Xenonauts 2

Xenonauts 2 surprised me after playing the first game, but it still hasn't reached the phenomenal heights of the original X-COM: UFO Defense, Terror from the Deep or Apocalypse. In some areas, it is exactly what it needed to be, but in others, there are a lot of downgrades, questionable design decisions, and a feeling of cheapness. The Positives: 1. The 3D Graphics Engine: It is great for this genre. While it's not AAA-level, I really love the visual clarity and the increased detail compared to Xeno 1. 2. Camera Panning: This is an absolute gamechanger. It was sorely missing from the first game, and the developers did a great job implementing it. 3. Alien Designs & Tech: The aliens look fantastic! I love every new alien encounter. Reading their biology and stats is much more interesting now, and the new technology feels rewarding. Your soldiers also look and move great in 3D. 4. Terrain Destruction: This is one of the best additions. It opens excellent tactical options since you can destroy cover to clear lines of sight, and there are fewer restrictive objects blocking your view than before. 5. Improved Air Combat: The air combat is much better executed here. I enjoy engaging with it far more than I did in Xeno 1. 6. UI Improvements: The movement and attack previews are great additions that were severely lacking in the original. The overwatch system is also much better, and UI updates like weapon comparison are highly welcome. 7. Audio & Progression: The music is great, and the additional gear upgrades alongside the MARS units are excellent additions. The Negatives: 1. HUGE DOWNGRADE in Game Mechanics: why on earth did the developers switch to unlimited gear? For example, once you design an aircraft or MARS weapons, they are suddenly unlimited. This feels just like the streamlined Firaxis XCOM series, which is a massive letdown if you are a true X-COM enthusiast. This is the worst decision they could have made. It trivializes the game; the genuine care for acquiring gear and managing inventory (which was the best part of Xeno 1) is completely lost. Resource and development values feel like they equal zero. Previously, you had to be incredibly careful inside a UFO to preserve tech or enemy weapons, as they formed the basis for your own armaments. Now, it’s just generic alloys and random scrap. A cheap execution! 2. Identity Crisis: Why does this game desperately want to be Firaxis XCOM? 3. Lack of Innovation: Why not introduce truly fresh mechanics and actions? For instance, they could have added a mechanic to disassemble old gear or repurpose alien components into unique weapons. Just use some imagination or take inspiration from incredible overhaul mods like X-Division to elevate the series! Instead, the game clings too tightly to the skeleton of Xeno 1 while injecting forced modern tropes. Drop the Firaxis ideas—they belong to a completely different sub-genre. 4. Absurd Weight Limits: The gear weight limits make no sense. Why are basic items so unbelievably heavy for a trained soldier to carry? Have the developers seen how much gear real-world soldiers ruck during deployments or training? Even after 21 hours of gameplay, my high-tier soldiers still feel too weak to carry a few extra kilograms of gear :D. 5. Cheap Mission Design: The "doomsday clock" concept is plausible in theory, but in practice, it is annoying as hell. Why copy the artificial turn limits and rigid, chapter-based campaign progression from modern XCOM? A chapter-based structure ruins the pacing; the strategy layer and tactical missions should have a symbiotic, dynamic relationship where your actions completely dictate the flow of the war, rather than forcing you through scripted stages. Furthermore, having infinite enemy reinforcements spawn in certain missions is a lazy mechanic. Why not invent something more tactically engaging? 6. Missing Human Element (Casualties): Xeno 1 tracked geopolitical human casualties, showing how many civilians were killed globally. It made every deployment feel heavy; saving every single person mattered. Now, I don't feel that pressure because the macro-level consequences feel totally absent. 7. Visual Confusion and Size: It is extremely difficult to visually distinguish alien ranks (e.g., distinguishing a Soldier from a Commander or a Pilot). This makes capturing targets incredibly frustrating because you can't tell who high value on the battlefield is. In Xeno 1, ranks were clearly separated by distinct colors or clothing. Furthermore, when looking at carcasses after a mission, it’s unclear whether I should sell them or keep them for research. Even the alien weapons feel decoupled from the tech tree compared to the clarity of the first game. UFO ship interiours feels cheap and too small (only had experiance upto destroyers). Xeno 1 felt much better built overally. 8. Lack of Atmospheric Terror: X-COM 1994 or Terror from the Deep had a tense, almost horror-like atmosphere. Here I do not feel it. Verdict Current 21h playthrough: 5/10 The game has undeniable potential and brings some great quality-of-life improvements to the table. However, by trying to be Xeno 1, a little bit from X-COM: UFO Defense, and strongly the modern Firaxis series all at the same time, it ends up losing its identity. I truly hope that as early access/development continues over the years, the game pivots toward originality, embraces its simulation roots, and returns to the deep base, inventory, and tech micromanagement that veterans love.

