XCOM: War Interminable is my documented playthrough of XCOM: Enemy Within, using the XCOM: Long War mod. Although documentation for the first couple months doesn't exist, I'll try to keep more detailed mission accounts here on this blog.
What is XCOM?
XCOM, more properly known as XCOM: Enemy Unknown, is a base management simulator in which you are the commander of XCOM - a top-secret international military organization established to fight off an alien invasion against which there appears to be no defense. In XCOM: Enemy Unknown, you send squads of troops on missions to eliminate alien aggressors, rescue civilians and VIPs, and recover alien artifacts for study, you research alien technology in order to develop better weapons, armor, and other equipment for your troops and aircraft, you attempt to shoot down UFOs with interceptor aircraft from hidden bases around the world, and you work to keep the members of the Council of Nations (that XCOM works for) content enough that they will not leave the Council and hopelessly attempt to fight the aliens on their own.
What is XCOM: Enemy Within?
XCOM: Enemy Within is an expansion for XCOM: Enemy Unknown that adds a third faction, the enigmatic global organization of alien sympathizers known as EXALT, a number of under-the-hood tweaks and fixes, and two new avenues of upgrading your troops - gene mods that give them access to several alien abilities and other all-around good perks, and MEC Troopers, who wear enormous suits of powered armor and bring even more potent weapons to the battlefield. The aliens, of course, maintain their edge by adding two new unit types - the stealthy, often invisible Wraiths, and the mighty Mechtoids, the aliens' formidable answer to XCOM's MEC Troopers.
What is XCOM: Long War?
XCOM: Long War is a community-developed mod for XCOM: Enemy Within that overhauls practically everything about the game. An incomplete list of the changes includes:
- Double the number of operative classes. Assaults also branch off into Infantry, Heavies split their roles into Gunner and Rocketeer, Snipers also branch away into Scouts, and Supports split into Engineers and Medics. Furthermore, every class has a corresponding MEC Trooper class, for a total of 16 classes in the game.
- Vastly expanded equipment options. Right out of the gate, you get flashbangs, smoke grenades, medkits, battle scanners, needle grenades (renamed AP grenades for their anti-personnel role), laser sights for an early aim assist, ceramic plating for survivability options, two different suits of armor (the standard armor and a flak vest for improved mobility), and a vastly expanded arsenal of ballistic weapons: two pistols, regular and a machine pistol (with the option to build sawn-off shotguns for free); four rifles (SMG, assault carbine, assault rifle, and the heavier battle rifle); a shotgun; two sniper rifles, regular and a lighter Marksman's Rifle for mobility; and two machine guns, the SAW (previously named the LMG) and the LMG, a much heavier weapon for static firebase support. Rocketeers get to take an additional standard and/or shredder rocket as a small item.
- There are now five weapon types: Ballistic, Beam Laser, Gauss, Pulse Laser, and Plasma. Gauss weapons penetrate armor better than any other class, and Pulse Lasers are simply more powerful Beam Lasers. Plasma weapons each have a special ability that varies depending on the weapon. All five weapon types have an analogue for every Ballistic weapon except for sawn-off shotgun.
- MEC Suits and SHIVs are much more customizable than before, and have access to all five weapon types. Jetboots and Distortion Fields are integrated components in some MEC Suit types, and it is possible to equip a high-tier MEC Suit with three grenade launchers, or two flamethrowers and a Kinetic Strike Module.
- There are also rare items, like the Illuminator Gunsight, which cannot be reverse-engineered and can only be acquired under certain circumstances.
- Items can be broken by the injury or death of an operative, requiring them to be sent to the Repair Bay to be fixed.
- Expanded air game. Interceptors gain experience from shooting down UFOs, can be renamed, have access to all five weapon types, and have a plethora of Foundry upgrades available. Up to six interceptors can be stationed on every continent, which you'll need as the aliens' air game is aggressive and unrelenting - it is not uncommon to see two or more UFOs in the sky at the same time. UFOs can occasionally be shot down for a cash and resource bounty instead of a UFO Crash mission.
- A completely reworked AI. The aliens no longer follow a script on the strategic level, but instead have their own strategic-level game they play against you - you can tell how far ahead of you they are by how much Meld you recover from canisters in missions. The mission AI is smarter, and all alien unit classes upgrade as the game progresses - even Sectoids become fearsome opponents in the midgame.
- Repeating non-unique missions. The Base Assault, Base Defense, and Overseer Intercept and Overseer Crash missions are no longer one-time events. In fact, Base Assaults are only possible in countries that have left the XCOM Project, the successful completion of which will cause them to rejoin the Council. Losing the Base Defense mission is not an automatic defeat, but will cost you in resources, facilities, equipment, and personnel. You also get to choose and equip a 12-man squad for the Base Defense, although few of them will arrive on the map and those who do are randomly selected from the squad. Also, the game does not end in failure unless all Council nations abandon the XCOM Project, and the Doom Tracker has been expanded to reflect this.
- Increased number of available troops on missions. In Long War, you start with room for 6 operatives in the Skyranger, with the option for two more. The Super Skyranger Foundry project allows this to be increased to 10 for Base Assaults, and 12 for the Temple Ship Assault.
- New Second Wave options. Red Fog now applies to aliens as well, Dynamic War brings the game length down to roughly Marathon-level, Itchy Trigger Tentacle causes alien pods to shoot back instead of flee to cover when activated, United Humanity removes EXALT as a faction, although EXALT Operatives and Elite Operatives can still appear on missions along with alien pods. Obviously an incomplete list.
- Expanded start location options. When selecting the location for your base, you get at least one option for each country, each of which has its own bonus for selection (except for "On Our Own," which provides no bonus) in addition to the Continental bonus (which is not guaranteed for your starting continent). Council mission maps are now included in the Abduction and Terror maps, as well as some modified UFO Crash maps. All maps have multiple starting locations for deployment, which are randomly selected when the mission begins.
- Expanded research and Foundry projects. Includes aircraft and MEC/SHIV buffs, UFO analysis projects, and research projects that enable early access to psionic powers.
- Overhauled rank system. All operatives are enlisted/non-commissioned officers, going from Private First Class to Specialist, Lance Corporal, Corporal, Sergeant, Technical Sergeant, Gunnery Sergeant, and finally Master Sergeant. The medals system has been repurposed to grant officer commissions, from Lieutenant, to Captain, Major, Colonel, and Field Commander. Officer Training School now only offers squad size and officer commission upgrades. Officers gain a new special ability, Order, which allows any single unit within range to immediately take a yellow move-equivalent action. Order has a limited number of charges per mission, as well as a lengthy cooldown between uses. Officers cannot become psychic or MEC troopers.
Currently, doing Let's Play videos is beyond my capability. The computer I am currently using is unable to run both XCOM and system recording software at the same time at an acceptable quality. Perhaps this will change if I can pull together enough money to build a proper gaming PC, but until then I can really only do screenshot runs.
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