Found myself playing XCOM 2 and ended up frustrated once again. I very nearly got my whole squad wiped out in a “Retaliation” mission. The Muton enemy was so strong. It was able to consistently hit my soldiers who were in good cover and those who were on the rooftops with regular cover. Initially, I had it disoriented, which made it ineffective in combat. But I didn't have enough Flash-bang grenades to keep it disoriented until I could take it out.
I tried a new tactic of falling back into an overwatch position during firefights. The intent here was to avoid getting shot, while at the same time, giving my soldiers a free shot at approaching enemies. It works well against regular enemies. But it didn't work at all against the Muton.
I did learn one good tactic for a “Retaliation” mission that involves saving civilians. That is to make sure that the soldier approaching the civilians has a shotgun or a sword. And that the squad's sniper, has good line of sight to the civilian being approached. This is so that in the event that the civilian turns out to be a Faceless enemy, the sniper can shoot it, taking a good chunk of hp in the process. While the soldier who approached it, can finish it off with a shotgun or sword.
I'm probably on my fifth attempt at playing this game in Ironman mode. Here are some more things that I've learned.
EVAC / SkyRanger / Aborting Mission
On the Xbox One you can “abort mission” or call for EVAC, by calling the SkyRanger using the R3 button. There are some missions where this will not be available, like when there is already a fixed extraction point. You'll know when this option is available if it shows up on the upper right of the screen. Usually on certain missions, you have to fail an objective for this option to be enabled.
One of the first enemies you'll encounter in XCOM 2 are the Sectoids. They are a pain because they have the ability to mind control your units. They can also reanimate dead units on the field, including your own dead allies.
One way to break their mind control link, or to stop their reanimated zombies is to kill off the Sectoid.
Another, probably easier way, is to disorient the Sectoid. You can do this by tossing a Flashbang Grenade in their direction. While this won't kill the Sectoid, it disrupts them enough that their mind control ability stops working and their reanimated zombies just die off.
I would like to end this post with a short gameplay clip of this pretty fun tactical game.
I bought XCOM 2 for $15 when it went on sale on the Xbox One a month or two ago. This game, along with Pro Evolution Soccer 2019 are the only two games I've been playing for the past few months. Anyway what prompted the creation of this post was a traumatic in-game experience in XCOM 2.
I'm playing the game in “Normal” difficulty with Ironman mode turned on. Ironman mode for XCOM games means you only get one save file that is auto-saved. This means that if you made a mistake and the game already auto-saved, you cannot load back a previous save file to undo your mistake.
So I was playing this mission where I had to capture a VIP and then get everyone to the extraction point. There were 12 turns allowed before “Forced Retreat” happens. I did not know what “Forced Retreat” meant prior to playing this mission. I've played missions before where you could fail the objective and the game will still allow you to continue fighting until you get to extract the whole team. This was not the case with tonight's mission.