ThatвЂ™s created a lot of moments for me that make XCOM 2 feel a lot more like an insurgency against a vastly superior force вЂ“ and I find I canвЂ™t complain about the change because it feels much more realistic than having a Skyranger constantly overhead, ready to extract me at any moment. If you need to haul your wounded soldiers back to the Avenger before they bleed out, or complete your objective by stealthing past patrols instead of killing everything in your path, getting out alive can become a harrowing last stand as a timer to extraction ticks down.

Oh, and when you get into trouble like that, calling for extraction is no longer instant. IвЂ™ve lost several squads to being unexpectedly surrounded. You still have a heads up for when theyвЂ™ll deploy, but you have no indication as to where вЂ“ though itвЂ™s generally right behind you at the worst possible time, and with some pretty heavy units. Meanwhile, enemy reinforcements have gotten much, much meaner. ThatвЂ™s a problem with the main game, too, but itвЂ™s often more pronounced here. Rushing in to get a clean shot can just as easily bring another five or six enemies down on your head before youвЂ™re ready for them. In my experience this balance change has been a good one in individual firefights because it reduces the dependency on explosives as a one-size-fits-all solution, though the increased number and size of enemy pods on the map tends to make flanking extremely risky.

And with some often-aggressive turn timers on many of the mission types (including several new ones, like jailbreaks), getting bogged down in a firefight can be the difference between success and failure. That makes it much more difficult to push through entrenched enemies because you have to either bring up some heavier weaponry (such as a Grenadier with an anti-cover upgrade) to blast them out or flank them. Most standard-issue grenades will only damage the enemy hiding behind the object, so theyвЂ™re still good for bombarding a position, but nowhere near as effective at quickly ending a fight. вЂњThe biggest shock to the system in moment-to-moment combat вЂ“ on top of the much greater variety of Advent troop variants and their heavier weaponry вЂ“ is no longer being able to depend on regular grenades to destroy enemy cover.

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