Xcom 2

I'd say it's better than the original EU/EW, but psionics are busted and sharpshooters/specialists are underpowered compared to grenadiers and rangers. Making psionics a unique class instead of a way of augmenting existing soldiers was a huge mistake, and not blatantly stealing Long War's Officer system was also pretty stupid.

The new customization options, Advanced Warfare Centre perks, and weapon attachments go a long way to making me more attached to individual soldiers, but I still don't like how you can fall into the trend of having a core 10 or so troops that go on every fucking mission. Long War had me actively using 50+ soldiers, and that was much more fun.

The strategic layer has been dumbed down big time, but the Dark Event and Avatar Progress systems are much better than the old panic system. The reverse difficulty curve is as prevalent as ever though.

The new concealment system was a stroke of genius, and the mission timer does a great job lighting a fire under your ass. The timer should've counted down until multiple reinforcement pods started dropping down every single turn instead of an immediate mission loss, though, since the current implementation results in blitzing pods being the only viable tactical choice. They also should have removed the "kill all aliens" requirement from most guerilla ops to support this. Troops having to carry/fulton extract alien corpses off of the battlefield outside of Landed UFO/Supply Raids would've been an interesting tactical decision. It also could've given the Specialist something else to do when they're not busy sucking dick.

All in all I'd say it's a step up in depth and complexity from EU and EW despite the less interesting setting, but it's way too simple compared to Long War. I had fun with it for a few playthroughs, but eventually went back to Long War when I got sick of the comparatively few viable strategies. Maybe I'll go back once more interesting mods are released.

Bring flashbangs. Most of the alien's special powers will completely fuck you over if they get one off on you like fucking sectoids mind controlling a guy and booking it into the fog but flashbangs shut down everything. They're a must-have for stun lancer pods early on.

Legend buffs ADVENT health to the point where T1 assault rifles need a perfect damage roll to kill base ADVENT Troopers at full health. Killing one Trooper goes from taking one guy's turn to taking two guy's turn unless you crit, which is huge.

Timed missions are my favourite addition. I loved the bomb disposals and the meld collection in EW (Never tried vanilla EU), I think the time pressure really enhances the game.

Recently revisited it now that the DLC is all out. The early game is ridiculously brutal now and I don't know what to do about it. I finished ironman legend difficulty on my first playthrough right at launch with only a little difficulty in the mid game, but now I can't even make it to the mid game on ironman commander difficulty. The introduction missions for both DLCs are ridiculously hard, and it feels like a single failed missions means a game over now.

In EW/Long War you could fail missions, lose your A/B teams and still eventually come out on top. Here everything seems to snowball fast, losing your best team or even just your best soldier can spell a game over, even if you have several other good teams. There's a shitload of stuff competing for your resources on the strategic layer, and all of it is necessary for long-term success.

The game introduces a lot of neat mechanics over EU/EW but the experience just feels arbitrarily hollow due to the sheer amount of shit it throws at you to ruin your day. You can have a 100 hour long campaign full of successes, and then one important mission goes south and it's game over.

Just played it about 10 minutes ago. Performance is horrible, even more so with mods.
After certain point your dudes become broken and every mission is a cakewalk until the very late game, when andromedons etc roll in. Then it's a bit harder but still easier than the early game.
Mods are awesome as always.
It does a good job at creating suitable atmosphere. It manages to hype up the player when needed, like when ufo downs your ship and you have to defend it.
Overall 8/10 bretty good game but wouldn't recommend for someone with toaster.

xcom general on /vg/ is literally the only good general in the history of the board

It doesn't have a Long War or Enemy Within yet so it lacks the depth and content of the first game. Firaxis sequels are always inferior to the original games until they get an expansion or two

>The introduction missions for both DLCs are ridiculously hard
This. I started a new game a couple of days ago, first time with DLCs, went into the Shen mission too early, got slaughtered on the rooftop even with intensive use of specialists (I didn't even know it was a robot mission, I just happened to have a couple specs in my squad).

Fun though, I look forward to starting a new game later in the week and working out how to smash that mission to bits.

>The introduction missions for both DLCs are ridiculously hard

You aren't meant to do them ASAP. They never expire on the hologlobe so you can sit on them until you've geared up a little. Shen's in particular basically demands you wait until Mag Rifles come online or you'll get robodicked.

