XCOM 2: War of the Chosen Review "Buy, Wait for Sale, Rent, Never Touch?"

[@Zawhomafu]

"Basically the warlocks from destiny that decided to hightail it to a better game". Damn this guy brings the sass XD

[@ACGreviews]

lol

[@ehoffart529]

Zachar Petrynec I'm a huge Destiny fan and that still got a laugh out of me. Xcom can keep him, Hunter master class.

[@lynnusuk2092]

That burn was so brutal it'd make the purifiers feel a shame

[@venkatchait007]

Savage. Rekt. :P

[@Destrado_]

Reaper = Hunter, Skirmisher = Titan, Templar = Warlock

[@Rakka5]

Also imporant fact that the game is now MUCH more optimized compared to vanilla Xcom 2, which means it can run on lower-tier computers much better.

[@ACGreviews]

it...somewhat can. but its got some oddities

[@Rakka5]

It's not a giant boost, but it can mean the difference between being able to play the game or not for some people

[@otakon17]

Thanks for the info, biggest thing stopping me from buying it even on sale because of the fact that it seemed like the requirements were a fair step higher than the first XCOM game(which ran pretty much fine on my system).

[@BatTech]

Great, so basically you have to buy a patch if you just want to keep XCOM 2 vanilla.

[@vargrhelsing8042]

They will update the main game. These devs arent stupid enough to hold the UI change to DLC only. Infact, XCOM Enemies Within update and fix bug on the main game without DLC too.

[@ACGreviews]

Sadly game got delayed on console:( Hopefully the render ninjas stop killing adobe. This one looks like it came out right for sure. Thanks to the PATRONS Summary Incredibly packed with content that really does just blossom out the game. So much it was hard to cover. Pretty good performance but there are a couple smaller issues. Also Patrons you might see yourself in the game ;)

[@SmashingSnow]

Good review i'll be picking it up and trying to support you on Patreon

[@Wolfsheim23]

Can't wait to play. XCOM is probably my favorite game. One thing I hope they've improved though; and I actually like XCOM 1 better in this area, the sameyness of every map. They use about 3-4 seeds for all the common maps and you see them over and over and over. The first xcom seems to have so much more variety of locations while every map I see in XCOM ii has the same colors and elements. Also a bunch of buildings that you can never move through without getting spotted instantly. I'd really like to see Firaxis finally fix the Multiplayer too! It has so much potential to be a serious Esport esp among the boardgamegeek population. Just being able to mod it better with match variables would be awesome!

[@Belerian1982]

will wait for the console release .I have xcom 2 on pc and ps4, and to be honest loved it on ps4 more than in pc.. the only thing I miss on ps4 is the mods.

[@Eupolemos]

Is TotalBiscuit a Patreon - I thought I saw his name there :D

[@ACGreviews]

nah but I put a ton of folks in I always do. Him, the guys from the podcast, various patrons, parents. He lasted though. Unlike Rej who sucked the wrong end of an enemy laser rifle

[@skywrecker]

The female assassin is the reason you dont date crazy

[@ACGreviews]

I did and its hot...but scary

[@eg0zb]

Better be a mod for you to date the chosen

[@Phenom98]

I made that mistake... It was fun, but beware!

[@sadom7203]

I finally completed war of the chosen with legendary and ironman active..28 failed campains..this game is brilliant

[@jmh5581]

At 8:00 an XCOM trooper covers his face when his buddy blasts a zombie next to him, this game has some awesome attention to detail

[@ACGreviews]

yep!

[@Roonayy]

Actually they do that whenever a bullet flies close to them, or something explodes nearby, regardless of the intended target.

[@jdpena26]

"..or sponsored bullcrap that will probably be demonitized anyway" lol +1

[@ACGreviews]

indeed

[@toan19812]

Why isn't ACG hitting the 1M subscribers mark yet? He is the only one on KZbin that pumps out the latest video game reviews faster than the rest and that is including big companies like IGN, GameSpot etc.. You have my utmost respect sir!

