XCOM 2 review - best strategy game ever? The truth is in here

Among XCOM’s distinctions is that it is a difficult game, so the sequel’s concept is quite brilliant: the first time around, you lost. Firaxis’ 2012 strategy title was a remake of a 1994 original, UFO: Enemy Unknown, which cast you as the commander charged with responding to an alien invasion of Earth – building up the eponymous organisation, responding to attacks across the globe, and hunting down alien operating bases. Chances are if you played it, you also failed to save humanity. And this is where XCOM 2 kicks off.

Twenty years have passed since the original game’s events, with Earth now ruled by an alien-human dictatorship known as Advent. It’s a clean and organised dystopia, with people efficiently marched through weapons scanners and dispatched for any infractions real or perceived by Advent’s troopers. This staple enemy type, though humanoid in appearance, is an unholy genetic hybrid – and just the tip of the iceberg you’ll eventually uncover.

The tutorial establishes this new XCOM as a ragtag rebel group, abandoned by most of its old allies (who have signed up with the alien rulers) and lacking leadership. Welcome back, commander. At once the scenario fits beautifully with how XCOM 2’s mix of turn-based strategy and base-building works – in the original game you apparently had every nation on Earth’s backing, but could still run out of doctors or scientists or troopers. Here the restrictions are as tight as they were but, when you’re scrabbling every day just to find supplies and keep out of sight, the whole setup makes much more sense.

XCOM 2 splits between missions on the ground, where you control a group of soldiers (initially four, soon six) and fight aliens/save civilians/steal technology, and the XCOM base itself. The latter is an incredibly lavish production of what is basically a side-on 2D view of an ant mound, which zooms in and out of the rooms as you click through them. There’s a shimmering effect when you enter the map room, where a 3D globe moves towards the screen and breaks apart into constituent particles as it does so, a sight so beautiful you just want to stick it on repeat with a Pink Floyd album.

Managing the base is a matter of choosing priorities – there are a number of specific rooms covering science research, weapon production, and so on, but each can only work on a single project and you’ll always have a big list. It makes every decision an important one, and comes to define your tactics in a wider sense. If you just race up the weapon and armour tech trees as fast as possible, you’ll be ignoring soft buffs to the base’s efficiency and capabilities which may have a bigger payoff in the long term.

This side of XCOM 2 is straightforward, a case of making strategic choices rather than actually running a base, but the scarcity of resources and the impact of your decisions give it huge influence over the campaign. Supplies and personnel really are precious, and making bad calls – like setting your scientist to work for 14 days on magnetic weapons, when you have other projects that will come to fruition much quicker – can you leave your operation feeling lopsided for weeks. Many games that incorporate a meta-structure of base building silently have a safety net, meaning that the base gets better over time regardless of your involvement and it’s hard to screw it up. Not here. Mismanage your base in XCOM 2 and it will go under by degrees and collapse.

Nowhere is this more obvious than in your soldiers. XCOM’s troops are each a randomly generated personality with their own name and looks, and they are a valuable commodity indeed. Their name and appearance can be edited, an important touch, because over multiple missions your troops will level up into various classes (sniper, scout, etc) and become much more efficient operators – mentally stronger, more health, better shots and various abilities. The missions have an authentic edge of risk here, because of course you get attached to these toy soldiers, but if someone dies they’re dead – and all that investment of time and resource goes with them.

On my first campaign run, in this time for heroes, I decided to try and take back the Earth with current US presidential candidates. Surely Trump and Sanders would set aside petty squabbles for the good of humanity? The highlight of this short-lived team was the death of Hillary Clinton and severe wounding of Donald Trump during a mission, simply because for some reason Ted Cruz stopped panicking and turned into Rambo. Faced with near-certain defeat Cruz proceeded to absolutely shred through the alien forces with multiple crits and returned to base as the soldier who dealt most damage, made more attacks (the end-of-mission stats are lovely) and brought home the loot. A good day for fruitcakes.