1. Pokémon Moon - 3DS2. Tony Hawk's Underground - GCN3. Warhammer 40,000 Dawn of War II: Chaos Rising - PC4. Warhammer 40,000 Dawn of War II: Retribution - PC5. Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness - PSP6. X-Wing: Imperial Pursuit - PC7. Star Wars Republic Commando - PC8. X-Wing: B-Wing - PC9. Blazing Lazers - TG-1610. Tales of Xillia 2 - PS311. Shining Force CD: Shining Force Gaiden - Sega CD12. MUSHA - Genesis13. Sonic CD - Sega CD14. Final Fantasy Legend III - GB15. Tales of Zestiria - PS316. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - Switch17. Horizon Zero Dawn - PS418. Tales of Berseria - PS419. Battlefield 1 - PC20. Turok 2: Seeds of Evil - PC21. Mass Effect Andromeda - PC22. Starflight 2 - PC23. Armored Hunter Gunhound EX - PC24. Space Megaforce - SNES25. Persona 5 - PS426. Torment: Tides of Numenera - PC27. Cosmic Star Heroine - PC28. Prey - PC29. Strafe - PC30. Mystic Origins - NES31. Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia - 3DS32. Ultra Street Fighter II - Switch33. The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky - PC34. Ultima IV - PC35. Environmental Station Alpha - PC36. Dust: An Elysian Tail - PC37. Hollow Knight - PC38. The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky Second Chapter - PC39. The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky the 3rd - PC40. Call of Duty - PC41. Azure Striker Gunvolt 2 - 3DS42. Sonic Mania - Switch43. Mighty Gunvolt Burst - Switch44. XCOM2: War of the Chosen - PCXCOM is back again! Like Enemy Within before it, War of the Chosen is a large expansion pack that greatly adds and modifies the base game; while the overall campaign is the same there is a lot more going on both in terms of how the enemy approaches you and your options for approaching the enemy. And it ends up completely eclipsing the base game, just like before. Firaxis has really demonstrated they know what they're doing, and I eagerly await XCOM 3 (which has more seeds planted with a slightly expanded ending).
There's a lot of new stuff to unpack, so I'm going to go over the major highlights. The first is that there are three new character classes, which are tied to the three factions you will work with. These factions represent parallel resistance groups that you can ally with and give mutual support. Allying with a faction immediately gives you the associated character class (and you start the game allied with one, so you get to use them on Operation Gatecrasher). You then gain access to faction specific boosts and missions. The boosts are a benefit you can gain for a month, being able to switch them up when you get the rundown of the month with the Spokesman. You have a limited number of these boosts available, so you will have to pick and choose and might switch from month to month. They can include things like giving you a free resistance contact slot, increase resources gained from missions, or making certain proving grounds projects complete instantly. They have a pretty large pool, and the continent bonuses pull from the same pool, so you're going to get a different set every game.
I mentioned covert operations; this is a mechanic that makes use of your spare soldiers. These are a series of missions that refresh every month and have a variety of benefits. You might gain supplies, contact with another faction, or even reduce the Avatar timer. Each mission requires at least one soldier, and possibly more soldiers or your support staff (engineers/scientists). Missions have risks associated with them, however. A soldier might come back wounded, get captured, or you might get ambushed and have to play a short "get to the extraction point" mission. Many missions have the ability to spend an extra resource to negate one of these, whether that's another soldier, some supplies, or some intel. Another benefit to missions is that every one also gives a bonus to one of the required soldier slots; this might be an increase to a stat or even a promotion. So you end up having a choice to make; do you just use those two extra low ranked sharpshooters or do you min/max your best guys?
Covert operations also have one other major function, and that's to advance the "storyline" with the titular Chosen. These are three enemy heroes that will randomly show up in missions to make your life suck. The Chosen have some innate bonuses and weaknesses; a bonus might be "immune to overwatch" or "gains a shield when fired upon and the shot misses" while a penalty can be "extra damage from Reapers" or "easier to hit from above". As the game progresses the Chosen build up their own experience; this will cause them to gain extra bonuses or to make your life harder. This might be changing their AI to be more likely to capture your soldiers or to cause some sabotage that occurs in the geoscape. Eventually they will have enough experience to attack the Avenger directly, triggering a mission where they shoot you down with a giant beam cannon. You will have a limited amount of time to disable it and take out all hostiles (including the Chosen) before you game over. As I mentioned, in order to counter the Chosen you need to trigger a covert op against that particular chosen to search for their base. This will increase your standing with the associated faction opposed to that Chosen (which gives you additional monthly bonuses available as well as an extra slot for them). Once you have targeted their base you can launch an assault to take them out permanently, and get some sweet unique loot in the process. As I understand it, if you don't take them out then they will show up in the final chamber of the game, so it's to your benefit to prioritize them.