[@ACGreviews]

its a CONSPIRACY lol. thanks man

[@redwind18o]

Toan Nguyen not only are they faster they are more thorough as well its insane

[@zac8670]

I wonder this, too.

[@JacobLHooper]

Watching this review I asked myself, "Why in the hell have I not played XCOM 2?"

[@popamonkey190]

War of the Chosen DLC feels like a completely different game from the base game. Definitely worth a buy. I recommend this game to anyone who enjoys turned based games!

[@Daniel_C_Griffin]

To be fair it's done by Firaxis and they do this a lot with Civilization too, If you compare Gods and Kings and Brave New World to vanilla Civ V the differences are night and day.

[@kevlar218]

Nice review. One thing I have noticed from watching streams is that they FINALLY fixed the horrendous load times that plagued the base game. It was the one thing I really loathed about the game after playing through three full campaigns. Really happy to see that they took the time to optimize this aspect.

[@Chapperino]

You've got a superb rhythm to your sentences, I really love listening to you. Great review too!

[@enzomolinari5733]

I've had this game on my hard drive for a long time, xcom2 I mean. It's not my favorite genre by far but it's a great game to play when your in the right mood. Looking forward to picking this up. Acg thanks for the review.

[@ACGreviews]

yup

[@EVE101Patt]

one of the few games i really did not regret buying for the full price - neither vanilla xcom2 nor the WoTC expansion

[@garyhoff8341]

I also like how they let you do missions to knock progress off bar, to make up for having to hunt the chosen

[@septima1789]

Oh my god, the Guile haircut's in this game. I don't even need to watch the rest of the review, I need this game just for that.

[@davidriley8316]

Not really a turned based fan, but Ryker's in it. I'm sold. Also, was happy to see an ad (for now at least).

[@ACGreviews]

ya its such a weird game now

[@brianogilby7220]

Giggling Stoner same here.

[@ProGamingProphecy]

Just purchased "XCOM 2 Collectors Edition", its +70GB steam download. Currently priced @$34.99.

[@Quicksilver_Cookie]

One of the most expensive expansions I've seen, and the one that's worth every penny. Pitch perfect game design. Amount and complexity of various systems they've tried to connect with each other is crazy. And they pull it off.

[@braddawson2524]

I laughed, got informed, and will look forward to other videos. I really like his commentary

[@ACGreviews]

thanks

[@Tremain]

Given the variety of customization options for your soldiers this really does feel like GI Joe vs aliens. Welp, that just gave me a great idea for a new character pool.

[@Belgariad87]

amazing review. I feel ready to buy the dlc now. Never change!

[@QrazyQuarian]

"DLC". This is beyond DLC. It's a full-blown expansion, brah.

[@qoohenqoo]

Buy, company I want to fully support and an incredible game as well.

[@ecrowe21]

As usual a stellar review, though I was going to get this DLC regardless as I LOVE Xcom2. But still had to come here and give Karak some KZbin love and then jump over to Patreon where I'm a proud patron of his. But you know what I love about ACG's KZbin page? The community. This has to be the only page on the internets, where there is no hate of the KZbinr or an absurdly angry comment war below the video. Truly, all of Karak's subscribers are some of the nicest people on the tubes. Everyone is always so supportive of the video and author and actually talk about the substance of the video and the comments section isn't plastered with whiny bloviating.

[@Goobid4]

I don't always look for new channels and stuff but damn i hit a gold mine. Sas, pop culture reference like mtg and the charisma is off the charts I just gotta sub

[@ACGreviews]

thanks

[@Goobid4]

ACG you are welcome

[@BodamEscapePlan]

I want to say thank you to @ACG. You are the only person in the game review industry I go to now and it feels really good to be able to trust your game reviewer. So many of my friends base everything off websites like IGN, Gamespot and XboxAchievements/PSTrophies and they just don't get that you could pretty much copy and paste every sentence they use to describe the games they review and they'd all match up. Thank you for doing what you do, ACG and I hope you continue to do it and find even more success. Whenever someone asks me where I go for my reviews, you're my *only* recommendation. Keep it up and happy holidays, my friend.

