This is the first sequel I can remember that listened intently to its fan base.
It seems like every grievance has been fixed and every feature improved. It's prettier, flashier, and more in-depth than XCOM. The guns sound better. The voiceovers are better. Grenades are actually useful this time and can be launched greater distances. The weapon types are expansive—acid, gas, fire, poison, drones, blinding, decoys, and so on. You can free up items for equipping without having to search through all your soldiers trying to figure out who has your medkit. The shot percentages and shooting through obstacles is improved (though sometimes you still get critical hit from full cover two stories up from across the map). Instead of permanently losing Will when getting incapacitated, a soldier becomes Shaken, a condition that they can recover from. You can melee like a ninja. When Overwatch triggers, you don't all open fire on an enemy that died after the first shot, you take turns in a slow-motion dynamic action scene. When enemies die, they are blown backward into various objects. This is a better game in every way.
Except one.
Say you're on an extraction mission. You have to get a VIP and escort him to the extraction zone. You have 8 turns to get this person and extract all your soldiers. If there were no enemies on the map and you sprinted straight to the VIP and straight to the extraction zone, it would take 4 turns. But each battle takes anywhere from 3-5 turns. Loot has to be picked up. The door to the VIP has to be hacked. Weapons have to be reloaded. Everything takes time. The codex you were fighting clones himself twice then teleports and you have to chase him down. Enemy reinforcements arrive two feet from your extraction zone. If you're not close to the extraction zone with 2 turns left, you might as well start the mission over. All the enemy needs to do to win is melee attack one of your soldiers, which stuns or knocks them unconscious. Mission failed. If he takes a shot on the next to last turn and panics, mission failed. The timer is supposed to keep players from sitting back in Overwatch and creeping forward, but this nearly makes the missions unplayable. When one of your two turns has to be spent moving towards the blue square, strategy goes out the window.
Okay there is more than one thing wrong with this game. Here's the rest:
There's often a delay between an enemy getting killed and flying backward, which results in a Wile E. Coyote moment where they have to realize they're dead before dying.
Recovering from wounds takes forever. A soldier losing half his life may be classified as Gravely Wounded, which takes about 20 days to recover from. My main and my backup squad have both been all recovering, forcing me to make a third squad.
When extracting, there's no mass extraction option. You have to watch one soldier at a time call for a rope and fly away.
Self-detonating charges that take 8 turns to explode and only serve as a forced excuse to have yet another timer.
Enemies are suicidal. It's not uncommon for an enemy to run over and stand beside one of your men, exposing itself for certain death next turn, just to get a free shot on your guy.
A 10% shot has a better chance of hitting than a 90% shot. And why are melee attacks not 100%?
I'm hours into this game and I'm still not real sure what's going on. I just keep playing missions as they pop up. I don't know what's important or really what my main objective is.
But with all that said, it's still much better than XCOM. So much so that when I feel the need for XCOM I will forever return to this game instead.