having your two boys from the first squad all the way through AND your ace sniper Checkmate turning out to the the psy gifted is one of those great moments where the dice just roll perfectly for a story. so cool when that happens
This is me letting UA-cam know that this is the kind of content I want to see. Came over from the citrus platemail man. I appreciate the challenge exploration into other games. I never played much of the souls games as a kid and so I don’t always have a connection to just how amazing the challenges are. Having beaten Xcom 2 a few times though, this I can enter into. Thank you, friend of the citrus platemail man.
I have never played this game but Kyle is a good guy and has a soothing voice that wouldn't be amiss on a late night radio show that plays smooth jazz. Although this video was released on Monday as opposed to Saturday or Sunday so.....Gamer's Weekday? 🤔
I think this is my favorite video you've ever made, and that's a High bar to pass. XCOM having more of an emergent story the viewer can't predict ahead of time really gave your narration and writing so much more room to make the piece something really unique. like, idk man. This rocks so much I'm having trouble not writing an essay in your comments about it.
XCOM is a game, what is very close to my heart. I am definetly a person who leans towards it's stronger brother. The Long War mod. Even after twelve years, I still find myself playing with this gem. Absolute legend of a game. Thanks for playing!
thanks for the rec lemon, but more importantly, thanks for the great video GW! cool challenge run plus showing song names in the video equals the fastest subscribe of my life
This challenge run was fun to watch but my first thought about this video was "damn this guys mic sounds good". idk what you're using but the sound was solid.
XCOM Enemy within and XCOM 2 with the expansion has to be some of the most fun I've had, check them out when you can, preferably on PC so you can get quality of life mods
Before I even watch I remember in one of my first runs of XCOM I gave myself a pretty noteworthy boost of power in the early game by dedicating myself to capturing sectoids and taking their guns. And when the title went off I was given this big blast from the past and I gotta see how well they work as time goes on.
This was the first time I have watched one of your videos thanks to Lemon, I was watching it on a second monitor and was wondering where the AoE2 music was coming from, definitely be sticking around, keep up the fun videos!
Love me some xcom challenge runs. Just such a great story telling game for the squad. Just finished alien dark descent and that connection to the squad is what it misses. It gets so close, but the game does nothing to help it. Was hoping it would be another great game to see challenges runs. So this vid really helped scratch that itch, never seen me care more about a youtubers squad than this vid
I started Enemy Unknown just last year (wanted to know what the base game is like before playing Enemy Within), and it keeps swinging between awesome and annoying. I could start the final mission anytime, but I kind of want better willpower soldiers first - however, I believe I should just finish it. When I saw the Rigging upgrade (giving every soldier two item slots instead of that being a support only thing) was a happy moment. I've also witnessed the spontaneous manifestation of an enemy before - however, in my case it was a Sectopod on a terror mission manifesting in between the two halves of my squad, one side of which was trying to save civilians in a bar from a bunch of cryssalids, the other half of which was going after a squad of mutons (maybe elites). I think it might have appeared from behind a postbox or something. I restarted that mission.
Good job with this playthrough! this is actually a run i did myself, as I also took the suggestion from Lemon. I personally did it with a 4 sniper heavy squad.
Foundry percent speedrun was an interesting tactic, in my attempts my goal was to get to the interrogation cell first, capture a a few sectiods and then do the research project that lets us use captured plasma pistols
Nice video, leaving a comment for the algorithm. I second the ballistics only ironman notion. Also, I can say from experience that Pistols only XCOM 2 is very silly and very fun.
Problem with tbose is you have to restrict yourself on using the workshop for money. Honestly even with just medkits you break the ecenomy in month 1. This can seriously take any difficulty out of the game as you can just buy what you need. I just had to put down a TFTD run because Im swimming in money and managed to get full Sonic weapons before Lobstermen showed up It really is a bit tedious at that point as really nothing to work towards.
Xcom has long been one of my favorite games. Its hard enough for me that I wouldn't even consider a challenge like this possible. Congratulations, and well played.
I was trying to listen to your early game narration, yet you had The Rain Formerly Known as Purple playing faintly in the background. Any ability to comprehend human speech went out the window.
I would highly suggest doing this in Long War (probably with dynamic war to make it faster) with all its pistol options and smg primaries for faster movement. Although pistols do take ammo in the mod.
i'm so used to xcom long war that i kept getting caught off guard by some vanilla mechanics, like the arc throwing being good at stunning aliens and hte mechanical units not getting damage reduction.
501st like. I never played any Xcom but I've been aware of the style for many years now. I appreciate you putting up this type of video, part lets play, part strategy guide. Cheers in the new year
Love your videos! Your XCOM playlist has inspired me to try the game myself. Have you see the "Beat XCOM with only a single soldier for the entire game" challenge? If that soldier dies, you lose; you can only use that one soldier (no other soldiers on any mission); and if they're injured, you have to skip the mission. Might be a fun step-up in difficulty from this one - and I know I would enjoy watching it :)
Have you thought about during the dark souls challenges of only 1 dgm type being allowed? for physical weapons I know it be normal but I think it be interesting to see the difference in games when only doing 1 type of physical dgm.
