XCOM: Enemy Within (DLC)

[Art Blade]

[smg id=6630 type=preview align=center caption="XCOM EW start screen"]

Having finished XCOM: Enemy Unknown (2012) I will now start a new game with this DLC. It actually is a different game, starting XCOM:EU presents you with a splash screen to choose between either Enemy Within or Enemy Unknown.

The DLC is a complete overhaul of the base game available as a 7.2GB download from steam. I also saw it as a retail version sold on CD but I don't know whether you can actually install it from disc or have to download it. It is basically like EU but adds a lot of new stuff like new soldier classes, research, facilities and whatnot, and also some 70 new maps, too.

Here a special series on YT by Zemalf.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TpbTkbv4L2Y&list=PLvqxe4XbcSiEzrZm28NjsLXmHkffCJmBY
Going to give it a shot now :)

[Binnatics]

Have fun with it :) I wonder if it's a complete new story, like a sequel or the same happening from a different perspective. Keep us posted :-X

[Art Blade]

It is the same story with occasional different missions and generally speaking, different goals which didn't exist in the other game. For example, now there is "Meld" -- a material needed for new upgrades and technology. You can't wait too long or it will be gone before you got it: Once you are somewhat close to it so its location is revealed, you'll have 5 turns to get it. I'm not sure but I think if you don't find the location somewhat quickly, it will self-destruct before you can get it. I hope that won't happen or at least not often :)

Here I still have got 4 turns left and it is already within easy reach..
[smg id=6631 type=preview align=center caption="XCOM EW meld 1"]

..and I collected both canisters.
[smg id=6632 type=preview align=center caption="XCOM EW meld 2"]

[fragger]

Cool, look forward to reading about your experiences :)

[Art Blade]

I'm right in the middle of it  :-D

Apparently the amount of those Meld canisters' self-destruct turns may vary, I just had a mission during which I found a Meld canister that only had 3 turns until it blew up (or, until I had to collect it which I did).

At this point I might as well tell you about the general mission types that occur in both games:

Abduction. Varying Difficulty. Clear an area of enemies.

Terror. Varying Difficulty. Rescue as many as possible of a given amount of civilians before the aliens kill them -- or kill all aliens (best before they kill too many civilians)

Bomb Disposal. Disable power nodes and defuse a bomb before the time runs out (start with 5 turns to disable the first node and keep stacking up remaining turns by disabling nodes)

Council Missions: Usually Extraction -- (either you need to find someone or you start with someone to protect) and take him safely to the extraction point. Typically accompanied by Thin Men as your common enemy. Sometimes you get a bomb disposal mission, sometimes you need to find something like cargo but you always have to clear the map of enemies before you win.

UFO Landing (many enemies) or Crash (fewer enemies) Site. Difficulty depends on the size of the UFO. Raid the UFO and kill everything that isn't human.

Shoot down a UFO (only if you have satellites over that country and if you have a spacecraft capable of shooting down a UFO) followed by raiding the crash site. The size of the UFO and therewith the amount of enemies varies.

All of the above on a bloody vast amount of different maps. They're never big but man, the fog of war is always present.

:)

[Art Blade]

Oh, there is something else new: medals :)

[smg id=6636 type=preview align=center caption="XCOM EW medals"]

It was a particularly pleasant event. Quite a challenge, when the right spot on the right soldier for the medal had to be found and the decoration had to be adjusted until it would sit just right. Did take a bit, adjusting the medal. For some reason, decorating our female personnel is a sought-after honour. :-D
[smg id=6637 type=preview align=center caption="XCOM EW medal awarded"]

[Binnatics]

 

[Art Blade]

Oh wow.

