Have you completed XCOM 2 on the highest difficulty and danced on the graves of alien dummies? Did you turn on the mode that prohibits restarting missions in order to get at least some kind of challenge, but still managed to complete the game without any problems? Well, the authors celebrated your successes and did their best to have the last laugh. War of the Chosen is a project that strikes with a sickle from below in a big way at the moment when you least expect it. Those who were not very bothered by what was happening in the original XCOM 2 will be afraid to include this add-on integrated into the main game. He hurts every minute. Like a street bully, he delivers blows right to the head, and all you can do is cover it with your hands without meat on the fragile bones.

And if without metaphors, then XCOM 2: War of the Chosen is an increase in the original XCOM 2 by one and a half times. The changes affected almost all elements of the game. Take the plot: we had the rescue of the main character at the beginning and a showdown with the Elders at the end. Now the narrative reveals itself much more often, adding unexpected twists. Initially, the authors tried to turn earthlings into hunted animals, suffering from occupation and unable to fight back, while in fact a handful of resisters effortlessly threw back the entrenched enemy. War of the Chosen says that things won’t work that way, and introduces new variables into the narrative - enemy heroes with different skills and character. For getting rid of the Resistance, these aliens are promised nothing less than the Earth itself. They, of course, greedily cling to this incredible opportunity and are ready to bite their throats for such an honor.

Enemies manifest themselves in different ways. They can appear without warning during the execution of any mission and thereby increase a significant advantage in the direction of the enemy. They can also find out where your ship is on the global map and shoot it down. In addition, they do not shut up, trying to demoralize you. Their mocking, malicious messages and promises of cruel death are a kind of art. Try to unconventionally wish death to your enemy fifty times and it won’t happen again.

To the delight of the players, the authors reduced the assertiveness and intelligence of the enemy generals. Just imagine that there are enemies on the map that run great distances or shoot psionic energy at extremely long distances. Now imagine that they have visibility-reducing smoke bombs and attacks that destroy two-thirds, or even more, of life in one hit, after which the enemy can calmly retreat, become invisible and disappear from your radar. Terrible? Why not! But to maintain balance, the aliens are limited in their actions. For example, after the first attack, they will not finish off the wounded, preferring to destroy the health of another, healthier resistance fighter with a second blow. The authors justified this with the plot: the general hits him on the sly, stunning the victim, and if he is not brought to his senses in time, the nasty boss will drag her away for experiments and interrogations. The result is partly predictable, which means this cannot be allowed to happen.

It will be necessary to respond to the actions of the adversary with the help of new combat units. In addition to the “IKCOM members,” there are independent groups operating on Earth - the first thing they need to do is gather them together, and then force them to fight under a single commander. Here you have rogue psykers, sniper-assassins, and aliens who went over to the side of people, getting rid of the influence of the Elders. There are few characters, but on the battlefield each one is worth at least three ordinary soldiers. For example, Reapers, who are snipers, in addition to good long-range shooting and the ability to open fire after a run, have a special camouflage that does not fall off even if the tactical stage is over and the enemy knows about the presence of resistance fighters.

But both warring sides will suffer from the consequences of dropping bombs with biological filling on Earth. The megacities of the planet are now home to new representatives of the modernized XCOM 2 - zombies. People affected by alien weapons have mutated, lost their minds and are attacking the living. Fast, numerous, disgusting in appearance, as befits modern cinematic undead. True, they do not pose a serious danger due to the new combat mechanics. The principle is as follows: you kill zombies with one shot, and you do not get credit for the spent action point. Therefore, you can safely kill the undead in the affected radius as long as there are cartridges in the clip, and then reload and attack again. At the tactical stage, the approach will also be different. Monsters focus not only on the visual location of the enemy, but also on hearing. If you make noise, break windows and shoot while making your way through old buildings, zombies will instantly recognize your presence and run to see who is trying to steal the last sweet roll from a destroyed supermarket.

Now let's count the limbs you will need to successfully fight a war on all fronts. We steal supplies with one hand, raiding enemy bases and camps. With our second hand we launch powerful attacks on the Advent laboratories to prevent the construction of the Avatar project. With our left foot we fight off the alien generals, preventing them from stealing our soldiers and finding out where our pepelats are flying, while simultaneously looking for the fortresses of the mighty reptiles in order to finally finish them off. With our right foot we unite the factions, go to their plot and random buildings, resolve internal conflicts and assemble a unified army. The limbs are gone, but you still have to parse orders for each faction (once a month they give significant bonuses), send fighters on random missions and prevent a zombie apocalypse.

