Leaderboard

I don't think the writing in X1 was any more engaging but I viewed that game through a different lens. The fact that X1 exists and is as good as it is was impressive and I was happy to have it warts and all. X2 feels like an evolution from that solid framework and I am hoping the atmosphere and narrative improves like the mechanics are from 1 to 2. I want the soldiers, engineers, scientists, and pilots to feel more like characters in my story and less like lines of code if that makes sense. I will say that the music is phenomenal at bringing about that oppressive atmosphere, just loading up the menu gets me pumped to play them game and lose so many soldiers due to poor decisions. I hated them in X1, between the psychic powers and the incredible range of the wraith snipers it really sucked the fun out of the game. I think I beat the campaign only a handful of times in my 200+ hours in the game as once I got to that point I would consider the campaign 'done'. X2 is much better in that regard (though I am not sure if psychic powers do anything yet), I think I am just looking for an incentive not to overwatch creep. Something as simple as a sliding scale of extra research progress based on how few turns it took you to take a larger ship or alien base would be great. I would love a good reason to load everyone up with shotguns and go buck wild running around an alien base. I think it is the rng nature of the portal rooms that bothers me the most. Sometimes there are 3 aliens with only one facing the teleporter, sometimes there are 5 all of which are waiting for you to blink before they unload into you. The close quarters nature means even if you drop a smoke right on top of you you're still likely to get hit with reaction fire. As part of my new campaign I am running shield soldiers and not using missiles/torpedoes so maybe they will help but given the very limited covering arc of shields and the likelihood aliens will be on all sides of a teleporter entrance I don't think it will make it less frustrating.