Chalk me down for another "don't get all the Enemy Unknown rose tinting". If anything that game was even more obtuse and easy to mess up without knowing it than XCOM 2, especially on Classic and Impossible games.
They've improved on every single problem I had with Enemy Unknown/Enemy Within - almost all the class specialisation choices (I have not found a use for Sword Rangers yet) actually feel like a choice now, the base building isn't a complete chore of a puzzle with an obtuse best answer, the bland airgame is gone. I can't say the research is really improved but it's not really worse either. I was bemused by the comment that you could skip lasers in Enemy Unknown, which runs completely counter to my experiences, lasers were such a huge upgrade from ballistics that I cannot imagine skipping them. I sort of see skipping carapace armour, but you need lasers because a dead alien can't kill you.
As someone who played enough Enemy Unknown/Within to have memorised all of the maps (the trainyard and murder street can go die in a fire) the procedural maps, for all their occasional jankiness are such a huge improvement that they alone leave me feeling warm and fuzzy towards the game.
Even the camera and line of sight issues are improved on. These issues are still there, but the line of sight indicator is wonderful and the camera is that slight bit less janky.
I'm not even going to try and excuse the weird technical problems though. They need fixing, even if I haven't encountered them myself all that much.
Also it sounds like the panel needs to use more grenades.
