Xenonauts 2
XENONAUTS-2 is a vast single player strategy game in which you control a multi-national military organisation defending our planet from alien invasion.
Battle the extraterrestrials in tense, complex turn-based combat across a variety of maps and missions, recovering and researching their technology to unlock new weapons and equipment!
Take a global view with the real-time strategic management layer: you must establish and develop your bases, conduct research, battle for air supremacy and try to keep the panic level in your funding regions under control.
The strategic and tactical layers of the game are directly related, with ground missions affecting the overall balance of the Geoscape and your research efforts on the recovered items unlocking new equipment for your squads and aircraft. Every management decision you make filters down to the troops you control in battle; every shot you fire could change the balance of strategic power.
Can you hold off the invasion long enough to discover a way to defeat the alien forces?
No knowledge of the previous game is required to play – XENONAUTS-2 is a standalone title with its own setting and narrative.Key Features
- Ground Combat: The highly-detailed turn-based combat system gives you fine control over your soldiers as they battle the aliens across multiple different mission types and numerous varied environments. The day / night cycle and destructible battlefields open up endless tactical possibilities to defeat your enemies, and your soldiers will grow stronger as they gain combat experience – provided you can keep them alive!
- Strategic Management: A complex strategic layer allows you to coordinate the defence of our planet. Establish bases to extend your reach and use customisable interceptors to shoot down attacking UFOs, then deploy your soldiers to secure resources. Capturing crash sites can secure alien technology and live specimens for research, whereas protecting regions from alien activity and terror attacks will protect your funding and prevent them surrendering to the aliens.
- In-depth Simulation: The structure of Xenonauts-2 is not linear; no two campaigns unfold in exactly the same way. Every element of this complex interlocking simulation has been designed to create maximum coherence between the strategic and tactical layers: small decisions can have an impact across the entire game.
- Extensive Tech Tree: XENONAUTS-2 contains a vast variety of aircraft, vehicles, weapons, armour, and battlefield equipment for you to experiment with. and a deep research tree with over a hundred projects to unlock. Play the game the way you want to play, devising your own tactics and strategies to defeat the extraterrestrial threat!
Key Improvements from XENONAUTS-1
In addition to the new modular upgrade systems mentioned previously, here is a very small selection of key changes and enhancements:
- Improved visuals across all parts of the game, including full 3D tactical environments with a rotatable camera!
- A more detailed and immersive Geoscape simulation incorporating greater player choice and stronger elements of territory control!
- More environments and maps to fight in – including our new Jungle and Boreal biomes!
- New aliens have been added and many existing ones have been redesigned, all of which will benefit from our new and improved AI system!
- A larger research tree with more lore and an expanded variety of equipment for your soldiers to use in battle!
Game Discussion
Steam User 125
I was in the kickstarter - I enjoyed UFO: Enemy Unknown and was delighted when XCOM brought the franchise back, but I also enjoyed the crunchier Xenonauts when it was released. Initially, Xenonauts II was just Xenonauts with bugs, a tendency to crash to desktop and some painfully slow menus but over the course of early access it's been gradually picking up features and getting more playable.
And after several months of not thinking about it, I just reinstalled it and... Damn... It's starting to get genuinely good, with a proper intro, some nice story-beat missions, actual options for doing something about global panic, a good background setting... Yeah, needs some more polish and content of course, but I'm honestly impressed with what they've got going on here.
Steam User 145
I am an old x-com player and die hard fan of the genre.Normally I am lazy when it comes to reviews but
must admit that the Dev's of this game deserve our support.they work tirelessly with regard to updates and fixes and engage their player base .They actually take note of suggestions and comments.I believe also that every attempt is made to capture the spirit of the original X-Com. Us old X com fans are a tough crowd but
I wish to add my support to Xenonauts 2 and the Dev's that I think ROCK!.
Steam User 139
An upgrade to Xenonauts and the original XCOM. If you think beating XCOM is going to prepare you for this game... you're wrong. Why?
The stat system in this game means that the only way you get 'OP' soldiers is through out thinking the AI in the early game and using meat/robot shields to lessen the blow of your inevitable casualties. It's through utilizing the suppression system, using smoke grenades to rush, and using meat shield privates to scout ahead. There are no class skills; only the weapons you give your soldiers. If you think giving all your soldiers rifles is going to be a good idea, good luck scouting ahead and suppressing that Mantid across the desert. All heavies? Good luck pushing ahead when you get an accuracy penalty while using heavy weaponry. Getting your boys through chokepoints in an alien base? You should probably place a shield there and crouch your shotguns in the corners of that ominous, closed door. Xenonauts is a game that rewards creativity and change, so even your squad weapon composition can change subtly depending on your goals for that mission or the terrain.
On a strategic level, depending on your difficulty, you'll also find the game very different than XCOM. Scientists and Engineers are not only few in number, but are expensive both to acquire AND to maintain. This means even if you have a lot of capital in the beginning, over expanding R&D means you might end up firing that personnel anyways to keep the lights running in your bases, or to acquire new equipment. Remember what I said about skillful aggression? Building one super-base in the Middle East and calling it a day won't work when you're leaving the Far East, North America, and South America undefended and subject to surrendering. Nor will overextending yourself and finding yourself without the funds to meaningfully modernize your airforce, bases, or soldiers.