How to keep track of everything and be on time everywhere? The correct answer is no. XCOM 2: War of the Chosen is a game on a chessboard of more than two hundred squares, but you can only play as one lame horse. The front is everywhere and nowhere, allies are everywhere, but there are monstrously few of them, and the war is gaining momentum, pouring out graphs, ominous red scales, warnings with a hundred or two events that in no case can be ignored, and a list of battles where in no case you can't lose.

After each fight you should relax and rest. For this purpose, a non-combat constructor mode appeared. The authors remember what no self-respecting war is fought or won without: pathos and propaganda. Now there is an editor for motivational posters, created automatically or under your strict guidance. Any victory, any event, be it joyful or tragic, is sure to turn into a poster with your fighters, and the finished layout appears everywhere in the world of XCOM 2. Completed the mission? Make a motivational poster and let everyone know that victory is close! A fighter died? We are making a campaign in the style of “We love, we remember, we will not forgive!”

It also happens that after several joint battles, your soldiers become real battle brothers. Sometimes it’s even funny, because the level of brotherly relations can be raised by simply getting the fighters drunk in a local bar. Once their relationship is as strong as possible, they will gain special skills in battle, which can also be turned into a propaganda tool. Of course, the posters do not affect the gameplay in any way, but they help you to fully enjoy the atmosphere of war.

However, if you think that butterflies are flying over War of the Chosen, and that it itself smells of freshness and pine, it is better to take an air freshener with you. Firaxis studio are creators with a capital F, in the sense that they really try to add as much new unique content as possible, even if this means completely rebalancing the game. But they always have problems with the technical part. Expensive DLC was released for XCOM 2, but the patches did not correct the optimization - the game still heated the hardware, as if the devils in hell were heating up a furnace for sinners. War of the Chosen has removed long loading times, but everything else remains, even if it’s not entirely clear what your machine’s power is spent on. Yes, the locations are destructible, but without graphical flourishes or scale justifying such a waste of resources. Optimization, where are you when you are needed? Silence in response.

If rapid and sharp wear and tear of equipment lasting from thirty to forty hours is not a significant problem for you, then you simply must go through a pumped-up XCOM 2. If useless classes, useless mechs, useless coloring sheets for the army, for which the authors asked for 850 rubles, were not worth even half of this money, then XCOM 2: War of the Chosen, which costs only 500 rubles more, pays for itself in the first half hour. XCOM 2 has become unpredictable, dangerous, merciless and gives new sensations even to the battle-hardened front-line soldiers of the Earth.

The “Season Pass” turned out to be, to put it mildly, unremarkable: the first DLC only added “cosmetics” for soldiers; second, Alien Hunters, - a trio of incredibly evil bosses; third, the ability to design combat robots, which is certainly nice, but doesn’t make any difference. Therefore, there was a wary attitude towards the add-on (not included in the subscription). Moreover, the “Chozens” included in the title are also bosses, and again there are three of them: an assassin, a sniper and a psionicist.

A short digression for those who Alien Hunters I missed it: the meeting with the bosses there took more nerves than the final battle of the game. The fact is that each of them had at least five times more hit points than an ordinary enemy, and in addition responded to any action of the player. The soldier fired - the boss fired back. The soldier ran from place to place - the boss shot. The soldier reloaded - the boss, again, gets the right to shoot. Plus, they could meet anytime and anywhere, so one careless step could result in the loss of half the squad.

So, with the new “chosen ones” there is no such intensity of drama, since they act strictly on their own turn, and are warned about their appearance on the map in advance. Although the opponents from the “chosen ones” are still serious: they all have great health and powerful abilities. For example, an assassin is invisible until the first strike, a sniper can shoot across the entire map, and a psionicist can easily take control of Xcom’s soldiers. In addition, they cannot be killed: having lost the last hit point, the boss simply teleports from the map and can show up for the next mission as if nothing had happened. To get rid of one of the chosen ones completely, you will have to find and storm his personal fortress.