Game ran like total shit on my 770, all low settings. I'm not saying that I should be able to run on Ultra or anything, but there is NO REASON for the game to run that shittily.

Also I couldn't handle the RNG fucking me over one too many times. I am facing the big wall-type creature with my Shotgun guy point blank with 95 percent chance to hit, how the FUCK did that miss? And I understand in the context of the game I hit that 95 percent and missed, but from a top down right there perspective I was half a square away.

Also making maps and missions where I can't save everybody is a load of hogshit. I should be able to save everybody on a map if I play well enough.

>Also making maps and missions where I can't save everybody is a load of hogshit.
You absolutely can. Did you park your sniper at the start of the map and leave him there until the last two turns or something?

Played this game for the first time yesterday.

Main characters are:

>nigger scientist
>tomboy Asian girl
>douchebag commander

And they all talk about 'cool' alien stuff nonstop.

2 hours into it and I'm still doing tutorial stuff. Dropped it then and there.

Yeah, I recently realized that they don't actually expire like it's implied they do.

My real issue with them though is the way ironman handles them. Ironman treats these missions like it did the XCOM base defense in EW, meaning that if you fail it you MUST restart it or give up on the campaign. This means that if you go in too early or with a poor team comp (i.e. no specialists for Shen's) you are forced to try the same mission over and over and over again with the same team and gear. This usually means the mission is impossible, and you've gotta restart the entire campaign. Never again, Ironman.

Even with the latest patches it still runs kinda shitty.

The only way I can make it playable on my laptop is running on all low settings, 720p windowed.

I like to pretend if I had beastly hardware it would run smoothly, but given the UI is some Flash shit I know that's only partly true at best.

Still, I kinda like it. Prefer EW and LW, but I still get enjoyment from 2.

i haven't played since launch. have they fixed that dumb bug where the camera just lingers on a unit randomly for sevearl seconds after you do anything?

>Game ran like total shit on my 770, all low settings.
Something's wrong on your end user. I also have a 770, and after the first patch I was able to run the game at 50-60fps on ultra settings even with dozens of mods.

Now that it's no longer pc exclusive its fucking garbage.

>Ironman treats these missions like it did the XCOM base defense in EW, meaning that if you fail it you MUST restart it or give up on the campaign.
I'm I noticed this shit, what the fuck. I put it on iron man obviously, then when I got slaughtered it gave me the option to retry the mission. I went 'fuck that' and took a break, going to start a new game in a few days, but seriously, that pissed me off. What's the point in enabling iron man if it's going to do that?

How is the PS4 version?

I'm talking about civilians who are in the Fog of War, not my actual soldiers. When I land onto a mission and position my soldiers, then on the first turn I hear three aliens killing civilians offscreen, all I can think is "There is literally nothing I could do to save those people" and it pisses me off. I guess they add it in for a "You can't save everyone" angle, but holy fuck gameplay wise that's annoying.

How is Bradford a douchebag? He's not even commander. The player is.
XCOM 2 characters are pretty boring though. It's more about your squad than them.

Is it a true turn based game? It need to have zero real time. I want to never hurry or do something time based.

Super mario rpg is not turn based
FF7 is not turn based

I have high hopes for Long Dong 2's design magnificence.

Until then though it's pretty meh.

>it's another "long was was good" meme episode

Fuck off with your shitty imbalanced mod that sucks all the fun out of the game and forces you to play a very precise, ultra focused way to win.

hehe.. fuckin niggers and gooks... deus vult.... white pride worldwide...

Different user here, I actually like it that way. No matter how 'perfectly' you play there are still going to be losses, I think that fits the concept perfectly well.

But at the same time I do see your point, if you're aiming for a perfect game and the game prevents you from achieving it through no fault of your own, I can see how that might be annoying to some.

>he gives a shit about civilians in terror missions
Civilians don't count for shit outside grabbing the bare minimum to complete the mission. Is this your first xcom game?

sorry that you never learned to play xcom properly

You're not wrong in that Sparks suck but I just want to point out MECs were great in EW. Your post implies they sucked before which was so far from the case. KSM is still goat.

It is.

The "time limit" only applies to the number of turns you have before the mission aborts. Only other time where there's an actual time limit is in the multiplayer, which no one plays.

When I play games like this I want every run to be 100 percent perfect. I want strategy games where my skill can give me a perfect run where nobody dies and I rescue everybody, complete a mission 100 percent. And of course throw manageable risks to keep it fresh.

