The second mission offered by the counsel is a smaller, tighter affair in which you have a 10-turn limit to complete your objectives as you move through a train in the narrow confines of a subway station. I also found having a non-customisable soldier counters the one of the things XCOM does well, providing you a team of random personalities and letting the heroes of your game evolve naturally over time. While it's nice to have a powerful character this early there is little to set him apart from the pack without a special skill tree. You get to choose all his abilities as normal, but as a unique character he has his own individual voice actor and appearance, and he cannot be customised in any way. He's a Lieutenant-rank Heavy and as a result highly likely to be the most powerful member of your team at this early game stage. It's enjoyable and challenging and at the end you will find yourself facing a strong mid-game enemy with only the basics in weapons and armour.įollowing the first mission Zhang will join your XCOM team as a permanent member. This is not by any means a bad thing, as it keeps things focused and tightly scripted. This is the weakest of the three missions on offer but serves as a taster of what is to come in terms of structure it's a very linear affair, with a very thin map forcing you down a specific route. This plays out as a standard escort mission, albeit you begin with Zhang in your party already rather than having to fight your way to him and have to escort him to the Skyranger for safe extraction. The first mission sends you to China to meet ex-triad contact, Shaojie Zhang, who has come into possession of some mysterious alien technology. Even if you ignore the request, you will be offered it again within a short time period. If you choose to begin the DLC, there is no going back and each time you are offered a mission it will be the next in the sequence.
The DLC will kick in the first time the council contacts you to undertake a task for them, at which point you are given the chance to either play the first Slingshot mission or to turn it down in favour of one of the usual, randomised affairs. The following review may have some spoilers with regards to the rewards given as a result of these missions, but it's an integral part of what makes these sort of DLC packs worthwhile you'll just have to live with it (or stop reading!).
XCOM: Enemy Unknown's Slingshot DLC is a set of three interlinked council missions which introduce you to a new unique character, unlock some powerful technologies and provide you with some extra resources to help make your fight against the alien menace that little bit easier. Brown XCOM: Enemy Unknown - Slingshot DLC Review Reviews // 15th Jan 2013 - 9 years ago // By Ross D.