Just finished the game. Ummmm...well...ah...eh...errr...mmm....
Frankly, that stunk on ice.
That's it? That was the finale? What, did they run out of time/money to create an actual ending? The final mission was pathetic, the babbling whatever (couldn't understand most of the gibberish, didn't care either), the last boss...just pathetic. Blech. Incredibly disappointing, a horrible let down at the end of an otherwise very enjoyable game.
Yuck. That left a very bad aftertaste. I had been thinking of trying another play through to test some different concepts, but not any more. Maybe later, if the DLC turns out better than it currently looks to be or if they introduce some modding tools to counteract their changes to prevent modding. That was just...bad.
I didn't think the ending was so bad as to ruin the entire game experience, agree it could have been better and I thought the Alien Battleship was a better scenario than the actual last mission.
The map feels too scripted, and aliens spawning in set places and getting to move/fire on the same turn they spawn was a poor design decision. An extended boss fight would have been nice but the high lethality of Xcom combat makes it hard to do, I imagine.
Well to be fair, the killing the Ethereals in the end of XCOM was of comparable difficulty. It was just handled better because the payoff was much better.
What this game was missing was repeated base assaults and other things, its more an issue of experience crafting vs having enough resources for more open play. I think they went the right route for the first iteration of this new XCOM series. The game was designed to recreate the experience of the original XCOM with updated mechanics which is the most important thing in doing a remake. They did that quite well.
In Soviet Russia, Civilization Micros You!
"Right, as the world goes, is only in question between equals in power, while the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must."
“I have never understood why it is "greed" to want to keep the money you have earned but not greed to want to take somebody else's money.”
The final assault/map was too scripted. I get that they were sort of recapping the alien history (at least I think that is what the garbled "alien" voice was blathering about all throughout, to the point where I was continually muttering "shut up! I'm trying to play here" the whole time). And they were also sort of showing you how far you had advanced. But it ended up feeling very, very cheap most of the way. I mean...regular sectoids? Thin men? Etc? At that point in the game? Without the boosts and hardening the later aliens get they were just tissue paper. 100% shots with plasma damage guaranteed to reduce them to gory mist. The only interesting challenges were the elite mutons and the pair of sectopods, and the progression of aliens made it obvious what was coming so they weren't tough either. The sectopods did not even get a shot off.
Then the final final battle was just pathetically cheesed. A self-sealing "doorway" with no warning? I don't play ironman on new games with as many game-killing bugs as this, but if I had been that would have been it -- instant rage quit and permanent game uninstall. The summoned ethereals off to the side, carefully placed out of sight/firing line but active so you get guaranteed mind-control if the central boss doesn't die immediately...total cheese. And the mind control -- central boss is immune by game fiat, but my volunteer in psi armor got MC'ed every time. (I reloaded and played this setup about 6 times, just to see how cheesy it was.) And of course once you realize what is actually going on, the central boss dies ridiculously easy -- first soldier moves up for sight, double-tap squad sight sniper kills big boss instantly. It is a sad example of the old trope of "impossible fight with one secret key combo to insta-kill the boss". Just incredibly pathetic to find this in a modern game.
I also hated the forced death of your volunteer. A major no-no. My soldiers should live or die based on my decisions and skill (with some random factors of course), not game scripting. It is bad enough that Firaxis completely screwed the attachment to your veterans with the whole Iron Will aspect, forcing you to dump the team you have developed for new guys to get enough will to have any chance of resisting alien MC. Plus the whole Psi gift angle -- one of your initial test batch gets the gift, otherwise forget it. I tested 21 troopers (taking forever since the Psi Lab is apparently like the Skyranger, unreproducible technology) and no other Psis showed up. Better not lose your volunteer, or game over.
Anyway, a good game overall but a terrible ending. I agree with uberfish that the alien battleship was more interesting and challenging than the final mission.
Also, was I the only one who found the blaster launcher to be incredibly lame? The most awesome weapon of the original game, turned into a slightly higher damage but less visually interesting rocket launcher with no additional abilities? And the construction cost...ouch. For that price the damn thing better sing showtunes and serve ice cream on demand. So of course getting this early will be the center of the first DLC.
The blaster launcher is MUCH better than a standard rocket for sure, but it's not overpowered like the original. I think it's good they toned it down. Things are already pretty easy for XCOM by the late game, no need to make it even more ridiculous. I actually like that the new DLC will make it available earlier because it's just a nice toy by the time it comes. (Though the navigating around corners has helped me in a few situations).
As the final mission, it's definitely too easy. Too scripted? Yes! How to make it harder? I don't know. More aliens all at once, probably. I don't want one mega evil bad guy at the end, though. If you're playing ironman for your first time through, that would be almost a guaranteed wipe since you wouldn't know what tactics would work yet. (Ironically, that's why they made it so that even on Ironman you can replay the final mission, but it's so non-essential with how easy it is). I do think it'd have been cool to have a new alien on the final level.
I think a lot of the problem with the final level is that the story they developed at the end is weak. It doesn't bother me, per se, because it's all B-movie stuff. It's just the way that the story pushed a lame "let's explain each alien" final mission that makes it uninteresting beyond the first time -- and only nominally so then. Also, I agree that the alien voice is SUPER garbled. I turned on subtitles to read it the second time.
