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PaperclipPerfector  5d ago (text post)   1905 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for September 4, 2026

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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Grats on the clear! Classic Ironman is no joke, I assume the same is true for Commander Ironman in XCOM 2. I've tried a classic Ironman run in the first game, which came to an unceremonious end in the Newfoundland mission. I knew it to be an infamous mission but hadn't played it before, so I brought my A team... which got wiped out. This kills the campaign.

Overall I think XCOM 2 is neat, but not as good as the first game. I think the theme is a lot less interesting, and I dislike the constant pressure it puts on the player, especially at the strategic layer. And I might be unusual in this, but I actually thought the end of the story in the first game was really interesting and was looking forward to seeing where they went with it... but then they abandoned it. I don't hate XCOM 2 or anything, but EU is imo the better of the two overall.

The Newfoundland one is the one in Enemy Within with the Chrysalid infestation right? I beat Enemy Within on Classic difficulty, albeit without Ironman enabled.

I do think that the first game is a purer, cleaner, less cluttered experience. While some of the new mechanics introduced in the sequel were interesting, a lot of them (e.g. the special ammunition that causes damage over time) didn't add much. I also really liked the ending in the first game in how the aliens steadily rolling out progressively more powerful enemies over time is designed to force humanity to grow and become stronger and smarter. It was a clever way of providing a believable in-universe justification for what first appeared to be a stock video game trope. Then XCOM 2 uses the exact same stock video game trope, with only the flimsiest handwave of an in-universe justification. That part at least certainly felt like a step backwards. In terms of the characters, I preferred Bradford's portrayal in the second game, but Vahlen and Shen in the first game were more likeable and timeless than their equivalents in the sequel. Shen Jr., in particular, just screams "focus-grouped 2010s androgynous girlboss character", and her presence will date the game terribly.

Yep, that's the one. It's brutal. I've read that if you know how the mechanics of the mission work it's not too bad, but going into it blind on an Ironman playthrough went very poorly indeed.

Yeah. Basically you want to keep your Sniper(s) as close to the mission exit as you can before entering the ship, but still within sight of it. Everyone else stays next to the ship without actually entering. The only soldier who actually enters the ship is an Assault, who can high-tail it out of there once they discover what's onboard. Then it's just a matter of legging it to the mission exit, ideally using both actions to move (but using the second one to kill any Chrysalids who get too close, if necessary) while your Sniper(s) pick them off from a distance. By the time you're within sight of the mission exit, there shouldn't even be any Chrysalids left within your cone of vision.

But hindsight is 20/20: the first time I played this mission it did not go smoothly. Even the description above may not be entirely accurate: I'd forgotten you have to activate the transponder aboard the ship before the countdown starts.

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