[@0neChubbyBunny]

"Matilda the cottage cheese faced assassin somersaulting you guys to death left and right" This line was somehow still spoken with grace and a air of intellect. Great video it's a lock from me. Got 200 hours on Xcom time for 200 more now with more cottage cheese.

[@triplehelix3207]

I'm so hyped for the expansion, everything i've heard up to now seems to address most of the issues i've had with the gameplay as well as tap into some of the potential for the story i saw when looking into the concepts behind the game. I've already put over 250 hours into the game and i'm ready to do more

[@Phoeni08]

Great review. I am very happy to be able to support this amazing content. Keep it up!

[@ACGreviews]

thanks!

[@haruntopic239]

You are my favorite reviewer , keep up the good work

[@peterchasten2790]

I bought this game the other day. I had Star Trek TNG playing in the background, This was my train of thoughts for the next few minutes after I don't remember Worf ever mentioning anything about Purifiers or Troi talking about Skirmishers, WAIT......

[@JackyDayt]

Glad to see you in TB's podcast.

[@ACGreviews]

thanks

[@itree4]

Black Friday... Amazon had War of the Chosen 25% off to $29.99. There are mods to disable timers.

[@dragonslayerornstein2834]

That shadows of morder system really fits Strategy games more.

[@parrydigm]

Loved the bit where you went to "sound" and opened up with that minigun. Made me want to buy the damn game right there. A+

[@chadkarruer2572]

Hardest working game reviewer out there, and it shows in your content, this time next year you WILL have close to a mil subs I can feel it! :)

[@Lantern91]

Man i was really waiting for you to appear on cooptional podcast and finally :D:D aawesomeness

[@ACGreviews]

boom!

[@MrRadialdrift]

It is a shame they didn't bother to test out the impacts on game play would have when you kill the Bosses. Once you kill them and obtain their over powered, human like weapons, your squad is over powered and the final parts of the game, which should be the most challenging and the easiest

[@MarioStylez]

One of the best reviews of this game I've ever seen. I lost it when I saw those colorful tophat soldiers :D

[@LiveSounDelopment]

This reminded me of an older review for some reason. Tone of voice, depth of explanation, quickness of delivery and dryness of jokes. Nice Karak.

[@LiveSounDelopment]

Oh and I'm glad you mentioned darkest dungeon. You read my mind.

[@ohmanthatguy2443]

0:11 You are exactly right, there are important questions in the world, such as "I wonder what the male offspring would look like if we genetically engineered one of our nation's most influential presidents with those of Guile (who is the poster boy for Murica and bleeds f yeah sauce), and "sonic boomed" it into Ms. Universe's special lady parts would look like. I think we know now.

[@YorkshireSpud]

Don't think I can justify the price atm. I'll wait for a sale.

[@toom_moot]

Xcom 2 just might be one of my favourites recently. Def gonna pick this up next week. Thanks!

[@tibora13]

"Bake somebodys noodles" JAMAICA QUEENS STAND UP!

[@charliebrewster2809]

Listened to you on the Co-Optional podcast today and felt that you were fantastic. But then again, I'm addicted to the International Podcast as well. Just wanted to drop a comment and congratulate you on your continued (and well deserved) success. Of course, great review as always.

[@Pay2pray]

So if this isnt a separate campaign and I have beaten xcom 2... Should I start a new game for the whole experience here?

[@iPh03n]

Yeah. X-com has always been about replay value. It was just like this in the first one... a kinda great game until the expansion which made it unbelievably great. I bet it will be the same way with this expansion.

[@mitchellboeck]

Definitely.

[@itogo109]

Yes. Especially since there is, supposedly, a new ending to X-Com 2 with the expansion.

[@semitope]

I dont want to do that at all. Might play till divinity original sin 2. But I don't like playing the same campaign over and over.