Mimic skin is actualy better to give to the frontliners, the more then better. Then you can leave your snipers with archangel and just deal completly free damage across the map without any risks, as most aliens do not know what to do and just run in circles (except sectopod, sometimes they ignore invis competely and go for smoking you with minirockets anyway)
Amazing romp through and through, and good job at doing something Lemon decided isn't worth it due to being absolutely doable jn theory :^) Cod, now I want to go back to XCOM2, whcih I never finished... But man, this one is chonky when it comes to disk space :'D
Imagine training your whole life to rise up in the military, and aliens suddenly attack and threaten all humanity. After being sent on your first mission, your battle hardened team is left with two survivors. Only to come back and get kicked out the military because they just want to use pistols.
It’s actually a lot easier than you’d think, if you use satellites well then you can significantly reduce it, and if you have satellites everywhere abduction missions stop, meaning the only way panic goes up is through failed terror missions, or ufos
Ehh, I would recommend WOTR instead since with all that depths, complexity and numerous builds that can be theorise, it would give A LOT more challenge run varieties than BG3 could ever give really.
@hafizyb Haven't checked out WOTR yet, but I don't think I've ever seen a lack of complexity or build variety levied as criticism against bg3 lol. Anyways, I'd love to watch him do challenge runs of both!
@@austinobambino1360 oh no, I really am not exaggerating when I say that WOTR have more potential on build varieties (especially if you also included meme/fun/roleplay build). If you have the time, try checking the WOTR available skills. You can (almost) create any build you want really, and that's before using mods lol. But yeah, BG3 is easier to get into and is shorter to do multiple challenge runs while WOTR is longer but can give more satisfaction for those that like more technical/complexity on their build.
"Checkmate."
@iytdominotik endgame was meh anyway
U have brought more Xcom challenges to me you have my undieing loyalty
From the Persian phrase "shāh māt", meaning "the King is helpless" or "the King is dead".
I love X-com
big fan
The fact that the one who had THE gift was nicknamed Checkmate is like ... one of the best thing of this run
having your two boys from the first squad all the way through AND your ace sniper Checkmate turning out to the the psy gifted is one of those great moments where the dice just roll perfectly for a story. so cool when that happens
Ballistics only ironman impossible is really fun in vanilla (and long war too, probably the most fun run of xcom i've ever had)!
I locked tf in when the intro ended and the rain formerly known as purple started
This is me letting UA-cam know that this is the kind of content I want to see. Came over from the citrus platemail man. I appreciate the challenge exploration into other games. I never played much of the souls games as a kid and so I don’t always have a connection to just how amazing the challenges are. Having beaten Xcom 2 a few times though, this I can enter into. Thank you, friend of the citrus platemail man.
Citrus platemail man 🤣 But yeaah, that's how I ended up here too!
I have never played this game but Kyle is a good guy and has a soothing voice that wouldn't be amiss on a late night radio show that plays smooth jazz.
Although this video was released on Monday as opposed to Saturday or Sunday so.....Gamer's Weekday? 🤔
More xcom please! I appreciate this.
"We blast our way through friends in low places" - I appreciate this very much. ^_^
Awesome video. Can't wait to start playing Xcom as well.
James rhino jones, checkmate, viking, roland, pox and vixen. A verifiable movie sqaud of names
I think this is my favorite video you've ever made, and that's a High bar to pass. XCOM having more of an emergent story the viewer can't predict ahead of time really gave your narration and writing so much more room to make the piece something really unique. like, idk man. This rocks so much I'm having trouble not writing an essay in your comments about it.
"I am both freezing AND starving" - man, there are layers to this challenge run onion! Respect 💪
Love the shout-out to The Backlogs! Lemon and the Goddess of Flame surely smile upon thee!
As a long time Xcom fan myself I really enjoyed the narration.
A good clip, nice humor and a good focus on the stories.
Never heard of this game until now! Thanks for putting me on! Looks like a ton of fun
That Metroid Prime Phendrana Drifts music sent me back in time.
I support enriching the environments of creators by letting them play more games.
I love that this is the getting your feet wet campaign, can't wait for the grenade only campaign /j
This was beautiful, seeing axel and roland up until the end to help Checkmate was something truly epic
Your storytelling made me cry, Man!
Great vídeo as always!
XCOM is a game, what is very close to my heart. I am definetly a person who leans towards it's stronger brother. The Long War mod.
Even after twelve years, I still find myself playing with this gem.
Absolute legend of a game.
Thanks for playing!
