XCOM: Enemy Unknown gets free Second Wave DLC today

If you feel like killing some aliens today and jump into XCOM: Enemy Unknown, you will be greeted with a brief download bearing a free gift. Publisher 2K Games has released the second DLC pack for the game entitled Second Wave.

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If you feel like killing some aliens today and jump into XCOM: Enemy Unknown, you will be greeted with a brief download bearing a free gift. Publisher 2K Games has released the second DLC pack for the game entitled Second Wave.

The DLC adds 16 new options to add a little spice to an already entertaining game. But the kicker is that the DLC options--available through the Second Wave tab in the difficulty screen--don't show up until you have beaten the game once, and beating the game on greater difficulty opens more options. The new options include:

  • Damage Roulette: Weapons have a wider range of damage.

  • New Economy: Randomized council member funding.

  • Not Created Equally: Rookies will have random starting stats.

  • Hidden Potential: As a soldier is promoted, stats increase randomly.

  • Red Fog: Combat wounds will degrade the soldier’s mission stats.

  • Absolutely Critical: A flanking shot guarantees a critical hit.

  • The Greater Good: Psionics can only be learned from interrogating a psionic alien.

  • Marathon: The game takes considerably longer to complete.

  • Results Driven: A country offers less funding as its panic level increases.

  • High Stakes: Random rewards for stopping alien abductions.

  • Diminishing Returns: Increased cost of satellite construction.

  • More Than Human: The psionic gift is extremely rare.

  • War Weariness: Funding goes down over time.

  • E-115: Elerium degrades over time.

  • Total Loss: Lose all soldier gear upon death.

  • Alternate Sources: The power source cost to build facilities increases dramatically.

The first four are available right away, but the other 12 only unlock once you beat the game's various difficulty levels. The last four are unlocked by beating the game on Impossible.

This is the second DLC released for the game. Slingshot was released early in December. All are available for PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

Contributing Editor
From The Chatty
  • reply
    January 8, 2013 7:30 AM

    John Keefer posted a new article, XCOM: Enemy Unknown gets free Second Wave DLC today.

    If you feel like killing some aliens today and jump into XCOM: Enemy Unknown, you will be greeted with a brief download bearing a free gift. Publisher 2K Games has released the second DLC pack for the game entitled Second Wave.

    • reply
      January 8, 2013 7:54 AM

      Well that's nice because it was already in the game that shipped and just not turned on.

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        January 8, 2013 8:10 AM

        Also unfinished at launch

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        January 8, 2013 8:12 AM

        Well, they could have been like capcom or did this like they did some of the DLC with Bioshock 2.......some of those special options sound rage-inducing...

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        January 8, 2013 11:14 AM

        That's not true at all; it was a completely unfinished feature that caused tons of issues if you hacked the feature on.

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      January 8, 2013 8:11 AM

      these seem like thigns that would have increased the initial response to this game. wonder why they didnt just include it originally?

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      January 8, 2013 8:26 AM

      Read this interview on Second Wave and why it wasn't available at launch: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/01/08/solomon-vows-firaxis-on-xcoms-second-wave-add-on/

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        January 8, 2013 8:31 AM

        You can't say the guy doesn't listen to the community.

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          January 8, 2013 10:11 AM

          i don't think i've ever met a dev who is more sincere than jake. when he talks there is absolutely zero bullshit.

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            January 8, 2013 10:15 AM

            He's got a certain I don't know, je n'ai sais quoi going on with his tutelage from Sid and his own fandom turned producer passion.

            I like him a lot.

            Even when one of the GamersWithJobs guys was really getting down on the game he handled it so well.

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              January 8, 2013 10:25 AM

              i always had a blast working with him. he's also nuts. ever since CivRev he was a pile of awesome every time i went on site.

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      January 8, 2013 10:23 AM

      I've only been playing about a week, and got beat down on Normal Ironman. Those of you who do Impossible and then want to layer on this new shit are some kind of lucky/good.

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        January 8, 2013 11:25 AM

        Yeah, this game really doesn't need more difficulty injected into it. Classic or higher difficulty is already an extremely chance/luck oriented experience.

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          January 8, 2013 11:29 AM

          Nah classic is not luck oriented. In my classic ironman playthrough I lost only 3 guys the entire game. It's all about managing probability with good tactics. I can't wait to go through Classic Ironman again with some of these ticked on to force different strategies

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            January 8, 2013 11:33 AM

            The "all flanking hits are crits" flag sounds interesting. Should ratched up the tension, as I'm sure that goes both ways.

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              January 8, 2013 11:54 AM

              Yeah. I probably won't play much with the options that add more chance, but things like that which change up the tactics will be tons of fun.