(October 28th, 2012, 15:29)dazedroyalty Wrote: The blaster launcher is MUCH better than a standard rocket for sure
...
(Though the navigating around corners has helped me in a few situations).
I guess I missed something? I did only have the blaster launcher for one mission at the end. I did not notice any navigation or other improvements besides more damage, and a super-slo-mo green glowy thing animation. Seemed pretty underwhelming, especially given the price.
(October 28th, 2012, 15:29)dazedroyalty Wrote: As the final mission, it's definitely too easy. Too scripted? Yes! How to make it harder? I don't know. More aliens all at once, probably. I don't want one mega evil bad guy at the end, though. If you're playing ironman for your first time through, that would be almost a guaranteed wipe since you wouldn't know what tactics would work yet. (Ironically, that's why they made it so that even on Ironman you can replay the final mission, but it's so non-essential with how easy it is). I do think it'd have been cool to have a new alien on the final level.
The "doorway of doom" is an ironman wipe (or two, or three) all by itself. Unless the mouth-full-of-marbles alien narration I was ignoring explained it ahead of time? Doesn't seem likely, but maybe. Certainly stupid to trick the player with something like that right at the finale. "You just died to a never-seen-before-in-the-game, completely non-intuitive trap! Ha ha ha, wasn't that fun?"
For the rest of the final mission, I agree more aliens would have helped. All of the later game missions would be helped by having more opponents than the usual 2 or three at a time. With very few exceptions, once you learn how to avoid triggering multiple groups you never face more than a very small number of aliens at a time. It would be fun to face a dozen sectoids at once, or 10 floaters, with one or two upgraded types mixed in as leaders of the enemy force. I don't know if that big a group of mutons or other upgraded types would be beatable, but 5 or 6 at once would be fun. And how about having more than one berserker at a time? (Or very, very rarely two.) Generally those guys are nothing but target practice, but if you had 4 or 5 at once that would actually become an interesting fight for a late game squad.
(October 28th, 2012, 15:29)dazedroyalty Wrote: I think a lot of the problem with the final level is that the story they developed at the end is weak. It doesn't bother me, per se, because it's all B-movie stuff. It's just the way that the story pushed a lame "let's explain each alien" final mission that makes it uninteresting beyond the first time -- and only nominally so then. Also, I agree that the alien voice is SUPER garbled. I turned on subtitles to read it the second time.
Ah, subtitles. I should have thought of that. Anyone seen the narration posted somewhere? I am sort of curious what it was about, although the general B-movie level came through clearly enough. I mostly just wanted the idiot to shut up and let me play.
Blaster launcher is 12 damage and is an automatic hit that goes round all obstacles. It's a nice reward for taking down a battleship. It would arguably be somewhat OP if you get it via DLC mission at the point in the game that you're facing down mutons.
My classic ironman win was actually very dramatic:
I lost my full damage shotgun assault to a very cheap KO in the sectopod room (because she was out of cover in the arena when the sectopods died, and aliens got to spawn and kill her before I could do anything)
leaving me with Volunteer Psi sniper, defence rifle assault, support, 2 heavies with blaster launcher
I moved into the final room and sent an invisible scout, which much to my annoyance caused all the aliens in the final encounter to spawn
Tried to get everyone to positions out of LOS in the room (as only my assaults had ghost armour) but it didn't work
alien turn, everything hits, plasma and psi blasts kill both my heavies. So much for my blaster launchers... The boss is taunting me. Down to defensive assault, sniper, support.
after some thought I decide to go all in on the boss, mind control a muton, ghost my assault up behind the boss and rapid fire
hit... reflect... hit... reflect... It was obvious there were going to be ethereals on this mission, why didn't I go shotgun on both assaults??
Alien turn. My MCed muton gets instantly killed by a psi blast. Boss mind controls my support.
With nothing better on the table I move my assault up to point blank and rapid fire again
hit... reflect... hit... No reflect! Crit for 10!
Fire once with the sniper (who isn't even a colonel) for another 12 damage. Boss is critically low.
Alien turn. Ethereals throw psi blasts at my assault and his head explodes. No more LoS for the sniper. So close, yet so far. As the boss continues to taunt me the MCed support promptly shoots him but doesn't do much damage.
with nothing better to do sniper tries to hunker down and wait out the MC.
Alien turn. MCed guy shoots again
well wtf, if some mind controlled guy is going to lose me the campaign I'm not going to just lie down and die. Sniper shoots him in the face with a laser pistol
Alien turn. MCed guy apparently didn't appreciate the pistol shot since he panics and runs out of the room.
I wait.
Alien turn. MCed guy comes back in... followed by the boss and a muton. The other 2 ethereals are fortunately picking their noses somewhere.
My sniper's down to 1 hp, there's only one thing to do now
now that I have control of my support back he runs behind the boss, taking overwatch fire from the muton but survives at low hp! Fire the plasma rifle, it all comes down to this
hit... CONNECTS... Boss down and Ironman victory complete with two guys on 1 hp
Impressive work surviving the fight and winning, uberfish! Very entertaining story.
My squad sight sniper did not get any reflection damage, maybe because she was out of range for a regular attack? Don't know, but headshot-for-critical 17 damage followed by double tap shot for another critical and the main boss died. No other shots fired for the final fight. The other tries I had made, with one or two soldiers getting into the room and the rest trapped outside the magic doorway, were sad slaughters.