In memory of the finally killed chosen ones, their weapons remain

Three in a boat, not counting Xcom

This is how a new mechanic comes onto the scene - “secret missions”. Almost nothing is required from the player here: we select the operation we like from the list, send people according to the price list (one may require a fighter with the rank of at least lieutenant, another - a scientist or engineer) and wait for the period indicated in the description - in game days, of course. After it expires, we receive the required reward (resources, upgrades for weapons, data on the strength of the chosen one, etc.) and an offer to start a new operation - you cannot carry out several “secret tasks” at the same time, only one at a time.

"Secret Missions" is closely related to another new feature - Resistance factions. There are also three of them: Reapers - frostbitten stealth survivalists who literally eat aliens for breakfast; The Intercessors are hybrids of humans and aliens, in which the human element turned out to be stronger, and the Templars are powerful psionics who have slightly lost touch with reality. All of them are in alliance with Xcom, but remain organizationally independent. Read, interaction with them comes down to the fact that from time to time the factions give Xcom combat missions and provide him with fresh “secret missions”. In addition, cooperation with factions brings some global bonuses such as additional resources or faster research.

The game offers to immortalize any important event, such as victory in a mission, using staged photography.

Finally, each faction delegates a heroic fighter of a unique specialization to the player's command. The Reaper is an ideal scout: he moves in stealth the fastest, and enemies notice him only when they are face to face with him, and the Reaper is trained in a whole arsenal of sabotage techniques. For example, he can place sticky mines, detonate vehicles with one shot, even finish off wounded enemies - and all this without the risk of flying out of stealth.

The Intercessor is essentially a ranger on steroids: he pulls enemies towards him to stab them with a gauntlet of sharp claws; pulls himself towards enemies to do the same, or simply gallops around the level with the help of a grappling hook. Can shoot twice per turn, can give you an electric shock, and after leveling up to the maximum level, once per mission can act according to the rules of the bosses Alien Hunters, that is, respond to every enemy shot with your own action.

The Templar resembles the Protoss from StarCraft, because he slashes enemies with twin psionic blades and in the process accumulates energy, which he subsequently spends on spells like teleportation or psi-storm. Unfortunately, the templars do not have regenerating force shields, so after an attack you have to quickly run away to your own or hope that passive abilities like “30% chance to avoid damage from an enemy attack” will work.

Post-heroic syndrome

It will not be possible to assemble a strike fist from only “heroes” and playfully grind mission after mission. Firstly, by default factions send one representative to Xcom, and the opportunity to add an additional hero to your ranks will not appear immediately. Secondly, in War of the Chosen the soldiers began to get tired: several combat missions in a row (or even one, but very unsuccessful) will lead to the fact that the soldier’s roof will begin to crack and he may acquire a phobia - for example, fear of the chosen ones, which results in a chance to panic when one of the them appears on the battlefield. If he is sent into battle in this condition, the fighter will completely break down and fly to the hospital for several weeks without any injuries.

In a word, heroes are good, but you will mainly have to fight with old familiar classes, especially since they have also been strengthened. The basis for leveling up is old (i.e., at each level you are asked to choose one of two perks) - however, if you build a training center on the base, you can buy skills you didn’t take at the time, opening at least the entire leveling tree. In addition, in addition to standard class perks, each soldier has a set of individual bonuses: for example, sniper A can learn to knock off armor from opponents, and sniper B can learn a special shot that will hit the target under any conditions. The catch is that pumping up additional perks requires a special resource, Ability Points, which is given as a reward for some “secret operations” or for special successes in battle (for example, for destroying a chosen one). That is, AP is always in short supply, so you have to rack your brains a lot, determining which perk the organization needs most for which fighter.

Soldiers sent for a secret operation can be wounded, captured or attacked - in the latter case, a tactical mission is loaded, where you need to guide them to the evacuation point

Additional customization of fighters occurs through “secret missions.” The fact is that in addition to the main reward, one of the participants may receive a bonus to health, accuracy, etc., which will remain with him forever. As a result, from faceless and interchangeable units, Xcom operatives turn into individuals whom you remember by sight and name. After all, it’s one thing when you have a whole platoon of ranger-colonels, indistinguishable from each other, and quite another when you purposefully nurtured one of them so that he could run half the map in a turn and be guaranteed to destroy the target.

World by thread

The above are major changes, but War of the Chosen There are also many small ones. For example, alien raids on Xcom fortified areas sometimes take place in the old format, when there are a bunch of civilians around who are shot by enemies with impunity - and sometimes, on the contrary, all the civilians are sitting in a group in some building, the approaches to which are guarded by NPC resisters (and they have certain chances of fighting back even without the player’s help).

