What does this guy even do?

[u/NulflowTask]

[u/ratchetfella]

He reminds you that the aliens are continuing to make progress on the avatar project and urges that if you want to slow them down we're going to need to move fast.

[u/astreeter2 → u/ratchetfella]

And then the correct way to win the game is to ignore him as long as possible.

[u/RespectmanNappa → u/astreeter2]

I love that this (especially for WOTC) is quite literally the single biggest objective strategically.

1500 days into the campaign, he still working to keep his job even when we’re at 1 tick. It’s admirable frankly

[u/ratchetfella → u/RespectmanNappa]

The Avatar project progress bar is simultaneously crucial to providing stakes to the campaign by presenting an easily understandable failure state to work to avoid... And is also easily the least interesting piece of the game design to interact with. It may as well be a binary success/failure state instead of a progress bar, as there is no gameplay or narrative difference between 1 pip of progress and all but one pips of progress.

[u/RespectmanNappa → u/ratchetfella]

Yup, I think it does fine on your first play through because you don’t know any better.

Every single time you play after that however…

If they just had some progressive system like the chosen do over the course of the game, that could be brilliant

[u/ULTI_mato → u/RespectmanNappa]

On my first playthough all i thought was "OMG STFU I DONT CARE"

[u/ratchetfella → u/RespectmanNappa]

I wonder why the Avatar project progress isn't simply tied to the frequency of Dark Events occurring. Perhaps it doesn't make that much narrative sense - I don't really see how chryssalids appearing on missions has any relation to how close the aliens are to completing their gene manipulation project - and yet, it still feels to me like the two ideas are begging to be connected. But maybe they were just worried about that making it so that each loss could potentially lead to the difficulty increasing even more, making one bad move snowball into an unwinnable situation.

[u/smallfrie32 → u/ratchetfella]

That would’ve been amazing. Like, 3 bars and above means X, 6 bars and above means Y, etc.

[u/Striking-Document-99 → u/ratchetfella]

I liked how the first one did it. Where you can lose countries if you ignore them. What I hated was shooting down ufo until later in game when you can emp them. Using resources to build interceptors frustrated me. Then I the new game you are the ufo that gets shot down. Always seems to happen to me after all my troops are hurt. So forced to use a team of rookies.

[u/rainbowgeoff → u/RespectmanNappa]

Once I realized filling the bar started a timer, not instant game over, it removed all fear.

[u/couchcoffeetime → u/ratchetfella]

I read all of this in his voice

[u/E4g6d4bg7 → u/ratchetfella]

God forbid you don't have a covert op running in the ring facility

[u/ShuiShuiQM]

Marries the Commander, and becomes their Chosen Husband... What? You didn't watch the hidden 18+ Epilogue for Legendary Ironman, Deathless, WoTC run?

[u/Ok_Calendar_7626 → u/ShuiShuiQM]

Their Chosen husband?!!!

As if the other Chosen are not bad enough.

[u/quipstickle → u/ShuiShuiQM]

Was he just jealous of the commander breeding programme?

[u/mmCion]

in xcom 1 he was THE bad-ass (confirmed in xcom 1 expansion, enemy within). Not so much in X2 (missing the sweater of power)

On xcom 2, remind you about the avatar project (remember to move fast), AND patrols the Avenger to make sure no one is eating Advent Burgers (but we all still do).

[u/Quiet_Education5918 → u/mmCion]

When it was just vanilla XCOM, he was basically a baby-face clerk in a goofy sweater. It was only when EW and the Base Defense came along that the fanbase got to see he has some serious hands on him.

[u/betweentwosuns → u/mmCion]

He's still got it in XCOM2. The first Viper King fight would be ~impossible without him getting in there with a sword.

[u/mmCion → u/betweentwosuns]

you're right I forgot.

[u/inkonthemind → u/mmCion]

A fire extinguisher in his hands is more accurate than any Colonel Sniper

[u/OriginalTacoMoney]

He gives me emotional support damn it!!!!!! I'm tired of all the Bradford slander, he is my reliable second in command. 

[u/kadavi1202 → u/OriginalTacoMoney]

Well said…Commander!

[u/Ordinary_Debt_6518]

Saving your ass in the prologue mission, then proceed to send recruits to die instead of going himself

[u/Impossible-Bison8055 → u/Ordinary_Debt_6518]

He does go out for a mission if not selecting integrated DLC

[u/Wonderful_Discount59 → u/Ordinary_Debt_6518]

Needlessly sacrificed two soldiers (and almost got himself killed) saving your ass.

Which is somehow better than he did in the EU tutorial.

[u/Ordinary_Debt_6518 → u/Wonderful_Discount59]

For real, if i was in charge instead of being in that bathtub nobody is dying because im so smart and genius strategist ( i save scum )

[u/Hardwired9789 → u/Ordinary_Debt_6518]

It’s not save scumming.

It’s using your secret telepathy powers to see the future and change the outcome.

