Genre: Strategy RPG
Developer: Firaxis Games
Publisher: Take-Two Interactive

XCOM 2 has a dichotomous aesthetic; on the one hand the doll-like characters, with their high polygon count armors and weapons, look phenomenal when pulled in close, such as when altering loadouts. On the other hand, much of the stage artwork looks very rough indeed-- almost as if the lighting model isn't being applied properly, and resultantly pieces of geometry-- such as blades of grass, or even the characters' hair-- don't "fit", looking clippy and aliased. The game also has some herky-jerky framerate hiccups during transitions, which is odd considering that the game is built on Unreal engine.

Via Youtube, listen to or look at the comments to any old video game soundtrack, and the question immediately becomes: "why don't video games have great music like this anymore?" The biggest reason why: because Hollywood-envious game designers have been hiring television and film composers-- and 99% of their work is copy and paste rubbish. Which is why this particular soundtrack, by a fellow named Timothy Michael Wynn, is so surprising; while it's unfortunately orchestral, the melodies themselves are exceedingly memorable! As for sound effects and voice acting, it falls into the same realm as the work from the prior XCOM title: sufficient.

Like in "Enemy Unknown", XCOM 2 alternates between light base building, and SRPG-style combat. The game's cover system works excellently, and there are a plethora of interesting weapons and armor types to research and unlock. Stages have random elements to them, making them feel less repetitive. Unfortunately, the game has some major balancing issues: soldiers routinely miss shots even when having their gun practically pressed to an alien's forehead, and by the end of the game it is throwing waves of extremely armored aliens at the player, on missions that have failure timers on them to boot.

The story with this title is that at the eleventh hour, the developers decided that the game was too easy, and so scrambled to rebalance it at the last minute before it shipped-- violating at least one of the industry's most basic "design 101" principles! This is obvious during play; the game is difficult in a sort of ham-fisted, brute force way, rather than in an elegant fashion-- the sheer volume of enemies and the absurd disparity between the alien's damage and accuracy versus the player's makes the game borderline unplayable without mods. Which is a pity: the game's core mission and base building mechanics are exceedingly fun and addictive.