X-COM: UFO Defense (1994) is my favorite game of all time. I loved Xenonauts 1. Even with its technical limitations, it had charm and personality. Xenonauts 2 is a much more refined product, but I am saddened to say that, in exchange, it lost some of the charm, immersion, and personality that the previous title had. It seems that moving to a fully 3D presentation on a brand-new engine has turned the game into a much more generic experience, at least visually. The assets and textures in Xenonauts 2 look and feel like the cheapest options from the generic Unreal Marketplace. Forget about assets that simulate the wear, tear, smoke and decay found in real battlefields. In Xenonauts 2, there is virtually no attention to detail when it comes to immersive visuals. Everything—from the walls, props, vehicles, soldiers, and aliens—looks pristine, clean, and artificial, like something out of the Barbie movie. As a result, the game feels noticeably more "gamey." The robotic, very limited and repetitive animations don't help either. Even the sound design is generic and bland. Other than the fantastic music, nothing else is particularly memorable in the sound department. And don't even get me started on other important aspects of immersion such as impact effects, shadows, weather, volumetric clouds, fog, and explosions. Everything feels like it was made in PowerPoint (but now in 3D). I've seen the developers blame the Unity engine, but the engine is clearly not the issue. Other recent Unity games, such as Menace, look far more distinctive, use virtually no generic assets, and possess a level of personality and immersion that far surpasses Xenonauts 2 despite having had less development time. On the technical side, the game is also incredibly inefficient. Loading times are both long and frequent despite the relatively lightweight textures and assets used on each map. Finally, don't even get me started on the map design. Unlike the believable locations found in X-COM: UFO Defense and Xenonauts 1, many maps in Xenonauts 2 look like collections of cover assets scattered randomly across a flat surface. And don't take my word for it! Take a screenshot from any random mission in X2 and try to match it to a real-world location. You'll quickly notice how "mobile game"-like the map layouts and assets appear. Then compare it to a screenshot from Xenonauts 1 and the difference is like night and day. That game offered believable environments and immersed you in the feeling that you weren't playing a game but operating in a real location, facing real danger in a real war. It had a soul. It was unique. It was the opposite of generic. The other big letdown is the campaign itself. Previous XCOM likes featured campaigns that each felt unique, different, almost random but "random with direction". X2 campaign feels staged, almost like modern Fireaxis Xcoms. You can play 10 campaigns and you will always follow the same pattern, the Cleaners Stage/Phase, the Escalation Phase and the End game, and while XCOM games allowed you to play as short or as long campaigns as you wanted and "take your time" this one forces you into those "phases" whether you want it or not. Instead of a simulation of a real world it now feels like a mobile game on a loop in the background with a clock as its main "forward" mechanic. The saddest part is that despite all this there aren't any other modern XCOM like games currently that are clearly better than Xenonauts 2 and so players praise it like it is the second coming of Jesus and it certainly deserves praise in many areas but it is rather the lack of competition than its real quality bringing the good reviews forward. Don't get me wrong, technically Xenonauts 2 is an impressive achievement built on a much more capable engine. Yet it still falls short of what Xenonauts 1 accomplished for the X-COM genre back in its day and the devs and the game barely scratched the surfaced of everything that could've been improved from the first game given how powerful the Unity Engine can be. I actually disliked how players referred to Xenonauts 2 as "Xenonauts 1.5" during Early Access. But now that the game has fully launched, I find myself struggling to call it anything else. With its more generic visual style, reduced personality and charm, and modernized mechanics and technology, Xenonauts 2 ultimately feels closer to Xenonauts 1.5 than a true evolution of the series. Xenonauts 2 is like the recently released Ferrari Luce electric car. It has the brand name and the latest technology, but it completely misses the point of what made classic Ferraris legendary. The result is something technically impressive yet cold, generic, and uninspired—closer to a vacuum cleaner in design than a true Ferrari. If you like a souless clone that is technically the best its ever been, be my guess and play this game. PS: Yes, there is still a chance that mods could save this game from mediocrity but they would have to create all the graphics, textures, sounds, effects, models and animations from the ground up.

As a X-Com veteran here is my review: - Considering the game have been in development for around 10 years it should be a lot more polished, have a longer storyline, more variation when it comes to missions, equipment, enemies and the different tecks. - The powerspikes in dps needs to be ironed out. Endgame soldiers maxed out with the best equipment can easily be killed by just one enemy. Or when UFO's suddenly blasts down three interceptors just because it is a *new phase* in the game and all UFO's have better weapons. - Basedefence is flawed to the point that it should be avoided at all cost as enemies spawn randomly around in your base, thou the bulk of the attackers spawn from the hangards. But you can forget chokepoints or some kind of defence tactics. Building several bases is as well a waste of time, as the story is not long enough to get them up and running. - Soldiers get maxed out pretty fast as their stats cap at 100, so no gain in having them around for more missions. It's prob ment to be this way, loosing soldiers and having to replace them. But it's not my cup of tea. - There is as well no form of alien containment in the base, so capturing aliens is a waste of time until you get a mission to capture a specific alien, and here i was wanting to create a alien zoo! - Many of the missions are timed, which makes savescumming a must as you don't have the time to utelize good tactics. Save - Run through a door - Get vaperized - Load. But: The game has a great atmosphere, the music is great and the game is good enough for a buy. It drew me in, suprised me at times and i truly enjoyed it, thou not all of it as mentioned above. When my tactics worked and the spacecritters got crushed it felt really satisfying.

