Straight up, we at X35 Earthwalker have to declare that XCOM 2: War of the Chosen is awesome. It is without a doubt a successful DLC which is worth buying and trying for yourself. It just has to be said from the start. Let’s see why.

Don’t let the introduction fool you as the tutorial and opening story line is pretty much the same except for a cutscene which shows, a person dressed very differently, sneak into an Advent facility and locate the location of the commander. Other from that it iOS all the same but afterwards you will encounter new cutscenes which reveal a lot. You will be introduced to two new factions: Reapers and Skirmishers. Both are very different in appearance, back story, abilities and combat styles. Read our previous blog on XCOM 2: War of the Chosen for more information. Make sure to master using these two factions as they are a real force beside your regular XCOM soldiers.

Players will notice a small green meter below the health of their soldiers. This bar represents your soldiers level of tiredness. If a soldier is used in missions in a row, they will start to get tired and will require rest eventually before getting used again. So take tiredness into account. The next thing is soldier bonding. Now soldiers who work well together can eventually build a bond which starts at level 1 and can be increased through going on missions together and special facilities which you can build. The bond grants the soldiers with special abilities to use on the field. Lastly there is a intelligence level. Now this is random for each soldier. Some have average intelligence, above average, and genius. The higher the intelligence the more options of abilities they have the opportunity to learn through using action points (AP). Abilities that are not normally for that class.

The new enemy faction, ‘The Lost’, are an excellent addition to the game.You can’t fight them the same way you fight Advent. You forget about cover and instead just get as many of them in sight as possible and create as much safe distance as possible. The Lost are so weak that they normally have 2 or 3 health (few have 4) meaning you can one shot them. if you do one shot one of them, then you get a free action, which is awesome. Thank goodness they have that mechanic in place. This is because they apple in swarms. You might even get 8 coming after you at one time. Worse (or at times better) the Lost might show up while you are fighting Advent which means they could swarm you and make life hard but on the good side they may come for advent instead making your fight easier.

The worst and probably best addition of XCOM 2: War of the Chosen has to be the Chosen themselves. The three powerful aliens that just don’t stay dead and relentlessly chase and hunt you down. The sniper one, the slashing one and the psionic one are all very powerful, got good health and command fear and attention on the battlefield. They can hang out in certain (identified) parts of the globe and if you do a mission in that area, there is a chance that they can show up and believe us when we say, you do not want that. When X35 Earthwalker himself encountered the assassin it was a problem. The assassin (Day-Mai Dessurik) came out of no where and slashed one soldier knocking them into a daze and then ran of safely into cover. X35 had to corner her and deliver the final blow. It wasn’t easy.

As you play, you will notice all the new things like knew enemy units, new maps, new interface screens for talking characters and more. There is even special missions for your soldiers and your ally factions to two together. Your soldiers will be unavailable for the period of the mission but it can be worth it. Seriously though, this DLC is excellent. Check it out for yourself before buying to see if you would be interested. Now what we can guarantee is interesting is… the ‘Earth Walk!’

For more information check out the link below:

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XCOM 2: War of the Chosen is getting closer but as it’s getting closer more information is being released. More information about the enemies. Believe us when we say, things are getting completely real.

XCOM 2: War of the Chosen not only has the Chosen who are coming after us. The Assassin, Warlock and Hunter. Powerful well trained prideful beings who keep coming after you and can kidnap your soldiers. Sure they are the biggest threat but there are some new faction enemies that are more than happy to give us a fight for the planet. 

The ‘Lost’ are the result of the aliens bioweapons and bombardments. So yes they were once humans but now just husks. Their bodies are fragile meaning they aren’t a problem really but when they are in large numbers that’s when things get real. They pretty much rule the abandoned cities. They are attracted to loud nosies meaning when you are busy fighting aliens and you maybe use a grenade or whatever, the Lost may show up. The worst things about these guys is that they will swarm you continuously. They just keep coming. You can’t hold them off forever, they will eventually get you, so make sure to move on and retreat. Sounds frightening honestly. This enemy is a really game changer. You can use them to attack the enemy or they will ruin everything for you.