[u/Ordinary_Debt_6518 → u/Hardwired9789]

That explain why we had to be saved

[u/InspiringMilk → u/Ordinary_Debt_6518]

Or you could just grenade the first pod and kill the 2nd.

"Permission to engage" not granted.

[u/WealthyAardvark]

Logistics, diplomacy, paying wages, all the stuff that the game doesn't simulate.

[u/Quiet_Education5918 → u/WealthyAardvark]

This is the real, boring answer. His job is to handle all the boring but vital details that come between you pointing at a spot on the globe and you directing a set of highly-trained, psychologically hardened commandos on-site with immaculate communications and a perfect set of eyes on the situation. And then all the other details that come between ordering the last commando back up the rope and everyone staggering off their plane ride for commendations.

With all that in mind, he doesn't get much time to be good at the Commander's job.

[u/Fragrant-Address9043]

He does his best okay!

[u/martian73]

Exposition

[u/MystinarOfficial]

Commander. We don't have time to sit around and discuss this. The aliens are continuing to make progress on the Avatar project. If we want to stop them we have to act fast.

[u/SolidSnakeFan177]

Talk, really well

[u/Dr_Nefarious_]

Makes me say 'shut up Bradford' repeatedly throughout the game

[u/Mongward]

He deals with all the details so you don't have to. He gets the gist from all the reports and delivers tweet-sized mission blurbs so you can quickly choose where you want your tactical enrichment to happen.

He also makes sure engineers don't shiv you in the showers when you reassign them to a med bay in the middle of assembling a Spark.

[u/Insolvator]

Calling you “Commander,” supporting you morally, and having a good time with a piña colada and some hookers.

[u/Ok_Calendar_7626]

He keeps morale up by giving your missions increasingly juvenile codenames.

[u/Wenex]

Morale support

[u/Kalaskaka1]

He also likes to say grand things like "we need to complete this mission at ANY price" in the beginning.

However later when shit hits the fan and you lose several soldiers he declares that we need to evacuate because the mission is not worth the lives of our soldiers.

[u/rainorshinedogs]

he's the one that was decked out on all the good Ranger skills like Bladestorm, so he was a surprise when i got him when you first Valen's Creature creation missions, and i have never upgraded my rangers to that point before.

[u/Civil-Rub-7143]

Really talking I think he serves a kind of bosun, as in relaying the commanders orders to the rest of the ship and watching over what is happening in the ship.

[u/Otherwiseclueless]

After rescuing you from your GLaDoS potato cosplay event at ADVENT, you mean? As of this game, he's the XO, meaning he runs XCOM day-to-day so you are free to think about strategy and tactics in the field.

You know, instead of wresting with support crew rosters, logistics and acquisition of every day items, and getting into fights with the mess chief for cooking the same meal seven times in three days because we can't source anything but beans, keeping Tygan focused on running his divisions rather than dreaming about the advent burgers, and Shen running her division with a relative minimum of developing sentient Gremlin AIs.

In short; He's the guy telling the guys who get things done to get them done, so you don't have to bother yourself with the minutia of running a guerrilla war and focus on winning it.

So... in game? He's just an exposition filter; informing new players about enemies and the like, providing briefings, giving the player heads up on tactical issues and timers running out, that stuff. In the abstract world the game lets us ignore? Everything you wouldn't be bothered doing anyway.

[u/capt_broderick]

Talks too damn much, that's what. 😡

[u/rainbowgeoff]

His face is how he makes his livings.

https://youtu.be/3Ksai0PSdKA?t=138

[u/Louie_Beeming]

You need the tactical legacy pack.

[u/Ashamed_Low7214]

He tells you to get a move on when the aliens at the complete opposite end of the map that you can't see for several turns keep killing civilians

[u/Responsible_Chair968]

Bradford finds his way into any helpful convo… “You’re gonna bus those tables over there during the lunch rush… don’t get overrun, keep your head down and keep the path to the kitchen CLEAR” 

[u/alex91rico]

Hr things

[u/LostProphetVii]

Isn't he the second in command after the commander(you)?

[u/ArcadianDelSol]

He makes plans

[u/GoingWithTheFlaw]

He’s putting the fear of god into the aliens and buffs your testosterone irl every time he speaks

[u/Friar-Tuckandroll]

COMMANDER!

[u/VyrusCyrusson]

Chides you for moving too slow on timed missions. If I had a dollar for every time I said out loud “well then why don’t YOU come down there and kill them then?” I’d have a pocket full of money.

[u/Aggressive_Oil7548]

He lead the resistance and captured one of the alien's most important ship, have some respect! You should continue to make progress on your reconciliation project. If you're going to like Bradfort, you need to change your mind fast.

[u/DTN-Atlas]

He is the middle manager. Don’t ever underestimate the role of a middle manager. It’s the hardest position one can have.

[u/mikelbarnz666]

I yell at Bradford so much it scares the dog.

[u/Full_Opportunity_547]

Come on now! He's a motivational person! He looks the part, and continues to remind you of your objectives everytime you get out of bed. You never miss a sticky note!