I mentioned three new classes; these each offer something new over your existing classes. However, your supply is limited. In general you can expect to have one of each class, but only rarely will you get an opportunity to gain more than that at once. The game is good about offering replacements through covert ops (the only way to get more) if you lose one. First up is the Reapers, which are extreme stealth specialists and represent humans who took to the wilds after the invasion, armed only with some rifles and the full library of STALKER games. Their schtick is that their special stealth means that enemies only have a single square detection radius for them, they don't break stealth when your team does, and they have a variety of abilities that let them engage enemies without breaking stealth. Several of these involve explosives in the enemy backline. They are phenomenal scouts and can engage in some nice harass. The Skirmishers are former Advent soldiers who broke free of the mind control and seek to liberate the rest. They are jack-of-all-trades mobility specialists. They come with a grapple that both works like the normal one on the light armors as well as being able to do their best Scorpion impression. They also natively can fire on the first action without ending the turn and their skill trees have a lot of flexibility built in. The tradeoff is that they can't do any one thing well, but they can provide a little of everything, potentially rounding out a squad. Finally, you have the Templars, which are melee focused psionic soldiers. They have a unique resource system where kills with their melee weapon give them a point of energy. This energy increases the damage of their melee strikes and fuels their psionic ranged attacks. They get a few abilities for manipulating battlefield positions and after making a melee attack they get a free move to get back to cover (or spend on the parry ability and get a free "get out of one attack free" card).
Further adding to this is that the GTS has been modified. Now, instead of you randomly getting a cross class skill on level up when it's build it instead gives you access to the skill point system. So while a soldier still levels up normally and picks one skill per tier, they also gain skill points when they level (based on a stat intrinsic to each soldier). You can also gain global skill points for playing tactically (like flanking or killing from high ground). These skill points can then be spent on anything in a soldier's skill tree, which includes both their regular paths as well as cross class "XCOM" skills, which are set for a given soldier randomly. This means you can do things like spend points to get Shredder AND Blast Padding on a Grenadier, or unlock Kill Zone on a Specialist who happens to have it in their XCOM set. The three new classes get access to this feature by default, because their skills work slightly differently. They only get skill points on level, no free skill, but they also gain more points per level to compensate. They also have three unique trees, rather than two, but they don't always have an ability for every tree on every rank; sometimes it's two and sometimes it's three. But they do get access to the XCOM cross class skills as well.
Finally, there's a few smaller additions. There is a fatigue system where your characters lose will over the course of a mission, and if it drops too low they will be either tired or possibly fully out of commission until it heals. Sending a tired soldier makes them more vulnerable to mental effects. Speaking of, post mission a soldier can develop a negative trait, like a fear of fire (chance to panic on fire being used on your squad) or having a habit of compulsively reloading (so after using your first move they'll reload rather than whatever you wanted to do next). You can cure these at the new infirmary, but they add flavor. Also adding flavor is the new bond system. Every soldier has a compatibility rating with every other soldier, and when those two are on a mission together they gain compatibility points at a rate based on the rating. When the bar is full you can form a bond, and later on you can level up that bond. Forming a bond gives you a shared ability of one member being able to give an action point to the other (once per pair per mission), while leveling it up adds additional benefits. But losing a bondmate mid mission will make the other person go berserk. Finally, research has been enhanced with random inspirations and breakthroughs. Both are limited time options; if you engage in another non-instant research project you will lose access to them (doing an instant autopsy is ok). Inspirations will cut the time down for an existing research project, while breakthroughs are a special project that enhances your team. This might be cutting the cost of building a facility or increasing the damage of assault rifles by 1. You have to be careful, though, not to fall into the trap of always doing them when available, as it can sidetrack you from important research like better gear for your soldiers.
All in all, there is more to do, more flexibility in what you do, and more character. I didn't even mention the handful of new enemies, or the chances of missions having extra effects (like random explosives sitting around, or being limited to only half a squad). This is the definitive XCOM 2 experience, and the only way it could be better is if they brought back the MECs from Enemy Within. Because dammit, those were awesome. Oh, and for the record, I beat the campaign as Ironman Commander, and it was my second campaign (not counting the two campaigns where I restarted due to a bad Operation Gatecrasher).
Blizzard Entertainment Software Developer - All comments and views are my own and not representative of the company.
