recommended.

It's just a matter of personal taste, but I found this more frustrating than fun. Depends on the kinds of games you like, obviously, but for me there was just far too much micromanaging in real time, trying to juggle numerous islands, maps, etc. I also found the AI utterly annoying (sink half a dozen of a pirate's ships, for example, and they expect you to pay *them* for a cease fire). The campaign gets tired pretty fast, and the expeditions and quests soon become very dull. Perhaps the most frustrating thing is that you have to understand the late stages of the game at the outset, in order to plan your city, but the planning tool only allows you to "blueprint" the buildings you currently have access to. So, you end up (for example), having completely blocked the route from your oil wells to the coast by the time you reach the "Engineer" level. So, have to demolish masses of houses, farms, etc., to make rail connections. Some people will love it, of course, but to me it felt more like a job than a game.