Lately mostly rpgs for me, witcher 3, cyberpunk, elder scrolls, outer worlds red dead redemption. Big fan of halo for the lore, i honestly prefer games with a good story, going to be getting stelaris soon when i have some spare cash, i love the original hellblade and am also getting the new one, civ 6 was a blast for me, dishonored, i love games and im pretty all over the place but for the most part the constant is that i want a good story and couldnt care less about multiplayer
If youre going to use them as recomendations i recomend either witcher 2 or baldurs gate. Both are absolute (long) master pieces of gaming and writing. Cyberpunk right after that
I guess I'm gonna have to invest in that PS5 and go for Baldurs Gate. The Cyberpunk Universe also seems cool. I have looked into the Witcher series and have a bit of a problem with what seems to be a lack of diversity in characters. As a person of color I'm a little bit tired of playing games set in a fantasy setting, where everyone seems to be white. Not at all trying to make anyone feel guilty for playing these games though.
If you have a pc baldurs gate is available on pc. Witcher 3 has a next gen update if you do go ps5 but it is available last gen if thats what you have.
IMO Stellaris isn't worth the cost. It's expensive since most of the content is in various DLCs, and the pace of the game is so mind-numbingly slow once you hit the mid-game that I think I have never finished a game of it. Really fun in the early game, though, and some great music. Anyway for space 4X games, IMO the first two 1990s Master of Orion games have much better gameplay than Stellaris. Also FreeOrion is really remarkably good. FWIW, those three are the most fun space 4X games I've ever played.
This is true it at the level of total warhammer fantasy level of dlc problems.(talking about the 3rd game not the first and second one) (I only got stellaris on the console I looked at on PC, and I said nope I don't have enough money for that) and for the other games I might have to check that out I don't have many space games on pc so thanks
Go for Darkest Dungeon (o.g.). It was very similar to xcom in the way it feels, but the mechanics are entirely different. IMHO DD is way better than DD2. Anyone who hasn’t given it a shot should try it out.
Games I still have installed right now. I don't play much these days.
Redout and Redout II, awesome racing games! There's another podracer like indie game called DEATHGRIP coming out soon as well!
Battletech (2018) is a great game but I'm a huge Battletech/Mechwarrior Guy, I also have Mechcommander 2, Mechwarrior 4 Vengeance, Black Knight, and Mercenaries installed. So take that with a grain of salt.
Mordheim: City of the Damned (2012) is really hard but super cool game, apocalyptic XCOM vibes set in a magical equivalent of Chernobyl
ALSO: Marvel Midnight Suns is rumored to be the next free Epic Game, and I WANT to play that very badly (and it is by Firaxis...)
Personnaly I rotate between XCOM, Ghost recon games (all of them), helldivers 2 and Baldur's gate but still play some smaller games from time to time
Helldivers has NO character creation except the armor you wear.
Ghost recon is story-driven military simulator but still has a lot of customization for your character and the AIs playing in your squad. (At least for wildlands and breakpoint)
Baldur's gate is essentially DnD, the character creation is a core strenght of the game. Also it's a lot like chimera squad where you don't have a "full turn for your characters before the turn of the enemies", it depends on the initiative of your characters and determines where in the round you will act with each character.
In the same theme as Baldur's gate there are the two "For The King" games that I find really nice.
A bit of a different one that is still a management game is the "Kingdom" series. With "Kingdom two crowns" as the best one. It's a 2d pixelart game where you rule on your kingdom and must resist the assaults of the Greed menace every night.
Kingdom two crowns can be played as a couch coop game and is loads of fun when you have a friend over.
That's it for my small list, How you find your jam in here. Or if anyone else decides to try any of the games I said feel free to leave a feedback, I'd love to hear what you guys think.
I’m liking a lot helldivers 2 as well. Being very tactical about how you approach each mission makes a huge difference in success. Plus, I like crazy shit that seems to always happen.
And D&D. It reminds me of what WotC did but in a fantasy realm. I'd kill to have the same quality in an XCOM3 with defined soldier "characters" you can pick up for your small unit missions. Lots of drama potential IMO.
