XCOM 2: War of the Chosen has won praise as an intense game with deep tactical gameplay and worthy storylines. However, the modding community has gone ahead to take this rich experience even further, giving enhancements that add to the gameplay, graphics, and user interface. In this detailed review, some of the best mods for XCOM 2: War of the Chosen will be discussed, giving a complete guide to enhancing one’s gameplay experience.
1. Introduction to Modding in XCOM 2: War of the Chosen
1.1. Why Modding Matters
Modding extends the lifespan and replayability of games by allowing players to customize and enhance their experience. In XCOM 2: War of the Chosen, mods can address various aspects, such as improving graphics, adding new content, tweaking game mechanics, and creating quality-of-life improvements. These modifications can tailor the game to fit personal preferences and provide new challenges and opportunities.
1.2. Installing and Managing Mods
To begin with mods, use the Steam Workshop or download them manually from platforms such as Nexus Mods. The XCOM 2 Mod Launcher is an excellent tool that can help you toward mod organization. You want to ensure that your chosen mods are compatible with each other and serve the most current game version so that no conflicts arise or crashes occur.
2. Necessary Mods to Enhance Gameplay
2.1. Long War 2
Synopsis: Long War 2 is a total conversion mod that extends and modifies the core management of XCOM 2 to an extent. The daunt plan adds extra layers of challenge and immersion into XCOM 2.
Key Features:
Extended Campaign: Long War 2 dramatically lengthens the campaign with a variety of new missions and objectives as well as story elements.
Increased Tactical Depth: The mod adds new soldier classes, abilities, and equipment, alters enemy behavior, and adjusts tactics so that battles are less predictable.
Expanded Strategic Layer: The strategic layer of the game is also expanded, with more diverse missions and a deeper global strategy. Also included are new resource management and base development mechanics.
Why It Is Great: Those attempting to get through a more challenging and longer experience are forced to install Long War 2. It is a fresh spin on an old game: new content and mechanics that enrich the gameplay itself.
2.2. War of the Chosen – Tactical Legacy Pack
Overview: The Tactical Legacy Pack is an official DLC, therefore making it a mod that players can use to get new content inside their War of the Chosen experience.
Key Features:
New mission types: Introduces new mission types and scenarios for greater gameplay diversity.
Legacy characters: Allows the recruitment of characters from the old XCOM and XCOM: Enemy Within games, bringing a touch of nostalgia to your roster.
Additional equipment: New weapons and gear are also introduced, giving you more options for customizing your squad.
Why It’s Great: Players looking at some of the old promises of the base XCOM series might find this a turn off for War of the Chosen modders working ever-increasingly toward enriched gameplay.
2.3. The Last Gift
Overview: The unique story set forth by this mod provides the player with new missions, elements of narrative, and the opportunity for new adventures.
Key Features:
New Storyline: The mod adds a new story arc with new characters and plot twists.
Custom Missions: Experience all kinds of new missions of the currently integrated game mechanic.
Better Voice Acting: The inclusion of professional voice acting gives good rationale to the storyline.
Why It’s Great: For those who enjoy their gameplay massaged by storyline, The Last Gift offers an entirely new, fresh, and compelling storyline to redeem the whole experience of XCOM 2.
2.4. Additional Soldiers
Overview: Modifications allowing for new classes and abilities diversify gameplay and strategy even further. Some mods add extra classes with unique abilities and roles.
Key Features:
New Classes: Mods such as The Furies and The Plague Doctor add new soldier classes with their abilities and styles of play.
Various Roles: Each new class varies in skills and equipment thereby allowing for more diverse and strategic squad compositions.
Customization Options: These mods often provide customization options for appearance and equipment, thus adding to the variety of your squad.
Why It’s Great: Adding new soldier classes gives players new combinations to play around with in terms of strategies and playstyles. This definitely enriches the tactical complexity.
3. Visual and Audio Enhancements
3.1. Realistic Lighting Mod
Overview: Lighting and environmental effects are the best visual composure and are richly enhanced in XCOM 2 with real lighting augmentation.
Key Features of Lighting Mod:
Improved Lighting: The mod updates the game’s lighting system to make light rays more realistic and more dynamically simulated.
Enhanced Textures: Textures on the environment are better, giving an immersive feel and lots of detail to the game world.
Dynamic Shadows: Shadows are made to behave more dynamically and realistically and add to the visual realism of the game.
Why It’s Great: This is for the player who considers visual aesthetics important. This mod upgrades the graphics of the game, making the environment more immersive and gorgeous.
3.2. High-Resolution Textures
Overview: High-Resolution Textures is a mod that replaces the textures in the game to give it better visual quality and clarity.
Key Features:
Enhanced Detail: The mod provides higher-resolution textures for characters, environments, and objects.
Improved Clarity: Textures are sharp and highly detailed, mounting the overall visual fidelity of the game.
Compatibility: The mod is compatible with several other mods that enhance visuals, thus enabling a total makeover for the game’s graphics.
Why It’s Great: This is the perfect mod for players wanting to enhance the visual quality of XCOM 2, in turn refining the whole experience and presenting it in what one could describe as a high-definition setting.
