XCOM 2 is an outstanding game that unfortunately suffers from performance problems, sporadic but some quite serious, that have diminished the experience (and the framerate) for a number of players. Publisher 2K Games said last week that it was aware of the complaints and “gathering more information from users,” and today Lead Designer Jake Solomon told Rock, Paper, Shotgun that developer Firaxis is “working very furiously” to get the game running properly.
Interestingly, Solomon said Firaxis wasn't aware of the problems before the game shipped because they're not “across the board” issues: Some players suffer hitching and framerate drops, even on fairly high-end hardware, while others seem to be doing just fine with it. “Maybe this is damning on me, but I’m sitting here talking to you now on the laptop I use to play it on, and I didn’t see these issues,” he said. “We didn’t catch this stuff in compatibility testing. We’re fully, fully accountable for the product in people’s hands, so we certainly take responsibility.”
Solomon said he's as frustrated with the situation as anyone, and separate from problems with framerates and stuttering, also agrees with complaints that, regardless of whether they're the result of a design decision or a bug, some of the camera pauses after events “take too damn long.” Firaxis is working on changing those as well, and “if things can be sped up, they certainly will be.”
There's no set schedule for updates, but “we're working very furiously,” Solomon said, and will “definitely have fixes coming soon.” For now, you can do away with many of the camera pauses with the aptly-named “Stop Wasting My Time” mod, and if you're feeling lucky, speed up post-mission load times by pressing the caps lock key at the appropriate time. (As we mentioned in that original post, doing so carries with it a certain risk of crashes, so be sure to read before you ENGAGE CAPS MODE.)