Bosses from Alien Hunters noticeably weakened: the first meeting with each of them takes place not just anywhere, but only during an attack on the alien base, and they will warn about the presence of the boss even before departure. In addition, bosses no longer react to the actions of soldiers they cannot see - therefore, having assembled a squad of snipers with a Scout Reaper at the head, it is quite possible to kill the boss without the slightest loss on your part.

On top of that, the chosen ones are incredibly talkative - they constantly contact Xcom to scare

The scientific system has been improved: now, after completing research, scientists can be inspired, allowing them to develop a certain technology in record time - but only if they get down to business right now. As a result, there is a good incentive to disrupt the planned order of research. An even greater incentive arises when it comes to “breakthroughs”: they are outside the standard research branches and immediately give a bonus, for example, to damage with a certain type of weapon - but, as with inspirations, they are offered randomly and such development must be started immediately. only she was offered. However, the missing “breakthroughs” can be obtained through secret operations.

The range of missions has expanded significantly: new types of tasks have appeared (for example, capture boxes with resources before the enemy has time to evacuate them), and modifiers are randomly assigned to any mission. For example, for one mission you can take soldiers with a rank of no higher than sergeant; on the other you will meet many psionic opponents, on the third - on the contrary, entirely robots; in the fourth mission the squad will have a bonus to stealth, and the fifth generally takes place in an abandoned city - the patrimony of the Losts.

Lost is a new type of zombie, on which the developers for some reason place special emphasis: they say, they are this, they are that. They come to the sound of explosions and attack both aliens and Xcom members with equal eagerness, so ideally they should bring a fresh spirit into the battle picture - but in reality they move too slowly, hit too weakly and die too easily.

The game doesn’t particularly hide the fact that the Losts are civilians who inhaled gas from alien capsules in the first XCOM

But the chosen ones show unexpected agility. Not only are they trying to disembowel Xcom's soldiers during tactical missions, but they are also playing dirty tricks in the strategic mode: they will reduce monthly income, delay research for an extra week, steal several upgrades from the weapons room, or even attack Xcom's headquarters will be organized.

War of the Chosen- an excellent example of how add-ons should be made. There's a ton of new, thoughtful, balanced content - and yet it's evenly distributed throughout the game. That is, if in the DLC for the same thing you immediately go to a new territory, go through the local storyline in one gulp and then return to the familiar Wasteland, having received only a couple of perks and a new gun as a souvenir, then War of the Chosen everything is different. You start a new campaign and seem to be playing a familiar game, but you constantly notice that things have gotten better here, something new has appeared here - and now you’ve encountered a type of enemy added in the add-on, and to combat it you need to develop fresh tactics . For the average strategist, this sense of novelty will be enough for at least one full playthrough; well for XCOM-enthusiast War of the Chosen- and, as they say, a “must-have.”

Firaxis continues its proud tradition of releasing voluminous add-ons. DLC, which was released in quite a large number for XCOM 2 in the year and a half after its release, quite expectedly, did not add anything to the game that would encourage me to play it again. No, of course, someone is probably constantly scaling new heights in terms of difficulty levels and obtaining the rarest achievements, but XCOM 2 really changed only a few days ago - with the release of the War of the Chosen add-on.

Now we have three new enemies - the same Chosen from the game's title, any of which can pop up like a jack-in-the-box in almost any random mission. Fortunately, the arrogant and rather talkative aliens do not cooperate with each other or with the trio of freaks from Alien Hunters. Or unfortunately... In any case, you can’t just kill scoundrels: they will definitely come back again and again until you storm their personal strongholds.

The villains turned out to be interesting, although compared to the background of the “royal” monsters they do not look particularly scary. One of them prefers close combat, the second is a psionicist, and the third can shoot from a sniper rifle almost across the entire map. Another thing is that he indicates his target and the affected area in advance, so if you get away from it before the end of the turn, then he definitely won’t do anything terrible to you. And they all act roughly in this vein: they seem to be solid guys with a lot of strengths (for example, protection from explosions) and a few weak ones, but some of their tricks are too easy to get around. And their fortresses frankly saddened me: all three battles with the “bosses” took place in similar conditions and according to approximately the same scenario, except that each next one was a little easier due to the fact that my fighters were more experienced and better equipped. Including the excellent weapons of the already defeated Chosen.

