Half baked game that is extremely addictive but start to go bad really fast
Pros:
1. a good reboot with vast improvement in gameplay mechanics to push the game to current age of gaming. Ie: added the cover mechanic, redesign turn-based system to more organized than the original xcom (which feels like commanding a bunch of brainless drones)
2. very addictive campaign, with xrays gradually increase in difficulty
3. class system and abilities is a neat improvement to "sort-of" replace the original xcom - actionpoint system
Cons:
1. Tactical and strategic command is very very limited and the choices made can be imbalance (continental bonus). upgrades, Tech research, training is bare bones with roughly 20% of the original xcom. Weapon& armor upgrades are basicly 3 types, each representing the 3 tiers. Each tier is generally better than the other tier by dmg dealt and bonus HP, and it shows very limited effort in creating the tech tree.
2. Classes need some balancing regards to perks and some are just pointless. Loadout needs to be further improved by having more options to equip your soldiers
3. small and repetitive maps, typically on the multiplayer
4. Air combat is just plain dull and so are the upgrade and research.
5. Squad size of 4-6 made very little room for any strategy or advance strategy.
6. Add-on multiplayer is not that worth your time and by no means extend the initial gameplay. Appraisingly there no Coop campaign, which is really an excellent idea to begin with since players only control 1 base
7. Cover system seems like a good improvement, however they system is based on hit/miss counter, you can sometimes get killed right behind cover with 15% chance to hit. A thorough design decision is require to be drawn in regards to cover/flank.
8. enemy variety is very limited, i m suggesting that xray will improve its capabilities over the period of time adapting to your tactics - armored sectoid, camo thin man and so forth.
9. having harder difficulty that dont add any challenge, just plain trolling (AI hp bonus, increase accuracy)
10. mindcontrol pretty much break the flow of the gameplay for both singleplayer and multiplayer.
Xcom is a great game with solid gameplay but once we judge it as final retail product it fall short and it keep gamers wanting more.
Improvement:
1. Improve on cover/flanking system and game design base on hit/miss counter need to be omitted or minimized with an actual calculation of dmg dealt, range, Armor protection, armor resistants and cover.
2. having more than 1 squad of 6, maybe 2 squads of 8 each with their own skyranger and their armored droid that could be combat drop right in the battlefield as an additional squad unit.
3. cover will not disintegrate easily and sometimes it doesnt make much sense (solid wall will disintegrate by 1 shot from plasma rifle). Alternatively, certain class (ie: support ability allow to deploy barricade to provide cover)
4. improve air combat - by actual commanding a squadron of fighters (its quite funny to see a sole fighter taking out a huge alien battleship). In addition, allowing players to pick and customized our pilots with skill and ability via ranking up similiar to ground troops.
5. mindcontrol need some major adjustment on how its going to be implemented. Ie: mincontrol requires charging up for 1 turn and the chances of it working is based on LOS vs Cover (which currently is not)
6. Coop campaign is a highly welcome, since players could only command 1 base. Having several commanders commanding different bases will make the scope even bigger and better. (unless all your allied commanders are incompetent, that just hard luck)
7. Enemy AIs needs to be "smarter" tactically - not by buffing the stats, and have a lot more upgrade variety in xrays which adapt to your tactics. (ie: players like to spam explosive weapons, AI will deploy heavy floaters or units with high resistance to explosives)