Wage a global war of resistance against an alien invasion. Command turn-based tactical battles, build a network of covert bases, directly control your fighter wings, and achieve strategic victory in a simulation of asymmetric warfare against a technologically superior foe.
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About
Xenonauts 2 is a strategy game that puts you in charge of a multinational military organization tasked with eliminating an extraterrestrial threat. Working from the shadows, you must seek out and engage the growing alien presence wherever it appears. Expand and manage a covert network of bases across the globe. Pursue research and development to bridge the technological gap with the alien invaders. Train, arm, and command your ground troops wherever the alien threat emerges.
It is 2009 - the Cold War continues, and the Berlin Wall still stands. In the shadows, a secret organization works beyond arbitrary political boundaries to gather information about a greater threat to humanity. Mysterious sightings of unidentified flying objects and unknown beings have grown more common, coinciding with escalating international tensions and panic. Those who report such sightings frequently disappear without a trace, and it is clear that the aliens grow bolder with each passing day. Time is of the essence.
Knowledge is power - unfortunately, little is known about the alien menace when you take charge. You will need to engage in combat operations around the globe to learn what you're up against. Eliminate extraterrestrial forces in deadly tactical battles to recover research samples, allowing your scientists to improve your equipment and slowly uncover the truth about the alien invasion.
A massive variety of enemy types will keep you on your toes as you fight against a multitude of species, each with their own strengths, weaknesses, and fighting styles. Securing alien bodies to perform autopsies on will give you insights into their potential weaknesses, allowing you to prepare accordingly.
Aliens aren't all you'll be fighting - human agents known as Cleaners work in tandem with the extraterrestrial threat, bringing with them added varieties of troops, combat locations, and mission objectives. The Cleaners work to further alien goals and objectives, operating directly under their influence - any strike against the Cleaners is an indirect strike against their alien overlords. You will have the opportunity to gather intel by infiltrating their bases, securing data, and seeing how far the conspiracy goes.
Every combat engagement is an opportunity to learn more about the enemy force and how it fights - if you're willing to take the risk. Will you look to quickly eliminate active threats using explosives, grenades, and missiles, or will you take a more tempered approach to secure bodies and alien technology that can be taken back to HQ for autopsies and reverse-engineering? Will you focus on the development of airpower to bring down UFOs and investigate their crash sites for additional intel? Your adversary has the advantage in both technology and equipment – any choice you make will involve tradeoffs.
The war against the alien force takes on a global scale - as they attack indiscriminately, your troops must be prepared to operate across the globe using multiple bases, taking time between operations to rest, recuperate, rearm, research, and eventually reengage the enemy. No two campaigns are the same as complex simulations ensure even the smallest variances in decisions will have far-reaching impacts across the entire game.
A small radar station in Alaska detects an anomaly over the Bering Strait. Air Bases in Kamchatka and Yukon scramble jets to investigate, chasing multiple bogeys each, bringing them down over the water. Thousands of miles away, a radar station in Italy works in tandem with response teams stationed at a base in Algeria and an air base in France to take down alien operations on the Iberian Peninsula. Meanwhile, a new base is being built in Southeast Asia where the invaders have slipped through the cracks multiple times, inciting panic. Build, design, and manage multiple bases, each with its own squadrons of fighter jets and transports, radar arrays, research teams, operatives, and more. Consider the limitations of fuel ranges when you place them and use a grid-based construction system to optimally lay each of your bases out. Specialize your bases for detection, rapid response teams, research, manufacturing, and defenses as you see fit.
Pursue multiple avenues of research to acquire a vast variety of aircraft, vehicles, weapons, armor, and other battlefield equipment to experiment with. Your approach on the battlefield will be determined by a combination of the terrain you're engaging in and what equipment you've chosen to bring to the field. The presence of mechanized combat platforms and vehicles can tilt many situations in your favor as they break through cover and deliver particularly devastating ordnance, though their use can come at the cost of the ability to procure valuable resources from intact alien bodies and equipment. The research tree is vast, with over one hundred projects to unlock, allowing you to take on the alien threat with your own personal strategic and tactical touches.
Infuse alien technology across all manner of equipment, and even develop autonomous battlefield combat platforms and sentry guns to assist with your forward operations as well as the defense of your bases. If you give your engineering teams enough time, money, and resources, you'll find yourself well equipped for the threat - unfortunately, all three are perpetually scarce. Will you rush to produce automated combat platforms to minimize the threat to your operatives? Or produce additional dropships to respond to more threats at a time? Or will you seek improved armaments for your fighters to strengthen their ability to intercept and take down alien squadrons?
Training centers you build at your bases allow soldiers to improve their combat capabilities during downtime, but actual combat experience is of course of unparalleled value. Each mission gives your operatives an opportunity to improve their abilities according to the actual actions they take in combat, and even earn medals for their deeds.
Whether fighting in the air or on the ground, your tactical prowess is put to the test when engaging alien attackers. Battles are extremely dangerous affairs, asking you to manage positioning, ammunition, lines of sight, cover, and much more besides - many of your operatives will get wounded, and many of them will die, but those that survive grow more experienced and are more capable of taking on future dangers.
Scramble jets to respond to UFO sightings, engaging them in real-time tactical battles that put you in command of your fighter wings. Tell your pilots how to maneuver and who to target, ensuring their victory while also keeping an eye on their fuel gauge and the proximity of your nearby hangars. No forced 1-1 duels here – if the aliens bring a technologically advanced and heavily armed space craft to the fight, gang up and send a whole squadron of your best planes to bring it down. The strategic layer and air battles are closely intertwined, and careful planning of your global network of bases is of the utmost importance.