Sounds like the local cops could deal with the aliens on their own now
Dont think you can hide that age of empires music from me
I love your editing style. Captions for the music is a nice touch
thanks for the rec lemon, but more importantly, thanks for the great video GW! cool challenge run plus showing song names in the video equals the fastest subscribe of my life
This challenge run was fun to watch but my first thought about this video was "damn this guys mic sounds good". idk what you're using but the sound was solid.
What a ride! I had never heard of XCOM before today, but I can say I'm instantly sold. I love the idea of spreading your format to other games!
Don't punish yourself by playing XCOM. Don't do it.
@@kaspersaldellis right. You should punish yourself by playing XCOM 2 instead, with the Chosen DLC. XD
XCOM Enemy within and XCOM 2 with the expansion has to be some of the most fun I've had, check them out when you can, preferably on PC so you can get quality of life mods
i have never seen any gameplay from Xcom, this has me interested though.
great video, loving the content.
Before I even watch I remember in one of my first runs of XCOM I gave myself a pretty noteworthy boost of power in the early game by dedicating myself to capturing sectoids and taking their guns. And when the title went off I was given this big blast from the past and I gotta see how well they work as time goes on.
I didn't think I would be sad about the death of a character in a strategy game
This video made me remember just how much the Storm Eagle theme kicks ass.
Really enjoyed how you structured a narrative gong through the entire thing.
Took an already great video to the next level.
This was the first time I have watched one of your videos thanks to Lemon, I was watching it on a second monitor and was wondering where the AoE2 music was coming from, definitely be sticking around, keep up the fun videos!
I haven't beaten this game yet. I've had it for years. Fantastic series.
Im so happy to see one of my favorite creators playing one of my favorite games!
I'm glad to see you branching out. Looking forward to more runs!
Fantastic video, Kyle. This inspired to finally pick up XCOM so I can give it a go.
Love me some xcom challenge runs. Just such a great story telling game for the squad. Just finished alien dark descent and that connection to the squad is what it misses. It gets so close, but the game does nothing to help it. Was hoping it would be another great game to see challenges runs. So this vid really helped scratch that itch, never seen me care more about a youtubers squad than this vid
I started Enemy Unknown just last year (wanted to know what the base game is like before playing Enemy Within), and it keeps swinging between awesome and annoying. I could start the final mission anytime, but I kind of want better willpower soldiers first - however, I believe I should just finish it.
When I saw the Rigging upgrade (giving every soldier two item slots instead of that being a support only thing) was a happy moment.
I've also witnessed the spontaneous manifestation of an enemy before - however, in my case it was a Sectopod on a terror mission manifesting in between the two halves of my squad, one side of which was trying to save civilians in a bar from a bunch of cryssalids, the other half of which was going after a squad of mutons (maybe elites). I think it might have appeared from behind a postbox or something. I restarted that mission.
Good job with this playthrough! this is actually a run i did myself, as I also took the suggestion from Lemon. I personally did it with a 4 sniper heavy squad.
Love the music selection, nailed it
Foundry percent speedrun was an interesting tactic, in my attempts my goal was to get to the interrogation cell first, capture a a few sectiods and then do the research project that lets us use captured plasma pistols
Nice video, leaving a comment for the algorithm.
I second the ballistics only ironman notion. Also, I can say from experience that Pistols only XCOM 2 is very silly and very fun.
I’d love to see you play through the original Xcom from the 90s. Open Xcom is a brilliant modernized version for windows 10.
Yesss please!
Problem with tbose is you have to restrict yourself on using the workshop for money.
Honestly even with just medkits you break the ecenomy in month 1. This can seriously take any difficulty out of the game as you can just buy what you need.
I just had to put down a TFTD run because Im swimming in money and managed to get full Sonic weapons before Lobstermen showed up
It really is a bit tedious at that point as really nothing to work towards.
Xcom has long been one of my favorite games. Its hard enough for me that I wouldn't even consider a challenge like this possible. Congratulations, and well played.
1:10 You can't put a pin in that, since you already set off this highly unstable and explosive run
It’s always refreshing to see all the challenge runners being their own little community.
Turn based games and their gameplay are not my thing but respect you are branching out into other games/genres.
Love the storytelling with this one
Came here based on Lemons recommendation! Got yourself a subscriber here, great video and super entertaining thank you
Just gotta say I appreciate you putting the music names on the screen! Also entertaining video :p
There is never enough Xcom content, more please.
I hear that Age of Empires 2 music!!! Gods, that takes me back.
I suspect this video was recommended to me thanks to Lemon and you know what, good recommendation
Great run. Also, is that RoR2 music in the background because it slaps?
Yes UA-cam! This one! This one right here! I'll have more please thanks
I love XCOM challenges. Also, let's hear it for Checkmate!
I was trying to listen to your early game narration, yet you had The Rain Formerly Known as Purple playing faintly in the background. Any ability to comprehend human speech went out the window.
