Recent reviews by BP

Just a few days ago, I just got back from my last day at gambling rehab as a new man. No more gambling! No more cards! It was all behind me.

Then the Steam Summer Sale launched, and I bought this.

Game with a player base that I could count using my only two hands, and still has the audacity of packing it with an anti-cheat to make it impossible to play on Linux.

I want to play it again with my friends, as it's very fun, but I can't.

A classic that everyone owned on Big Fish Games!

Amazing developer who is committed to making this game the best it could be!

This has got to be one of the best optimized games I've ever played!
With an FX series AMD cpu and a 750TI, I can still hit 30 fps on low settings.

For those new to the XCOM franchise.
Although the cheap price would make it seem like a great "Baby's first XCOM."
The fundamentals of the game greatly veer off from the revived, Solomon XCOM style.
It's missing a great amount of features expected for a main line game.
I recommend starting with XCOM: Enemy Unknown without the added DLC, and try this after.

Pros:
+ The new intertwined turn system is novel and refreshing.
+ Breaching is fun.
+ It's cheap.
+ Snek fan service.

Cons (including nit picks):
- No character customization. (This is a cardinal sin of the XCOM formula.)
- No perma death. (Another cardinal sin.)
- The voice acting makes Napoleon Dynamite sound emotional.
- The animations are stiffer than a scalie recruiting Torque. (C'mon guys, you already had X2's animations at your disposal!)
- Enemies look samey/no salience. I have a hard time differing what each one does.
- Glam Cam is missing for a lot of actions, and no pod reveal animation!
- Prone to a lot of crashes. (May I introduce you to the Try/Catch expression.)
- Extremely easy! I can win skirmishes without moving some of my units.
- The UI looks like a proof of concept.
- Overwatch isn't made as the second ability for some reason.
- It has that post-modern story telling that just doesn't make it feel right, but it's hard to explain.

I was really looking forward to this game when I got the Twitter notification, but it didn't turn out as I was expecting. I know people are going to defend the fixed characters, saying "It's experimental", and that experiment is a hit and a miss. I don't have to worry about death anymore, if I even have to worry about it to begin with due to the difficulty at Expert/No healing. I had more of an emotional connection to my rando, fixed recruits in the X2 TLP custom Legacy Ops. Because you still ran the risk of losing them, even though they were replaced. They are basically the same concept, with different execution.

There's also something about the storytelling that feels off, it just feels like the writers were hired off of AO3. Even though people state that the game doesn't really have a political stance on diversity, it just executed in a way where it feels on the nose and blunt. I'm not wanting to get into an argument about this, but this is more of a fault that comes from the writing style more than the subject.

It's a shame to dislike this, as I love the franchise. I understand that there was a B-Team working on this, and I hoped they learned a lot while developing. But I hope to see Solomon return and take the helms of XCOM 3, if it ever comes out. (Half-Life 3 when? ;) )

WHERE IS HAMMER!?!?!

Garrett is back at it again, undead levels free!
I LOVE Thief's stealth gameplay, compared to more boiled down ones in other games.
Whenever there is a sale going on, buy this! You will not regret it.

I've been with this game since 2015, and have seen it change drastically. While it's changed from a more reserved shooter to an all out cluster ♥♥♥♥. It's still enjoyable.

It's the Dark Souls of stratagy games.