Got this game at launch. It was awesome then, before any DLC or patches. And this has been one of the rare games in my experience where everything just got better with it. To the extent that sure, you can get the base game and have a great time with it. But the DLCs are true DLCs and actually add worthwhile content that helps flesh out the game in ways where there wasn't anything there before. I am not even going to mention the mods beyond that they do nothing but the same and take it even further. This is a beautiful turn based tactical that has a ton of attention to detail on it. From the basic personal profiles on each of your soldiers to the propaganda posters you can make for fun a then end of your missions being able to be randomly found within the same campaign in random missions later on. And if that wasn't enough of an example of attention to detail, the exact same system not only creates a local copy for you for EACH poster but also has a hot button in game that you can click that will open windows explorer and take you to the poster in question within that folder.
Even something as simple as the main menu, they could've done something bland or basic with an image or some randomly animated background. But instead they load a random scene based of your latest save. Usually this is one of my highest ranking soldiers and its as if it is mid-turn you just took the camera and put it over their shoulder. There isn't an exact loop this either beyond the soldier's individual animation loop of just standing there hiding. But its still really cool to see this kind of innovation for something so simple and when most developers would do something far more basic. And there are details of this level throughout the entire game to enjoy.
Sure this game does have a couple of flaws, the aim logic can be questionable at times, the camera angles get a little wonky every now and then where you're watching a wall while something happens, and I have had a few crashes during my ten years of playing this game. But these aren't regular occurrences for me as I've had only about 5 that I can recall in total and mind you this is with dozens, if not a few hundred mods loaded.
If you're curious there is plenty of gameplay footage on youtube by this point. But if it is any consolation the screenshots on the store page are directly from the game and not filtered. It really just looks that good in game.
At this point all I can say is that I have high hopes for XCOM 3 and that the developers exceed them.