I like it a lot. Runs like trash though, getting worse and worse as you encounter more enemies that can demolish environments.

Nothing you do in XCOM is based off of any reflex. It's "true turnbased". None of it is real-time.

>Super mario rpg is not turn based
Yes it is. It just had quick time events with it. Don't be silly.

>100% hit chance
>still miss somehow

The game calculates to decimal places but displays rounded integers.

>I want every run to be 100 percent perfect
I don't think this series is really for you, then. These games are honestly at their most interesting when your campaign is teetering on the brink and you're worried one more fuck up will knock over your whole house of cards.

Sorry for jumping on you before, guy.

How does it make the previously released PC version retroactively garbage?

Sparks self repair when upgraded and passive armor shred
You can staff the med bay to heal people in 1-5 days
Its better than EU in every way, only shitters who cheese overwatch think otherwise.

>100% chance to crit
>don't crit

Fuck this game's aiming system. XCOM EU had it just fine!

>FF7 is not turn based

try using the options menu

put it on wait

Yeah my view is so incredibly skewed by the greatness of LW, the strategic layer seems to have almost no... strategy to it.

It's better than vanilla EU or EW though for sure. If they would expand on the strategic layer, fix the incredible myriad of LoS bugs and improve the alien's ai a bit the game would be much better for it.

A bit of a personal opinion but while advent is pretty good, I miss the aesthetics of EU. Something about it was just so intangibly compelling from the babby sized sectoids to the existence of desolate farm and woods maps.

>You're a guerilla
>Somehow you have even less agency than in the first game

It's a cool game but the lack of mods that turn my soldiers into cute anime girls is making me sad.

It's fucking brilliant and I couldn't care less about anyone else's opinion on it.

Fucking newfags I swear

>Yes it is. It just had quick time events with it. Don't be silly.
So your stupid. That's exactly what I don't want.

XCOM isn't really about any of that. It's a game about managing risk and responding to bad situations. You're looking at your performance too much in percentages and numbers and not enough in looking at what actually happened. Ie. "Hey that was a fucking awful situation but I only lost one guy!" The games you like to play aren't like this. XCOM isn't really for you.

I've had multiple perfect terror missions though. You're just not going to get them at the start because the start is all about getting by by the skin of your teeth. You make it through the start without losing anybody or failing any missions? There's your 100%, bucko.

This is what I'm most upset about. I was hoping it would be an inversion of the EU/EW strategic layer, where you were almost always reacting to alien actions. I was hoping this time we'd be the ones striking first, with the aliens having to react.

Instead we're given a choice of 2-3 missions every so often, that have to happen at a specific time in a specific way. We should have been able to choose from a variety of missions that popped up, remaining active for maybe a week or two, and having the choice of where and how we insert.

Impossible, there is a time element in FF7. I try every option. You're just retarded.

OP here. Lots of interesting conversations.
I didn't find the early game to be all that difficult, it was only until I started facing Archons and Sectopods that I really felt that there was a challenge. IMO the game uses ADVENT soldiers far too much, they're cannon fodder.

I don't feel like sharpshooters/specialists are underpowered at all. If utilized correctly they're really useful. I never go on a mission without at least one of each. But yeah love the customization options.

Bait.

I've heard that it runs alright.

It is truly turn based. Take as long as you need to think of your actions.

Long war was excellent. Can't wait for it to be implemented in XCOM 2.

try the guerilla war cheat

What you want =/= the definition of turn-based. Super mario RPG is, by definition, turn-based, even if it's not a style of turn-based you like. You're being silly.

Overall I like it, and think a lot of the mechanics are better than the previous game. That said, I kinda think the DLC is in a way a bit worse than the previous game's. Rulers is just handled terribly, Sparks aren't as good as Mecs and the cosmetics kinda feel like they don't really mesh well with the aesthetics the game was going for.

That said, its still fun regardless, and a bit more hectic overall which I feel is a bit better. I do wish the time limits weren't so strict for some missions early game however.

Guerilla war what?

please stop

What's your favorite and least favorite aliens to fight?

>Archon
>Viper
Respectively

I don't change the definition. I'm just looking for a PURE turn based, and mario rpg ain't pure turn based. You have to press a button at a precise moment to increase damage.

I actually consider it my favorite Xcom game of all time and enjoy it more than UFO Defense even though it loses the tension and horror. Way less autism, still constant rough decisions to be made, excellent balance.