As a foreword: I have beaten Veteran Difficulty. I enjoyed my time with Xenonauts 2, but there is a massive problem that prevents me from recommending the game to others: The game is almost exactly identical to the original. Enemy designs are the same aside from some updates, weapons and tactics work the same as they did in the first game-smoke grenades & shotguns are still very strong. Mission structure is identical outside of some campaign missions at the VERY start of the game. The Tech Tree is similar to the first game, and even the interface is downright copying from the first game. I don't begrudge developers retreading the same ground, but this does not feel like a sequel, this feels like a graphical overhaul mod. In the move from 2D to 3D, the game does nothing with new mechanics. No custom facing angles, no custom firing arcs, no telling how much easier you are to hit with a Colossus Battlesuit. It all screams of a missed opportunity to expand the tactical space while keeping the game similar. Far more damning is that bugs from the first game occur just as they did back then-in dogfight mode, if the last enemy ship is shot down & you pause, even if you are guaranteed to be hit by a shot, the game will count it as a success and return you to the tactical map. The few things they did add were a welcome addition to the game that fixed some balance problems: -The updated Interceptor customization is far far better, but is still unbalanced at the high-end. -The Operation Point system & the infiltrators early on make the game quite challenging in the first few months, even for a veteran. -UFOs requiring OPs to raid them if you've already done so speeds up the game and prevents farming. All welcome changes! If only they went several yards further with their changes to the formula, I think Xenonauts 2 could be an amazing sequel. Right now, I feel disappointed with the game I bought.

So far, I'm enjoying this game for the X-com feel. It does feel more like the original games which is awesome. With that though, I am finding this to be like the "new" X-com 2 where we're immediately put on a clock on missions before reinforcements arrive. For me, that was what really ruined my fun in the new X-Com 2. For this one, situations like VIP removal, you don't even have to be spotted before you need to run your units into danger. Added that this game loves to place enemy units all around your ship, haphazardly running out just means units are immediately shot. In game it has been 2 months, and there's only been a few missions to clear, which I did, but I'm already losing one of the counties in the game too. It feels off to me just a little bit. I'll keep playing and hopefully my opinion changes, but right now, having 9 turns to remove the VIP unit along with finding/sabotaging 18 computers all while my ship starts off surrounded... just not cool.

I played the original a ton and honestly? This isn't remotely a sequel. It's basically the exact same setup as the first game but in a different timeframe, less interesting atmosphere-building elements, and outright gameplay downgrades. No more using corners for cover, nerfs to explosives, etc. Alien designs are a bit different but nothing worth a sequel. There are two things that are actual changes and actually good. The strategic timers and Operation point system, plus the added variety of missions. And you know what? Both of these could have EASILY been added to the original game. I'd bet a motivated modder could've made them on their own. It's embarrassing they call this Xenonauts 2 when it's clearly Xenonauts 1.1.

Dissapointing. As a huge fan of the XCom series I was expecting a similar experience and in fact it is bassically the same game... However... The game countdown is super fast and there is hardly any interaction with aliens before the world ends to a nuke. I think 1 or 2 missions may have prolonged the end but I felt like the game had only just begun. Both games I played finished within a couple of hours. The other thing that sucked, aliens (and mind controlled humans) had almost 100% accuracy and would 1-shot my soldiers. Where as my soldiers couldn't hit the side of a barn, and sometimes needing 3 hits to get a single kill. Not enjoyable at all.

The entirety of the game is based on random overwatch reaction fire elements that scale into infinity. Strategy is impossible, because every element of every action is subject to huge diceroll swings. Do not recommend.

I wanted to enjoy the game, and some of it is fun...but overall it just isn't very good. It is basically a clone of the original XCom, but it adds nothing. Atleast the offical XCOM remakes added solider abilities.

Ещё не прошёл (по ощущениям, где-то в середине), но уже очень нравится. В обычном, не "расширенном", режиме маловато тактических боёв (есть некое внутриигровое ограничение), бои интересные, противники приятно удивили своей нетупостью даже на обычном уровне сложности, ибо к тупости "AI" с сожалением привык в стратегических играх за последние десятилетия геймдева (в "древности" типа конца 1990-х это было в общем-то простительно по понятным причинам). Геймплейные возможности на моём текущем этапе игры не шибко, но выше классических X-COM, из нового наиболее значитмого — в режиме глобуса есть некие "очки операций" и соответствующие возможности, а в тактических миссиях — их большее число разновидностей. Отдельно порадовало музыкальное сопровождение, оно ненавязчивое и весьма подходящее, жаль отдельно нельзя скачать для добавления себе в личный плейлист. Графика без излишеств, производительность хорошая.