Long War of the Chosen 1.1 is the latest update to the popular Long War mod adapted for XCOM 2: War of the Chosen. This was a great opportunity to try Long War again, only this time to experience it with a myriad of other mods. Encouraged by Christopher Odds new season 8 play-through, I was meticulous in my selection since the recent update incorporates many features of older mods. While not as extreme as other players, this is the most mods I have played with, and I’m happy to report everything worked.

LWotC is different from Long War for the original XCOM: Enemy Unknown / (Enemy Within). Because the game’s lore shifts focus with you being a Resistance movement instead of a global military force, and because you now have Rebel Havens to manage, your gameplay loop goes something like this:

1) Equip fighters and organize them into squads

2) Send your squads to “infiltrate” select missions

3) Begin combat once infiltration completes

4) Use Intel and Supplies to upgrade your base & equipment

5) Manage Havens to gather supplies, intel, new recruits or go into hiding

In addition, you need to focus your attention on eliminating The Chosen, contacting new territories, operating covert missions and keeping the Avatar project from completing. This game really lives up to the name “Long War”. What really stood out to me with the new 1.1 patch was the variety and enormous number of enemies I encountered. I faced over 100 unique Advent and Alien units, including a Chryssalid Hive Queen, which was originally introduced in a separate mod called The Hive. Talk about terrifying!

Unlike the first Long War, where I said in my review how that mod really made the game feel like the ultimate form of XCOM, LWotC is not an evolution but rather an alternative. It massively overhauls the game with new soldier classes, perk trees, equipment stats, mission types, pod encounters, etc. But really only adds one new mechanic in the form of Havens. So it really comes down to how you want to play…the War of the Chosen expansion already completes XCOM 2 while the modding community continually adds to the game.

The choice is yours, Commander.

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<< Original Review >>

XCOM 2 improved on the foundation of what made this new XCOM special.
XCOM 2: War of the Chosen & Tactical Legacy expansions finally complete the franchise, making this one of the best (if not 'the' best) tactical turn-based strategy games I have ever played. It's not surprising to see many similar games adapting XCOM's style of gameplay and mechanics. When reviews and articles compare them to XCOM, that alone should tell you how successful / influential this game has become.

On its own, XCOM 2 is simply an improved or expanded version of XCOM, building on what made the first one work and adding more "features". Whether you love or hate it, what really sells this game for many fans are the MODS. So many Mods, there's practially a Mod for every mechanic and cosmetic in the game. So even if you finish the game, or never felt like it managed to reach it's true potential, you can bet the Modding community has you covered with more than enough content to play for many more hours - at least until XCOM 3.

Back in 1990, an arcade action shooter called Smash TV[en.wikipedia.org] was released. It was set in a futuristic dystopian reality game show where contestants fought their way through stages, killing opponents and winning fame & fortune in order to reach the final confrontation against the show’s host. Fast forward 33 years later….Polish development studio Artificer have updated this concept drawing inspiration from sci-fi classics like Blade Runner (1982), Robocop (1987), The Running Man (1987), Escape from L.A. (1996), Dredd (2012), and crafted a beautifully disturbing world for players to survive a maze of booby-traps, ambushes, sinister puzzles and deadly arenas in a turn-based strategy game like no other.

Showgunners is a very straight forward, narrative driven game. While it doesn’t offer anything innovative, it takes the familiar mechanics of the genre, strips down the complex strategy layer, and focuses on pure tactical fun. The name of the game is “Homicidal All-Stars”, so you’ve got to kill your way through this cyberpunk landscape controlled by a twisted show host of a Mega-Corporation. Playing as the main character of Scarlett, you slowly gain allies to help you with each progressively difficult encounter, offering more variety and choices to combat different scenarios. Surviving gains you fame and money, both currencies used in procuring increasingly more powerful weapons and gear, as well as choosing different sponsors for additional perks. While there is a character skill tree to unlock abilities, it’s not designed to “build” a particular skill-set since each character is unique and all skills become available when you reach max level.

Every engagement requires strategic planning since enemies have unique abilities and vulnerabilities, in addition to the constant level changes the show host throws at you to “entertain” the audience. These environmental assaults make the game more challenging. Cinematic displays of carnage also elevate the brutality of the game show’s appeal giving the player a detailed view of gory fatalities. However, what really brings the immersion to life is the meticulous hand-crafted design of every level from the lighting, the placement of spectators, location of traps/ambushes/puzzles, the gruesome remains of past contestants, and the blatant commercial advertisements. Combined with a headbanging electro-synth metal soundtrack and excellent voice acting, Showgunners checks all the right boxes for a thrilling tactical strategy game.

Veteran players of this genre will find much to love here, but I do recognize certain features which might vex some people.

For starters, you cannot tilt the camera. While you can rotate and zoom, it is fixed at a much higher angle than most other games, to accommodate for the close-quarter design of combat and exploration. There is an option to automatically adjust camera view near the borders, but really doesn’t help much.

Another issue has to do with the cover mechanics. While hiding behind full/half cover does mitigate weapon accuracy, it doesn’t seem to have much affect. When both you and enemy snipers can kill one another through full cover, you have to ask, “what’s the point?” This is why smoke cover is so much more useful.

Aside from a few DLC skins, there is no character customization, since this game was designed as a narrative story (from Scarlett’s point of view). Future installments or DLC might incorporate a customization feature, but we’ll just have to wait and see.

Even with these grievances, Showgunners is a “must have” for any serious gamer.