"Checkmate."

The fact that the one who had THE gift was nicknamed Checkmate is like ... one of the best thing of this run

having your two boys from the first squad all the way through AND your ace sniper Checkmate turning out to the the psy gifted is one of those great moments where the dice just roll perfectly for a story. so cool when that happens

I have never played this game but Kyle is a good guy and has a soothing voice that wouldn't be amiss on a late night radio show that plays smooth jazz. Although this video was released on Monday as opposed to Saturday or Sunday so.....Gamer's Weekday? 🤔

This is me letting KZfaq know that this is the kind of content I want to see. Came over from the citrus platemail man. I appreciate the challenge exploration into other games. I never played much of the souls games as a kid and so I don’t always have a connection to just how amazing the challenges are. Having beaten Xcom 2 a few times though, this I can enter into. Thank you, friend of the citrus platemail man.

Ballistics only ironman impossible is really fun in vanilla (and long war too, probably the most fun run of xcom i've ever had)!

"We blast our way through friends in low places" - I appreciate this very much. ^_^ Awesome video. Can't wait to start playing Xcom as well.

I think this is my favorite video you've ever made, and that's a High bar to pass. XCOM having more of an emergent story the viewer can't predict ahead of time really gave your narration and writing so much more room to make the piece something really unique. like, idk man. This rocks so much I'm having trouble not writing an essay in your comments about it.

I didn't think I would be sad about the death of a character in a strategy game

That Metroid Prime Phendrana Drifts music sent me back in time.

I support enriching the environments of creators by letting them play more games.

XCOM is a game, what is very close to my heart. I am definetly a person who leans towards it's stronger brother. The Long War mod. Even after twelve years, I still find myself playing with this gem. Absolute legend of a game. Thanks for playing!

James rhino jones, checkmate, viking, roland, pox and vixen. A verifiable movie sqaud of names

As a long time Xcom fan myself I really enjoyed the narration. A good clip, nice humor and a good focus on the stories.

This challenge run was fun to watch but my first thought about this video was "damn this guys mic sounds good". idk what you're using but the sound was solid.

What a ride! I had never heard of XCOM before today, but I can say I'm instantly sold. I love the idea of spreading your format to other games!

This was beautiful, seeing axel and roland up until the end to help Checkmate was something truly epic

Dont think you can hide that age of empires music from me

Love the shout-out to The Backlogs! Lemon and the Goddess of Flame surely smile upon thee!

Never heard of this game until now! Thanks for putting me on! Looks like a ton of fun

Before I even watch I remember in one of my first runs of XCOM I gave myself a pretty noteworthy boost of power in the early game by dedicating myself to capturing sectoids and taking their guns. And when the title went off I was given this big blast from the past and I gotta see how well they work as time goes on.

I'm glad to see you branching out. Looking forward to more runs!

I love that this is the getting your feet wet campaign, can't wait for the grenade only campaign /j

Fantastic video, Kyle. This inspired to finally pick up XCOM so I can give it a go.

"I am both freezing AND starving" - man, there are layers to this challenge run onion! Respect 💪

Really enjoyed how you structured a narrative gong through the entire thing. Took an already great video to the next level.

Hey Kyle… I hope you and your family had a Great New Year.. thank you for the video!

I haven't beaten this game yet. I've had it for years. Fantastic series.

thanks for the rec lemon, but more importantly, thanks for the great video GW! cool challenge run plus showing song names in the video equals the fastest subscribe of my life

Your storytelling made me cry, Man! Great vídeo as always!

Im so happy to see one of my favorite creators playing one of my favorite games!

Love the music selection, nailed it

I love your editing style. Captions for the music is a nice touch

I’d love to see you play through the original Xcom from the 90s. Open Xcom is a brilliant modernized version for windows 10.

i have never seen any gameplay from Xcom, this has me interested though. great video, loving the content.

This was the first time I have watched one of your videos thanks to Lemon, I was watching it on a second monitor and was wondering where the AoE2 music was coming from, definitely be sticking around, keep up the fun videos!

Good job with this playthrough! this is actually a run i did myself, as I also took the suggestion from Lemon. I personally did it with a 4 sniper heavy squad.

Love me some xcom challenge runs. Just such a great story telling game for the squad. Just finished alien dark descent and that connection to the squad is what it misses. It gets so close, but the game does nothing to help it. Was hoping it would be another great game to see challenges runs. So this vid really helped scratch that itch, never seen me care more about a youtubers squad than this vid

Just gotta say I appreciate you putting the music names on the screen! Also entertaining video :p

Nice video, leaving a comment for the algorithm. I second the ballistics only ironman notion. Also, I can say from experience that Pistols only XCOM 2 is very silly and very fun.

Good job mate mission accomplished 👍

There is never enough Xcom content, more please.

Foundry percent speedrun was an interesting tactic, in my attempts my goal was to get to the interrogation cell first, capture a a few sectiods and then do the research project that lets us use captured plasma pistols

What a way to start off the new year, heck yeah

Ive never seen your content until lemon recommended you. I like it a lot.

Came here based on Lemons recommendation! Got yourself a subscriber here, great video and super entertaining thank you

I love Xcom challenges!

It’s always refreshing to see all the challenge runners being their own little community.

I suspect this video was recommended to me thanks to Lemon and you know what, good recommendation

501st like. I never played any Xcom but I've been aware of the style for many years now. I appreciate you putting up this type of video, part lets play, part strategy guide. Cheers in the new year

This would be insane to see in Long War

Turn based games and their gameplay are not my thing but respect you are branching out into other games/genres.