Not surprising that there's no news about console release though, god knows why they ported it since Xcom EU apparently sold like peanuts on console.

Gunslinger Sharpshooters are incredibly good, easily one of the better classes if you pair them with special ammo.

I will admit though that Specialists are a little sub par in comparison to pretty much every other class though.

>no good reason for any game not to go multiplat.
Except if it's going to PC. Consoles need more games.

Sorry can't hear you over my FF7 being turned based.

Also you can pause mid battle to make your decisions.

And if you said that from the start we wouldn't be having this discussion.

No.

I said it from the start.

The DLC missions both can be completed with ballistics. It just becomes WAY harder if you run in with ballistics and a team of four than it does if you wait. Its never impossible though unless you're really bad about managing your team or you brought like rookie level everything. Even then it should be passable.

UFO defense is still the best with TFTD being second. 2012 xcom just felt way too restricted compared to the old ones, and with openxcom and final modpack it offers even more options for a modern playthrough.

>and having the choice of where and how we insert.

>the enemy has complete air superiority
>let's insert troops by air for every mission!

Poetry

You didn't.
>Super mario rpg is not turn based
This is what you said. This statement is wrong.
>Super mario rpg is not pure turn based
This is the correct statement. The pure makes a pretty huge difference in this context in terms of what you mean. You're being silly again.

I don't see how user. Bring 4 chumps with ballistics to the Alien Hunters mission and kill the king. I can clear everything up to him without taking any damage at all, but once I reach him I'm fucked. His ability to act after every action means he can fuck shit up while my measly ballistic weapons barely even scratch him. Even if I just ignore the snek swarms (which will definitely kill you if ignored) I can barely even damage the king before he wipes me squad. Using the weapons it gives you doesn't help much either, the frost grenade only stuns him for maybe one extra turn's worth of gunfire when I need 10.

I'll grant that Shen's is doable with ballistics, but only if you know what to expect before going in and equip yourself accordingly.

A console game going multiplat would still exist on the console. Amusing post though.

>UFO defense is still the best with TFTD being second
Try reversing that, then I'd agree.

I was talking about pure. You should have understood using the context. But you're retarded.

And by the way I think that turn based should be only used for pure turn based.

You're not suppose to kill him the first time you meet him, which I think is part of the problem. Plus if you're having a lot of issues with the Alien Hunters mission, just abuse Bradford. Reaper's min damage is 2, you can literally wipe out every viper on the map with one if they're close enough.

Also of the two missions, the initial mission with Alien Hunters is the easier one, due to how weak the baby snakes are.

Fuck Tentaculats and fuck the submarine they rode in on.

I love Vipers, Archons and Mutons. Andromedon can suck a dick though.

I was abusing Bradford as much as I could, but my soldiers couldn't survive the king. I know you're not supposed to kill him, but I could never even get him down to whatever HP level you're supposed to for the mission to end.

Whenever I reinstall the game I'll give it another go when I hit mag weapons, but I just don't see how it's possible to win on legend/ironman with ballistics.

Basically through abusing the weapons you're given as well as through abusing free actions. Grenades also help immensely. I'm not sure how you're having so much trouble to be honest. Are you skipping turns or running around instead of just shooting/attacking all the time?

In the context of what you were saying you used two descriptors for turn based:

"true turn based" and then went on to explain the definition of such.

You then used a different means of referring to both Mario and ff7. Simply calling it turn-based. This, with the previous point in mind, implies you were referring to something different. If you were talking about what you are now calling pure turn-based then why wouldn't you say true turn based?

You're just wrong on the second thing. The styles of doing turn-based combat have grown, descriptors need to become more specific because of it. No amount of daft puritanism will fix that. It's a no-brainer. Like you. You silly billy.

I literally can't play it anymore. I get absolutely dogshit performance for no reason, regardless of settings. Fuck whatever patch they released between Anarchy's Children and Shen's Last Gift.

bla bla bla
moron

You will need to be more clear with your language in future. I cannot parse any argument from this post. It is quite silly.

bla bla bla

Because bugs happen. Losing a mission/soldier because of a bug instead of the usual RNG in Ironman isn't right.

I don't see your point. How is iron man going to differentiate between a loss due to a bug and a loss due to bad play? It can't, because if it could, there would be a patch or a fix or at least a work around for whatever bug caused the mission failure.

