Cyberdisks are Gatekeepers without Psionic attacks, Thin men are Vipers with low health, etc. Many of the enemies in EW have equivalent in X2, but the older variants are less effective. MECs in general are pretty damn good, but very expensive- in contrast to their cheaper but slightly less effective X2 counterparts.
This will be a one hit kill on everything early game, and IIRC only three enemies in the game can withstand a hit from it (Sectopods, Cyberdisks, and Mectoids). While you can’t dash and then use it like in the second game, as a compromise it does 12 damage (!). MECs (EW’s SPARKs) get a Melee attack to start with (unless you want to go for the flamethrower instead). and they’re in turn countered by certain armor sets.Īrmor (as in armor pips, rather than the sets you wear) isn’t a thing in the first game, so explosives lose some utility, but they’re also still very useful for destroying cover.
They were a borderline game breaker in Enemy Unknown, but one of the enemies introduced in the expansion is supposed to be a hard counter to them. Snipers are very powerful in Enemy Within, compared to X2.
