A huge community modding project for turn-based strategy game XCOM 2 is almost complete. XCOM 2: The Long War of the Chosen is a complete overhaul of both the base XCOM 2 game and the popular Long War 2 mod, and it incorporates the new mechanics introduced in the War of the Chosen expansion.
As Dominic Tarason points out on Twitter, this is the biggest mod for XCOM 2, as anyone who’s played the original Long War or Long War 2 mods can confirm. The basic idea is to expand the base game’s campaign into a much lengthier and challenging experience. The Long War of the Chosen adds a host of new features and mechanics, including building up a resistance force, the ability to field multiple squads at a time, and fighting the Chosen on both the strategic and tactical battlefields.
There are eight new soldier classes, and each of these has eight ranks to unlock, with the choice of one of three abilities at each promotion. There are officers who provide buffs to your squads, new technology trees to explore, new mission types like Jailbreak and Smash and Grab, and all-new enemy types.
If you’ve already played The Long War 2 for the vanilla XCOM 2 campaign, The Long War of the Chosen makes some important changes – the AI has been tweaked, for instance, so enemies are less prone to cheesy strategies and exploits.
XCOM 2's biggest mod – Long War Of The Chosen – is nearly complete. The 'final version before release candidates' beta rolled out a few days ago.https://t.co/prTxLO2MQx
— Dominic Tarason (@DominicTarason) May 30, 2021
In the latest beta (which is intended to be the last beta before version 1.0 launches) there are several key updates: the Chosen have been reworked to be stronger but appear more rarely, and there’s now a tutorial (which you can disable in Second Wave options), for example.
The original modding team behind the Long War has been busy working on Terra Invicta, a whole new strategy game that it successfully funded on Kickstarter last year. The Long War of the Chosen mod has been built by a different team.
Check the Github archive for instructions on how to install the Long War of the Chosen beta. Just be ready to hunker down for a long fight, Commander. You can check out some other great XCOM 2 mods just by clicking the handy link right there.