Let's Play X-COM Enforcer Mission 6

The Worst Mission Of The Game.

You're on a fairly small platform, surrounded by a literal sea of instant death. If you botch a jump, or accidentally perform a 'dodge' too close to the edge? Too bad, you're dead, restart the mission. Not even the Lazarus System can save you from death pits. If you get a bit overzealous about chasing Data Points? Dead. Or maybe you jump pretty much perfectly, except an enemy spawns in and moves close enough that you slide off in a weird direction and die. It's hugely infuriating. And there's not even a Bonus game to be found!

Not only that, but the mission introduces two all-new flying enemies that are tough and hard-hitting, one of which is a ranged attacker even though flying ranged attackers haven't been a thing in prior missions. Said enemies are easily overlooked because everything is dark. And eventually there's flying enemies spawning from the top part of the vessel, where your irritatingly-zoomed-in camera can't see them. The flying ranged enemies, at least, really ought to have been introduced in the prior mission so the player could get a feel for them before being thrown into the deep end.

The whole thing is a crazy-making disaster, and about the only pleasant thing is that surprisingly the level is bounded by invisible walls fairly close in, enough so that eg the Blade Launcher is actually a quite good weapon here in spite of what you might expect. This is important, since using the Blade Launcher is the only way to get a decent amount of Data Points out of the mission that isn't unnecessarily dangerous.

Thankfully, the overall quality of the game rises from here.

The Research item spawns in partway through the mission. Interestingly, it's either randomized or, like, kill-based, because it doesn't appear at the same time every time. Just make sure to check that top spot periodically and grab it when it spawns in.

See you next mission.