You've probably already been recommended it multiple times, but BG3 has potential for m a n y challenge runs.

I started Enemy Unknown just last year (wanted to know what the base game is like before playing Enemy Within), and it keeps swinging between awesome and annoying. I could start the final mission anytime, but I kind of want better willpower soldiers first - however, I believe I should just finish it. When I saw the Rigging upgrade (giving every soldier two item slots instead of that being a support only thing) was a happy moment. I've also witnessed the spontaneous manifestation of an enemy before - however, in my case it was a Sectopod on a terror mission manifesting in between the two halves of my squad, one side of which was trying to save civilians in a bar from a bunch of cryssalids, the other half of which was going after a squad of mutons (maybe elites). I think it might have appeared from behind a postbox or something. I restarted that mission.

I was trying to listen to your early game narration, yet you had The Rain Formerly Known as Purple playing faintly in the background. Any ability to comprehend human speech went out the window.

I love XCOM challenges. Also, let's hear it for Checkmate!

Xcom has long been one of my favorite games. Its hard enough for me that I wouldn't even consider a challenge like this possible. Congratulations, and well played.

Nice run . Happy New Year All.

Awesome run! Long War when >:3c

I would highly suggest doing this in Long War (probably with dynamic war to make it faster) with all its pistol options and smg primaries for faster movement. Although pistols do take ammo in the mod.

I hear that Age of Empires 2 music!!! Gods, that takes me back.

1:10 You can't put a pin in that, since you already set off this highly unstable and explosive run

Yes KZfaq! This one! This one right here! I'll have more please thanks

Love your videos! Your XCOM playlist has inspired me to try the game myself. Have you see the "Beat XCOM with only a single soldier for the entire game" challenge? If that soldier dies, you lose; you can only use that one soldier (no other soldiers on any mission); and if they're injured, you have to skip the mission. Might be a fun step-up in difficulty from this one - and I know I would enjoy watching it :)

“We can get engineers, and ignore South America”

I adore this game

Amazing romp through and through, and good job at doing something Lemon decided isn't worth it due to being absolutely doable jn theory :^) Cod, now I want to go back to XCOM2, whcih I never finished... But man, this one is chonky when it comes to disk space :'D

Ah hell yeah

Imagine training your whole life to rise up in the military, and aliens suddenly attack and threaten all humanity. After being sent on your first mission, your battle hardened team is left with two survivors. Only to come back and get kicked out the military because they just want to use pistols.

Humans are truly the greatest species in the universe

Love to see a new gamers weekend drop. Is rookies only a possible run?

Getting me in the mood for xcom again? Well if you insist

i'm so used to xcom long war that i kept getting caught off guard by some vanilla mechanics, like the arc throwing being good at stunning aliens and hte mechanical units not getting damage reduction.

Ah yes-the Time Crisis run.

Xcom2 pistols only. Gotta give the successor a try with these parameters

Give the heavy's some love! make the next run rocket launcher's only!

Good job! now do XCOM 2~ xD

direct opposite heavys only but their sidearm the rocket launer

I Think I have a good run idea, but I dunno how possible it would be. A "Perfect record" run where no country is allowed to pull support at any point.

Have you thought about during the dark souls challenges of only 1 dgm type being allowed? for physical weapons I know it be normal but I think it be interesting to see the difference in games when only doing 1 type of physical dgm.

in this house we stan James Rhino Jones

Great run. Also, is that RoR2 music in the background because it slaps?

Short Answer: Yes Long Answer: Yes but with extra steps.

I’ll be looking forwards to more Xcom but have you tried Xcom 2?

Now…. A Rocket only RUN is now missing

30:34 is why I play xcom

Mimic skin is actualy better to give to the frontliners, the more then better. Then you can leave your snipers with archangel and just deal completly free damage across the map without any risks, as most aliens do not know what to do and just run in circles (except sectopod, sometimes they ignore invis competely and go for smoking you with minirockets anyway)

Checkmate

You should do challenge runs on like mass effect, Skyrim, or Witcher or something.

Huh, no whale mission? That would have been a nail biter.

you should do an impossible difficulty all second wave modifications run

Grenades only, no other explosive type with the exception of collateral damage. It would be interesting because youd get less resources to work with.

Morale of the story: Don't raid Earth at High Noon.

Hey lad would you considere doing similar shenadigans in Xenonauts ? This was insanely fun.

You should do a no death run in XCOM 2 hardest difficulty iron

i want to see you beat it with one person ironman pistol only.

Wow... I really do hate the triple overwatch on the same enemy shit usually, as it tends to be a complete waste of ammo & actions but hell, was that triple overwatch crossfire on teh cyber disc at xcom base satisfying ^^ For another run, Lemon did a single soldier only run and using a Sniper there got me an idea: In reality, as sniper is usually accompanied by a second person as their spotter. So why not do a Recon-duo run, featuring one Sniper and one Supporter and no other soldiers (aside from the ones the game forces on you for certain missions of course)? Alternatively, since you'll frequently be left with only one or even worse, no available soldier this way, I'd set a limit of 2 or 3 teams for it. Could even try all 3 spotter options, having one of each teams, sniper+support, sniper+assault and sniper+heavy. and of course, each team can only operate as just the two of them and for covert operations you'd have to send one of the duo (could add a rule on which one of the two needs to be sent or not) and the other one needs to stay back and not participate until their partner is back from their mission.

Can i recommend you playing Remnant From The Ashes with only secondary weapons? If not, Lies of P at level 1

I don't think anyone has does a video on this but "Can you beat XCOM EW with only Ballistic Weapons" ?

I love your vids but please continue your ds3 play through