Xenonauts greatest strength is its freedom, but to many people, it's also its greatest flaw because this game doesn't hold your hand. If you feel like you're unsure of getting Xenonauts 2, I'd recommend trying Xenonauts 1 Community Edition. It's a fantastic way of getting into the original XCOM/Xenonauts experience, and getting an idea as to what you're getting into. If you feel it's too easy or empty of mechanics, I'd recommend playing it through the modpack X-Division as I have done for years. That modpack is a good example as to the potential of Xenonauts 2 when the community creator tools get set up.
Overall, Xenonauts 2 is to Xenonauts as XCOM 2 is to XCOM 1. Better graphics, new art, new mission types, but fundamentally the same gameplay. But again, comparing XCOM to Xenonauts 2 is like comparing apples to oranges. Yea they're both strategy games, but be aware Xenonauts is not for everyone and IS harder on the learning curve than XCOM.
With that said, I love this game, it's actively maintained and developed in an era of early access scams, and most of all, offers the truest form of the original XCOM. This game will not be finished fast, it is not perfect, but it is definitely unique in the way it delivers. With immersive art, music, and even research reports, it's a truly unique experience in the turn-based combat genre. Love it or hate it, that is undeniable.
Steam User 61
Between QoL upgrades like rotatable camera and fire previews, more mission/enemy variety and better graphics i'd say xenonauts 2 is now at a point where its better than xenonauts 1
Steam User 50
The only issue with Xenonauts 2 is the name. It's not a sequel. It's more of a second try at Xenonauts. Not that Xenonauts wasn't a good game, but it was lacking in some features from the original X-COM without modding.
The 3D engine is styled to where it almost looks identical at times, but the environments are now fully destructible and you can even move the camera freely, if you enable it. Each of the systems has seemingly been flushed out and polished and overall it feels much more strategic AND tactical than the first.
I'm only 9 hours in, though, and the Devs say only 75% is available in early access, but so far it seems like a much more complete X-COM experience, with some of it's own charms, than the first. It's what you'd imagine Xenonauts 1 to be if it was made in 202X.
Steam User 37
I love this game. I bought Xenonauts 1, and although I enjoyed it, I did find the aim/shooting elements often frustrating (e.g. you'll be standing right next to an alien and it didn't massively increase the percentage chance to hit. That appears so much better in X2. Although just generally, I think its far superior. I really think it's right up their with the best games of this type - and a welcome successor to the OG Xcom without being too similar to Firaxis.
Some small areas of feedback
- It gets samey - real samey. After a while you just want to skip combat missions because there's no variation. The grounded UFO is usually in one of a few places, and you get to 'know' how many aliens are going to be in and out of the ship - and how they react. I'd love to see some variance in level design and alien tactics - maybe they all swarm on one mission, maybe they sit back with sniper and you've got to use cover... maybe underwater levels, maybe levels atop a skyscraper where you've got to go up and down levels to clear out the block... Maybe there's a bomb or experiment on humans that gives a time imperative... these are could be really cool things to add
- The alien base doors - truly annoying. They're super hard to see as they're the same colour as the walls, and the isometric view means that they (and others things) can be entirely obfuscated by the foreground items. I've wasted so much time just trying to walk around alien bases and find the doors/remaining aliens
- Right/wrong tactics - I feel that there's a right and wrong way to play this game. I personally always use snipers and destroy them all from distance. It's kinda easy then. I never lose soldiers and the aliens accuracy means I rarely get hit. What about some flying creatures? Or mortar style attacks?
- Changing difficulties. I've played through early release twice (more on that later) and I've got to about 20% of the way through, and i'm flying. I win every battle with ease - but I can't then change up the difficulty level and need to start again. Ouch - that's like 30-60 hours wasted...
- To me, it's REALLY not clear that the game just 'stops' at 30%. I know it's early access, but come on guys, stick that s*** on the homescreen in big letters. It's a real d move to expect people to go onto forums and store pages and find this stuff out. We all have busy lives and it wouldn't take long just to have that on the main screen and then people know. Also, I completed 30% in and then on update my save game didn't work anymore, so then I went through again, hoping for more than 30% of the game to be there, but it wasn't. It was in fact, the same again. Argh (yes yes I know I could have done some research, but surely it's easier to just make that super clear on the homescreen?)
All in all though, one of my favourite ever games. The above (apart from difficulty and messaging the current level of completion of the game) would just elevate it greatly.
If you love games like Xcom, you'll not go wrong.
Steam User 37
Hope! With Milestone 2 having just dropped today you can tell how much the devs are listening to the fan base.
Nearly all of my gripes against the game have been addressed in some way or another, buy this if you've never played Xenonauts 1 or want to truly support development. Otherwise, hold off until full release.