Let's Play X-COM Enforcer Mission 23

This is another graveyard level, and it's a much more distinctive one, albeit very, very silly. You've got the walls trying to crush you except not really, floors falling out from under you, and other improbable death traps that are doubly out of place given that as far as I can tell Enforcer intends its missions to all take place in the US, bar a couple caveats toward the end of the game. Ancient death traps to protect the ancestral burial grounds is a silly trope, but not totally unjustified. Doing so with modern US cemeteries... I'm sure you could probably find examples if you wanted to research it, but seriously.

It's also a bit of a pain to navigate, between everything being dark and the weird paths you take to get from Point A to Point B. And it's annoying to 100%, because there's several points of no return, some of which are obvious but plenty are not. It's still overall higher quality than many prior levels, and in particular is way more memorable than the prior grave level, just... annoying.

This mission also shows off the Psi Cannon. Mechanically, it's pretty accurate to think of it as pretty much a Mass Driver, but overall better. Its shots travel slower, but they hit harder, in a larger radius, and when it impacts with a wall in particular it has a fairly impressive explosion that does yet more damage. The upgrades are mostly kind of boring, with the only memorable one being the final upgrade causes it to launch enemies like melee enemies can do to you. That's amusing, but while it contributes to the chaotic nature of the game and that's really the heart of Enforcer it's also probably not actually an improvement to its functionality. I suppose it's useful if you've got tough melee enemies mobbing you?

In raw gameplay terms, it's one of your clear-cuttedly ultimate weapons, essentially displacing the Mass Driver.

Unfortunately, it makes it incredibly hard to see things due to the sheer size of the shots, their opacity and duration, and Enforcer's awkward camera angles. For LP purposes I only grabbed them for the sake of completion, and from here on out I tend to avoid them if I can so viewers aren't constantly blinded. And honestly even when just playing for myself I dislike buying them -they're overall better than the Mass Driver when it comes to killing bosses and all, but the degree to which it blinds you becomes more and more of a problem as the game ramps up its difficulty, and against many regular enemies the Mass Driver's faster projectile and superior ammo reserves are actually more useful.

See you next mission.