My first campaign just went down the drain. I really underestimated that Doomclock and how important it is to get Zones early.
Anyways, the goods and bads for me:
+- Timers are both Yay and Nay. On one hand it's cool that you can't dilly dally all day long on mist missions. On ther other hand, quite a few timers are just waaaaaaay too short. As the game progresses and enemies start getting health pools beyond a lucky shot and a grenade, having 6 turns to destroy a Comm Relay is just ridicolous. I usually cheese it by bringing like 3 Grenadiers and then rocket it to death, but even then you have to compeltely throw caution out the window and advance like a maniac. Pressure is fine, but the game is overdoing it in quite a few places.
+ I like the ambush mechanic. And honestly, I never had the problem of an ambush blowing up in my face. Open up with an Explosive to shredd that armor and make sure that one move (So, around 5-8 tiles) will not bring them around in your flank. My record is taking down 3 Mutons, 2 Troopers, an Officer and a sectoid in the same turn. Granted three of those were the Sniper with Killzone, which takes a little luck. But it works.
+The customization is amazing. Both visually and mechanically. I really like the addition of modules and the variety of little props you can use. It's fairly easy now to make a character instantly recognizable just by looks, not just by name or giving everyone a different neon color. I have yet to find an utility Item that isnt amazing in some way.
+ The Campaign feels very nice as well. The whole "resistance" thing comes over nicely, and it feels much more proactive than the first X-Com.
+ Classes are fantastic. I remember straight out NEVER taking some of the talents in the first game. This time around, there arent any that feel flat out worse than their alternative. It's also cool how the two trees actually change the way you play a certain dude completely.
- The game interrupts me CONSTANTLY. I can not find proper words to describe how incredibly hard the game wrestles control away from you ALL THE TIME, for NO GOOD REASON. You cant skip the generic chatter that pops up each mission (I want to choke that Central Guy and never hear him again.) and on the Overworld Map. You cant turn the auto-camera on explosions and the like off either. Retaliation missions are a nightmare, not because of "Aliens, nuuuuuu" but because the guy keeps WHINING in my ear about every single Civilian that dies. Listen, I could not care less about those morons, who have the survival instinct of a Lemming on LSD. So shut the f* up about them allready.
-The Doomcounter advances fast, and the game does a fairly poor job in explaining on how to counter it properly. The Tutorial made it seem that you should research and build your forces, do the scans frequently, and then ocassionaly blow up one of those facilities. But a couple hours in the clock was advancing way faster than I could conquer sectors and attack those stupid facilities. Granted, this is a one time mistake on the first campaign, but the Tutorial really doesnt explain those priorities properly.
- Scanning in general can be frustrating as hell. Even if the one your sitting on is just a couple second away from completion, if a priority missions pops up, you either have to get there right away or ignore it. There is no "Can I scan for 5 SECONDS more please to get that scientist?", nope it's do or up yours. The sheer amount of "go there and scan" is a little much for my taste.
- There is the occasional cheap shot the game throws at you. I savescummed my first faceless without a second thought for obvious reasons. Then there are stun lancers, who sho up at a time where it is quite possible you have NO way of properly countering them yet. It annoys me beyond measure that they just knock out one of your guys for the ENTIRE mission, while giving them very far reach and extra HP. Later on they become trivial, but early game the are nothing but frustrating bullsh*t. However, the Codex takes the cake as far as cheap difficulty goes. I'm not gonna spoil it for those who havent reached that point yet, but anyone who fought them allready knows what 'm talking about.