This game is a lot more difficult than the base game. I've barely started and already encountered a new enemy called Seeker (there will be quite a few more new and bloody dangerous enemies) which constitutes a serious threat as it turns completely invisible and seeks out lone soldiers such as snipers (which I loved to leave behind to take care of enemies trying to stab in the rest of the squad's back) and materialises on top of them to strangulate them. The strangled unit is helpless and will suffer -2 health per turn until the seeker is killed and after the seeker's death the strangled soldier will have to "catch breath" that results in -75% mobility and -50% aim plus "battle fatigue" that weakens the will (may cause panic which may cause the panicking soldier to fire at his own team and panic may as well spread among nearby soldiers plus the panicking soldier can't be controlled during that turn)

The problem with those Seekers is that I have to change my strategies that worked nicely with the base game. Also, there are old enemies that can lob a grenade which they will do once they see two or more of my soldiers close to each other. Before, I avoided forming those grenade baits and now I will have to think about whether to stick two or more together against Seekers. Those buggers will keep hanging around following me and keep trying to attack exposed soldiers until I've killed them. Another apparent victim will be an Assault who used "run and gun" (enables an Assault to dash far forward and attack) and after his dash he's defenseless. So I'll have to cover him with "overwatch" (uses at least one of two turns of the overwatching soldier but puts him in a reaction state -- any enemy moving in the line of sight will be shot at, such as an approaching and decloaking Seeker)

EEEEK ???

Oh man :)

[Art Blade]

Here's one of those Seekers, just decloaking and, due to my overwatching guys, being killed. It looks a bit like a squid that floats in the air. You can see the decloaking in progress but it could not start to strangle my poor sniper (can't see her in that pic) The guy in front, a Support class, looks as if being shot through but that is only a small graphical glitch. :)

[smg id=6653 type=preview align=center caption="XCOM EW seeker"]

[fragger]

Looking over the pics you've posted, here and in the XCOM:EU topic, it looks as though you can zoom in and out considerably on the action. Is that a correct assumption, or are there different viewpoints you can switch between? Some of those pics look like tactical isometric-type look-down views, some like 3rd person ones.

[Art Blade]

you can switch on and off what is called an action-cam. When on, the camera will zoom in and behind the guy who's firing and when you choose one of your guys who can see an enemy, you'll get a "from behind and over his shoulder" view at the enemy you're targeting for him. :) Else, and when switched off, you get the isometric view.

[fragger]

Cool, thanks :)

[Art Blade]

OK, I experimented a little. I wanted to see whether I would get where I thought I might and just wanted time to pass quickly so I just went straight through a few missions and experienced a couple of proper catastrophes (for example, one soldier got attacked by a zombie -- a civilian poisoned by a Chryssalid -- who dealt 9 damage at once and killed that soldier just like that -- before, I never allowed that to happen so I didn't even know that zombies could deal that much damage) but in the end of that test I knew I would get where I wanted. So I reloaded the savegame and continued to play normally. Normally as in very careful. :)

Apparently the DLC improved a few things, like that base management. With enemy unknown, I repeatedly only had one single steam tile to build a special and very effective power plant. With the DLC, I got three of those tiles. Nice. Then again, the DLC also weakened a few things that used to be extremely powerful. Overall, the DLC is indeed a lot more challenging and difficult but at the time more interesting.

However. Here something new: MEC troopers :) Since the aliens have now new species and robotic units, we need to adapt and get bigger guns, too. It's really better, without the new stuff it's almost impossible to win.

[smg id=6655 type=preview align=center caption="XCOM EW MEC trooper"]

[fragger]

Whoa :o There's a person in there somewhere!

[Art Blade]

A person yes, but just the torso and the head. Exceeding limbs.. what the heck, have them amputated and replaced with metal ones :-D You just put the torso in the metal "leisure suit" or put it inside a combat MEC (Mechanised Exoskeletal Cybersuit).

Getting a new suit (MEC troopers wear those when not in battle)
[smg id=6656 type=preview align=center caption="XCOM EW MEC conversion 01"]
metal limbs attached..
[smg id=6657 type=preview align=center caption="XCOM EW MEC conversion 02"]
test walk, towards an arm for a battle MEC
[smg id=6658 type=preview align=center caption="XCOM EW MEC conversion 03"]
and here the cyber interface works already, see the big MEC arm does exactly what the small arm does
[smg id=6659 type=preview align=center caption="XCOM EW MEC conversion 04"]

[Art Blade]

Oh dear. It won't stop. Not only new and dangerous alien enemies, no, now additionally those bloody EXALT terrorists..