3.3. Custom Soundtracks
Overview: The Custom Soundtrack mods allow for replacement or augmentation of the game’s music with the player’s choice of tracks or new compositions.
Key Features:
Now Who’s Personalizing Their Own Music?: They can import their own music or choose from a selection of new tracks.
Dynamic: Some provide a dynamic soundtrack that changes according to the situation in the game, therefore, enhancing immersion.
Enhanced Audio Experience: Therefore this mod could enhance the audio experience to make battles or exploration more engaging.
Why It’s Great: To a player who is well adapted to adjusting everything about his/her custom gaming-life, where the soundtrack can be added to or changed, ensuring the experience is much more immersive and enjoyable.
4. Quality of Life Improvements
4.1 Mod Config Menu
Overview: This Mod Config Menu mod provides the interface by which to configure and manage the various mods of XCOM 2.
Main Features:
Centralized Management: Adjust settings and configurations for all installed mods in one place.
User-friendly Interface: Also, it provides a simple menu to adjust mod settings and check for any incompatibilities;
Customizable Options: Players can adjust different aspects of the game’s mods to better suit their preferences.
Why It’s Great: This mod makes it easier to manage and configure a variety of mods, allowing the player to easily customize their gameplay experience.
4.2.- Squad Select
Overview: The Squad Select mod supervises and controls your squad in a much better manner prior to the actual missions.
Main Features:
Improved Interface: It optimizes the interface to select soldiers and manage equipment.
Efficient Management: It grants instant access to adding or removing squad members and modifying it accordingly.
Customization Options: That mod comes with customization options tailored to the squad selection screen to suit your needs.
Why Its Great: It adds the squad managing aspect outside the game and more efficient, therefore giving you less time prep for a mission.
4.3. Enhanced Tactical Info
Overview: This is a mod giving more information and additional indicators during tactical missions.
Key Features:
Detailed Info: The mod shows more stats during the battle—such as enemy health, armor, and abilities.
Improved Indicators: The mod improves visual indicators to get a better view of the battlefield and strategize.
Customizable Options: Options are customizable so players can keep only the amount of detail required and the information relevant to their personalities.
Why Its Great: This mod gives players extra information during battles, allowing them to gain a tactical edge.
5. Custom Content and Expansion
5.1. Alien Hunter Pack
Overview: The Alien Hunter Pack adds new alien enemies and new challenges for the game, enhancing the extra content for the player to avail.
Key Features:
Alien Species: The pack features new alien species that operate on different behalf of their annoying antics.
Challenging Encounters: Players will have to match wits with powerful alien threats alongside new missions and scenarios.
Additional Rewards: Upon defeating the new aliens, players are gained with specialized rewards in the form of gear and equipment.
Why It’s so Good: Alien Hunter Pack is great new content and gameplay opportunities for players who want to augment their list of enemies and face new challenges.
5.2. Tactical Playthroughs
Overview: Tactical Playthroughs is a mod intended to present new tactical challenges and scenarios to up the layers of strategic depth of XCOM 2: War of the Chosen and place a fresh layer of complexity upon the strategic layers of tactical missions.
Key Features:
Custom Missions: The mod features a huge range of custom missions and often implements, at times, different and unique objectives or environmental conditions.
Diverse Challenges: Players are faced with all manner of tactical challenges from different enemy formations, environmental hazards to unusual conditions on the missions.
Enhanced Replayability: Hence, new scenarios and objectives are added through Tactical Playthroughs to lift the replay value of the game and keep the tactical gameplay fresh and engaging.
Why It is Great: This mod is great for those wanting to really test their tactical skills. It injects an array of new scenarios and requires a lot of strategic thinking and flexibility, as well as enhancing the rest of the gameplay.
5.3. XCOM 2: War of the Chosen – Community Highlander
Overview: The Community Highlander mod is one heavy-hitting tool that fixes issues and introduces enhancements that other mods don’t. Consider it a backbone for other mods to stand on and provide them with a more stable and customizable environment.
Key Features:
Bug Fixes and Improvements: The mod fixes a plethora of bugs and glitches that plague the game, thereby enhancing its overall stability and playability.
Customization Options: Players can go about configuring and tweaking various aspects of the game according to their choices, be it gameplay mechanics or interface options.
Compatibility Enhancements: Community Highlander is there to make sure that the mods do not start clashing with each other; this allows the players to have a smooth experience.
Why It’s Great: To power users with multiple mods, Community Highlander is essential in bringing stability and compatibility to the table, thus allowing the smooth running of the game and ensuring all mods join hands in harmony.
6. Enhancing Immersion and Roleplaying
6.1. Realistic Damage
Overview: Realistic Damage modifies the damage system for XCOM 2 resulting in a more realistic and difficult challenge.
Key Features:
Damage Values Adjusted: This mod modifies damage values for both player and enemy units to make a more realistic and balanced battle.
Increased Tactical Considerations: Players will have to build their strategies around the assimilated damage system, reinforcing tactical considerations.