The Priest carry regular weapons like the magnetic rifles but their main threat is simply their psionic powers. They can use stasis on units, mind control enemy units and even somehow shield and heal themselves when they have taken heavy damage. They can use ‘Holy Warrior’, which is similar to what the sectoids in XCOM 1 could do, where they merge minds and one boosts the stats of the other. This also has the same weakness as well meaning if you can kill the Priest then the boosted unit will die as well. Do not forget that. It’s already clear that the Priests are going to be a huge problem. Mind control is pretty much the worst thing.

The Purifiers are the most straight forward and simple of the new factions. Their job is to clean up the Lost and any civilian retaliations. How do they do that? Well they use their flamethrowers off course. These guys specialise in dealing low but continuous damage in a wide area. It gets worse. They can throw incendiary grenades. Lastly when they die, there is a chance that they will explode. So when dealing with these guys make sure to not be grouped up together and take them out from a distance. We are loving the variety so far.

The Spectre can turn into a black nanorobotic cloud at will meaning it can disappear. It’s ‘Shadowbind’ ability can lock soldiers in place. It gets worse. It then creates a shadow version that have the same skills as the soldier it locked in place. The Spectre can also use the ‘Horror’ ability which damages the enemy but heals itself. Sadly they automatically have the ‘Lightning reflexes’ ability which means the first overwatch shot ALWAYS misses. The Spectre is already getting on our nerves.

So these are four new factions with three being advent units while the Lost are natural enemies that will attack anyone. Everything so far about XCOM 2: War of the Chosen sounds awesome. We at X35 Earthwalker are looking forward to this. Some are looking forward to this game but everyone is looking forward to… the ‘Earth Walk!’

For more information check out the link below:

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We know a lot about XCOM 2: War of the Chosen. What’s really interesting is the whole new units coming to the action on both the enemies side and our side. So lets check them out because they really are something to be excited about.

On the side of the Chosen:

The Assassin is a stealth based unit who is a master of the katana and prefers close range combat. The assassin is prideful and see humanity as below her. It is said that she has unmatched skills in combat. She can kidnap your soldiers which if any has played XCOM 2 knows that is a huge problem. She can get stronger over the campaign and if you aren’t careful sabotage the Avenger (your ship). She can even taunt you. She’s got character hasn’t she. She can vanish from sight and stun/disorientate groups of soldiers with ‘Harbor wave from a distance. The Assassin will gain your instant attention. Remember that she will pretty much rush you down and put her trusty Katana to work.

The Warlock has been described as the most arrogant and said to have gotten too much from the psionic well of power also making him mentally unstable. This doesn’t sound good at all. He even goes so far to believe that he is a god and greater than the elders that made him. He is normally armed with an assault rifle but  he uses a wide range of psionic powers on the battlefield. He can afllict enemy soldiers with madness which leads to a variety of status effects. He can summon back up who can use strong melee attacks, while these guys are out he is invulnerable to harm (OP much?). Can teleport his troops around the field and can even rise up zombies who can explode. I already hate the Warlock.

The Hunter has a very different style. The Hunter is a unit who fights from a distance and stalks it’s prey, even from across the map. The Hunter just loves to disable and wound enemy soldiers then when the time is right, deliver the final blow. The more XCOM soldiers dies, the more cocky and confident the Hunter gets, which can lead to it making mistakes. The Hunter has a grappling hook to get to certain places. A tracking shot which let’s it know where that tracked enemy is at all times. They have concussion grenades and tranquilizer shots. He can also like the others, capture your soldiers to interrogate them and get sensitive information out of them like the location of your ship. Just remember that when you see the laser sighting beam, get out of the way.

On the side of the resistance

The Reapers normally kept to themselves and live on the fringes of socity, sort of like outcasts. They have battling the ADVENT for years. They are now willing to work with XCOM to take on the alien enemies. Reapers troops are more stealth and infiltration units, mainly because of their ‘shadow’ mode ability. This mode grants them concealment and has greater mobility options that a normal XCOM troop. Each action you take like moving, throwing something or firing has a chance of keeping the concealment but you get to see the chances of your action keeping concealment before making them. The reapers have a Vektor rifle and incendiary claymore explosive which can be attached to even a live enemy.

