A super-heavy soldier class expands our options.
What I look for in expansions to a dynamic game like XCOM 2 are a means of increasing diversity and opportunities to change up not just my next campaign, but every game thereafter in interesting ways. Shen’s Last Gift provides that, substantially adding to XCOM’s arsenal with a whole new ultra-heavy soldier class, giving you another optional path to develop your forces along and opening up new (and old) tactics.
These fully robotic Spark units behave a lot like their cyborg counterparts from XCOM: Enemy Within, including the extremely useful unlockable abilities to serve as mobile high cover for their squishier squadmates and of course punch the crap out of aliens. They’re immune to fire, poison, and Viper binds. They can wield heavy weapons, effortlessly leap up walls, and be upgraded with the heaviest armor available to us in XCOM 2. They are big, beefy supersoldiers; appropriately, one of their unlockable abilities is Intimidate, which has a chance to panic enemies who attack them.
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Limitations make it difficult and unwise to field a mech-heavy squad.
All of that power is very effectively balanced out with major drawbacks. Sparks are expensive and slow to manufacture relative to instantly recruiting a fresh warm body, but just as easy to lose if you’re cocky. Because they can’t take advantage of cover, Sparks are big targets for enemy fire. When they’re damaged they’re slow to recover, and only one can be repaired at a time. Those limitations make it difficult and unwise to field a mech-heavy squad, and tough to invest in mechs, psionics, and conventional warfare all at the same time. That creates important decisions, and encourages more campaign replays with different strategies.
Cosmetically, the bots are somewhat disappointing. Because these automatons don’t have human-like heads, they don’t use existing accessories or helmets, and that makes them less customizable than a normal soldier. The available options are limited to just a handful, and there are only two voices. Relative to what we had in XCOM: Enemy Within, it feels sparse.
The scripted story mission that unlocks the ability to manufacture Spark units at the Proving Grounds is unique in XCOM 2, in that it you have to move through three stages of a refreshingly distinctive-looking abandoned robotics facility, with a tricky escape and a tough boss battle at the end. The mission is led by a playable Chief Engineer Lili Shen, who comes with some fun, extremely overpowered superhacker abilities that help to counter the waves of robotic defenders. Like Dr. Vahlen in Alien Hunters, it doesn’t fully answer the question of the fate of Dr. Raymond Shen, but it provides a glimpse at what XCOM: Enemy Unknown’s characters have been up to in this dark alternate timeline.
With both Shen’s Last Gift and the previous Alien Hunters DLC missions enabled, the first couple of months of an XCOM 2 campaign feel crowded with nonrandomized content. The good news is you don’t have to do either of them until you want to, and both missions can be disabled when starting a new game without disabling all the new toys.
The Verdict
The story mission of Shen’s Last Gift is briefly interesting for its new location and escape mechanic, but the real reason to get this DLC is the sixth soldier class that expands your squad composition options with super-durable mech troops.
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