This would be insane to see in Long War
Xcom2 pistols only. Gotta give the successor a try with these parameters
So everyone starts a Sharpshooter? Because Rooks only have Assault Rifles.
Ive never seen your content until lemon recommended you. I like it a lot.
Good job mate mission accomplished 👍
What a way to start off the new year, heck yeah
I would highly suggest doing this in Long War (probably with dynamic war to make it faster) with all its pistol options and smg primaries for faster movement. Although pistols do take ammo in the mod.
i'm so used to xcom long war that i kept getting caught off guard by some vanilla mechanics, like the arc throwing being good at stunning aliens and hte mechanical units not getting damage reduction.
501st like. I never played any Xcom but I've been aware of the style for many years now. I appreciate you putting up this type of video, part lets play, part strategy guide. Cheers in the new year
25:21 that's rough buddy
Love your videos! Your XCOM playlist has inspired me to try the game myself.
Have you see the "Beat XCOM with only a single soldier for the entire game" challenge? If that soldier dies, you lose; you can only use that one soldier (no other soldiers on any mission); and if they're injured, you have to skip the mission. Might be a fun step-up in difficulty from this one - and I know I would enjoy watching it :)
Morale of the story:
Don't raid Earth at High Noon.
I love Xcom challenges!
Give the heavy's some love! make the next run rocket launcher's only!
Have you thought about during the dark souls challenges of only 1 dgm type being allowed? for physical weapons I know it be normal but I think it be interesting to see the difference in games when only doing 1 type of physical dgm.
Mimic skin is actualy better to give to the frontliners, the more then better. Then you can leave your snipers with archangel and just deal completly free damage across the map without any risks, as most aliens do not know what to do and just run in circles (except sectopod, sometimes they ignore invis competely and go for smoking you with minirockets anyway)
Amazing romp through and through, and good job at doing something Lemon decided isn't worth it due to being absolutely doable jn theory :^)
Cod, now I want to go back to XCOM2, whcih I never finished... But man, this one is chonky when it comes to disk space :'D
Awesome run!
Long War when >:3c
direct opposite heavys only but their sidearm the rocket launer
Nice run . Happy New Year All.
Humans are truly the greatest species in the universe
Imagine training your whole life to rise up in the military, and aliens suddenly attack and threaten all humanity.
After being sent on your first mission, your battle hardened team is left with two survivors. Only to come back and get kicked out the military because they just want to use pistols.
I’ll be looking forwards to more Xcom but have you tried Xcom 2?
in this house we stan James Rhino Jones
Ah yes-the Time Crisis run.
I love your vids but please continue your ds3 play through
Short Answer: Yes
Long Answer: Yes but with extra steps.
I adore this game
Huh, no whale mission? That would have been a nail biter.
I thought about talking about Newfoundland, but by the time it came up the Chryssalids didn’t stand much of a chance
You should do challenge runs on like mass effect, Skyrim, or Witcher or something.
Checkmate.
Now…. A Rocket only RUN is now missing
you should do an impossible difficulty all second wave modifications run
Good job! now do XCOM 2~ xD
30:34 is why I play xcom
Grenades only, no other explosive type with the exception of collateral damage. It would be interesting because youd get less resources to work with.
I Think I have a good run idea, but I dunno how possible it would be. A "Perfect record" run where no country is allowed to pull support at any point.
It’s actually a lot easier than you’d think, if you use satellites well then you can significantly reduce it, and if you have satellites everywhere abduction missions stop, meaning the only way panic goes up is through failed terror missions, or ufos
Checkmate
Can i recommend you playing Remnant From The Ashes with only secondary weapons? If not, Lies of P at level 1
You should do a no death run in XCOM 2 hardest difficulty iron
Ah hell yeah
Hey lad would you considere doing similar shenadigans in Xenonauts ? This was insanely fun.
You've probably already been recommended it multiple times, but BG3 has potential for m a n y challenge runs.
Ehh, I would recommend WOTR instead since with all that depths, complexity and numerous builds that can be theorise, it would give A LOT more challenge run varieties than BG3 could ever give really.
It does, but it is also a Very long game which can make challenge runs harder
@hafizyb Haven't checked out WOTR yet, but I don't think I've ever seen a lack of complexity or build variety levied as criticism against bg3 lol. Anyways, I'd love to watch him do challenge runs of both!
@@EloyGray yeah, that's true too.
@@austinobambino1360 oh no, I really am not exaggerating when I say that WOTR have more potential on build varieties (especially if you also included meme/fun/roleplay build). If you have the time, try checking the WOTR available skills. You can (almost) create any build you want really, and that's before using mods lol. But yeah, BG3 is easier to get into and is shorter to do multiple challenge runs while WOTR is longer but can give more satisfaction for those that like more technical/complexity on their build.