XCOM 2's The Long War 2 Expansion Launches

Firaxis and Pavonis Interactive surprise with a quick turnaround from announcement to release.

News by Mike Williams, Reviews Editor

Updated on 20 January 2017

The planned uber-mod for Firaxis Games' XCOM2, The Long War 2, was announced at the beginning of this month, but no one expected it this soon. Developer Pavonis Interactive has shocked fans by releasing The Long War 2 already. The mod is now available for download on Steam Workshop.

The Long War 2 is essentially an improved hard mode for the base XCOM 2, which itself was already rather difficult at time. The mod adds a lengthier campaign with new mission types, an extensive resource management system, nine soldier classes, and additional weapon tiers for players to unlock. There's a lot there.

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"We think we've recreated a lot of the 'Long War' feel in the XCOM 2 engine, although we tried to peg full campaigns at around 100 to 120 missions, which isn't quite as many as the original," said Pavonis design lead John Lumpkin is a Q&A with Firaxis.

"We've made a lot of changes. ADVENT now has a certain strength in each region on Earth, and it will move troops around in response to XCOM activity. This strength will determine how hard missions will be. This encourages XCOM to build a global Resistance and strike where ADVENT is weakest, just as a proper insurgency should," he added.

"In addition, in each region you've made contact with, you assign Resistance members to various jobs in a Haven: scavenging supplies, recruiting more rebels and soldiers, or gathering intelligence to generate missions," explained Lumpkin.

"Many missions have set durations, and you must send a squad to infiltrate the target site over several days. The longer you infiltrate, the fewer enemies you will face, but larger squads need more time to sneak into the mission area. Finally, it is now possible to liberate regions entirely from ADVENT control. Doing so will grant bonuses in resource gathering and more importantly trigger the AVATAR plot missions, but ADVENT will try to take them back."

The Long War 2 is a total conversion mod, so it won't work with other mods of a similar type. It does work with the MGPack, AlienPack, LeaderPack, Toolbox, PerkPack, and LaserPack mods already released by Pavonis Interactive and Firaxis.

Pavonis Interactive is currently working on its own independent games for the PC.

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Mike Williams

Reviews Editor

M.H. Williams is new to the journalism game, but he's been a gamer since the NES first graced American shores. Third-person action-adventure games are his personal poison: Uncharted, Infamous, and Assassin's Creed just to name a few. If you see him around a convention, he's not hard to spot: Black guy, glasses, and a tie.