However, in any case, it will not be possible to ignore the trio of villains, because they harm not only “in the field”, but also on the global map. To counter them, three factions of the Resistance have appeared in the game, each of which will allow you to hunt down the corresponding “boss”, carry out special orders (read: bestow bonuses) and share their own recruits, endowed with unique sets of skills unlocked for special points.

Reapers, for example, are specialists in covert operations: they can even kill an alien and still remain cloaked. This issue, however, is resolved randomly in the spirit of XCOM, so building tactics based on this feature is quite dangerous. We also have Defectors from Advent, who by default shoot twice per turn, pull enemies towards them, etc. The grouping of psionicists turned out to be especially funny: after being hit in close combat, these get an additional action in order to run for cover. If only the rangers could do this!

Now the liberation war is also being waged on the screen of special operations, which take place without your participation, but greatly influence the gameplay. Rewards for success are very different: promotion of a fighter in rank (a great way to upgrade operatives who have been sitting on the bench), improved characteristics, resources, hiring new employees, reducing the progress of the Avatar project... The same one from the original XCOM 2: the storyline the addition does not change the line. In general, the benefits of such outings, which take place without the participation of the player, are obvious.

But misfires are also possible - then you will have to personally evacuate soldiers (usually 2-3 people) from the zone into which enemy reinforcements are constantly arriving. This is just one of several new types of missions that have revitalized the XCOM 2 campaign. There are also operations to rescue captured soldiers from alien prisons, which can be completed without firing a shot. But most of all the variety was not brought in by new mission objectives or original scenery: to be honest, locations consisting exclusively of underground tunnels are a dubious innovation, because all such operations look the same, and there is nothing even to catch the eye in the surroundings. No, the main stars of the expansion after the Chosen are the wanderers.

There are also new recruits in the ranks of the aliens and their puppets from Advent: a psionic infantryman, a flamethrower infantryman (I advise you to finish him off from afar), and an annoying creature that can create a copy of your ward, simultaneously taking him out of the game. But all this is not to say that it is particularly unusual, but wanderers are a completely different matter. This is the name of the zombie-like monsters that live in cities devastated by invaders. They look like zombies, react to what's happening on the map like zombies, attack only in melee like zombies, and even move mostly in crowds. Like a zombie. But they are called wanderers.

The catch is that these creatures will appear in huge numbers in some missions. Did they blow up a grenade? The strangers will hear and come running. Did you have a noisy shootout with Advent? Now a horde of wanderers is taxiing around the corner. In principle, these guys have no political preferences, so they gladly beat both your soldiers and aliens. Another important point: if you shoot a “walker”, you will receive an additional action. This was done, obviously, so that the detachment could clear streets and buildings clogged with the dead, because there are not just a lot of wanderers here, but an incredibly large number. It’s a pity that their reinforcements appear in some very clumsy way: sometimes they appear out of the blue, literally out of thin air.

Overall, War of the Chosen makes a lot of changes to XCOM 2, although not every one of them can be called important. Let's say that friendly relations between operatives do not seem particularly useful to me. But the fatigue of the soldiers really affects the progress of the liberation of the Earth, because it is now unlikely to be possible to take favorites on every mission. Or another little thing: remember the actions to intimidate dissenters? Now on some of them there are more civilians, but they are covered by AI-controlled resisters. Contrary to all expectations, “cannon fodder” is actually quite useful.

And even if a brief description of the key changes made to the original XCOM 2 add-on takes up a couple of pages of text, War of the Chosen is an excellent add-on, nonetheless. With it, XCOM 2 grows in breadth, but not in height or, if you prefer, in depth. XCOM 2 is a continuous mission with timers. It feels like there are fewer of them, but in reality, even in those operations where there is no move counter, you will be urged on by, say, crowds of wanderers. XCOM 2 is full of funny AI decisions, because of which a soldier sometimes prefers to climb onto the roof of a nearby building instead of running in a straight line in order to jump off it a couple of meters later. Or heavy mechanical enemies destroying the objects they are assigned to patrol. XCOM 2 is all about the ubiquitous random number generator and very few story missions. After defeating all the Chosen Ones, you won’t really get anything other than their things. They say they got rid of the threat - and okay.