[smg id=6660 type=preview align=center caption="XCOM EW EXALT threat 01"]
[smg id=6661 type=preview align=center caption="XCOM EW EXALT threat 02"]
[smg id=6662 type=preview align=center caption="XCOM EW EXALT threat 03"]
[smg id=6663 type=preview align=center caption="XCOM EW EXALT threat 04"]

[Art Blade]

And now that my sniper is on a covert operation, I had to encounter a massive UFO that almost downed my first interceptor so I needed to send up a second interceptor that luckily managed, if barely, to shoot it down. So I am about to check out a massive crashed UFO without a sniper but, I'm so happy about it, not, now I can "train" a rookie instead of my valuable sniper. And I don't yet know whether or not my sniper is going to make it as a covert operative. I will have to extract her and at the time kill EXALT troops, in about a (game-) week. Of course, panic is an issue, the bloody EXALT action forced me to prolong my research time of the current project (time is what we least have) but at least they didn't steal money or increased panic levels to max (two other options EXALT have) Oh man.

??? ... :o ... :'( ... yay, I love this  :D but I can't convince myself I actually do.. XCOM EU was so much easier :-D

And this here is on EASY for F's SAKE ???

[PZ]

Sounds massive  :-X

[Art Blade]

Oh yes. :) OK, here in pictures, a 90 minutes real time operation which I finished with a massive punch  :-D

[smg id=6664 type=preview align=center caption="XCOM EW covert op extraction 01"]
[smg id=6665 type=preview align=center caption="XCOM EW covert op extraction 02"]
[smg id=6666 type=preview align=center caption="XCOM EW covert op extraction 03"]
[smg id=6667 type=preview align=center caption="XCOM EW covert op extraction 04"]
[smg id=6668 type=preview align=center caption="XCOM EW covert op extraction 05"]
[smg id=6669 type=preview align=center caption="XCOM EW covert op extraction 06"]
[smg id=6670 type=preview align=center caption="XCOM EW covert op extraction 07"]
[smg id=6671 type=preview align=center caption="XCOM EW covert op extraction 08"]

[Binnatics]

It's getting kind of complex :o :-X :)

I'm glad I don't need to wear a MEC suit. I'm pleased with my own limbs heheh :-D

[Binnatics]

Nice pics! Great map! :-X :)

[mandru]

It looks like you've got your hands double full with this game.

Imagine if time not spent in the game was tracked giving your enemies the unchecked advantage of moving about freely to gain their objectives.  It would force you to all but live in the game start to finish.  :-D

Watch for that complication to be added in the next DLC version as the developers tweak up the difficulty another notch.  >:D

[Art Blade]

Hehe  :-D Finally a game (actually, two games, counting the DLC as a game of its own despite the fact that the base game is required) that keeps me busy and interested. It is really challenging but at the time fascinating and I have a lot of fun.  :)

There was another special mission that was different from any mission I played so far. I had to check out why a fishing village in Newfoundland "went dark" -- I fought my way all across the map, and back, and it ended with an airstrike -- if you're not fast enough, either mass-spawning aliens or that airstrike will knock your block off. I managed to escape and watch the spectacle from a safe distance. :-D

[smg id=6672 type=preview align=center caption="XCOM EW site recon 01"]
[smg id=6673 type=preview align=center caption="XCOM EW site recon 02"]

[Art Blade]

Now there is yet another new thing, gene mods. Rather than chopping off limbs so the torso may fit into an exoskeleton such as a MEC trooper, we just "augment" mod a soldier's genes. Well.. nice.  :-D

Edit: "augment" is reserved for soldiers that are to become a MEC trooper, they get "augmented," while any soldier except MEC troopers may have their genes "modded."

[smg id=6674 type=preview align=center caption="XCOM EW gene mods"]

[PZ]

That's some serious gaming you're doing there, AB  :-X