[@jamesinator100]

Play it through again. This new Expansion is bigger and better than Xcom Enemy Within expansion they did with enemy unknown (2012). There is so much content here in this new expansion.

[@goodguybrian9764]

So happy patreon is going well for you keep up the good work

[@bjalava]

Just saw u On Co-optional podcast with TotalBiscuit. Did not expect that. 👍ACG you are doing an amazing job

[@PanduPoluan]

Love your reviews, sir! You're never afraid to mince words, calling ugly things and yet praising beautiful things. All the reviews you make presented the game in a quite complete way that I know exactly what I'm buying... or what I won't be missing if I don't buy. Carry on! (When my financial situation stabilizes, I promise I'll be a patron. You deserve it!)

[@sirborkington1052]

Love your reviews so much, thank you

[@sormii]

I really love this expansion. There can also be random SITREPs on missions now which add more variables to the soup (like all enemies revealed, unusually high amount of ADVENT or even facelesses). Some of the missions are absolutely bonkers now, especially so when a chosen shows up.

[@niaziumerf]

A refreshing take on how to review. Thorough and entertaining, had me hooked till the very end. Love the references and examples

[@GruntyGame]

Well I've bought this DLC and Shen's gift at the same time so I've given myself an even steeper learning curve. I wonder if the chosen will screw me over on the last Shens gift mission.

[@apj0731]

I am so excited for this game. I have 230hrs on Steam in vanilla.

[@fishy007]

I tried to like this video twice, but it would only let me do it once. Thank you for a low-BS review! It's refreshing to not have to sit through the first 1/3 of a video listening to irrelevant or redundant information. Will check out your other videos!

[@hypolyxa7207]

Hey, Karak. I've been enjoying the shit out of your content for a long time, and I think you know that. To me, you are the sharpest reviewer there is. Totalbiscuit might claim to be the #1 PC critic, I know you cover consoles as well, but he's not even close. I'm trying to get my life sorted after a shit year, when I get a job and a stable everyday then you can count on my support on Patreon. Peace, brother.

[@matthewcharles9813]

Good job. Also, good job on the co-optional podcast.hopefully more people check you out from that. Basically you and total biscuit are who I check with before committing to buying a game. Good luck with future videos.

[@LadyLynxes]

Bonds from fire emblem, traits from darkest dungeon, I can dig it.

[@ecabernet]

Good review, not my type of game, but you do good reviews. I might buy this for my dad, he loves these games.

[@AurioDK]

This game offers perhaps more freedom to the player later on than any other game, you basically decide your difficulty level within the difficulty you chose to start with. Bring 5 psi ops and a reaper for absolute dominance, nothing can really touch you unless you mess things up severely. 1 Reaper and 5 snipers can also do the trick although its only a tiny bit trickier... or do like I do, bring lots of rangers and the templar because its fun to slash stuff and activate pods for the pain.

[@magnuslagergren9328]

I loved the intro to this video! Just wanted to say that, and have a good weekend, and stuff. Greetings from Sweden.

[@tomd7706]

my man... way to review content... it's so hard to find the intelligence and humor in a perfect mix with such a smooth delivery at a great pace so that you're never bored and receive all the info you're looking for... probably going to go buy this now.. thank you >!:0

[@tidusian]

your knowledge of sound design is always so refreshing, albeit surprising :)

[@ACGreviews]

thanks

[@tidusian]

Nah thank you man!

[@kalelson8861]

Bro your vernacular is quite impressive and very amusing thanks for the vid

[@cubanators]

Dude your reviews are awesome

[@chrisf8293]

I love this game. My Templar is a fucking goddess. I got lucky and rolled Reaper, Bladestorm, and Fortress on her all at the same time. She also has the Ghost perk. Took out 16 Advent units (including a Gatekeeper) by herself with no damage. I watched her wipe out waves of The Lost with ease because of Arc Wave. She can also teleport out one of my teammates with Exchange if they get into trouble. And I rolled Sustain on her, so she’s basically immortal. It’s like having a playable boss character with me on missions. I feel bad for the aliens sometimes lol.