The new classes are good, but I personally ended the campaign with soldiers proven by dozens of hours of battle, and not with representatives of exotic factions. Playing through XCOM 2 once again was a pleasure: there was a significant increase in worries in the strategic mode, and new variables appeared in battles. But I didn't feel like I was starting a completely new game. Don't get me wrong: it's an excellent addon and should properly push the boundaries of what is familiar from the original game. But nothing more. Personally, I liked certain features of Enemy Within much more than the Chosen or the resistance factions, but overall War of the Chosen is noticeably larger than the addition to the first XCOM. By the way, XCOM 2 itself has become faster, and loading takes less time. Whose merit is this - a patch, some kind of DLC or add-on? Don't know. It's a small thing, but nice.

Jake Solomon, the creative director of XCOM 2, directly said that War of the Chosen is actually XCOM 3. Actually, any other studio would have immediately sold this content pack as a separate game. But this is Firaxis. The only reason War of the Chosen was made an expansion was because it didn't have a new direction. In the first XCOM, we were the commander of a global organization that openly defended itself against alien attack. XCOM 2 has changed the balance of power - we are now underground, our base is small, mobile, there are few resources, and the clock is constantly ticking, bringing Big Kick-Ass closer.

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Updated campaign

Like Enemy Within, the expansion is fully integrated into the campaign, so you'll have to start the rebellion against the alien power all over again. But the campaign has a new starting cinematic and modifiers, as it was in EW. There are noticeable differences in the characteristics of the fighters, additional obstacles and double the duration of the campaign. But even without modifiers, War of the Chosen will add another 10-15 mandatory missions (and, accordingly, several dozen intermediate ones) to the plot.

The Chosen Ones are a trio of particularly powerful aliens, the developers of which were inspired by... Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor (praise the sun, after three years of waiting, other developers are little by little making their Nemesis analogues!). The chosen ones are randomly encountered throughout the campaign, and each time they react in accordance with the flow of your previous encounters. Moreover, sometimes they acquire special features for one battle. Let's say you seriously wounded one chosen one with a sword - then the next time you meet, he will have complete invulnerability to melee combat.

Other rebel factions

As it turns out, you are not the only rebels in this world. The appearance of the chosen ones forced several new groups to surface. And since the Assassin, Hunter and Sorcerer have every chance of becoming insurmountable rivals for you until the end of the game, it’s time to get allies in this war. Each of the three factions has its own characteristics, specialization, motivation, worldview... and it just so happens that they cannot stand each other.

The Reapers are consummate masters of stealth who worship the thief Garrett and Sam Fisher (they even dress similar). Unlike the standard “stealth” of your squad, which breaks down with the first shot, the Reapers have a special “shadow” mode. It does not detect the fighter immediately, but gradually - during this time, your Reaper can snipe several enemies and lay a mine or two.

The infantry of the occupying army consists of hybrids of humans and sectoids, who are much faster, stronger and more resilient than both species. However, the will of these HSOM Uruk-hai is so strong that the mutation is not able to wipe out human consciousness, so they flee from the army. It was these deserters who rallied and became Militants.

But with the templars it’s not so simple. All they have at their disposal are energy swords from Halo and a few psionic tricks. The thing is that at the beginning of the battle they can do relatively little - with each next move they accumulate “focus” points, which will give access to strong skills every time. If your Templar survives on the battlefield long enough, he will be able to reflect attacks (and eventually redirect them at enemies), summon his own battle-ready ghostly clone, and even cover the entire screen with a powerful psionic storm.

As you can see, the fighters of the mentioned groups are unsurpassed in their role; the default soldiers of your squad, in principle, are not capable of such things. And in order to be able to recruit at least one reaper, militant or templars, you will have to work hard and establish good relations with the faction. To do this, you will have to complete additional missions, to which you can only send two or three fighters. Of course, you will have to choose who to give an advantage, but if you rip your pants for 40 hryvnia, you will be able to make friends with three factions for a while (they will give you a separate achievement for this!)

New fighter development system

Reapers Fighters and Templars are tough as eggs, but their development system is different from ordinary soldiers. And all because they receive the skill not for a promotion in rank (they don’t have that), but for special skill points. Here it’s worth starting from afar: from now on, each fighter (regular or factional) has a “combat intelligence” parameter, which sort of determines the speed with which your warrior acquires practical skills in battle. That’s right, you don’t gain anything for the fact of fighting; Only smart tactical decisions are rewarded (outflank the enemy, occupy high ground, exploit the weaknesses of a certain enemy, etc.). A higher level of combat intelligence - you will receive more development points at the end of the task.