Increased Difficulty: Overall fighting difficulty is increased, offering great challenge to experienced players.
Reason to Love It: From the perspective of the player, who asks for a bit more realism and challenge in the combat, Realistic Damage provides the build-up to greater tactical depth. It amplifies the intensity of the battles and demands time for meticulous planning.
6.2. Expanded Customization
Summary: Expanded Customization mods give the ability to players to further customize their soldiers-from looks to gear and even abilities.
Key Features:
Increased Customization Options: Soldiers can be changed in appearance with a plethora of new choices, such as hairstyles, uniforms, and accessories.
Gear and Weapon Customization: Mod also allows improved weapon and gear customization options for the player to carry out loadout personalizations.
Unique Abilities: Other mods also allow the designer to create custom soldier skills and perks to fit their character into specific playstyles.
Why It’s Great: These mods increase XCOM 2’s roleplaying functionalities so players can make soldiers based on their personal preferences and style, thus expanding the depth of character creation and immersing the player a little more into the experience.
6.3. Immersive HUD
Overview: The Immersive HUD mod improves the game’s UI, making it more immersive and less obstructive.
Key Features:
Streamlined Interface: It redesigns the HUD to appear less cluttered and more aesthetically pleasing, thereby an improvement to the visual ambiance.
Increased Immersion: Less on-screen clutter means the player has more room to focus on contextual information vital to tactical missions. Thus, the mod serves the player’s immersion.
Customizable Display: Players can customize the HUD to fit their individual needs based on the balance they want between immersion and functionality.
Why It’s Great: The mod offers an immersive user experience with some aesthetic polish for all who desire an interface upgrade. It boosts the game’s atmosphere and directs attention toward the actual action.
7. Improving Strategic Management
7.1. Advanced Warfare
Overview: Advanced Warfare provides enhanced strategic options for the management of XCOM bases and resources.
Key Features:
Expanded Base Management: The mod adds new features for base management, including more facilities and upgrades.
Resource Management: This mod allows users to manage resources in more complex ways, such as with new types of resources and new supply chains.
Strategic Decisions: The mod adds new strategic decisions and options, deepening the strategic layer of the game.
Why It’s Great: For players whose enjoyment lies in strategic management in XCOM 2, Advanced Warfare takes base management and resource management to a deeper level of complexity. It presents more options and challenges for strategic planning.
7.2. Better Advent
Overview: Better Advent makes Advent forces behave and think better tactically, so as to complement the challenge and variety.
Key Features:
– Improved AI: It improves the Advent AI, making them cunning and unpredictable enough to provide a more engaging moment-of-combat experience.
– New Enemy Types: Players will face a wider range of enemy types that all have their own special abilities and tactics.
– Dynamic Encounters: Encounters require players to think on their feet and adapt their strategies as they go.
Why It’s Great: Better Advent adds challenge disparity in enemy encounters, putting more emphasis on tactical engagement between sides. This increases the level of difficulty in the game while allowing the player to be quick on his toes.
7.3. XCOM 2: War of The Chosen- Tactical Mod Manager
Overview: The Tactical Mod Manager helps players in organizing and configuring their mods.
Key Features:
Mod Organization: The mod manager allows players to organize and sort their mods, so that they load in the correct order.
Conflicts Resolution: It helps resolve conflicts between mods and ensure that they are compatible.
Custom Profiles: Players can create custom profiles for different mod configurations, so that switching between different setups becomes easier.
Why It’s Great: When using a number of mods, the Tactical Mod Manager offers players the easiest way to manage and configure mods to ensure a smoother and more stable gameplay experience.
8. Conclusion
Mods are the soul of XCOM 2: War of the Chosen, enabling infinite customizations. From the best ones that do a complete overhaul of gameplay, tweak visuals, or improve the quality of life of players to a whole lot of immersive content, almost everything stands to improve one’s time really well through mods.
8.1. Best Mods Summary
Long War 2: For an extended and elaborately challenging campaign with additional tactical depth.
War of the Chosen – Tactical Legacy Pack: To blend old content with the new mission types.
The Last Gift: New storytelling with an intriguing experience.
Realistic Lighting: For a little bit of icing-on-the-cake in visuals.
High-Resolution Textures: For the extra detailed look.
Custom Soundtracks: For a clearer voice in art.
Mod Config Menu: For easy mod management.
Squad Select: For the smoother management of squads.
Enhanced Tactical Info: For the informative tactical insights.
8.2. The Modding Community
The modding community for XCOM 2 is active, ever-creative, and willing to refine the game by way of mods. Being in forums, sharing experiences, and providing constructive criticism to improve the ecosystem for modding all build up working together.
8.3. Future Prospects
The modding community will surely come up with more innovative and exciting mods as long as XCOM 2 keeps getting updates and new content. Keep a lookout on forums as well as various modding platforms so you won’t miss out on new and awesome mods.
To summarize, mods can shape XCOM 2: War of the Chosen into an entirely personal experience packed with depth, variety, and challenge. Whether you want to mod the visuals, gameplay mechanics, or extra content, there is a mod available to enhance your game.