The Templars are a monastic lot of soldiers who are all about pushing their minds and bodies with psionic energy to the maximum limit. Sounds exciting but dangerous. The Templars are lead by one of the original psionic soldiers, “Geist”. They hid away after the fall of the XCOM project. They experimented on themselves and even developed weapons that use their psionic powers. They have psionic blades, their abilities are triggered through the use of Focus which builds up over the course of combat. They can boost their own damage and mobility. So what will you use your Focus for? Unleash power psionic abilities or boost combat effectiveness.

The skirmishers are all former ADVENT soldiers who have decided to go against their former leaders. The Skirmisher is all about offense. They can kill anything regardless of what’s going on. They have grapple hooks that not only allow for greater mobility but can use it to fly towards enemies or pull them towards him. Once close Skirmishers can use their wrist-mounted ripjack to deliver a real stab. They certainly love their bullpup SMG which when trained with can attack twice with it. They are capable of learning how to take extra actions without ending their turn like ‘Reflex’ which grants extra actions for each enemy that fired at the Skirmisher. Skirmisher is all about the damage.

As you can see, XCOM 2 is bringing a bunch of new things. The units of the chosen and the units of the resistance are very exciting. We at X35 Earthwalker are looking forward to the release of XCOM 2: War of the Chosen.

For more information check out the link below:

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XCOM 2 is the greatest turn based strategy game, we at X35 Earthwalker, have ever played. The amount of options you have to deal with a situation, the different amount of enemies and the problems they bring, the different weapons and equipment that you have to buy and equip wisely is just deep and done very well. Off course XCOM 2 wasn’t perfect but man was it very good.

Good news for all XCOM fans. A new DLC is coming out and it’s a large one. Almost like a whole game. It’s called XCOM 2: War of the Chosen. It will come out 29th of August for Xbox One, PS4 and PC. This DLC adds whole new content to the game. The fight against the advent continues so new factions of the resistance form together to take down the enemy. That’s right we have whole new allies and units to back us up; however a new enemy called the ‘Chosen’ show up and they have one goal in mind: recapture the commander. So XCOM 2: War of the Chosen has new hero classes, new enemies, new environments, new missions and gives the strategic level of XCOM 2 another layer. 

The Chosen are the most smart and dangerous enemy we have ever faced. They are sent by the elders to carry out this recapture mission. They are well organised and got different units to give them every advantage they can get. The three units that have been revealed are Assassins, Warlocks and Hunter.

The resistance factions bring new things for us. These new factions have their own background and story behind them. They all look clearly different from each other and have completely different abilities and strengths. The three new factions that have been revealed are Reaper, Skirmisher and Templar.

If having to face the Chosen wasn’t bad enough we also have whole new enemies who are more than willing to take us on. We haven’t been given much information on the new enemies but we do know their names. There is the Priest, Purifier, Spectre and ‘The Lost’. They also look real cool and very distinguishable from each other.

There are whole new environments in this DLC as well. Expect to have tactical battles in such environments like xenoformed wilderness regions, cities abandoned because they were destroyed by aliens bio weapons and even underground tunnels. Hope you guys aren’t scared of the dark.

There is much more, we learnt that even your scientists and engineers can get involved in the action. They can be deployed on covert missions that if they complete successfully, will reward you with supplies and boost faction favour. Your soldiers interact with each other to some extent. The website explains that your “soldiers can develop bonds with compatible teammates for new abilities and perks.”  You can even create and design your own resistance posters that you can share with your friend in-game. 

Overall this DLC looks amazing right now. It is deep and rich with content. It’s bringing whole new environments, enemies and resistance units shaking up the game to some extent. This is a whole new campaign as well with new strategic layers. We will reveal more concerning the units in another blog. This DLC is definitely worth checking out. You may not like the Chosen but you will like… the ‘Earth Walk!’.

For more information check out the link below:

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