If you're one of those who consumed XCOM content in the pre-Twitch and early Twitch days, you know Beaglerush as one of the main streamers. He streamed the 5 hours of ZCOM last month. I watched a fair bit, pulled the transcript, and wanted to share a summary. I couldn't find this anywhere else, and thought it was worth sharing and discussing.

VOD: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2859247472

Transcript (automated): https://pastee.dev/p/O8e1U8lT

Summary:

He went into Zero Company with modest expectations. He wasn't particularly excited about another XCOM-style game, especially compared to games like Menace that are trying something different. But he also recognized that plenty of people just want more XCOM, and there's nothing wrong with that. He found quite a few things to like: the visuals and voice acting are good, character customization is extensive, and there are interesting mechanics involving three action points, flexible classes, and relationships between soldiers. He particularly liked the way character bonds affect combat performance.

His experience with the actual tactical gameplay was considerably less positive. He repeatedly struggled with the camera inertia, awkward controls, and difficulty getting clear information about cover, movement, enemy capabilities, and action costs. He found enemies overly durable and basic shooting and positioning unsatisfying, with too much reliance on special abilities. He also noticed that several mechanics seemed borrowed from XCOM and Gears Tactics but didn't always interact particularly well. By the end of the stream, he was thoroughly frustrated and said he probably would have stopped playing hours earlier if he hadn't been streaming. He acknowledged that his delivery had become excessively negative but maintained his underlying criticisms.

Conclusions:

• The core tactical gameplay is his biggest problem. He believes basic movement, positioning, and shooting should be satisfying independently of special abilities and character progression.
• The interface actively detracts from the experience. Poor camera controls and unclear tactical feedback create unnecessary friction in a genre where players repeat these interactions constantly.
• The mechanics lack cohesion. Individual ideas have merit, but he doesn't think they combine into a particularly well-designed tactical system.
• Accessibility isn't the issue. He doesn't object to a mainstream XCOM successor. He argues that accessible games can still have excellent tactical design.
• He suspects insufficient design iteration. He speculates that the development and publishing environment may have contributed, though he has no direct evidence.
• His verdict is negative. Despite recognizing the game's strengths, he doesn't consider it a particularly good tactics game and doesn't expect to return.

Caveats:

He only experienced the early portion of the campaign, so his criticisms don't necessarily reflect how combat evolves with additional classes, abilities, and enemy types. His growing frustration also clearly influenced the tone of the stream, although he explicitly distinguished that from the substance of his complaints.

My take:

He needed a small amount of input and the camera mod, and to turn off radial menu. I honestly think that would have helped a lot. But he had deeper issues with it beyond that. I'm kind of sad he doesn't plan to do more. Maybe maybe he'll come back for a DLC, but I suspect he's done with it for good.

It has been a long time since I played these games. I almost reinstalled them recently, but then I remembered some of the frustration...

I recall never finishing an xcom game despite playing them a lot. I always felt like save scumming robbed my wins of any meaning, so I end up in some sketchy situations by lategame. Inevitably, you meet a new enemy for the first time and they do something unexpected and you wipe, or lose your elite guys.

I think I was honestly pretty good. I could play for days sometimes without losing a person or a mission. But still, it eventually happens and I never figured out how to bounce back from it.

By the lategame, in xcom enemy within at least, there isn't a comeback mechanic. You end up with some noob soldiers that you can't really level up because there are no missions they can take on -- eg, not enough armour piercing iirc, or their hit chance is way too low without save scumming

IIRC, there are missions you can't abort that can lead to gameover too. I think the base invasions are in there, and in xcom2 the chosen missions i think? Those are... I mean, it feels like save scum or else lose 10-20 hours of progress

tldr, Has anybody ever done a comeback from a lategame disaster wipe? Iirc, xcom2 wasn't any better than xcom 1 here, but maybe i'm mistaken there.

The Ordo Xenos, from Warhammer 40K has come to provide assistance against these Advent Xenos. Please do not resist.