Put boots on the ground by sending in your operatives for a variety of mission types, pursuing a range of objectives, but beware – your adversaries will not passively wait for you to discover them. Aliens will actively maneuver and seek you out from across the map, moving intelligently to strike at you from beyond visual range, hiding behind cover and taking advantage of the high ground. Maximize your chance of success through effective reconnaissance and lay ambush to eliminate the enemy.
The battlefield is a dangerous place, and with an alien threat that will not stand idly by as you try to hunt them down, losses are inevitable. This isn’t the story of an elite squad of heroes winning battle after battle without loss – war is hell, and many of your troops will give their lives to resist the alien invasion. Your veteran troops will be invaluable, but even your basic recruits are skilled soldiers ready for combat. It is up to you to enable them to become the veterans of tomorrow.
Xenonauts 2 is a standalone title that does not need any experience playing the original Xenonauts to follow the story or enjoy the gameplay experience. The punishing battles, in-depth strategic layer, and complex simulations will take fans of the series and newcomers alike through a dark and deadly story about the defense of Earth and all humankind.
Genres
Stats
All-time low is the lowest price we've recorded for this game since we started tracking it.
Engagement
Hours played at review time, across 95 reviews with recorded playtime.
Reviews
Themes across 95 recent reviews and how positive each mention is. A keyword signal, not full sentiment analysis.
positive critical· bar length = how often the theme comes up
Reviews
No. I enjoy the idea, but Xcom 2 does it better. The air battles are super cool, but the tactical battles are just Click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click End turn. ♥♥♥♥.
Fantastic follow up. Best combat system of this genre. Super engaging game.
I am sorry. I just cannot in good conscience recommend this to anyone WHO HAS PLAYED XCOM UFO DEFENSE. Let me preface that statement by saying that Xenonauts 2 isn't a bad game as such but It is just flawed facsimile of a better game which released almost 30 years ago. It does not do anything significant in and by of itself that it could be commended for. I tried to play this game with an open mind, hoping that it would offer something beyond what has already been given by the game it has been influenced by but NO, Xenonauts never strays beyond the beaten path. It has no unique identity on its own, It just feels like a shoddy rip off of XCOM UFO defense made for modern day players but then again, It feels like a downgrade especially with the removal of ballistic simulation that XCOM had even then. For the entire time, I spent playing this game, I just felt that I would rather be playing OpenXcom instead. People who haven't played XCOM UFO defense might enjoy this game if they are a fan of turn based games but I cannot recommend this game for OG XCOM fans since this game has nothing new to offer.
It's difficult for me to not recommend a game after spending 100 hours playing it, but the very frequent crashes I experienced during combat sections were the deal-breaker. I really enjoy this game's tactical strategy, but hitting 3-6 crashes during a play session is not acceptable. Had I not ran into those technical issues, this would be an easy recommend. The game goes out of its way to pay homage (to the point of straight-up copying) the original X-Com from Microprose. If that's what you're looking for, this game has it in spades and stays true to that formula. You may not encounter the same technical issues I had, but crashes were so frequent that it marred what was an otherwise great game.
Sooooo boring and unballanced. Progress backwards, all the tech and research just don`t feel to make anything better, enemies always ahead with perfect precision and way too much HP; ..at the beginning was quite fun with base building and learning something new - after mid tech i was forcing myself to finish the game
It can be fun but late game gets kind of annoying. Armor doesn't really seem to matter too much because most hits have a decent chance one shotting any of your soldiers. Smoke grenades are nearly a must on every mission because of how much they negate sight lines and accuracy for enemies. Beyond that, the best tactics in late game seem to be waiting for the enemies to come to you because they generally know where you are from the moment a mission starts. Doors are pretty lethal if you don't approach them carefully with lots of smoke grenades and flashbangs. All of these things combine to make the game feel drawn out by the middle of it.
Великолепная игра ! Если сравнивать с XCOM, наверное эта игра более глубокая и проработанная, XCOM больше красоты и финтефлюшек без тактики. 10 из 10 игра ! Всем кто играл в XCOM советую поиграть и в этот шедевр !
I am giving up only since I played a ton of Xenonauts 1. I can not play 2 as I get frustrated by the new "features" of Xenonanuts 2. Walls blocking my view that I cannot hide and my first missions already have timers.
Game is fantastic. A must play for X-com fans. From memory of the previous game, this one is a big imporment. More of the same but many new things added. Very addictive game. Very punishing and very rewarding. Get's repetitive, but fans of this genre know what to expect. Played my first go on veteran difficultiy (iron man) and only lasted 33 days. Bit shameful for an experienced x-com player ^^; 2nd attempt, soldier difficuilty (iron man) and lasted 330 days. It was all going so well, until suddenly it wasn't. Might try to complete it on non iron man ^^; Excellent game.
A straight upgrade to the original game and well worth it if you like turn based games. The interface is really well done, you can queue move+shoot easily and accessing stuff from your inventory like grenades and demolition charges is now just done with 1 click. Your soldiers are a lot more capable than the ones from the original game, they can run a good distance and get off a shot from the get go, the only exceptions are the machinegunner and sniper classes who have to be positioned ahead of time most of the time.
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Trends
Modeled estimate over time, reconstructed from Steam's monthly review histogram.
Engagement
DAU/MAU are modeled from peak concurrent players (≈×8 and ×28) — Steam publishes no active-user counts, so treat these as rough estimates, not reported figures.
Audience
Audience
Games most often reviewed by the same players — an audience-affinity signal from our review sample, not full ownership data.
Languages: English*, French, German, Spanish - Spain, Japanese, Korean, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Russian, Polish, Portuguese - Brazil*languages with full audio support
Estimated from the language of this game's reviews — a proxy for where players are, not official Steam demographics.
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