Just the way I like it.

War of the Chosen is my preferred way to play XCOM 2. It is as deep as I want, paced perfectly, and challenging and rewarding in a way many games simply are not.

It is XCOM: a turn‑based tactical and strategy game, blending the best of both worlds. You are fighting aliens that play the game the way you do. You move soldiers from cover to cover, take shots at monsters, rescue civilians, destroy transmitters, hack into systems, and try to keep your squad alive for just one more turn.

XCOM 2 added the complication that you are now part of an insurgency. The aliens won 20 years ago, and XCOM has been reduced to a band of renegades, roaming the globe, hunted and struggling for the resources to survive, let alone win. Often you are not responding to alien attacks as much as initiating the violence. This changes the dynamic in real ways, as your soldiers start off concealed and can set up ambushes by placing themselves in perfect positions before taking the first shot.

In the first modern XCOM game, released in 2012, you had your basic classes: Assault, Heavy, Support, and Sniper. XCOM 2 updates and renames them. Assault becomes the Ranger; they still use shotguns but now also carry a machete. The Grenadier uses a grenade launcher, and the Sharpshooter fills the classic long‑range role. The biggest change is Support becoming the Specialist, who now wields a drone, the Gremlin, that extends their effective range, hacks enemy robots, or heals allies. They are my go‑to soldiers in the war against Advent. There are also Psi Operatives, but I rarely used them in combat.

You are also given a new facility, the Training Center, which allows you to spend Ability Points. When you promote a soldier in their class, you are given a choice between two skills. With the Training Center you can “double dip,” using the ability‑point pool to unlock skills you did not choose or even gain a potential random third, out‑of‑class option. A Specialist with both “Field Medic” and “Scanning Protocol,” two skills you would normally have to choose between at the Sergeant rank, plus “Holo Targeting,” makes for a formidable soldier. More than in any other XCOM game, each individual soldier can become deadly and dangerous. You can stack abilities and eventually add a W.A.R. suit that turns a soldier into a walking tank.

War of the Chosen adds three additional factions in the world. The first you are introduced to are the Reapers, a stealth‑focused sniper and scout blend that moves fast and can return to concealment with little trouble. Next are the Skirmishers, ex‑Advent soldiers who have broken free from the conditioning Advent uses to control its troops. They are focused more on straight combat and also use a grappling hook to increase mobility. Lastly are the Templars, psionic melee specialists who move quickly and are immune to mental effects. The Skirmishers and Reapers are fun and have great abilities; I have less experience with the Templars, as the psi portion of the XCOM series has never interested me much. Each faction has a home base that can give healing, construction, or intel bonuses if you park the Avenger there while time passes. You also get a new facility to coordinate efforts with these factions. These covert missions offer bonuses and perks at the risk of your soldiers being wounded or abducted. The Reapers and Skirmishers are introduced during one of the best developer‑designed battles XCOM has to offer, a sequence that also introduces the Chosen.

The Chosen are the biggest addition to the game. There are three of them, each roughly mirroring a class of soldier. The first one introduced is the Assassin. She is essentially a Ranger, wielding a katana and a shotgun named Arashi. She moves quickly, can cloak, and uses that cloak after attacking, relocating to cover once she stuns a soldier. Next is the Hunter, who uses high ground and a powerful rifle to attack your troops. He can deal a lot of damage in a single attack and often forces your soldiers out of cover. Lastly there is the Warlock, a psi‑operative and specialist blend. He can generate psionic ghost soldiers that explode, teleport Advent troops, and control your soldiers’ minds. Killing any of them on the battlefield only stops them temporarily, because they are teleported back to their home base.

You get the sense that the Chosen are playing the game against you more than any other Advent enemy. You can be on a tense mission, with half your platoon sporting plasma weapons and W.A.R. suits, and suddenly the Assassin shows up, fully leveled and ready to throw a wrench into your plans. More than once I have been halfway through a flawless mission when a Chosen suddenly injures a soldier. That is their specialty: they do not usually kill; they daze your soldier, and if you do not revive them quickly, the Chosen can kidnap them or extract knowledge about XCOM. They use that knowledge to decrease income in a region, injure support staff, or attack the Avenger. If they succeed in attacking the Avenger, that is game over.

The Chosen are formidable enemies who have divided the world into sections, each one hunting for XCOM. They can appear in any mission that takes place in their territory. As you play and face them, the Chosen level up and become increasingly dangerous, a threat you cannot simply tolerate. They taunt you on the world map, daring you to find them. Through the resistance you can learn more about each one and eventually go to their lair and defeat them once and for all. Each lair is procedurally generated, but the final battle is the same for each Chosen in every play through. They have a sarcophagus suspended in midair. Once you “kill” the Chosen, you must destroy that sarcophagus before they regenerate. When you destroy it, the Chosen returns one last time and you can deliver the final blow.

Another new enemy is the Lost, zombies found mostly in abandoned city‑center maps. They are easily killed and make for fun fodder, because killing them grants your soldier a free action. You can sometimes dispatch six or eight in a row if you are lucky. They will also attack Advent, forcing your enemy to deal with them as well. But the Lost continue to spawn. You can wipe out a group, and while their attacks are only melee, if you stay on a map long enough you can encounter as many as you can handle. You have to spend time and energy dealing with them because they are attracted to noise, the sounds of combat, so if you are not careful you can quickly find yourself fighting on two fronts.

What initially feels like an unbalanced upgrade to your soldiers ends up feeling fair once you are dealing with the Chosen and the Lost. The Chosen are the smartest and most capable enemies in XCOM, and the Lost are a swarm that can divide and overwhelm you easily. The War of the Chosen DLC takes a great game and improves it with smart balance and deeper gameplay. Whether you are mowing down countless Lost or lining up a flanking shot against one of the Chosen, you feel almost overwhelmed and yet fully empowered to handle everything the game throws at you.