So if you’re lucky, and as long as your soldier’s weapon has ammo, you can repeatedly chain kills, taking out dozens of them in one turn.
Hit percentages for the Lost are high, rarely dipping below 70%, and when you score a headshot you get a free action. Hordes of zombies might sound tedious in a relatively slow turn-based game, but Firaxis has a clever, and satisfying, solution to dealing with large groups of these pale-skinned, skull-faced fiends, which clamber out of the shadows and charge towards you. These zombie-like enemies were once human, but now stalk the crumbling, infected cities-a new environment in War of the Chosen-attacking anyone who crosses their path. These are designed to make campaigns feel more dynamic. It could be a limit of three soldiers, or a level littered with dangerous explosives. These modifiers affect missions in increasingly unpredictable, interesting ways. But you can bet that when one of them dies, the other will suffer the loss in a big way. And the more they work together, the greater their compatibility will become, earning you further rewards.
One example is a free action, which a bonded soldier can ‘gift’ to their partner. Soldiers who fight together can eventually become friends, unlocking new shared abilities. As a result of all this, soldiers in XCOM 2 feel more fragile and human, which will surely make their deaths even more heartbreaking. And if they’re shaken they can’t enter the battle at all, and need to rest up for a while. Soldiers can also get tired after especially long, gruelling missions, affecting their performance if you bring them on the next one. Another soldier may be afraid of a particular type of enemy, making him flee in terror if they show up. One guy might only be happy when his gun’s fully loaded, and so if he’s low on ammo and you go to take a shot, he might disobey your order and reload instead. Personality traits are new too, adding more nuance to your soldiers, but also having a tactical impact. This should give you an idea of how helpful these characters will be when you reach the late stages of a campaign. For the Skirmisher there’s Battlelord, which grants them an action every time the enemy moves. Hero abilities include Banish, which is one of the last Assassin unlocks and sees them emptying their entire magazine into a single enemy in one turn. They have to spend a new currency called Ability Points, which you earn during battles by playing tactically. But to balance things out, they don’t level up the same way as your regular old soldiers.
Heroes have their own upgrade treeĮach of the three friendly champions have their own bespoke upgrade tree, containing some very useful, and powerful, abilities. As they kill enemies they build up a resource called Focus, which makes them stronger. And the Templar, like the Warlock, can use psionic powers. Skirmishers, equivalent of the Hunter, can use a grappling hook to reach high ground and get a large number of actions each turn, making them extremely mobile. And if they fire a shot while cloaked, there’s a chance they’ll remain hidden. Reapers, the opposite of the Assassin, are nifty with a sniper rifle and can kill enemies from an incredible distance. You can recruit three hero classes from resistance factions that are similar to their alien counterparts, but with a few key differences. It wouldn’t be fair if you had to face The Chosen alone. But to balance them out she had Bewildered, which means she takes additional damage if she’s attacked more than three times in a single turn, and Adversary, which makes her take extra damage from Reapers.
My Assassin had Blast Shield, which made her immune to explosions, and Shadowstep, which meant she could move around without triggering Overwatch. This will determine how you fight them, and present weaknesses for you to exploit. The Assassin I fought in my demo had two positive and two negative traits, which will be different for every Chosen you encounter.