If you’ve played base XCOM 2, you know the rhythm. You drop in, you miss a 95% shot, your favorite ranger gets crit through full cover, and you contemplate throwing your mouse across the room. It’s a great game, honestly. But when Firaxis dropped XCOM 2: War of the Chosen, they didn't just add a few maps or some new guns. They basically performed open-heart surgery on the game's core loop. It’s messy, loud, and occasionally overwhelming, yet it’s exactly why people are still modding and playing this thing years after release.
The expansion introduces so many overlapping systems that it feels like three DLCs wearing a trench coat. You’ve got the Chosen—three persistent jerks who haunt your missions and talk trash—plus the Resistance factions, the Lost, and a bond system that makes you actually care when Private "Deadbeat" Jenkins bites it. It's a lot.
The Chosen are the Best Kind of Annoying
Most strategy games give you a big bad who sits in a fortress until the final mission. Not here. The Assassin, the Hunter, and the Warlock are procedurally generated headaches that show up when you least want them.
They have personalities. Well, sort of. They have traits, which is what actually matters. One might be immune to melee, while another takes extra damage from explosions. Because these traits are randomized every playthrough, your strategy has to pivot. You can’t just rely on the same "overwatch and pray" tactic you used in the 2012 reboot. The Assassin is particularly brutal early on because she cloaks, runs up, stabs your medic, and then vanishes. It feels unfair. It is unfair. But that’s XCOM.
Jake Solomon, the creative director, has often talked about how the goal was to create a "nemesis" system similar to what we saw in Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor. It works. When you finally track down a Chosen's stronghold and put them down for good, it’s not just a mission completion. It’s personal. You’re doing it because that Warlock mind-controlled your sniper three missions ago and made him grenade his own team.
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The Lost: A Third-Party Nightmare
Then there are the Lost. These are basically zombies, but XCOM-flavored. They show up in abandoned cities, attracted by the sound of explosions.
Here’s the thing: they aren’t just enemies for you. They’re enemies for the aliens, too. There is nothing quite like the chaotic joy of throwing a claymore at a group of ADVENT soldiers, not to kill them, but just to make enough noise that fifty zombies swarm their position. It changes the math of every encounter. Suddenly, using a grenade is a tactical risk. Do you finish off the Muton now, or do you save your ammo because there’s a literal tide of grey flesh screaming toward you from the fog of war?
The "Headshot" mechanic—where killing a Lost unit with a standard shot refunds your action point—makes your soldiers feel like action heroes. Until you run out of ammo. Then the panic sets in.
Breaking the Meta with Resistance Factions
In the base game, your soldiers were mostly blank slates. In XCOM 2: War of the Chosen, you get the Reapers, the Skirmishers, and the Templars. These guys are broken. Seriously.
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- Reapers are the masters of stealth. Their "Shadow" mode is way better than standard concealment. A high-level Reaper can stay hidden while blowing up half the map.
- Skirmishers are former ADVENT hybrids. They have a grappling hook and can shoot twice in one turn. They are all about action economy and repositioning.
- Templars are the weird ones. They use psionic blades and build up "Focus." They’re basically Jedi in a world of plasma rifles.
These factions don’t just give you cool units; they provide Resistance Orders. These are powerful buffs you slot in at the end of each month. One might make it so the mission timer doesn't start until you're revealed. Another might instantly kill any Lost you hit. It’s the game’s way of letting you fight back against the skyrocketing difficulty.
The Fatigue Problem is Actually a Solution
One common complaint from new players is the fatigue system. Your soldiers get tired. If you send them out too often, they develop phobias or "shaken" statuses. You might have a soldier who develops a fear of Sectoids, causing them to panic whenever a big-headed alien shows up.
It sounds like a chore, but it actually solves the "A-Team" problem. In the original game, you’d pick six gods and use them for every single mission. Everyone else sat on the bench. In War of the Chosen, you’re forced to rotate your roster. You end up with a deep bench of veterans rather than a handful of superstars and a bunch of rookies who can’t hit the broad side of a barn. It makes the world feel lived-in. Your soldiers form bonds, which gives them extra actions when they stand near each other. It’s a small touch that adds a layer of emergent storytelling that most strategy games miss.
Performance and the "Photobooth"
Let’s be real: XCOM 2 ran like a potato at launch. The load times were legendary for all the wrong reasons. War of the Chosen actually fixed a lot of the underlying engine issues. The load times are significantly snappier, even though there’s way more happening on screen.
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And then there's the photobooth. After a mission, you can make propaganda posters of your squad. It sounds silly. It is silly. But after a grueling mission where three people almost died, spending five minutes making a "Wish You Were Here" poster with your bloodied soldiers in the background is strangely cathartic. It’s these human touches that make the "War of the Chosen" feel like a war, rather than just a series of math problems.
Dealing with the Avatar Project
The Avatar Project—the "doom clock" that ends the game—is still there, but you have so many more ways to deal with it now. You can send soldiers on Covert Actions to reduce its progress. You don't have to rush toward the story missions quite as desperately. This gives you breathing room to actually enjoy the new mechanics.
However, the game is harder. The Chosen will sabotage your ship. They will kidnap your soldiers. They will mock you from the corner of the screen while you're trying to figure out how to save your favorite grenadier. It’s a frantic, stressful, brilliant mess of a game.
Actionable Advice for Your Next Run
If you're diving back in or playing for the first time, keep these specific strategies in mind to avoid a total squad wipe:
- Rush the Resistance Ring: Build this facility first. Covert actions are the only way to get more faction heroes and stay ahead of the Chosen's hunt progress.
- Prioritize the Assassin: She is the biggest threat. If you see her in the early game, use "Battle Scanners" or a Reaper to find her before she finds you. Once she's revealed, her defense drops significantly.
- Don't ignore the Templars: They seem weak early on because they are melee-focused, but once they get the "Parry" ability, they can tank a hit from literally any enemy in the game, including the Chosen.
- Use the Lost as a distraction: If you're outnumbered by ADVENT, use a grenade to summon a swarm. The aliens will often waste their turns shooting at the zombies instead of your soldiers.
- Focus on Bonds: Pair up soldiers who have high "Compatibility." The Level 2 bond allows one soldier to give an extra action point to their partner. This is a literal life-saver when you need one more shot to finish off a Sectopod.
XCOM 2: War of the Chosen isn't just an expansion; it’s the definitive version of the game. It takes the "guerrilla war" fantasy and dials it up to eleven, forcing you to make hard choices every single turn. You will lose people. You will fail missions. But you'll keep coming back because there’s nothing else quite like it.