What’s interesting is that all points received are not assigned to a specific fighter, but go into one common pool. They are primarily needed to improve faction warriors, but if you don’t need an Uber death machine in the face of a fighter, a ninja sniper reaper or a futuristic magician of level 120, for these points you can develop ordinary warriors, unlocking both skills of a certain rank or even skills completely another class.

Guerrillas or terrorists?

When vanilla XCOM 2 came out, we were sad that the developers quickly gave up and did not develop the topic of terrorism. They say that these are not terrorists, but definitely good and noble rebel liberators. And War of the Chosen, although not completely, will partially allow us to look at the global situation from the other side of the barricades. Now, after story missions, official news releases will be broadcast, where our actions will be described from the point of view of a collaborator. Finally, at least somehow the player will be told that he often puts civilians at risk, causes irreparable damage to cities and is not such an unambiguously good force.

In response to this, our base will have its own radio station, and also after each important task, a local DJ will conduct our propaganda in our favor. It would seem like a small thing, but it’s pretty nice that the developers are still trying to solve the problem of the uniqueness of the XCOM world and show their teeth.

Well, now the coolest part - Photobooth! After each mission, the surviving warriors pose in random poses, and the game will allow you to take a photo of the victors, which is then used as propaganda for the resistance. But you can customize the photo mode: apply filters, text, move fighters, change poses and take photos at any time at the base. And if your soldiers also fraternize, they will have a set of unique poses! The game will not only save the pictures taken in a separate folder, but also place them on the walls of buildings during missions (propaganda!). Damn, how wonderful this is!

XCOM 2: War of the Chosen is more than DLC. The add-on significantly reworks familiar game mechanics, adds new conditions, missions, threats and ultimately turns XCOM 2 into a completely different game.

XCOM 2: War of the Chosen

Genre turn-based tactics
Platforms Windows, OS X, Linux, PlayStation 4, Xbox One
Developer Firaxis
Publisher 2K Games
Websites xcom.com, Steam

It seems that Firaxis deliberately makes its games imperfect so that a year after release they can sell gullible users DLC that corrects all the shortcomings of the original and introduces new game mechanics into it. This was the case with two large DLCs for it, Gods & Kings and Brave New World. The same thing happened with the addition, which seriously changes the main game. Now the same thing is happening with .

This time they decided to do without nanomachines, genetic modifications and fancy exoskeletons. Instead, the Chosen Ones appear in XCOM 2: War of the Chosen. The Chosen Three: Assassin, Hunter and Sorcerer are the elite of the elite, high-level Elder fighters with unique skills and long health bars, who appear in almost every mission if it takes place in the territory they control. The Elders set the Chosen Ones the task of returning the Chief and now they are hunting XCOM troops, capturing fighters, carrying out sabotage and trying to find out the position of our mobile base.

The chosen ones can disguise themselves, shoot across the entire map, and summon new units. And these bastards strive to appear at the very height of the battle, when your soldiers are already involved in a firefight, have used up almost all their ammunition and have received a couple of wounds. Moreover, the Chosen are almost immortal. You can defeat any of them in battle, but at the last moment the enemy will have time to teleport to appear in the next mission. Moreover, over time, the Chosen, like your fighters, gain new skills and become stronger. You can destroy elite opponents only by completing a chain of faction quests and storming the enemy’s stronghold.

A little about the Chosen Ones themselves. The killer can become invisible and deliver crushing blows with her huge sword. In addition, she can disorient several XCOM fighters in one turn. The Hunter moves quickly with his grappling hook, and also deals massive damage across the level with his Follow Shot ability. Plus, his arsenal includes sleeping darts and grenades. The Sorcerer uses psionic abilities to take control of your units and summon ghostly zombies to act as walking bombs.

In addition to the three Chosen Ones, other new opponents have appeared. The cleaners are armed with a flamethrower and incendiary grenades; moreover, when killed in close combat, they have the ability to explode, so it is better not to get into hand-to-hand combat with them. Priests use psionic abilities, such as mind control or stasis, and also know how to strengthen their teammates. The ghost is able to turn into a cloud of nanomachines and disappear from sight. These dangerous creatures are capable of knocking out your fighter and creating a shadow copy of him with the same skills.

