Xcom 2 hidden abilities series#

I sent her out on covert actions with a rookie medic, slowly leveling them up together until they bonded (another personalizing mechanic added in War of the Chosen), and occasionally sending her out on missions. The rest of BrigitteвЂ™s story is probably fairly predictable, but thatвЂ™s what made it so enjoyable for me to play through. So when she leveled up again, I expected to have to spend a few minutes thinking of a good one-the one this clutch sniper deserved.Д«ut then War of the Chosen decided on Brigitte вЂњThe TruthвЂќ Martine, and I was forced to consider the fact that we may be closer to sentient AI than we think. These nicknames are sometimes decent, sometimes mediocre, and sometimes just nonsensical. Now, in XCOM, when soldiers rank up to Sergeant, they get nicknamed. SheвЂ™d faced the Hunter and come out on top this was her destiny. After that mission, when Brigitte Martine ranked up from rookie to squaddie and became a sharpshooter, it felt fitting. He set up shop in the back of a long tunnel map, forcing me to reposition every turn with tracking shots, and while this particular Chosen is probably the least challenging of the three to handle, he still added to the missionвЂ™s overriding theme.

This wasnвЂ™t a run-of-the-mill mission either-the Chosen Hunter, one of the expansionвЂ™s three special boss aliens, modeled after the gameвЂ™s sharpshooter class-showed up a few turns after my squad broke concealment.

Xcom 2 hidden abilities series#

In a series notorious for disastrous misses on 99% chances, she barely missed a shot. So I tried again, and again, and again, taking progressively riskier shots instead of putting her into Overwatch. But she hit her first shot-a thing rookies, pre-leveling up, pre-weapon mods, pre-upgrades-never seem to do. As the only rookie on a squad of, at that point, relative aces, I expected her to be the weak link. IвЂ™d engaged with the one system that still keeps me so preternaturally invested in War of the Chosen: its massive array of character-customization options, and the way it uses those to bring sets of proc-gen, randomly-generated characters to life.ДЄfter giving Brigitte her bandana, which meshed with the mostly-black color scheme sheвЂ™d come in with, we set out on the mission. But she wasnвЂ™t one, so I spent a couple of minutes deciding on alternate headgear-giving her a hood and a bandanna that showed only her eyes-and, in doing so, I got a bit attached. I recruited her as a rookie, the lowest rank of XCOM soldier, with no abilities and just a basic rifle, and, before adding her to her first mission, saw that her loadout included one of the masks worn by an in-game faction known as the Reapers. Even Into the Breach, which I sunk fifty hours into this spring and love dearly as an engine of beautifully choreographed battles, couldnвЂ™t persuade me to give strategy games another try.Д«ut now IвЂ™m in the position of having lost weeks of my life to the modern XCOMВ series: first to XCOM: Enemy Unknown in May, and now to XCOM 2: War of the Chosen.В And to explain why, first, I need to tell you about Brigitte вЂњThe TruthвЂќ Martine.Д«rigitte Martine is a member of my now-massive roster of soldiers in War of the Chosen: a deadeye sharpshooter who joined my resistance about halfway through my current campaign. IвЂ™ll occasionally play an hour of Fire Emblem: AwakeningВ and mildly enjoy myself, but not enough to dust off my 3DS with any regularity, and nowhere near enough to persuade myself that IвЂ™ve come around on the genre. IвЂ™m not usually a fan of tactics games I bounced off of CivВ a long time ago, couldnвЂ™t make it past the tutorial of Frozen Synapse, and have largely avoided the genre as a unit since.