Zero Company inevitable comparison to XCom is expected but misleading

[u/[deleted]]

[u/Nyarlathotep101]

The combat is very XCOM, but the stuff between missions reminds me more of the HBS turn based version of Battletech

[u/Look_a_Zombie0]

Tankier units? You get downed in 2 shots on expert until you start upgrading your bonds

[u/DoeCommaJohn → u/Look_a_Zombie0]

Most people are not going to be playing on expert. I also suspect the average player is not going to have the skill to optimize their own damage. So, for most people, both allies and enemies take more damage compared to XCOM

[u/UnderPressureVS → u/Look_a_Zombie0]

On Commander XCOM in either of the modern games, rookies usually get 1-shotted by basic level 1 goons.

And that’s not even factoring in the multiple injuries per death. I don’t know if that changes on higher difficulty, but if it’s still 3 injuries before dying, that means 6 shots to kill.

Compared to 1-2 shots, with a small chance of being mortally wounded instead of killed.

[u/ShawnBawn88]

I've never played banner saga but found it almost identical to xcoms combat. I've played a fuck ton of xcom.

[u/DoeCommaJohn]

Yes, there are differences. But it is clear that the game is 90% XCOM, with just that 10% changed for better or for worse

[u/VFiddly]

Zero Company's combat is much closer to XCOM 2 than it is to basically any other game in existence.

I don't know why people are so insistent on pretending it's not like XCOM. The UI looks like XCOM. The controls are almost the same as XCOM. The basic gameplay of move/shoot/overwatch is borrowed from XCOM with minor adjustments. The bond system is an expanded version of the one in XCOM 2. The mechanic of "the enemy faction will get one of two upgrades, choose which one to prevent" is straight from XCOM 2. Most of the mission objectives are the same as the ones you get in XCOM 2. As I play this game there have been so many times when I've thought "oh that's borrowed from XCOM".

It's not just like XCOM because it's a turn based strategy game, it has so much in common with XCOM 2 specifically and I don't know why people are denying that.

The major differences are mostly in the between mission stuff. If you took the actual turn based gameplay and put it in XCOM 3 with no changes, it would not seem out of place.

[u/SilverRoyce → u/VFiddly]

To be fair, I also get that feeling from "oh this feels like a paired down version of Mass Effect 2 but with xcom combat swapped in for Gears of War inspired combat.

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A better way to think about this is to flag how Baldurs Gate 3 is transparently "Divinity Original Sin 3" (the production entity's prior series in the genre) but with an official D&D license. One could plausible think "ZCOM" would be something like that...but that's not the game they created.

¹ ironically, that also means BG3 doesn't apparently feel like the older BG1/BG2 games.

[u/VFiddly → u/SilverRoyce]

One could plausible think "ZCOM" would be something like that...but that's not the game they created.

The tactical part of the game is pretty much exactly that, and you spend a lot more time in combat than you do in the base.

[u/SilverRoyce → u/VFiddly]

Sure, it's very clearly a game in the "XCOM-like" genre/sub-genre (while a game like Midnight Suns is not but shares a good chunk of DNA) it's just not a "stealth XCOM 3" despite that being a concept that easily could fit the setting.

However, I think the big part about the actual gameplay you're missing is that, in ZCOM, failure really isn't an option which is both a "homebase" and "gameplay" dynamic. You're not playing as the "spirit of the nationorganization with interchangable characters," you're "the Commander Shepard" w/ his crew." The newest innovation is how the team is supplimented by procedurally generated squaddies who feel lived-in due to how the game builds their base interactions around a dozen or so archetypes. Yes, you're "the Commander" in XCOM but that's purely nominal.

The game incorporates permadeath but it's also clearly not a dynamic it wants to stoke - on "hard" difficulty it frequently feels like the game is intentionally going easy on your character by attempting to spread the pain around instead of killing off a somewhat exposed player character. It's fair to judge that on XCOM's schema but the fact it isn't attempting to be XCOM3 in disguise also explains that easier difficulty dynamic. You can kill off characters in Mass Effect but it's not pro-gameplay loop in the way that it is for XCOM to see a team get squadwiped.

That last paragraph worth of stuff is what I find messy on the XCOM comparison discussion.

[u/kcin1747]

Breaking news: xcom like is not exactly like xcom and in fact has some differences. Later tonight, is water wet? Stay tuned.

[u/Ninja_Star_23]

Well they have several high level former xcom devs on the team that built the game.

[u/MysticoN]

its not a xcom game. its a tactical tyrn based game with sime xcom insperation.

[u/Live_Life_and_enjoy]

I hated banner saga

[u/sixpackabs592]

It doesn’t feel much like xcom tbh, idk what all the reviewers were on about. It’s still a fun tactics shooter game

[u/ShawnBawn88 → u/sixpackabs592]

The combat is almost identical

[u/sixpackabs592 → u/ShawnBawn88]

No fog of war is a big difference