Got to listen to this so much during my Long War 1 playthrough... Some of the greatest hours of gaming in my entire life can be found in the 170-ish hours of that campaign
The loadout screens in XCOM, XCOM 2 and Midnight Suns are my favourite part of those games and that's not meant as a slight, they're just THAT friggin cool. https://youtu.be/YoN0XYJ4xC8?si=2omF9ktsWjWXtCgw
*wistful sigh* There's been so many XCOM-likes, but none have ever quite captured the magic for me of XCOM 1 and 2 (especially 2). Maybe because other games in the genre are more focused and curated... more puzzle game than crazy chaos engines.
I just finished a War of the Chosen campaign a couple of weeks ago. If you've never played 2 with the DLC installed, it adds SO much. It's like a whole new game.
It brings me a special joy to know Josh Sawyer is also a fan of XCOM. I have an absurd amount of hours in FNV and both Firaxis XCOM games. It remains true that the people who make great games also enjoy great games.
The other day I thought I YT autoplay stumbled onto a remix of an XCOM theme but discovered it was from a Chinese mobile game collab promotional event for a Tarkov-like
The GFL themes are so good which adds to a whiplash from gacha mechanics of hehe cute gun girls and the plot is: “In 2035, after the Northern Lights Incident[1], the EU chose to violently invade Africa, leading to East Germany rebelling, the neo-Soviet Union backing them, and WWIII[3]”
I think a lot of modern Xcom kinda missed for me with its soundtracks up till the legacy soundtrack they later did for 2... but they still never missed with the squad setup screen music.
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But yes, it is a brilliant game in its blend of customization, depth and difficulty.
The game is unfair, so it teaches you to be unfair back. Which fits the whole guerilla warfare thing.
https://youtu.be/rGBFv2yDzOU
https://youtu.be/JhfUBtbEwVU?si=bSROhDt6Z6D6EStD