This is the best XCOM game by far, I think. Enemy Within was an incredibly fleshed-out and complete experience and this manages to outdo it pretty handily. I actually have so few issues with this game that I think I can list them all right here.
-Balancing is still a minor issue - the tier 2 tech swords are way better than tier 3 because too many ADVENT units are immune to the fire damage status effect and almost nothing is immune to the shock damage effect. Luckily, the balancing is mostly bad in intuitive ways, it doesn't really trick you. If something is bad, you'll notice right away from its description most of the time.
-The Chosen Assassin is much more threatening than the other two, which is weird because she's usually encountered first, as far as I can tell. Her bonus movement turns, turn interrupts and invisibility affect the action point economy way more than the other two do. The Warlock tends to stand out in the open and let himself get bullied to death, and the Hunter has to spend a turn of uninterrupted line of sight doing nothing in order to deal damage, so in practice he just never deals damage. Maybe this is different on Commander difficulty and above but I don't know. Turn economy tends to matter more on higher difficulties so I suspect the difficulty variance might be even worse.
-Enemy Unknown/Within were a lot more consistent with the turn/action economy and the game broke its own rules a lot less. It wasn't common for a unit to do a ton of stuff in one turn. In XCOM 2, every viable build is based around stretching the turn economy to its limits. The result is pistol Sharpshooters and sword-focused Rangers being absolutely busted.
-I miss MECs. I don't like SPARKs at all. I know MECs were a little busted in Enemy Within but frankly given that everything is busted now, I think they'd fit in just fine.
-Kinda my fault, but I unlocked Psi soldiers so late I could only use them on the final mission. Shame, because they seem incredibly fun and strong.
-Firaxis has still never hired a writer.
That's it. This game rules. High water mark for turn-based tactics games for me. I hope an XCOM 3 is still in the cards.
-Balancing is still a minor issue - the tier 2 tech swords are way better than tier 3 because too many ADVENT units are immune to the fire damage status effect and almost nothing is immune to the shock damage effect. Luckily, the balancing is mostly bad in intuitive ways, it doesn't really trick you. If something is bad, you'll notice right away from its description most of the time.
-The Chosen Assassin is much more threatening than the other two, which is weird because she's usually encountered first, as far as I can tell. Her bonus movement turns, turn interrupts and invisibility affect the action point economy way more than the other two do. The Warlock tends to stand out in the open and let himself get bullied to death, and the Hunter has to spend a turn of uninterrupted line of sight doing nothing in order to deal damage, so in practice he just never deals damage. Maybe this is different on Commander difficulty and above but I don't know. Turn economy tends to matter more on higher difficulties so I suspect the difficulty variance might be even worse.
-Enemy Unknown/Within were a lot more consistent with the turn/action economy and the game broke its own rules a lot less. It wasn't common for a unit to do a ton of stuff in one turn. In XCOM 2, every viable build is based around stretching the turn economy to its limits. The result is pistol Sharpshooters and sword-focused Rangers being absolutely busted.
-I miss MECs. I don't like SPARKs at all. I know MECs were a little busted in Enemy Within but frankly given that everything is busted now, I think they'd fit in just fine.
-Kinda my fault, but I unlocked Psi soldiers so late I could only use them on the final mission. Shame, because they seem incredibly fun and strong.
-Firaxis has still never hired a writer.
That's it. This game rules. High water mark for turn-based tactics games for me. I hope an XCOM 3 is still in the cards.