Well, the fourth type of new opponents in War of the Chosen is Wanderers or, more simply, zombies. Wanderers appear on some maps in the form of huge crowds that attract explosions or can be summoned by certain enemies, such as the Sorcerer. If you shoot Wanderers with your main weapon, the kill will not end your turn, which allows you to destroy up to a dozen opponents, as long as you have enough ammo. So don't be surprised by the numbers of killed enemies on your fighters' cards. In some missions the count can reach hundreds.

The combination of new and old opponents, the Chosen, crowds of Travelers and new locations makes the battles much more difficult. Nobody likes losing fighters, so get ready to replay unpleasant moments many times, since loading levels in XCOM 2: War of the Chosen has become almost instantaneous, without any dancing with a tambourine or editing ini files. However, you still won’t be able to avoid injury, so one of the first improvements to the Avenger should be choosing a hospital. After all, the problem is not only with wounded soldiers. The fact is that in War of the Chosen, soldiers have a new parameter - fatigue, which depends on how often you send them on missions and how many actions and movements they have to perform during battle. A tired soldier will smear, take a very long time to reload his weapon, etc. The situation when half of your team is in the infirmary, the other is mortally tired and cannot lift a finger, and some of the fighters on special missions or training are far from uncommon in War of the Chosen. Yes, and as you understand, it is now impossible to complete the game with only one squad, which is quickly pumped up to the maximum level. So select fighters, hire new ones, release prisoners.

Changing the combat pattern also affects your attitude towards missions. Now running away after planting a bomb or during an evacuation is not cowardice at all, but a smart choice that allows you to save soldiers for the next mission. In some cases, clearing the entire level is not worth it at all.

The ranks of XCOM were not left without replenishment. Three resistance factions have appeared in the game, which will supply you with unique fighters and allow you to receive bonuses using the so-called Resistance Orders, the number of which depends on your relationship with each of the factions. Faction fighters use unique weapons and abilities; moreover, each group has a blood enemy among the Chosen, to whom they deal additional damage. Reapers are highly mobile and can fire their sniper rifles without losing their disguise. Intercessors, former Advent soldiers, are skilled in both hand-to-hand and ranged combat. They can move quickly with their grappling hook, shoot multiple times per turn, pull opponents towards them, etc. Templars prefer to use psi energy and an energy sword, plus they can strengthen their teammates and weaken their opponents with the help of a new resource - concentration, received for killing enemies.

With the advent of new types of fighters, the skill tree has also changed. Soldiers of factions choose abilities not from a mutually exclusive pair, but from an entire tree, and they can be upgraded in the future. With the construction of the Training Center, other fighters will be able to learn additional skills.

Another new game mechanic in XCOM 2: War of the Chosen is the interplay between soldiers. By completing missions together, your agents become comrades. Such pairs of fighters can add action points to each other, increase the accuracy of a partner, remove negative effects from him simply by being nearby, etc. Over time, the connection can be strengthened by receiving new bonuses. Naturally, such couples should be sent on missions together.

In addition to combat missions, secondary background missions for factions have also appeared - Special Operations. Such tasks allow you to scout the location of the Chosen One’s hideout, obtain additional materials or an engineer. They also increase the level of trust, allowing you to use more resistance orders. Plus, you can use them to upgrade the parameters of fighters. But be careful, any such task can end in an evacuation mission, injury, or even capture of a soldier.

A controversial innovation of War of the Chosen is the Propaganda Center, where you can create propaganda posters with your fighters after successfully completing missions, promotions in rank, appearance of partners, etc. Funny, but completely useless. But the Test mode is already quite good. This is a set of unique missions with non-standard game conditions, which can be completed by competing with other players in absentia to gain points. Missions are regularly updated, it is possible to watch replays of other players, etc. In Trials, your squad can include not only people, but also aliens; there is no option to save, and the less time you spend in battle, the more points you earn.

XCOM 2: War of the Chosen is truly a completely new XCOM 2. It plays differently and is even more satisfying to win than the original. Believe me, after War of the Chosen you simply won't want to start regular XCOM 2.

Pros: New unique and regular opponents; new game mechanics and locations; fast loading of saves; the game has become more complex, deeper and more interesting

Cons: DLC cost

Conclusion: XCOM 2: War of the Chosen is the best thing that happened to XCOM 2, the DLC turns an already great strategy game into a completely new game