quit

quit
to abandon an activity out of frustration or despair; give up


...you have stolen 44 hours of my life, time that I can never have back.  However many words it takes, let me spend some time ranting, reviewing and ultimately quitting XCOM 2.  

XCOM 2, the sequel to XCOM: Enemy Unknown has more or less gotten stellar praise from the gaming community since its release on February 5th of this year.  This turn-based, top-down, tactical strategy game is currently sitting at an average score of 88/100 across 104 critic reviews on Metacritic, and a 94! on PC GAMER. So congrats to Firaxis Games on creating a sequel to an already great game, which I have little doubt will lead to another sequel sometime in the not to distant future.

Now, having said this, frustration and despair are two perfect words that sum up my current state of this popular title.  I'm sure across the universe of comments and reviews laced in opinions, someone out there will be screaming -that's XCOM; scream away.  I like to think I have a certain amount of patience, and did not get to where I'm feeling at this point, without hours of experience.  Like many games out there, especially one such as this, there is a learning curve.  Such a curve I experienced with the first title, which in the end left me completely fulfilled.


So as they knocked 40% off this sequel title I jumped in head first, eager to see and experience all part two had to offer.  As I started the game I first was tasked with the decision of what level of difficulty I wanted to play at: rookie, veteran, commander or legend.  Each having a description of the level, I quickly choose, a challenge appropriate for players familiar with XCOM, veteran.  I did after all successfully complete the initial title at a similar difficulty level.  I was then asked if I wanted to enable "ironman" mode, the true XCOM experience, where every choice you make in game is final, recommended for experienced XCOM players only.  Check, lets do this; and so it began...

At this point, looking back at things, I realize a very important detail that escaped me during all the initial excitement; familiar and experienced do not under any circumstance mean the same thing or are an equal of themselves.  Would we step on a plane with a pilot who is familiar with planes, or one who is experienced?  One who is experienced has gained knowledge or skill, familiarity speaks more of general knowing.  At the very least I think most of us would opt for experience over mire familiarity.  This misstep in game setup lead me to, after a few hours, starting over and making sure not to select "ironman."  I can appreciate this option as I'm sure there are gamers out there who want to play this game that way, I however, am not one.

As we fast forward to approximately 30 hours into the game I make another very important assessment, mistakes were made along the way, there is no way I'm getting to the end and successfully beating this bastard of a game, based on the choices I have made thus far.  I now am feeling experienced, addicted, and want more. Time to start over from the beginning, learn from my novice mistakes and kick ass all the way to the end, so I thought...and another 15 or so hours of my life disappear...

Enter the randomness factor.  You see as each turn is played out, and you carefully position your troops in just the right spots and angles, when you choose your action prior to your turn ending, there is a percentage of completing that particular action that will pop up.  So you must decide, for example, do I allow my sniper to take the basic shot at a 94% success rate, or do I take a chance, use the "dead eye" skill for an extra damage boost, at a loss of aim, for a 78% success rate.  And yes, I know that not even 94% is 100% guaranteed, but it was this very game mechanic that caused my frustration to boil over and quit the game.

Honestly I don't have that big of a problem with this game mechanic.  The problem I have lies within the fact that when a 94% or 98% chance of a successful attack misses, the result can be a chain reaction dealing death to your entire squad, mission failure, which then impacts the rest of the play through.  Yes I know its part of the game, but damn it!  Don't tell me that my Colonel ranked Ranger wielding an ax forged by Satan himself, standing on top of the enemy has a 94% chance to connect with his attack, its utter bullshit!  Aside from your sniper, I found it rare that you ever have a complete 100% success rate on actions when you compare it to near perfect positioning of your squad.  All the time you have taken and careful planning you have done goes down the drain, turning it into an almost game breaking mechanic.  44 hours of my life,...I'm tired of starting over.

Right now I hate you XCOM 2, not because you suck or are a terrible game and experience, but because you made me quit.  The joy of quitting a video game is that its not like quitting a job, or relationship; its just taking a break.  And sometimes taking a break from a game is OK.

Happy Birthday America.  I'm glad that in the end we had a 100% success rate with our independence.