Screenshots & trailers
What players say
Why the number is what it is: aspect mentions counted across 305 sampled Steam reviews (250 positive / 55 negative), recent and most-helpful. Plain keyword counting, fully reproducible; nothing here is written by a machine.
What positive reviews talk about
- Story & writing4% mention it
- Difficulty & balance4% mention it
What negative reviews complain about
- Difficulty & balance22% mention it
- Controls & UI20% mention it
- Bugs & crashes18% mention it
- Story & writing13% mention it
- Progression & loot9% mention it
Satisfaction by hours played
Same score, different games: see how sentiment holds up the longer people play.
Under 5h
43%
21 reviews
5-15h
67%
45 reviews
15-40h
70%
64 reviews
40-100h
92%
64 reviews
100h+
96%
111 reviews
Review sentiment over time
Weekly positive-review rate (green) and review volume (bars). Dashed lines mark significant patches; the amber line is the start of the current scoring window. Hover the dots to see what drove a dip or a jump.
How this score was computed
The VGC Score is a weighted blend on a press-comparable 0-100 quality scale. Steam approval rates are first calibrated (95% positive on Steam ≈ 89.5 quality, since Steam approval skews high). Press and tracked creator reviews each count ~2x a player review and share one cap against player evidence (creator buy/skip calls pool into an approval rate, calibrated like Steam approval); all-time sentiment is capped and halved (it's context, not verdict); reviews of the current build carry the most weight when a fresh patch anchors the window; and a 'typical game' prior keeps small samples from pegging the scale. Because press reviews and Metacritic user aggregates describe the launch build, their weight decays as the game ages (3-year half-life after a 1-year grace). That's how a game that launched rough can outgrow its old reception once updates win players over. Reviews under 2h playtime (the refund window), non-Steam activations, and free copies are downweighted.
| Component | Positive | Quality (0-100) | Weight (pseudo-reviews) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Press reviews (OpenCritic) | – | 87 | 30 |
| Creator reviews (6 tracked) | – | 87 | 2 |
| All-time Steam reviews | 85% | 78 | 1038 |
| Metacritic user ratings | – | 78 | 82 |
| Post-patch Steam reviews (trust-weighted) | 88% | 82 | 154 |
| Calibration prior (typical game) | – | 72 | 50 |
Scoring window: last 30 days (no significant patch detected) · 300 reviews sampled · 439 total reviews in window · weighted 223.5 up / 29.8 down · computed 3h ago · full methodology →
Press & Creators reviews (152)
Individual verdicts from outlets we track: scored reviews first, most trusted outlets first among them. The small badge is each outlet's trust score: how well its scoring history aligns with players.
- 60
“XCOM 2 on PS4 and Xbox One is a great tactical game with interesting mechanics and deep atmosphere that can drag you for many hours of gameplay. Unfortunately, the constant struggle with glitches and bugs spoils the final impression. It's also surprising that the developers have not released an update that would have fixed the most critical errors. If Firaxis manages to deal with all problems, you can easily add a couple of scores.”
read full review ↗ - 70
“Overall, XCOM 2 is a flawed sequel. Much like Street Fighter V, we can't help but feel that there's a good game here, it's just that the wrong set of features were prioritised in production. We recommend waiting for it to be fixed before putting down your cash.”
read full review ↗ - 85
“When the game manages to get on your nerves with its difficulty, but you still come back to it and spend every minute of your time thinking about how to improve your strategies, that's when you know it is a real gem and you are hooked up. And that is, exactly, the case with XCOM 2.”
read full review ↗ - 85
“XCOM 2 represents a safe school of making sequels. It uses a good, working, well-known gameplay basis on top of which some minor modification were created. And it's not such a bad way to go. More changes will undoubtedly appear in upcoming expansions but right now XCOM 2 is very, very satisfying. If you like tactical strategies, you can't miss it.”
read full review ↗ - 80
“It sort of did, but the stress never dissipated.”
read full review ↗ - 80
- 90
“XCOM 2 delivers an excellent port to the PS4. It has been cleverly designed to take advantage of a gamepad and this alleviates many potential concerns. Below this lays an experience that is unrivalled when it comes to strategy titles, particularly on console. The constant feeling of 'backs against the wall,' with scant resources and war decisions to be made, conveys a constant feeling of tension, which only serves to enhance the story of guerrilla resistance. Of course, with the permanent death mechanic, the tales of battle with much loved soldiers are rich for sharing between friends as a badge of honour and craft a memorable experience, living long after the game is finished, which, of course, is not a short one, by any means, providing the substantial difficulty is not a turn-off.”
read full review ↗ - 80
“XCOM 2 successfully straddles the line between being familiar and being new. A few design choices will divide people, and there are bugs and issues that will need patching or modding, but for the most part it's a sterling return to the gruelling decision-making of its predecessor.”
read full review ↗ - 90
“While the occasional technical issues might hamper the experience somewhat, XCOM 2 remains a superb strategy game that expertly weaves stellar mechanics and emotional story-telling into an engrossing campaign in which every choice that you make feels genuinely important. It can be both brutally difficult and depressingly ruthless, but the scant moments of joy that you'll experience in your attempts to overthrow the alien regime should provide more than enough incentive to keep fighting the good fight.”
read full review ↗ - 95
“XCOM 2 is an improvement to the franchise in every sense of the word. From the refined combat mechanics to the overwhelming global setting, Firaxis Games shows how a sequel must be done. XCOM 2 is unforgiving as it is rewarding, a true masterpiece in the turned-based strategy genre.”
read full review ↗ - 88
“A worthy successor to XCOM: Enemy Unknown and a sublime turn-based strategy game in its own right, XCOM 2 has some technical issues but despite those it is still a strong contender for game of the year on PC.”
read full review ↗ - 90
“XCOM 2 is everything a sequel should be, keeping the things that everyone loved about the first game while changing things up as much as possible. Turning XCOM into a scrappy resistance force alters the sequel considerably, not necessarily for the better but certainly for an equally interesting and different campaign. The enemy forces and AI have been revamped considerably, making for a hugely nerve-wracking and yet satisfying time, and the sheer variety in missions is superb.”
read full review ↗
GameMAG
Gadgets 360
PLAY Zine
GRYOnline.pl
Paste Magazine
The Angry Joe Show
Cubed3
PC Invasion
Push Square
LevelUp
GameWatcher…and 140 more tracked reviews.
Patch history
- 2K Launcher RemovalNov 25, 2024
- 2K Launcher Patcher v1.6.0.1082Aug 8, 2022
- 2K Launcher v1.5.3 hotfixJul 12, 2022
- 2K Launcher v1.5.3 Release NotesJul 8, 2022
- 2K Launcher v1.5.0 Release NotesMar 16, 2022
- 2K Launcher 1.3.0 Release NotesDec 8, 2021
- Minor Update for XCOM 2: War of the ChosenDec 19, 2017
- Minor Update for XCOM 2: War of the ChosenDec 19, 2017
- THE STORY BEHIND THE STORY OF XCOM 2: WAR OF THE CHOSENSep 27, 2017significant · resets scoring window
- THE STORY BEHIND THE STORY OF XCOM 2: WAR OF THE CHOSENSep 27, 2017significant · resets scoring window
- XCOM 2 Hotfix Now LiveNov 15, 2016