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X-COM Enemy Unknown Elite Soldier Pack is basically worthless:
1. The (official as opposed to Amazon's) description of what you get (quoted below) is deliberately misleading to fool you into thinking that you are getting more than you are really getting, which I find at least unethical. Amazon's description is a bit more 'honest' though not entirely. Here's what the official description says (my comments in brackets, and you can find the official description on the publisher's site as well as on Steam):
"Customize your squad with three new bonus items [OK, this part is kind of true].
Instantly unlock a new recruit in your barracks inspired by the original X-COM: UFO Defense [MISLEADING you are not getting any new recruits, what you are getting is a single additional haircut inspired by the original X-COM].
Outfit your soldiers with specialized armor upgrades including the new Hyperion and Reaper soldier armor kits [MISLEADING you are not getting any armor upgrades, there are no new research-able armor upgrades, there are only two additional armor SKINS see #2 below for details].
Customize your soldiers' appearances with a variety of colors and tints for all armor sets [This is the only thing that is true here].
2. Modifiable armor skins they call 'upgrades' are for low-end armors only (your basic body armor, Carapace and Skeleton armors can be made to look less flimsy). The midto high-end armors are not modifiable (except for the color). You also get one "retro" hairdo a la X-COM UFO Defense and three helmet skins (these are just skins with no intrinsic properties), but I find the ability to hide the soldiers' faces inside those helmets useless as using helmets makes all soldiers look the same and they lose their unique faces, hair styles and skin colors.
So if you buy this pack all you really get is the ability to apply something like 30 color tints to the existing armors. AND, to be thorough, most of the color tints are hideous neon-glow like. Do you want your assault troopers to look like Barby dolls or beer promo neon signs? The only colors that are actually usable and make your soldier armors look bad-ass are solid ones such as black, red, khaki, white, orange. So you are not even getting the 30 color tints they offer as you will never use 25 of them.
I suppose it could be useful and cool to make all your assault troopers orange, heavies green, support (medics) white and snipers red (that's how I have them colored anyway, you may want other tints) but I am not sure the ability to color-code your soldier classes is worth the price tag, unless you simply want to support the developer... BUT considering how they misinform you in the product description to swindle the five bucks out of you, I don't think you should support them.
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As people have said, the description of this item is a little misleading. 1. You do not get a new recruit, you only get a new hairstyle (which is rather silly, but is a throwback to old XCOM games), and 2. You do not get new armor to research that gives you new stats.The description really should be rewritten, since it clearly was written incorrectly. That said, I'm going to review what you ARE getting, because in spite of the description being misleading, a LOT of these user reviews are misleading as well.
Not every game has a lot of customization options. I was already impressed to an extent with XCOM because you can change your soldiers' faces, hair, race, skin, voice, etc. Basically, this pack adds a lot more customization. True, you don't get new armor types (that add stats), but you are given the option to change most if not all armor types to look differently. Of all the armor types I have so far, each has one or two different versions, which either add more bulk to the armor or change it completely. People were saying that late game armor has no customization, and that is totally incorrect. I'm using the Titan armor (a heavy late game armor) and there is a customization for it that makes it look sort of like an EOD suit. Perhaps certain other late game armors do not have customization options (Ghost and Psi armor, maybe), but all the other armors do, and ALL armors are recolorable.
Beyond changing the structure of your armor, you're given 32 colors to change your armor. All of the scathing reviews of this pack call all of the colors except for a few "badly colored Power Ranger colors" when this is totally and completely false. For reference, here is a list of the 32 colors available (I'll capitalize the neon colors):
Pale Orange (Olive accents)
Pale/Steel Blue (Khaki accents)
Normal, non-Neon Green (Other shades of green accents)
Normal, non-Neon Orange
White/Silver (Black accents)
Crimson/Deep Red
Pale Chartreuse (Not neon, despite the color)
Light Blue (Brown accents)
Dark Olive Drab (Very pale green accents)
Black (White accents)
Dark Blue (White accents)
Dark Purple
NEON Purple
NEON Pink
Black (Yellow accents)
Yellow
Dark Pale Blue
NEON Red (Yellow accents)
NEON Blue (Yellow accents)
Pale Red (Pale blue accents)
Purple/Blue (Orange accents)
Dark Teal (Dark brown accents, one of my favorites)
Pale Yellow (Khaki accents)
NEON Purple (NEON green accents)
NEON Pink (NEON turquoise accents)
NEON Orange (NEON purple accents)
Green (Brown accents)
Silver Blue
Grey/Light Khaki (White accents)
Khaki (Lighter khaki accents)
Pale Green (Lighter green accents)
Black (Grey accents)
As you can see, out of 32 colors, only 7 are "neon Power Ranger" colors, which I think is completely reasonable. The neon colors are still fun sometimes, depending on the soldier (not every solider has to be drab and boring) and the general fantasy/sci-fi feel of the game (aliens, giant laser/plasma guns, etc). There are only a few colors besides those 7 that may be a little too colorful for everyone, but in general the colors are pretty muted and clean looking. People are just sore about paying more than they wanted to when they bash the color choices.
A final thing this DLC adds are hat and helmet options. There are two berets (one with sunglasses), a baseball cap with a headset, a beanie with a headset and goggles, and nine different full face helmets, some of them very cool. A very nice addition when you want to change your soldiers up. I've seen people complain that your armor customizations are lost when your solider is injured (or dies, duh), but that is an automatic game design feature that unequips your injured soldiers so that you can use their equipment for your non-injured soldiers. It only takes a few clicks to get your customizations back once your soldiers are back in action, so that's really a pointless complaint.
In conclusion, this is a great customization pack for the game. $5 really isn't much to pay, but if the content isn't worth that to you, wait for a sale. I picked this up for about $1.50 in a Steam sale.
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