Man, this game didn't age well. I played it years ago when it was released, and this was an amazing game back in a day, but right now it's a really weak game.
I'm currently replaying it with War of the Chosen DLC, which I had for a long time just didn't got around to actually play it.
Gameplay is super weak for today's standards. No directional Overwatch, RNG hit / miss mechanic, too much story blabbing even during turn based combat, hand holding player in every aspect, you need to rush missions just because most of them have a timer. Same on global map, can't to Event because side mission has timer. You can't fail mission, if you fail any of mission objective it's game over. What a cr@ppy mechanic. Customization of your soldiers is very limited, and the Anarchy DLC which ads more cosmetics to that is one of the worst collection of skins I have ever seen. The War of the Chosen does not anything new to base game troops, just 2 new classes I think (tweaked sniper and melee class with grappling hook). New enemies are just rehashed Xcom 1 and Xcom 2 enemy variants. Overall the game is just boring.
I don't recommend buying it today.
Much better were Midnight Suns, or Gears Tactics.
The upcoming SW Zero Company will be probably better too.
Xcom 2 forces savescumming, since if you're unlucky and RNG decides to give you a mission early in the game, where you command a squad of 4 rookies, which don't even have a soldier class assigned or any meaningful equipment, you might get a mission to kill a bunch of elite enemies and destroy beacon device in just 3 - 4 turns. Where said beacon is placed at the second end of the map. There are no alternate paths to sneak in, and to shoot your way out in middle of the map and around the beacon, you need like 8 -10 turns. But game will not tell you mission was failed and it's game over after 3 turns, it ill waste your time till you kill every enemy, but beacon was lost, then it will tell you Xcom was destroyed, game over. This is one of early missions in this game, if RNG is not on your side. Xcom 2 at it's essence. Completely idiotic mechanic. Why player can't lose mission and evac?
Anyway, if you plan to play this better make sure you have a backup save before mission in base.