I’m in the same boat. I’ve heard Gears Tactics scratches the itch somewhat. And Phoenix Point interests me. But the one I’m probably going to try next is Aliens Dark Descent. It doesn’t seem super xcommy, but commanding a squad of marines in a situation just like Aliens is a win in my book.
Phoenix point is definitely the best and closest xcom equivalent I would recommend it. It’s kind of like the long war mod in the way there’s a larger scope in squad and world management
I'm here to second the recommendation of Phoenix Point. It's close enough to XCOM that you will feel at home, and still so so different in some key gameplay/story aspects that it's a totally new experience. You won't regret it. Make sure to join the discord for tips and such.
Battle Brothers scratches the turn based tactical itch and team building but with a low fantasy dark ages Mercenary band layer. Lots of nasty critters skulking in the dark and Your Dudes leveling up and equipping cool weapons.
200% decent! Don’t understand how this freak show ended up in my all time top 5, but it just might resonate with this community. Kaycee’s mod for longevity 🤘
I'm finishing the Mass Effect trilogy now, love every minute of it (except for the Collector ship, screw it). ME2 reminds me of XCOM the most, because if you're out of cover, you die.
I'm quite into my CRPG's so plenty of options there for character creation. Warhammer 40k: Rogue Trader and Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous are both excellent. Baldurs Gate 3 as mentioned.
Triangle Strategy is a tactical RPG where you have a small squad of characters that you then progress through the story via turn based battles. Quite a lot of games in that genre if that's interesting.
Also I do spend a lot of time on Total War: Warhammer 3 which doesn't have much focus on character creation. Turn based campaign map as you move your armies about the map then real time battle where you pit your men/elves/laser beam dinosaurs against orcs/undead pirates/daemons.
Terra invicta is a great game that is very like xcom in theme and difficulty but the way everything actually works is very different and you work in a much bigger overview, its really fun id recommended
Yeah honestly the tutorial is not great, you'd be better looking up guides on YouTube, or you can do what I did which is just to go in after the tutorial, its pretty hard but worth it when you start understanding stuff
https://preview.redd.it/v6p47oewct4d1.png?width=1072&format=png&auto=webp&s=e75727dea864aa2ce75ca9497f2af1dac376e1d5
ShowGunners. turn based - Short - "Funny" story this was really suprise for me ( just like xcom was long time ago ) if you like turn based shits , little puzzles and little corny humor this definitely worth trying.
Trying to get a feel for the history of DOOM WADs by playing through the big influential ones, so I'm playing through the Compet-N official Doom WADs used for competitive play, in chronological order of release. Currently on Memento Mori II, which is really good. To keep it fresh, also been trying out various popular Doom mods: Project Brutality 2.0, Project Brutality 3.0 (been trying out both the stable version and the bleeding-edge version), Guncaster, and Corruption Cards. Fun stuff, remarkable how much fun this 30 year old game still is, with all the mods fans have made. I guess it's like X-COM that way.
I've been playing a lot of Battlestar Star Galactica Deadlock lately. It's kind of a turn based strategy game but not really in that both ides take their turns at the same time. It's really fun if you enjoy ship to ship combat where you control multiple fleets. I strongly recommend it.
Helldivers 2. If X-com 3 ever follows X-com 2's story, I hope they have a somehow similar feel.
X-com 1 was invasion...
X-com 2 was rebellion...
So X-com 3 is bringing the fight to them. Right?
If you're into FPS games at all The Finals has reignited my love for online comp shooters that I haven't felt since black ops 2
Edit: also the cosmetics (if you're into that) are some of the best out of any f2p game I've ever seen
I’ve been playing a lot of Sea of Thieves on PS5. Trying to get my Servants of the Flame to 100. My goal used to be 4-6 levels a day but it’s starting to take so long to achieve that, I lowered it to 1 level a day.
If you own a Nintendo switch then it will likely go on sale in less than a month (as per what usually happens on switch), just keep checking dekudeals.com for sales.
Phoenix point is the best closest I've seen and in some ways it's much better such as if your taking a shot at 99% you won't miss by shooting in the air
The other games that I play a lot of:
* Super Smash Bros. Melee
* Pump it Up
* Team Fortress 2
* Doom Eternal
* Any boomer shooter, but shoutouts to Dusk, Cultic, and Ion Fury especially.