[@Cyrus_Bright]

This expansion looks really cool, can't wait to dive back into Xcom2 again! Thanks for the review Karak ^_^

[@aspizak]

Bitter opening about the demonetization. Happy that patreon is helping.

[@spikey556]

and now I understand the high price for what I thought was a small expansion, it's actually quite expansive

[@AdriansCorner]

Great review. The short answer, is yes, this is an expansion you should buy!

[@sebastianmuller7013]

great review i saw a link to you review from a steam link and this is the second time i have seen this

[@thegmork3944]

Great review, thanks!

[@syyndev2161]

Cant wait for this to come out...thanks for another great review

[@jerrytem]

thank you for the review. don't forget to take some rest

[@HAMBUZUNA]

Hey ACG, I was just wondering if you would make an updated review on No Man's Sky since the developers release the new 1.32 patch. A lot of people are saying that it fixed the game. Awesome review btw!

[@ACGreviews]

I dont know if I will ever have time to return to it sorry

[@HAMBUZUNA]

ACG ACG Np, I understand, keep doing what your doing!

[@Necaradan666]

if you already own it, it's worth playing now, for sure. if you don't own it get it on sale, and it'll still be worth playing.

[@TR-ru7wl]

H A M B U Z U N A fyi he made a video on it recently

[@MolitovMichelleX]

Really excited to play this, love Xcom. Also just noticed you did a Podcast with TB, cannot wait to sit down and watch, you both are my fav podcasts. Have a nice weekend Karak, I am off to a cat cafe tomorrow :)

[@alienmothprobe9856]

Sadly I think the PS4 date has been held back until September 12th.

[@ACGreviews]

...really? jezuz

[@nemijs]

FuCk

[@wilddamon2]

For the xbox one as well, pc still comes out on the 29th

[@igorthelight]

7:48 - Protoss Zealots in my game? En taro Tassadar, Commander )))

[@robertosheldon9061]

Dunno when I had this much fun with a game. On legendary ironman your constantly sweating haha. You get very emotional over it. Theres so much shit going on and a lot of encounters seem impossible. And you do take losses too or one of your best soldiers gets just taken by one of the chosen. Its also awesome that the chosen are actually hunting you directly. I guess whats so great is that first the tactical combat is great. You can think an eternity on a move and often times just revealing one more square can trigger 2 other pods. Which makes conceal and scouting in general so great in xcom 2.

[@badejong]

Thank you for this great review.

[@ACGreviews]

you bet

[@adavis5926]

Great video review! I had already preordered this after checking it out a couple of weeks ago, but I just wanted to sate my appetite for the two days of agony I must endure before its release.

[@sanquine293]

This is the funniest review in awhile. Not that they all aren't but the 4th of the july bit broke me.

[@deusvult5405]

just completed WOTC. Amazing. I felt at times, if you were careful enough there wasn't any risk, but that new 'tired' situation really prevented steam rolling like in the vanilla version.

[@sirjoey3137]

I got XCOM 2 for 16 euros on Steam so I feel kinda weird about buying a dlc for 40. Ofc I know the main game is normally like 50-60 euros it just feels weird so I'll probably wait for sale. Very nice review and an amazing amount of sass holy damn.

[@Kakkarot211]

awesome review man!

[@subotaplaya982]

