XCOM 2 theorises that in XCOM: Enemy Unknown humanity lost. And let's be honest, unless you're a modern day Sun Tzu humanity probably lost more times than they won. If all XCOM games represent separate timelines then in universes where I am in charge there are literally hundreds of instances where humanity lost and only one where we beat the alien scum back.
I got the chance to play the game last week, and it's an interesting breakdown of events. The most interesting development is procedurally generated levels, which means that each time you do a mission it will be different (except in the case of the fully scripted tutorial mission). There were a few missions we were allowed to play, and of them the hardest was the Blacksite Retrieval mission -- apparently only two people managed to complete it. One of those people is yours truly -- and I did it all without Save Scumming my way through each damn scenario.
Better than that, I can prove that I finished it -- I recorded the whole thing and added commentary over the top, and you can watch it right now!
It's split into two parts because my PC was overheating trying to render one giant video out, which is concerning on multiple levels, and the VO is a little distorted because background noise (like graphics card fan trying to achieve liftoff) meant I had to process it to heck and back.
Still, it's an hour of sweet XCOM 2 goodness for you to enjoy, and you also get to laugh as I repeatedly make the worst possible decisions for my plucky band of soldiers. I'm like a tactical Mr Magoo. If you've any questions, put them in the comments and I'll do my best to answer them.