u/Valdish

I know the devs have alleged that the references are just easter eggs and all, I don't care. The timeline adds up if you look at how things play out in the alt timeline. We know that in the timeline where the boss goes after killbane, earth does not get destroyed during the zin invasion, because of the enter the dominatrix DLC, because the saints defeated the Zin absurdly easily, and somehow Shaundi returned.

Beyond that we don't have any clear info on what happened next, but we do know that during SR2 ultor was already working on going to the moon, so it's reasonable to assume that about 20 years later, they were already there, maybe setting up, maybe already doing mining (I don't know how fast their tech allows them to make progress there).

Meanwhile, after the Zin invasion and the events of the dominatrix, the saints now have some space traveling technology, and a reason to prepare for more alien invasions, so they take it upon themselves to protect the world from extraterrestrial threats, and eventually rebrand themselves to earth defense force.

It's that popular accepted idea that the game is saying you're le bad for not turning off the game or whatever, and telling you you're a bad person for killing people when the game forces you to kill people. I have considered it a misconception from the moment i first played through the game, cause the story very clearly portrays Walker as the one making the decisions, and player, just making the game progress.

For me, it feels like if anyone in the game represents the player, it would be Lugo and Adams, since just like the player, they're following Walkers orders, even when they disagree with him, and allow Walker to drag them to hell with him.

And that is if there even is a meta narrative, for which the only evidence is a couple of 4th wall breaks, that address I would argue are just used to disturb the player, as an interesting way to use 4th wall breaks for a horror story.

Far as it's presented, Jackal basically asks if you wanna kill yourself, or if you wanna pinky promise that you'll kill yourself.

Like why would you logically choose to take the car battery and not the border guard bribe?

Now, as dumb as that choice seems on the surface, I'm aware that this is keeping in mind that the player has malaria, and during the final mission, the symptoms are actually more prominent than the rest of the game, suggesting you're not long for this world anyway, and the game hints that Jackal has brain cancer, with him even saying during the part where you make choice that both him and the player are terminal cases. Problem is, Jackal isn't actually confirmed to have cancer, so for all we know, he could just as well be trying to get you to kill yourself avoid loose ends.

I'm pretty sure i probably can do it without 100% but I'm at a loss when it comes to sending the fake emails.

Like the first computer i have to do it on is at the entrance of the bank. The problem is, if i try to distract the guard by whistling, he will close the door and trap me inside. The only way out is the front door, and even if i scramble the camera with the pistol, opening the front door seems to trigger an alarm every time.

The second PC is in a security room with 2 guards, no idea what to do there.

So yeah, any tips are appreciated, and i would also appreciate it if you can just confirm that it's just not possible without eliminating the guards.

RDA wants to take control of mars to get mining done, and they don't plan on giving anyone fair wages. Can the red faction send them packing?

It's been bugging me for a while. Like the one holding up a collapsing building near times square. what are they? What's their deal? I don't recall the characters in the game even acknowledging their existence.

Obligatory "don't get me wrong, i like the game" disclaimer

With that out of the way, the story in XCOM2 is in my opinion kinda lame, and war of the chosen makes it even worse.

To start with, they make the commander out to be this super brilliant tactical genius whose strategic mastery is considered to be the most crucial part of the war by both sides. That alone is something I don't like, cause in my opinion the commanders capabilities should speak for themselves by what you accomplish in the game, or how much you screw up, but on top of that, this is a timeline where in the initial invasion, as far as I've been able to figure out, under the commanders leadership, XCOM was defeated in the first month, which is impressively bad, like I'm pretty sure it's actually impossible to get a game over in the first month in EU/EW. And yet somehow both XCOM and advent think this dumbass is the best strategic mind they have ever been able to find. And also, he has some kind of super genetics that make him compatible with the whole avatar mind transfer thing. So yeah, i think the portrayal of the commander is kinda lame, and they shouldn't have had him be the main character and instead they could've done the same thing as the previous game where the player can choose who gets to fill that role in the final mission, like maybe have a psi soldier of your choosing do the avatar mind transfer thing.

Aside from that i also don't like the general tone of the game, and think it was just much better in the previous game, with the mystery vibe it had, now they don't portray the aliens as mysterious, they portray them as the government, completely indistinguishable, and i find it less interesting.

The other problems i have are with the war of the chosen.

One being the chosen themselves. I like them in how they affect gameplay, all aspects of it in my opinion are awesome. What isn't awesome is how they're written. I don't like their personalities. They act like anime characters, and i find them obnoxious, which is made worse by how they keep talking, in both missions and when I'm looking at the map. Personally, i think they would be a lot better if they either didn't talk, or exclusively talked in the alien language, and wore masks that cover up their faces. I think it would make them more intimidating, and more mysterious and alien.

And lastly, I don't like the factions (again, the way they affect gameplay is fine, but I don't like the story surrounding them) the first thing the game tells you about them is that they all hate each other, but all that amounts to is that their leaders talk shit about each other on comms, from how the game explains them, you'd expect there to be a mechanic that if you do stuff for one, the others will dislike you or something, but as far as i could tell, that's not the case. But also, more importantly, I just don't like their leaders for their personalities, i feel like they would be better if their leaders were some faceless logos they show on screen when they contact me.

That's all the stuff i wanted to complain about.

Supposedly, they get stronger from consuming these monsters, but they clearly leave plenty of biomass lying around. I would assume that the increase in physical strength comes from consuming muscle tissue and adding it to theirs, but they clearly leave plenty of that stuff unconsumed.

The aliens invade not long after the events of just cause 4 and all of its DLC stories and all the faction are in the state they were in after the events of the game. So the agency just lost Emmerson Miller, the black hand lost its headquarters, and Rico is with the army of chaos, making plans to take down the agency.

The aliens begin their invasion the same way they do in XCOM enemy within.

Like think about it, the important individual characters, with personalities, and roles in the story are the Americans. The radio guy, Conrad, the CIA guys are americans. Meanwhile all the locals, barely even get speaking lines, almost like they're props.

I'm wondering if that's an intentional thing, like itself being a commentary how these kinds of stories make these tragedies about the Americans dying, while the bystanders, and the locals of the countries being killed off at best get mentioned with throwaway lines, just acknowledging them, like "oh yeah those guys dying is also tragic. But what's even more tragic is how it's making our soldiers feel bad." Or something like that.