XCOM 2 succeeds because it fixes the one large flaw with its predecessor: pacing.

Oh, things are still tactical and patience is still important. But in Enemy Unknown, experienced players quickly learned that the safest way to play was at a slow, glacial pace, spamming the overwatch ability (reactionary fire on the enemy's turn) every turn as your squad crept inch by inch across the map, combing it with a net of deadly crossfire. While satisfying, there were few rewards for risk and no sense of urgency at all. The tactical flow was prone to stagnation. The expanion, Enemy Within, took steps towards improvement by introducing Meld, a timed resource that would expire within a handful of turns. Yet even with this incentive, the problem remained.

By now, you've probably heard that XCOM 2 will, more often than not, impose turn limits on the player. This has been a source of much frustration and negative feedback -- just look around on this page for some examples -- yet this change is not only a positive one, it's the core of this game's DNA and vital to its success. You can still end every turn with your troops safely tucked in cover and all prepared to fire (and there are times where this is still a logical strategy), but the clock is ticking and it's going to take some measured risk to reap each mission's rewards. Hidden alien foes await in the fog of war standing between your starting point and your goal -- whether that's a VIP to rescue, an alien relay to destroy, or a UFO to raid -- which is tantalizingly close yet guarded enough to punish recklessness with severe consequences.

To complement the renewed sense of urgency, the soldier skillsets and capabilities have seen a significant overhaul. It's mostly familiar mechanically -- you're still taking cover and seeing percentages and screaming as you miss 85% shots -- but an increased focus on melee combat and destructive environments gives you more strategic capabilities that let you move forward towards your objective while maintaining a tactical approach. There's no longer any time to get bogged down in an entrenched skirmish, so the game provides a multitude of alternatives: you can use a grenade launcher to destroy your opponent's cover or rush his position with a deadly swordsman or hack his mechanized units and bring them under your control or...well, you get the idea. The destruction you'll inflict on the battlefield is both visually impressive -- buildings crumble, floors collapse, and yes, cars still explode -- and tactically crucial.

On the macro level, base-building is functionally similar but given a modern board game-esque overhaul that turns engineers from a simple resource into the pieces in a crucial worker placement mechanic. Do you assign your free engineer to speed up construction or to increase your power supply? Or send him off to clear out more room for a new building? Unfortunately, scientists don't receive the same attention and, consequently, feel somewhat pointless. The first scientist recruited increases your research speed by 50%, but diminishing rewards and a lack of usefulness means you'll find yourself continually opting for missions that reward engineers or supplies instead. The Geoscape has been given a similar gloss of board game paint -- no longer just a fancy hologram showing you where your next mission, the globe now gives you options to pursue additional resources or targets of opportunity. The layout is far from intuitive and the frequency of interruptions can approach frustration (a 5-day scan to make contact with a new resistance cell feels like an eternity) but it's nice to have options.

I could go on about everything else XCOM 2 does well -- the strong skill progression, the balanced classes that make a pistol-specced sharpshooter 100% viable, the smooth escalation of equipment that has just enough randomness to keep things intriguing -- but I want to end by touching again on the turn limitations. Rarely has a sequel taken such a large mechanical risk, one that completely upends the strategies its predecessor and turns the typical XCOM conventional wisdom on its head. And yes, it is absolutely punishing and demands strict execution and the occasional abandonment of your troops on the battlefield...but it's the most important change the game has made and gives XCOM 2 an injection of urgent life. Firaxis could have been safe and given us more of the same -- but as XCOM 2 will teach you, true rewards rarely come without risk.