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            January 8, 2013 12:08 PM

            Only three? Sheesh, as if I didn't feel dumb about X-Com already...

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          January 8, 2013 12:45 PM

          Being good at XCOM is about ensuring you can win even in the worst possible roll of the dice.

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            January 8, 2013 12:53 PM

            This is a really great succinct version of what I've said a bunch of times when trying to give advice for XCOM!

            My #1 advice for a while has been "plan your moves expecting every one of your shots to miss"

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              January 8, 2013 1:16 PM

              Stupid Xcom Rookie Question

              I'm trying to get Satellites up ASAP, but I cannot seem to get Engineers very fast. Is there something I am not understanding?

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                January 8, 2013 1:24 PM

                You can get engineers 3 ways:

                1. Select abduction missions with engineers as a reward. However, this always comes at the cost of NOT getting one of the other rewards. I personally never pick soldiers because I'm good enough at keeping my own alive to rank them up, but the choice between personnel like Engineers and straight up cash can be a tough one. My recent game I went pretty much all cash on missions and got my engineers by:
                2. Build a workshop and you get 5 more.
                3. You get them as end-of-month rewards from the counsel for having satellite coverage over certain continents. Personally I never choose satellite locations based on what end-of-month reward you get. It's far more important to use them to manage panic and for those full-continent bonuses.

    • reply
      January 8, 2013 10:35 AM

      Are there any bug fixes with the update? Seems strange that they haven't really patched the game. I keep getting stuck in missions.

    • reply
      January 8, 2013 10:40 AM

      [deleted]

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        January 8, 2013 11:16 AM

        Well it adds a new significant feature to the game. I don't see why that isn't DLC? I mean I guess you could call it a big patch with new features, but really what's the difference?

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          January 8, 2013 11:23 AM

          [deleted]

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            January 8, 2013 11:26 AM

            I feel like you're nitpicking. This unlocks a huge amount of replayability with the game, in a feature that did not exist before. Yes, you could hack in some of these options but they were buggy because they were unfinished.

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          January 12, 2013 7:52 AM

          If you go to Steam and list the DLC for this game, this patch isn't on the list, hence it's not DLC.

          Now, the real difference between DLC and a regular game patch is this; If it's DLC you can have the latest version WITHOUT also having these features.

          • reply
            January 12, 2013 10:09 AM

            Actually you're just plain incorrect about that. On Steam, if they release free DLC, you cannot play the game without it.

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        January 8, 2013 11:16 AM

        [deleted]

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        January 8, 2013 11:22 AM

        Agreed, but the publisher no doubt wants to brag about free dlc and count it as full dlc when the inevitable Game of the Year edition ships, e.g. "Includes 3 DLC packs!".

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      January 8, 2013 12:04 PM

      My big problem with this game is the spawning of enemies. If one of your final moves causes enemies to spawn you're fucked, because they basically get a double move. So that means that if you want to do ANYTHING except move up your team in a turn (heal, reload, etc) you basically should just do that thing then end your turn, and that feels boring.

      The main issue is that you can move a single unit, into space that you thought you'd already occupied, and trigger a spawn. I don't know how you'd fix it, but it makes the game feel kind of boring and gameable.

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        January 8, 2013 12:06 PM

        [deleted]

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          January 8, 2013 12:56 PM

          The whole game would be trivially easy if you removed that free move, because they're all out in the open. I mean yeah it could have been designed fundamentally different but the way the game works currently, it's necessary

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        January 8, 2013 12:07 PM

        This is why you make your first move in your turn the farthest one, then make sure no one else moves farther than that for the rest of the turn. Beaglerush tactics will save your life!

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          January 8, 2013 1:02 PM

          great comment preview

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          January 8, 2013 1:04 PM

          Once you get Ghost armor, it's really awesome to cloak and then just double move WAY the fuck in to their territory to figure out what you're up against

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        January 8, 2013 12:07 PM

        if your final move causes enemies to spawn and the rest of your team is in overwatch, you win. When my first move triggers aliens, I'm usually in for a tougher fight.

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        January 8, 2013 12:53 PM

        [deleted]

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          January 8, 2013 1:05 PM

          How would that fix it? If all of the mechanics were the same except that you had TUs, you'd be in the same situation: It would be dumb to use the last TUs of your last guys to reveal new territory.

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        January 8, 2013 1:00 PM

        They're not spawning. All of the aliens are on the map (with some exceptions like in bomb diffusal missions) from the beginning. Some of them are stationary but some of them are also patrolling. So if you look at a spot that you had already seen but this time there are aliens, they didn't spawn; they moved there on their turn.

        Treat the free move as a game element that is expected and can be planned around. It's just another part of the challenge.

    • reply
      January 8, 2013 12:38 PM

      [deleted]

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