X-Com 2 - Announced

FoxEye said:
The ZeroPunct review is up, and he was fairly scathing... one of his main gripes are the mission timers, which seems to annoy a lot of people. It's probably the main reason why I don't plan on getting this. Hate being rushed.
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This is ridiculous not once in any mission did I ever feel rushed to get to the objective, the timers are long enough that if you move at even a normal pace you will make it with a few turns left. In fact most missions I would get to the objective and turtle around it for a few turns to make sure nothing unexpected happens when I trigger it or to organise my squad so that once I complete the objective I can evac. out that same turn.

I think on average I came across maybe 3 sets of 3 enemies on the route to the objective (when you get the building that tells you how many enemies there are on each level it becomes even more obvious what you are likely to come up against), the 3rd set being directly around the point and the turn timer is something around 7 turns. Considering you start in concealment most of the time the 1st set should only take 1 turn to kill and you know where the objective is on the map so moving directly towards it shouldn't take too long either, its distance from the starting point can vary but I wouldn't say its much further than 4 full movement turns away, less if you hack from distance.

With numerous abilities that allow you to move front line units into safety (Ranger: Conceal or Run+Gun, Unplacable, Untouchable. Specialist: Threat assment or Covering Fire, Ever vigilant, Scanning protocol) and 2 abilities to control enemy units to use them as front runners and fodder to the enemy with Dominate and Haywire protocol. There is no need to crawl as should you uncover some enemies in a bad position you have many ways of moving that single character to relative safety, assuming you aren't using a Grenadier or Sharpshooter run at the front of your pack to uncover enemies.

It is literally designed as mentioned above so you cant crawl along a map and overwatch every step of the way. I cant remember all the objectives of timed missions but most of them was to just hack a console and with a specialist you can do it from miles away anyway meaning you don't even need to get near the objective.
 
Mr C said:
This is ridiculous not once in any mission did I ever feel rushed to get to the objective, the timers are long enough that if you move at even a normal pace you will make it with a few turns left. In fact most missions I would get to the objective and turtle around it for a few turns to make sure nothing unexpected happens when I trigger it or to organise my squad so that once I complete the objective I can evac. out that same turn.

.
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Who h is alps why they're are pointless. I have failed one mission die to timer, my scientist was one square off. Got everyone else out.
My main gripe with timers, is they don't add anything to the game, they generally dint change tactics and even when they do it just forces crappy tactics.
 
The irony for me is that the only mission type that feels rushed is one that doesn't have the actual timer :p That being the defend the object type - I am at the end of my ironman run having lost 1 soldier but failed 2 missions of the above type.

In the last failure the aliens attacked it 3 times in the last turn for a total of 21 damage at around turn 5 :(. Generally I don't find the timers a hindrance though...
 
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I did struggle with timers at one stage but it was because I'd got behind on weapon tech and it was taking me longer than it should to kill stuff, once I got that sorted it was all good again. Sometimes close but that adds to the tension. And I agree about the defend the objective ones, they could be nasty.

As for the zero punctuation review, not watched it myself but being massively critical about games is his thing, I find the reviews entertaining and definitely not worth taking too seriously.
 
VincentHanna said:
It's not a 'timer', there is no rush

You can spend 24 hours playing one level if you want. It's a limited number of turns designed to get people to try tactics other than moving your squad 5 squares and then going in to overwatch.

Not once did I not have enough turns left to complete a mission, and I've completed it twice - Once on Ironman/Commander difficulty.
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This tbh.

I've completed it twice on the same settings & had no trouble with timers, only on a single mission ever did I get to the last turn - ever.

Not only this but it's instantly fixable with the single click of a mouse for a mod if that's what people want. The amount of whining about this 'issue' is getting ridiculous now.
 
Mr C said:
It is literally designed as mentioned above so you cant crawl along a map and overwatch every step of the way.
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What if that's what some players want to do? Some people like to play slow and cautious. It might not be an issue for people who like to go gung-ho everywhere, but many of us hate doing that.

And I've read plenty of accounts of maps where the only way to get to the objective in time is to run flat out ignoring everything in the way. Apparently it's just dumb luck, because the objectives can be quite close or they can be on the other side of the map, but the mission timer doesn't take this into account.