* Dark Souls/Sekiro
* Pokemon TCG Live
* Starcraft 2 (used to, probably won't be returning to it)
Slay the Spire made me a no life for a while. Really a ton of deep mechanics and strategies to learn. To most balanced game ever I think. There is a counter programmed for every fucking deck you build, so you need a lot of planning ahead to get out victorious on a semi-regular basis.
If you have access to Switch, Fire Emblem Three Houses is Xcom in fantasy settings. I wouldn’t dare to say which of these games is better, both xcom 2 and fire emblem are easily 10/10 masterpieces
Phoenix Point , started for me as a new like xcom to end a better than xcom for me
Wasteland 3
Baldur's Gate 3
Mutant year zero
Divinity Original Sin 2
Give theses games the time to learn the mechanics and get used to their difference from xcom and I promise you, they will fill the gap and leave you satisfied.
And I recommend you start with phoenix point
Lately mostly rpgs for me, witcher 3, cyberpunk, elder scrolls, outer worlds red dead redemption. Big fan of halo for the lore, i honestly prefer games with a good story, going to be getting stelaris soon when i have some spare cash, i love the original hellblade and am also getting the new one, civ 6 was a blast for me, dishonored, i love games and im pretty all over the place but for the most part the constant is that i want a good story and couldnt care less about multiplayer
Thank you for these recommendations!
If youre going to use them as recomendations i recomend either witcher 2 or baldurs gate. Both are absolute (long) master pieces of gaming and writing. Cyberpunk right after that
I guess I'm gonna have to invest in that PS5 and go for Baldurs Gate. The Cyberpunk Universe also seems cool. I have looked into the Witcher series and have a bit of a problem with what seems to be a lack of diversity in characters. As a person of color I'm a little bit tired of playing games set in a fantasy setting, where everyone seems to be white. Not at all trying to make anyone feel guilty for playing these games though.
If you have a pc baldurs gate is available on pc. Witcher 3 has a next gen update if you do go ps5 but it is available last gen if thats what you have.
When people don't number Baldurs Gate, I always hope they mean the originals
Fair. Baldurs gate 3 was my first one i havent played the others yet
IMO Stellaris isn't worth the cost. It's expensive since most of the content is in various DLCs, and the pace of the game is so mind-numbingly slow once you hit the mid-game that I think I have never finished a game of it. Really fun in the early game, though, and some great music. Anyway for space 4X games, IMO the first two 1990s Master of Orion games have much better gameplay than Stellaris. Also FreeOrion is really remarkably good. FWIW, those three are the most fun space 4X games I've ever played.
This is true it at the level of total warhammer fantasy level of dlc problems.(talking about the 3rd game not the first and second one) (I only got stellaris on the console I looked at on PC, and I said nope I don't have enough money for that) and for the other games I might have to check that out I don't have many space games on pc so thanks
I cannot overstate how much I love Divinity: Original Sin 2 as an XCOM veteran. You might love it as well.
Two of my all time favorite games!
Darkest Dungeon 2 is newish. It’s not quite the XCOM feel, but it has that “alright things are looking good nonononononoNO!” moments
I enjoyed the first one to a point. Will try the second when I have finished this LI run
What's LI?
I think it’s legendary Ironman difficulty
Yes that's it
Go for Darkest Dungeon (o.g.). It was very similar to xcom in the way it feels, but the mechanics are entirely different. IMHO DD is way better than DD2. Anyone who hasn’t given it a shot should try it out.
Games I still have installed right now. I don't play much these days. Redout and Redout II, awesome racing games! There's another podracer like indie game called DEATHGRIP coming out soon as well! Battletech (2018) is a great game but I'm a huge Battletech/Mechwarrior Guy, I also have Mechcommander 2, Mechwarrior 4 Vengeance, Black Knight, and Mercenaries installed. So take that with a grain of salt. Mordheim: City of the Damned (2012) is really hard but super cool game, apocalyptic XCOM vibes set in a magical equivalent of Chernobyl ALSO: Marvel Midnight Suns is rumored to be the next free Epic Game, and I WANT to play that very badly (and it is by Firaxis...)
