XCOM 2: Blogger Succession Game — Final Mission, Mission 35: Operation Leviathan

We’re here. Not all that far off two years (19 months) of play later, and we’re at the end game. The final mission. The do or die. Last time around, UnwiseOwl triggered the final sequence of the game, a back-to-back duo of missions. He played the first in the sequence and this, here today, is the last.

Operation Leviathan

If you’d prefer things in video form — there you go. All (almost) 2 hours of it. There are some cutscenes in there to be sure, but the actual mission itself was also very lengthy.

As a side note: This final mission gave you the option of taking in even wounded soldiers. But I’m very glad I didn’t have to. We had enough of a strong roster remaining to not force our hand in that direction.

The Leviathan Team

• Lt. Klaus ‘Mailman’ Weiss – Sniper — Following after Endalia with a pistol focus — but still able to send it from a mile away.
• Col. Naithin Nahilin – Ranger — Can’t send my team where I’m not willing to go. Good with a blade in a pinch.
• Col. Rakuno Venmuel – Grenadier — Precision explosives and heavy weapons expert. Can strip the armour from a mech at 100 paces.
• Col. Lizz ‘Magi’ Winterfield – Sniper — Deals death from a long range. Extremely good at it.
• Col. Tessa ‘Endalia’ Hastjarjanto – Sniper — Fast-firing pistol hotshot.
• Col. Bookah Nerk – Specialist — Hacking and Robot Combat, but with a side of healing support.

Taking three snipers wasn’t my original plan. But of the two remaining, unselected Colonels: One was shaken, and the other gravely wounded.

Besides, with UnwiseOwl still playing along and the bad run of luck his characters have faced through the campaign so far — it seemed only right to have him along for this final mission. (And pray fervently that it didn’t then become my turn to see one of his characters die, hah.)

And whether by accident or design, Mailman has something of a differentiator from Magi and Tessa. Where Magi focuses in the efficient dealing of death from great range, and Tessa likes shooting everything in sight with her pistols — Mailman can deliver, with precision accuracy, a heavy rocket fired from near enough to halfway across the map.

Sure, sure — that’s with the help of the heavy exo suit. But it works; so I’ll take it.

I put the remaining exo suit from our stock onto Rakuno. It’s good to have him back in play again!

And finally, I put the spider suit onto Magi. As it turns out though — there are less ledges and high places to grapple onto in this map than I would’ve liked.

Oh well!

The Mission

I don’t think there was a single enemy type unrepresented in this final mission. From Sectoids to Sectopods; we got it all at one point or another.

The ultimate goal, however, was to remove the life from the Avatars (yes, Avatars, plural). You don’t know it until you kill the first one, but there are three. And if you’re not quick enough and killing them, you can end up with multiple on the map at a time.

Something I now know first-hand, after getting rather cocky after my pinball machine of a fight with the first one (where the Avatar willingly or not, played the role of the pinball).

Alongside the Avatars at the end there, you’ll have waves of other enemies alongside them.

This final all-out brawl of a fight had me wondering if I might’ve got that far only to lose, truth be told. I’d used the two mimic grenades earlier in the run. The second of which, in retrospect, was a bit of a panic throw as the enemies were largely dealt with by the time they got to have a go.

I had more Chryssalids coming in on one side, at least one half of a Codex clone still hiding out in the mist, and a fresh batch of hell I now forget of what particular variety working its way in from the other side.

It felt a bit like a last stand, with the team looking out for each other the best they knew how while death encircled them.

Oh- and add to that, Rakuno seemed to be the favourite mind-control target of the enemy Avatars.

… You wanna guess who was also holding the one and only flashbang we brought on the mission…?

Yeah.

Anyway, the first time he was mind controlled at least, he had no ammo left and had to reload. Hah. Silly Aliens.

Somewhat amusingly though, it was the fact the bastards kept mind-controlling Rakuno that led to the swift win. What I had very clearly forgotten over the years, was that you kill the three Avatars and bingo-bango, mission is done. You don’t have to clean up, or otherwise fight to an extraction — you just win.

And win we did!¹

After Action Report

Well… There wasn’t one, really.

After the cutscenes were done, I ended up on a black screen. I thought there might’ve at least been credits at that point, but that didn’t happen for me.

Even so; Lt. Klaus ‘Mailman’ Weiss gained a well-deserved promotion to Colonel through the course of this run.

Everyone made it home, although there were some injuries along the way — Magi and Bookah sustaining the most serious of these. Bookah managed to heal the worst of it up however.

And… It seems after all was said and done here, that they should be able to get some well-deserved rest in any event.

OOH!

I reloaded the game, as I was reasonably certain not getting anything at all after the cutscenes was a bug. Potentially as a result of having the game open and recording from it for 2 hours straight.

Good thing I did, as the final screens save me a huge amount of effort in compiling what was going to be an entirely separate post. ;D

And there we have it. The end of the XCOM 2 Blogger Succession Game.

Now… Just to determine what’s up next. :)

1. Although I did use my Mulligan for a partial reload in the final fight, after accidentally targeting a mind-controlled Rakuno instead of the intended target. Entirely possible could’ve played through it, but I decided not to risk it, as our healing charges were also done and dusted for the run.