I’ve been a little quiet the last few days not only because of a few things outside the norm happening but also as I’ve been a little hard pressed to figure what I can say just yet about a particular game I’m playing. As you’d have assumed from the title, it’s XCOM 2! Being a big fan of the series reboot on the PC and 360/PS3 I missed the sequel when it arrived back in 2016 however a recent sale on Xbox convinced me to finally take the plunge and get back into it. After that it didn’t take long for the game to remind me again of the series often discussed difficulty. When I was playing to original game on 360 I always felt like if the random number generator (used for determining your success/failure in encounters) were dice, they had half the numbers scrubbed off and replaced with “SCREW YOU” (or similar!) because more often than not you’d push your squad into a situation where you thought the odds were in your favour only for a bad result to lead to a lot of deaths. Turns out that aspect of the game has not changed in the sequel!

Despite being aware of the anticipated difficulty (been a few years since I last played) I still wasn’t prepared for what would quickly befall me. My first run in the game resulted in more deaths than I could count and my team lacked any veteran units at all as a result which left me in a pretty sorry position in terms of making any further progress. It was a humbling experience for sure! So I started all over again… funnily enough I did the same with the 360 version too… and being more prepared and risk averse this time I’m being slightly more successful as a result. I had planned on sharing my thoughts on the game but had to put that on hold until I could grasp the mechanics once again. Might be a while (if at all) that I feel I can do that.

Regardless of that I do find it a nice change compared to my relentless pursuit of unlockables in Modern Warfare. It’s me versus the computer and though it goes out of its way to make life difficult, every little victory earned feels like it’s genuine. And with many of the missions I’ve faced so far being relatively short (around 15 mins) I can play it in small doses then walk away feeling like I’ve accomplished something. Will also see if it leads to some proper progress this time around… or I have to start again. 😉