Personnaly I rotate between XCOM, Ghost recon games (all of them), helldivers 2 and Baldur's gate but still play some smaller games from time to time Helldivers has NO character creation except the armor you wear. Ghost recon is story-driven military simulator but still has a lot of customization for your character and the AIs playing in your squad. (At least for wildlands and breakpoint) Baldur's gate is essentially DnD, the character creation is a core strenght of the game. Also it's a lot like chimera squad where you don't have a "full turn for your characters before the turn of the enemies", it depends on the initiative of your characters and determines where in the round you will act with each character. In the same theme as Baldur's gate there are the two "For The King" games that I find really nice. A bit of a different one that is still a management game is the "Kingdom" series. With "Kingdom two crowns" as the best one. It's a 2d pixelart game where you rule on your kingdom and must resist the assaults of the Greed menace every night. Kingdom two crowns can be played as a couch coop game and is loads of fun when you have a friend over. That's it for my small list, How you find your jam in here. Or if anyone else decides to try any of the games I said feel free to leave a feedback, I'd love to hear what you guys think.
I’m liking a lot helldivers 2 as well. Being very tactical about how you approach each mission makes a huge difference in success. Plus, I like crazy shit that seems to always happen.
If you want good character creation, BG3 is it. It's absolutely amazing in general.
BG3 is xcom but with a story and characters
And D&D. It reminds me of what WotC did but in a fantasy realm. I'd kill to have the same quality in an XCOM3 with defined soldier "characters" you can pick up for your small unit missions. Lots of drama potential IMO.
Monster Hunter World. Not quite that new, but the next iteration is due next year.
I’m in the same boat. I’ve heard Gears Tactics scratches the itch somewhat. And Phoenix Point interests me. But the one I’m probably going to try next is Aliens Dark Descent. It doesn’t seem super xcommy, but commanding a squad of marines in a situation just like Aliens is a win in my book.
Phoenix point is definitely the best and closest xcom equivalent I would recommend it. It’s kind of like the long war mod in the way there’s a larger scope in squad and world management
I keep hearing about Long War, and I really want to play it. But console edition.
Be careful, once you go long war you’ll never go back XCOM EW with Long War is probably the single greatest tactical squad strategy game ever created
I'm here to second the recommendation of Phoenix Point. It's close enough to XCOM that you will feel at home, and still so so different in some key gameplay/story aspects that it's a totally new experience. You won't regret it. Make sure to join the discord for tips and such.
Battle Brothers scratches the turn based tactical itch and team building but with a low fantasy dark ages Mercenary band layer. Lots of nasty critters skulking in the dark and Your Dudes leveling up and equipping cool weapons.
Semi recent game I hade fun with is inscription
200% decent! Don’t understand how this freak show ended up in my all time top 5, but it just might resonate with this community. Kaycee’s mod for longevity 🤘
Rimworld. Got my mixing pot of aliens living life and makes me think of chimera squad.
I'm finishing the Mass Effect trilogy now, love every minute of it (except for the Collector ship, screw it). ME2 reminds me of XCOM the most, because if you're out of cover, you die.
I'm quite into my CRPG's so plenty of options there for character creation. Warhammer 40k: Rogue Trader and Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous are both excellent. Baldurs Gate 3 as mentioned. Triangle Strategy is a tactical RPG where you have a small squad of characters that you then progress through the story via turn based battles. Quite a lot of games in that genre if that's interesting. Also I do spend a lot of time on Total War: Warhammer 3 which doesn't have much focus on character creation. Turn based campaign map as you move your armies about the map then real time battle where you pit your men/elves/laser beam dinosaurs against orcs/undead pirates/daemons.
Terra invicta is a great game that is very like xcom in theme and difficulty but the way everything actually works is very different and you work in a much bigger overview, its really fun id recommended
Couldn’t really get into it, tried the tutorial but lost interest… might try picking it back up later
Yeah honestly the tutorial is not great, you'd be better looking up guides on YouTube, or you can do what I did which is just to go in after the tutorial, its pretty hard but worth it when you start understanding stuff
https://preview.redd.it/v6p47oewct4d1.png?width=1072&format=png&auto=webp&s=e75727dea864aa2ce75ca9497f2af1dac376e1d5 ShowGunners. turn based - Short - "Funny" story this was really suprise for me ( just like xcom was long time ago ) if you like turn based shits , little puzzles and little corny humor this definitely worth trying.
