Tactics

Well, work has been slightly more fun now, since the external audit is over.  The Microbiology team and I are working on a new in-house method to reduce expenses for one of our products.  Hopefully it will turn out right on the first try, and I'll only know for sure on the coming week.

I've also come to the realization (well... for the past few weeks) that I'm currently living in my physical prime.  That's crazy!  As such, I've been slowly incorporating some exercise into my daily routine.  I say "slowly" because as of now, it's a weekly routine.  It's mainly doing star-jumps, high knees jogging and burpees.  I'm trying to develop my own weight training regime to predominantly work on cardio.  Consider it a side project, as running is tough to manage around my hostel, and futsal is very inconveniently timed.

Anyway, that's a minor update of work and life.  I'm mainly here to talk about XCOM 2.  Yes!  Here comes my second review of the year!  Honestly, I'm running out of interesting games/movies to consume as I just finished said game, and Marvel's Daredevil Season 2 (which was above average, review not included).

Back to the game, one of its selling points was the added feature of character customization.  I quickly poured hours into it, revamping my squad to resemble my closest friends.  While it isn't the most comprehensive customization tool out there, it does the job in somewhat resembling the people I have in mind.  By the way, I loved the idea of editing their nicknames (although they had to be a certain rank to get them).

Many improvements were made from its predecessor, and the alien unit designs were unique and terrifying.  XCOM 2 carries over its tightrope tactical feel, with every move feeling like a tense roll of the dice.  Sometimes your elaborately planned move could flounder tremendously, and with the same token, executed with near flawless beauty.  There are still some minor problems from the game which did snare my gaming experience a little.

My gripe was the problematic camera angles when it comes to elevation, as one wrong click could send your unit to a completely different tier of a building, to an unintended location.  Another problem was the amount of bugs in the game, like having a unit fire with his/her back towards an enemy, or having random appendages protruding through walls.  Furthermore, the Psi Warrior class (revealed in the later stages of the game) can be overpowering even if they're trained with only half the Psi skills.  Like... unfairly omnipotent.  

Lastly, the endgame sequence was rather underwhelming.  I recall having hair-pulling, teeth grinding deliberations when doing the final mission of XCOM: Enemy Unknown (or the expansion, Enemy Within), with every turn growing increasingly harder as the final boss was just that powerful.  That wasn't the same case with XCOM 2.  Don't get me wrong, it was tricky, but just didn't feel as dreadful as the first one (and it honestly wasn't due to my preparedness).

I was also confused by the lack of an alien offensive towards The Resistance.  For a guerrilla-like outfit turned symbol of humanity's hope as the game progressed, my ship and its crew were never threatened by idea of an entire army of aliens hunting us down.  There was no fightback.  The aliens were just waiting to respond to the next supply raid or facility attack, while fiddling with their confusingly-numbered digits as I trained up my squad.  That didn't make sense.

I ended the campaign with quite a number of casualties.  Believe you me, I had to reload numerous times to try and save them from their impending fate, but I grew tired towards the end and resorted to damage control instead.  Here's the full list of "deaths".

Adli (and later Kevin) got shot because they went all gung-ho, Savannah got killed because Hanan panicked, Yen Fei got knocked off a ledge for doing absolutely nothing wrong, Yan Yao was ganged up for no reason, Atia met her maker because she helped Fang instead of saving herself.  Hanan was KIA shortly after that, and Naufal had a very bad stroke of luck. Yan Chee was poisoned and Pauline blew up. Life... 

Due to some bugs, Joyce and Suzanne were permanently "injured" and can't be recalled into the squad.

The entire squad roster included: 

Ranger

- Fang Hao (Fangerz) Lim

- Devinia (Sunshine) Owen Devan

- Joyce (Jozelano) Wong

- Gaby (Maple) Choo

- Savannah (Savvy P) Putnam (KIA)

- Hanan (Akana) As'ad (KIA)

- Yan Chee (Pickle&Fig) Chong (KIA)

Specialist

- Sabrina (Yama) Jamaludin

- Jordan (JDogg) Larson

- Gayithiri (Shasta) Kunathasan

- Suzanne (Zak) Chan

- Yan Yao (Prastic) Chan (KIA)

Grenadier

- Danny (Playa) Obermiller

- Danny (Fenix) Voon

- Allen (B2) Robles

- Kevin (Kable) Chuah (KIA)

- Roger (RaticatEX) Ng (KIA)

Sharpshooter

- Chin (Benchwarmer) Jitki

- Juana (Bengal) Castelli

- Justin (Reus) Oon

- Yen Fei (Boss) Chung (KIA)

- Naufal (Rainman) Razin (KIA)

Psi Warrior

- Zhe Xu (Warurr) Oeh

- Celine (B1) Robles

Unranked

- Atia Zainal (KIA)

- Adli Shah (KIA)

- Pauline Tan (KIA)

I'm doing another playthrough on the second-hardest "Veteran" difficulty setting, but there doesn't feel like a lot of replayability value offline.  We'll see if I am crazy enough to go on the hardest difficulty setting.

Regardless, I love what Fireaxis has done with the XCOM reboot and will look forward to XCOM 3, or whatever it's called.

Sooner or Later - N.E.R.D.