But more generally, having a 'restart mission' option in iron man is quite literally (and I'm using the literal meaning of literal here) the antithesis of iron man, regardless of the cause or the reasoning.

Specialist are crap until they send multiple robots at you. Then they are your clutch units of the fight. For all intents and purposes, I find that they're the ones that you count on when things go fubar as they have a large variety of skills to stop a bad encounter turning into a TPK.

This. Specs are great against mecs. And outside of that they're jack of all trades. But yeah, mecs get fucked up when you have specialists.

You not helping yourself senpai, its like your covering your ears instead of constructively defending your point.

If you're going to be a shitter at least pretend to know something.

blib blab blob

it's alright, console is basically just the latest, most stable patch. I already had a crash in the tutorial mission though, just once.

I'm still surprised how well xcomEU+ on vita came out, it's actually EW, but on vita. Not that mobile piece of shit either, it's really just straight up EW in your pocket.

Xcom 2 was great and I've put a shitload of time in it. The procedural generation deserves major props imo, very rarely does it look off and mission variety is much better for it. Played through it Commander ironman, and i gotta say i never really got a "that's xcom!" Feeling. Bersekers are fucking cuddly, the cyberdisk equivalent is a pushover due to acid nades, and there isn't really any feeling of pressure. The timer is lax and any settlement you would lose in the unlikely event your squad wipes can be reacquired. The soldier customization is amazing though, makes you feel so much more for troopers you can lose.

Don't worry. He's just in a silly mood.

He is also very mad.

Because no one wants to wait around for a patch to fix a bug before playing again. And for some people, losing a critical mission because a bug screwed up everything is not what they had in mind for an Ironman run. Or better yet, if the bug is a fatal one and you are literally unable to complete the mission, then given the option to restart is the only option without restarting the whole game all over again. You are not required to use the restart mission, but it is a nice failsafe to use if something had fucked up on a technical end.

Really? They released EW on Vita and labelled it EU+? That's confusing. It would make sense if EU had some massive brand recognition in the mainstream, but that just seems pointless, they probably should have called it EW so people who gave a shit would know what they were getting.

That's what I said, I bought it cause I figured "well it's better than nothing" and I was still trying to play UFO defense through dosbox up until it came out.

bought it and lo and behold it's fucking enemy within.

The only real issues are the textures look pretty bad, and it still has a pretty meh framerate. Holds up alright at about 20 most of the time though, which, for a turn based game, is fine to me.

>Strategy games
>Consoles

Its like buying a car to go snowboard with it.

The whole point of iron man is to remove any chance of a failsafe. And as for bugfixes, that's irrelevant since every game always has potential bugs no matter how much it gets patched.

I do understand your position and I certainly don't dismiss it; you make a valid point and I see where you're coming from. But I can't bring myself to agree with you. I don't mean any disrespect by that, I think we just see things differently.

I just want to add (different guy thatn the one you've been talking to) on that Ironman is functionally useless. If people were actually interested in playing without savescumming they would do it without the mode in place. I never play with ironman but I always play in ironman style. I don't get why it's even an option in the first place.

Yeah, I get what you're saying too. I had several maps on normal play where bugs had all but screwed up any chances of me completing a mission, so while retry violates the spirit of Ironman, I do like the option to not have something besides the usual RNG or my skill screwing me in the ass and potentially ruining a long running game. And yeah, I agree that this is one of those things where we agree to disagree here.

Fair point, you can play 'iron man style' without enabling iron man.

Personally I enable it just because I am mentally weak and don't want to waste time managing saves and being tempted to go back to a previous save.

I guess, to be cynical, the reason it's an option is two-fold:

1 because people want to seem 'cool' by playing iron man rather than 'normal'

2 because people can't trust themselves to enforce iron man principles and need the game to do it for them

I'm glad we can both see each other's perspective and managed to converse in a civil manner, I appreciate the time and effort you shared with me to have a pleasant conversation. Cred Forums isn't always full of shit.

>strategy
it's a tactics game. And it's turn based to boot, you could put it on a calculator and it'd be playable, because it's FUCKING TURN BASED.

It's strategy and tactics. I'd consider agreeing with the proposition that it's 'primarily tactical' but to deny the strategy layer is plain falsehood.

No, I mean it's literally a "tactics" genre game.
Grid based, turn based combat revolving around upgrading of various classes in instanced battles involving permanent death for teammates and a variety of objective.