This is old but appreciate the attempt to analyze and add some critique to this one. There is a lot of people not too into tactical games that play or review this and say "its good" and there is the hardcore fanatics that will play anything tactical and are beyond looking at things objectively, then you also have the worthless games journalism industry that is completely unreliable, so you cant get much feedback on a more niche title on this despite so many online sources. Personally, I thought this expansion made the game a little too easy, it's doing a bit too much trying to be more like an rpg which doesnt really fit, while the original Xcom 2 was a lot more tight and compact (though by no means balanced or perfect.) It's also trying too hard to be accessible but unfortunately casual fans would find it way too hard even in it's current state. The Chosen threat is artificial for the most part, they dont even kill your units at ALL (only daze + gather info) which doesn't even make sense when you're at their doorstep in the actual boss fight. They appear impossible to kill but after a few turns will give you a freebie and in the end when you down one of them the reward is substantial, especially once you get one of their weapons the game basically ends because they are beyond broken (more like RPG boss rewards.) The lost would be threatening if they weren't free to kill and since ammo reloading is infinite there is no strategy here, they may as well not be in the game, just time padding and filler. It feels like a modder was directing this and while I agree it fits surprisingly well all things considered, I didn't find my WOTC playthrough as engaging as original Xcom 2 where the threat of being defeated was much more real. A chosen encounter in vanilla Xcom 2 would almost certainly lead to a wipe or at the very least you would have to persevere the attack and wait for them to leave/minimize the damage, in WOTC you pretty much always down them and as your compounded team power escalates you do so with greater ease. In vanilla Xcom 2 the lost would not give you a free turn on hit and would not be as easy to hit, but again they dumb it down and even add an entire mechanic removing any threat or purpose to the lost enemies. Im not even going to say anything for general balance like Reapers being able to move + snipe AND having the best hacking, essentially making the Sharpshooter class obsolete. It's just way too easy coming back to it, especially with experience of playing through Xcom2 and having to learn how to mitigate and minimize risk as well as proper tactics in that game, but at the same time still way too steep of a learning curve for someone playing for the first time especially if they are not big on turn-based or tactical games. And ultimately you cant even play it on Iron Man as intended due to so much RNG factors being added in and the new bugs that all the new stuff introduces without fixing too much of what was already broken.

[@darkbribe777]

i just noticed that your assassin (chosen) name is Khomain, mine is named Ballahdur. Wow does the chosen get random names every time you start a playthrough, thats pretty cool

[@andrewlee3417]

Fuckin love you @ACG! Your openers are oscar worthy in my eyes.

[@thesleepinggiant6457]

Honestly my 2nd favorite DLC of the PS4 generation (Old Hunters being #1...

[@jiffyb333]

Sounds super cool, thanks for the review!

[@moniquelegarda1842]

Definitely getting this. Thanks for the review.

[@w4cky7]

Loved the shit out of the first game, even though I'm bad, it's fun. This is one of the few things I have already preordered. Something to note, the optimization seems to be better with the DLC, the loading screens are faster. At least that's what some others have noticed. Hopefully the glitch with the final mission is fixed lol. One more thing, they also seemed to have incorporated some of the workshop mods that were really popular. Like pressing ALT to view if you will get a flanking shot on a target or not.

[@mazanakaUA]

While watching a LP on youtube I caught myself thinking that I'd like to up the difficulty add,remove and modify too many things.It's probably even possible to make it so.But I don't want to buy "make your own game" package,I want a good,CHALLENGING STRATEGY GAME.So,unless someone mods in the proper AI and remakes/nerfs player skills and remades aiming calculations-not buying this.

[@nikoloy1]

I am gonna wait for a month before I play this. just so that all my 150 total mods get updated and maybe add 50 more

[@ejsteban4867]

Bonding system from Fire Emblem xD Now that you mention it, it DOES work that way. Funny. I like it.

[@catbythemouse5220]

I got the 5K like :D Great review! I love your crazy analogies!

[@austin4rr]

Kickass Karak Review right here

[@PredatorCharlie]

Wow, a early review, pretty rare these days, Firaxis seem very comfortable & confident about this great expansion! A great review, cant wait to play, but sadly I will have to wait 2 more weeks to play it because I pre-ordered on the PSN store. Well, a more polish game is better then throwing it out there all broken!!!

[@RajalXT]

Always the review I go to when looking to buy games. Thanks again for all the great work!

[@CheapQuickKitchenlessKeto]

Great review man. New to your channel. I used to work for IGN and you give a fantastic review. Thanks again.