XCOM 2 is a turn-based tactics game developed by Firaxis Games and published by 2K. Set twenty years after humanity lost the war against the alien invasion, it casts the player as commander of a resistance movement fighting an occupation government from a mobile base.
XCOM 2 reverses the premise of XCOM: Enemy Unknown. Earth has fallen, the aliens rule through the ADVENT administration, and XCOM survives as an underground resistance force operating from the Avenger, a captured alien supply craft. The campaign is structured around disrupting the Avatar Project, a global doomsday clock that forces the player to balance research, recruitment, engineering, and risky field operations.
Between missions, players scan regions for supplies and intel, make contact with resistance cells, excavate rooms inside the Avenger, and choose research paths that unlock weapons, armor, autopsies, and experimental equipment. Strategic pressure comes from the Avatar Project, monthly Dark Events, wounded soldiers, and the constant shortage of time and resources.
Missions use grid-based, turn-based combat with cover, destructible environments, concealment, and strict objectives. Soldiers belong to classes such as Ranger, Grenadier, Specialist, Sharpshooter, and Psi Operative, each developing through branching abilities. Permadeath remains central: a failed flank, missed shot, or panicked retreat can permanently remove a veteran soldier from the campaign.
XCOM 2 was praised for sharpening Firaxis’s tactical formula, adding stronger mission variety and a more aggressive strategic layer. Its 2017 expansion, War of the Chosen, deepened the campaign with resistance factions, hero units, soldier bonds, and recurring boss enemies. IGN ranked XCOM 2 on its 2021 list of the best 100 games of all time.