XCOM 2: War of the Chosen

War of the Chosen is not a standalone game but an expansion to XCOM 2, and you should treat the bundle as the only way to play XCOM 2 in the current era. Firaxis did not release a polite DLC with a few extra maps here. They rebuilt the campaign structure around three persistent Chosen enemies who hunt your soldiers across multiple missions, added three new hero classes through resistance factions, introduced soldier bonds, fatigue mechanics, and a whole layer of strategic decisions around managing relationships between the Reapers, Skirmishers, and Templars. The result is a strategy game that forces you to think about your roster the way a real commander would, not just as a set of damage-per-turn numbers. The tactical layer is where most players live, and the additions here are substantial. The Chosen show up mid-mission with unique ability sets that evolve based on what intelligence your faction allies gather. A Chosen that survives encounters gets stronger, so ignoring faction intel work on the strategy layer creates compounding tactical problems later. That feedback loop between the world map and the ground game is tighter than almost any other turn-based strategy release. The new hero units each play very differently: Reapers operate as fragile scouts with near-invisible positioning tools, Skirmishers are aggressive brawlers with a grapple and extra actions, and Templars are psionic melee fighters who build focus charges for escalating attacks. None of them replace your core XCOM classes but they add genuine build variety to late-game squads. For newcomers, the honest word is that this is a demanding game that respects the difficulty of learning its systems, rather than hand-holding you through them. The tutorial covers the fundamentals, but the strategic layer takes several campaigns to fully internalize. The good news is that the difficulty sliders are granular enough to let you dial back ironman consequences while you learn, and the PC mod ecosystem is exceptional. Long War of the Chosen (a community mod) extends the campaign into something close to a second full game, and the base game's workshop support means quality-of-life mods like better AI pathing and UI improvements are one click away. If you commit to learning the systems rather than fighting them, a 40-hour first campaign turns into 200 hours across multiple playthroughs without the loop feeling repetitive. What does not work as cleanly is performance. The expansion adds enough actors and systems that older hardware can struggle, particularly late-campaign when Chosen appear alongside Lost zombie hordes and faction soldiers in the same mission. The AI is generally solid but shows cracks in how it handles simultaneous faction enemies on larger maps. And the fatigue system, while thematically interesting, creates roster management pressure that some players find more annoying than engaging, especially when a key soldier sits benched before a critical mission with no good substitute available. Bottom line: this expansion raised the mechanical ceiling of an already strong strategy game to something that will absorb serious hours from anyone who likes crunchy decisions with meaningful consequences. The 83 percent positive Steam rating across thousands of reviews reflects a game that delivered on an ambitious redesign. Play on PC where the mod support keeps the experience fresh, and do not skip the faction storylines even if the cutscenes feel long on a second run.

Diego · Scout Team

Strategy & simulation

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