Seriously, there was no need to put time/turn limits in an XCom game. Stupid, stupid decision from Firaxis.
 
FoxEye said:
And I've read plenty of accounts of maps where the only way to get to the objective in time is to run flat out ignoring everything in the way. Apparently it's just dumb luck, because the objectives can be quite close or they can be on the other side of the map, but the mission timer doesn't take this into account.
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Those people are exaggerating or outright lying. I have 100 missions complete and I never had to put myself in silly positions to try and beat the timer. On average I usually had 2-3 turns left.
 
The only things I'm annoyed with is the save bug and the fact I'm on the last battle and the graphics have bugged so much everything is pink and green and cant see anything.
 
FoxEye said:
What if that's what some players want to do? Some people like to play slow and cautious. It might not be an issue for people who like to go gung-ho everywhere, but many of us hate doing that.

And I've read plenty of accounts of maps where the only way to get to the objective in time is to run flat out ignoring everything in the way. Apparently it's just dumb luck, because the objectives can be quite close or they can be on the other side of the map, but the mission timer doesn't take this into account.

Seriously, there was no need to put time/turn limits in an XCom game. Stupid, stupid decision from Firaxis.
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I would suggests you actually play the game.

The turn limit really isnt an issue.
 
McGray said:
I would suggests you actually play the game.

The turn limit really isnt an issue.
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If there was a demo, I would ;) But that's what reviews and metacritic are for.

No way I'm splurging £30 to see if I like it or not... that's insane advice.
 
VincentHanna said:
I paid £22.79 from CDkeys and have 60+ hours of game time.

Not bad value for money if you ask me.
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What if you hadn't liked it? That's what I'm saying. If you paid £23 and didn't like it, you wouldn't have put anywhere near 60 hours in.

I don't know if I'll like it or not, but I'm inclined to think I won't. Either way, it's nuts to suggest I should ignore all the feedback and reviews, and buy the game to see if I like it or not.
 
FoxEye said:
Seriously, there was no need to put time/turn limits in an XCom game. Stupid, stupid decision from Firaxis.
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It fits in with the story/mission theme.

"Get to the objective before the aliens have done xxx" or "we need to get the VIP and escape before interceptors shoot down our evac"

Rather than

"Don't worry about taking ages to get to the objective. The aliens will hang fire on blowing things up until you get there"

:p

Seriously, if you liked Xcom EU/EW you'll like this one. It's not that many missions that have this timer anyway and it's quite rare that you actually have to sprint all the way through the map.
 
FoxEye said:
What if you hadn't liked it? That's what I'm saying. If you paid £23 and didn't like it, you wouldn't have put anywhere near 60 hours in.

I don't know if I'll like it or not, but I'm inclined to think I won't. Either way, it's nuts to suggest I should ignore all the feedback and reviews, and buy the game to see if I like it or not.
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Metacritic has it at 88%! That's not exactly bad.

http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/xcom-2

Predictably the 'users' giving it bad scores on Metacritic are the butthurt ones all bitching about 'timers' and not being able to overwatch crawl.
 
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+1 it's a really well done and worthy successor and the timers aren't a problem at all

But as mentioned - even if you end up disliking the timers there are aready mods out which either increase or disable them... So what is the problem?

If the game has any problems it's that it still suffers from power-creep and the challenge that makes the early game so tense and fun falls away completely in the late game (but again, mods will fix or adjust that I'm sure)
 
VincentHanna said:
Metacritic has it at 88%! That's not exactly bad.

http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/xcom-2

Predictably the 'users' giving it bad scores on Metacritic are the butthurt ones all bitching about 'timers' and not being able to overwatch crawl.
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I always go by user score. Always. Which the paid-for reviewers might be good for getting a basic idea, the scores are always way too high.

Most reviewers are frankly scared of giving a AAA game a low rating. Scared of how it will affect their careers.

The user score gives an idea of how many people have issues with the game. Either performance issues (which this game has, for sure), or stuff like mechanics that aren't to everyone's taste.

Why should I trust the critic score more than the user score? I might very well be one of those people you don't like, who can't live with the timed missions, and hence whose opinion you think should be invalidated :p
 
I get all excited about buying this then look at this thread and get put off, I'm guessing waiting on a patch or two might be the best idea for now?
 
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