XCOM 2 Collection 17+

Can be frustrating ….these tips may help.

I have been a big fan of the XCOM games but really struggled with this one. Firstly the world UI is awful, I mean terrible! So it will take you some time to work out how to optimise building facilities and accelerating their function because they mainly rely on engineers available and slots for them to work. Even now I am not sure what some of the upgrades have done for resistance network facility. The other problem is the battles. I was getting pwned after the first 3 mission or so. In the end I got a tip from a forum. Grenades! They are literally the best thing you can use, guaranteed damage, but more importantly destroy cover, so your squad has better chances of hits. This was the game changer for me. After this my next tip, ignore the ‘recommended’ research and build trees. I built a guerrilla tactics school early to get improved squad sizes, and also I prioritised weapons and armour research over other ‘recommend’ research. Having figured all this out, the game became fun. Prior to this it was worse than going to work!!

Developer Response ,

We are sorry that you are experiencing a problem with the game.

Please try starting a new game and select Rookie difficulty. We also advise that you enable the Tutorial if you are having difficulties with any of the game controls.

The following Options are also available when starting a new game:

'Lengthy Scheme' doubles the Avatar Project timer.
'Time Turner' doubles the length of mission timers.

To enable these options, select New Game → Toggle Advanced Options View from the Main Menu. These options can only be enabled before starting a new game.

Long time fans may be disappointed, and game pushes iOS a tad beyond its limits

Firstly, before I say a bad word about this game, I have to say that this really is the full XCOM 2 experience. There are no cut corners with regards to content. Feral have done a fantastic job in this regard, and the controls work beautifully for the iPad. I love the full 360 degree camera, and the little niggles controlling the original XCOM:EU camera have all been fixed.

However, there are definitely a number of issues:

1) my iPad gets VERY hot VERY quickly (I have an iPad Pro 11” 256GB 2020 model).
2) it absolutely drains my battery (though strangely my iPhone pro battery doesn’t seem to suffer so badly)
3) there are no iCloud saves which is a huge, huge shame.

From a gameplay perspective, there is one thing that really bugs me, and this is that the enemies are very static until they engage you. One of the key gameplay features is that the enemy groups will move around the map patrolling until they spot you, but in this they often don’t move. You’re left to freely dispose of one group after another, which drastically reduces the difficulty curve.

Overall, I’m happy I bought the game, and I’ll play it in short bursts while plugged in, but I’ll stick to xcom enemy unknown for a portable xcom experience as that is far kinder on Apples tech and has no shortcomings of any kind with regards to the gameplay.

Amazing but with one problem!

Absolutely fantastic port of an exceptional pc game. Can’t believe a game of this quality is available on my phone, and it runs like a dream. Well worth paying a few quid for as it’s the real deal, no extra purchases, no adverts, proper game and I love the XCom series. Well done Feral another great port!

So my issue- AI behaving odd- for example- vip extraction. I decide to save on fatigue, and just use a sole reaper, stealth in, blow hole in wall, leg it to extraction with VIP but despite my guy being “stealthed” the enemy troops just happen to always dawdle over to the reaper, or the big walking ED209 look alike walks through the walls of the prison complex building back and forth until my guy gets spotted. Patrols should be random and not based upon converging on a character who’s supposed to be hidden. They literally go from all over map to just hang about near the hidden guy, then wait there and don’t patrol elsewhere. Fix that and imo it’s perfect