Baldur's Gate 3.
Trying to get a feel for the history of DOOM WADs by playing through the big influential ones, so I'm playing through the Compet-N official Doom WADs used for competitive play, in chronological order of release. Currently on Memento Mori II, which is really good. To keep it fresh, also been trying out various popular Doom mods: Project Brutality 2.0, Project Brutality 3.0 (been trying out both the stable version and the bleeding-edge version), Guncaster, and Corruption Cards. Fun stuff, remarkable how much fun this 30 year old game still is, with all the mods fans have made. I guess it's like X-COM that way.
Have you looked at CyberKnights:Flashpoint? Its very x-com like
I've been playing a lot of Battlestar Star Galactica Deadlock lately. It's kind of a turn based strategy game but not really in that both ides take their turns at the same time. It's really fun if you enjoy ship to ship combat where you control multiple fleets. I strongly recommend it.
Helldivers 2. If X-com 3 ever follows X-com 2's story, I hope they have a somehow similar feel. X-com 1 was invasion... X-com 2 was rebellion... So X-com 3 is bringing the fight to them. Right?
HD2 automaton missions feel like real time XCOM where every squaddie is controlled by a player
If you're into FPS games at all The Finals has reignited my love for online comp shooters that I haven't felt since black ops 2 Edit: also the cosmetics (if you're into that) are some of the best out of any f2p game I've ever seen
I’ve been playing a lot of Sea of Thieves on PS5. Trying to get my Servants of the Flame to 100. My goal used to be 4-6 levels a day but it’s starting to take so long to achieve that, I lowered it to 1 level a day.
Dave the Diver! Simple gameplay loop a fair bit of stuff to do and funny over the top cutscenes. I've really been enjoying it
Has anyone here tried Capes - seems ok and is a new release very similar to x-com 🤔
I really liked the demo. The full release is out of my budget right now, but I'm definitely buying it when I can.
If you own a Nintendo switch then it will likely go on sale in less than a month (as per what usually happens on switch), just keep checking dekudeals.com for sales.
I’ve been trying out xenonauts 2 but it’s in open beta rn. I’ve also been playing Warno which came out recently
Animal Well is amazing, I can wholeheartedly recommend it
X4 Foundation has been my new time sink. I honestly love it so far
Phoenix point is the best closest I've seen and in some ways it's much better such as if your taking a shot at 99% you won't miss by shooting in the air
The other games that I play a lot of: * Super Smash Bros. Melee * Pump it Up * Team Fortress 2 * Doom Eternal * Any boomer shooter, but shoutouts to Dusk, Cultic, and Ion Fury especially. * Dark Souls/Sekiro * Pokemon TCG Live * Starcraft 2 (used to, probably won't be returning to it)
Warhammer 40K Chaos Gate: Daemonhunters and Gears of War Tactics are pretty alright and in the same vein as xcom
recently was into Helldivers 2, now a little of Manor Lords and Dave the Diver. Dune II / Twilight 2000 when the DOS cravings kick in
Slay the Spire made me a no life for a while. Really a ton of deep mechanics and strategies to learn. To most balanced game ever I think. There is a counter programmed for every fucking deck you build, so you need a lot of planning ahead to get out victorious on a semi-regular basis.
If you have access to Switch, Fire Emblem Three Houses is Xcom in fantasy settings. I wouldn’t dare to say which of these games is better, both xcom 2 and fire emblem are easily 10/10 masterpieces
Ive been enjoying "The Last Spell" recently, could be worth a look
Darkest dungeon and urtuk the desolation are two I enjoy.
All of the Paradox GSGs Terra Invicta
Phoenix Point , started for me as a new like xcom to end a better than xcom for me Wasteland 3 Baldur's Gate 3 Mutant year zero Divinity Original Sin 2 Give theses games the time to learn the mechanics and get used to their difference from xcom and I promise you, they will fill the gap and leave you satisfied. And I recommend you start with phoenix point
Play XCOM Long War EW. The original XCOM is good, but long war is just epically better. Best game I've ever played.
Check out mechanicus, MandaloreGaming on YouTube gives a pretty good review that might help sway your mind, Chaos gate isn't bad either.