Wildarms XF, FF tactics/advance/advance 2, Tactics ogre, yggdrasil union, just to name a few.

The original games were strategy leaning absolutely, the reboot, not so much.

You sound like a dumb person

Do you mean that there is no strategy in chess?

Okay we probably just have some kind of semantic dissonance. I am not disagreeing with you, but here's how I see it: The turn based combat is 'tactics.' Everything you do in terms of base management, research, production, is 'strategy.'

I'm not saying I'm right, I'm just saying that's how I see it: The modern XCOMs have tactical combat and strategic management. Just an opinion.

So everything involving the Avenger just doesn't exist, does it?

That's the strategy aspect of the game. Prioritizing research, spending resources to acquire new items, choosing missions which yield the rewards you need or further your goals, building your base. All of that is the strategic layer hanging over the tactical battles of the game.

>no ethereals(as enemies)
>no SHIVS
>no gene troops
>MECS resold as DLC AGAIN
>MECS resold as DLC AGAIN
>MECS resold as DLC AGAIN
>shit optimization(that still hasn't been fixed)
>generic ADVENT enemies
>shit DLC with shit boss fights
>no air game
>more casualized than EU
>"aliens" no longer look like aliens
>thinmen replaced by dumb vipertits to appeal to the waifufags and furfags
>berserkers are a total non-threat

It's shit.

>more casualized than EU
The early game is far less forgiving than EU. Remember all the bitching about the turn timers?

>"aliens" no longer look like aliens
>thinmen replaced by dumb vipertits to appeal to the waifufags and furfags
ayy lmao

>>no air game
Thank god.

>>more casualized than EU
You can't just lie, user.

>>"aliens" no longer look like aliens
They look pretty alien.

>>thinmen replaced by dumb vipertits to appeal to the waifufags and furfags
Yeah, unfortunate.

>shit optimization(that still hasn't been fixed)
That's my only major complaint.

What does an alien look like?

Love fighting large groups of ADVENT troops, love fighting mutons and vipers as well.
Hate fighting sectopods.

SPARKs are better SHIVs but inferior MECs and Gene troops were replaced by better Psi Operatives and inferior PCS bonuses. It was a good change because there's less upfront cost to make them, which means it's less risky to throw them out there, which makes them more worthwhile.

Like this.

>game recently released for consoles

Wait, really? I heard nothing about that. I thought this was going to be PC only.

>"aliens" no longer look like aliens
>thinmen replaced by dumb vipertits to appeal to the waifufags and furfags
Did you read your post before you hit submit?

I'm super glad consolebros got XCOM2. I know lots of you out there liked EU and were disappointed when XCOM2 said it would be PC only. I hope you're all having fun. CLASSICONLY XCOM faggots can still go fuck themselves.

thin women look like shit and makes no sense
sectoids look like they belong in doom 3/4 both of which had fucking shit tier monster design
the blob civilian clone things are also dumb as shit

Ignore him. He's just one of those butthurt classic shitter. All they do is whine, they don't care what they whine about.

>still no nude viper

WHAT THE FUCK ARE MODDERS DOING

How easy is this game?

I'm a shitter but I really like how Xcom games look. However I don't want to get it if I won't be able to finish it.

If you're familiar with strategy games and can adapt to constantly changing situations and have a mind for tactics it's fairly easy. If not then you may run into some trouble. If it's your first XCOM game I'd recommend playing on no higher than normal to get the feel of it.

There's a sexy viper mod, making the animations more erotic.

It's easy on the easiest difficulty. It's not that hard on anything lower than max difficulty. Have you played much strategy/tactics games? The difficulty level is subjective, it will depend on how familiar you are with the genre.

>There's a sexy viper mod, making the animations more erotic.
Hasn't that been broken since forever?

Unless you're completely mentally deficient you will be able to savescum through easy. You shouldn't though.

I dunno, I've never used it, I just know it exists. You might be right. Might be worth looking into though.

Thanks. Would it be better to play EW/EU first? I've heard it's not really neccessary but I'm wondering if I should just to get used to the mechanics.

It's worth playing EW just because it's good. It doesn't really matter if you play EW or 2 first, they're separate but complimentary and the learning curve won't change based on which you play first. Ignore EU though, EW is a vast improvement and you wouldn't gain anything by trying EU.