Xenonauts 2

1994 - enemy unknown 1996 - terror from the deep 2012 - remake of enemy unknown 2016 - remake of enemy unknown Then there exist the mod Long War, a total overhaul that just adds so much more. 2026 - xenonauts 2, copy paste of original 1994 game with better graphics and a few QQL. What is the point ? It is a good game but why ? We live in age of remakes but this is totally pointless. xcom games give good base to build upon but this does not, this just remakes what was remade multiple times before. Not recommended.

Недавно провёл немало часов в Xenonauts 2 — и это тот редкий случай, когда игра не пытается угодить всем, а чётко знает свою аудиторию. Если вам когда-то зашёл X-COM: UFO Defense или современные проекты вроде XCOM 2, то здесь вы почувствуете себя как дома. Но при этом Xenonauts 2 — не просто «олдскульный клон», а очень аккуратное развитие классической формулы. Что понравилось: — Глубокая тактика. Каждый бой — это не рандомная перестрелка, а продуманная операция, где важны позиционирование, линии обзора и грамотное использование укрытий. — Атмосфера холодной войны. Приятно, что игра держит серьёзный тон без лишнего пафоса. — Управление базой и исследования. Есть ощущение, что ты реально руководишь организацией по защите Земли, а не просто прокликиваешь меню. — Баланс между сложностью и честностью. Ошибся — получи последствия, но всегда понятно, где именно ты просчитался. Отдельно отмечу визуальный стиль: он не пытается быть ультрасовременным, но отлично работает на читаемость и атмосферу. Да, игра местами шероховатая — чувствуется, что это не AAA-проект, и иногда встречаются мелкие баги или недочёты интерфейса. Но всё это перекрывается геймплеем и вниманием к деталям. В итоге: Xenonauts 2 — это именно та стратегия, в которую хочется «залипнуть» на десятки часов. Не для всех, но для любителей вдумчивых тактических игр — практически обязательна к ознакомлению.

It’s clear that this game is going through an identity crisis. Developers drew a great deal of inspiration from the modern XCOM 2 and tried to incorporate some of its mechanics and design choices into Xenonauts. There’s nothing wrong with inspiration itself - it’s what has led to the creation of many new and amazing games. Problem is that every source of inspiration should be accompanied by a coherent concept, and this game sorely lacks one. It’s easy to spot moments where developers wanted to introduce certain mechanics, but somewhere along the way they began to doubt whether it was the right path, took a step in a different direction, and mechanic in question was left to fend for itself - implemented into the game but never seriously refined. This chimera should be called “Xcomnauts,” because it attempts to combine casual gameplay for everyone with a brutal struggle for survival. Overall, while playing this, I got the impression that “I’ve seen this somewhere before.” Yes, I had seen it before, but where I saw it, everything was conceptually coherent and elegantly tied together mechanically. Here, it feels like someone who just copied and pasted ideas one after another without ever stopping for a moment to ask themselves: “How is this supposed to fit with the rest?” How are we supposed to integrate this into this/that mechanic or narrative? They just kept throwing things in, probably hoping it would somehow come together on its own. You know what the worst part is? That it could have worked, but they focused on the wrong things and got caught up in the wrong ideas. Take X1 mechanics; fix what people were complaining about and improve the visuals, and then look for inspiration in other games - maybe go in the direction of the oceans? Or maybe combat in space and on other planets? Alternative dimensions? Etc., etc. Unfortunately, they decided to reinvent the wheel, and what they came up with was a square. [b]Would I recommend it? No, I can't recommend it in good conscience. [/b] This game lacks a sense of identity. Overall, it feels more like a 1.1 patch for its predecessor than a proper sequel. There are improvements in some areas and major setbacks in others. For me personally, this game is a huge disappointment. ✅[list] [*] Game does a good job of explaining why the organization from the first game failed. Overall, the story is solid and features some interesting concepts. [*] Improved graphics with better effects, such as explosions, fire, etc. In this regard, the game showed the greatest improvement, because in X1 they made a lot of compromises, and it was painfully obvious. [*] Bigger variety of combat maps. Another area where the game has seen a significant improvement, since its predecessor had maybe 3 or 4 variations that it used almost nonstop. [*] Background of each department (barracks, research department, etc.) changes as we make technological progress. [*] Quite good soundtrack and soundscape. [*] UI is easy to navigate, clear, and intuitive. [*] Improved aerial combat UI and its design. [*] Tutorial is well-done and explains absolutely all in-game mechanics. Of course, you can decide for yourself whether you want to use it or not, and whether you need the advanced version or if the basic one is enough for you. [*] Operation Points is an interesting idea for adding variety to the gameplay and bringing an extra layer of strategy to the geomap. [*] They've added a mechanic that prevents endless farming of lower-level UFOs. If you want to send soldiers to recover a downed airship, you have to pay a certain amount of operation points. [*] Bigger variety of enemies, with some of them being a really creative one. Finally we have humans fighting with us too. [*] Mechanics for recruiting supporters and fighting infiltrators are quite well-designed. [/list] 😐 [list][*] Tech tree is slightly smaller than in previous game. [*] A greater variety of available missions, though unfortunately limited mainly to those that are part of the main storyline. [*] Maybe it's just me, but I find this game rather boring. I finished it more out of a sense of obligation, and I don't regret that it's over at all, nor do I feel like starting it over. [*] It's hard for me to put my finger on it, but it's clear that the maps were created solely for the game. These aren't real locations or inspired by real locations; rather, they're just a haphazard jumble of various objects thrown onto the map without any order or structure, just to create a suitable “arena” for combat. [*] Average gameplay time. On normal I finished the game in 18 hours.[/list] ❌[list] [*] Game lacks its own identity. It tries to be a successor to both Xenonauts 1 and X-COM 2 at the same time. Problem is that the differences between them are enormous, and X2 fails to convincingly bridge that gap. On top of that, game fails to convince you that you’re leading a military unit that represents humanity’s last hope. This stands in stark contrast to its predecessor, where we felt pressure and weight of managing humanity’s last line of defense. Here, I simply don’t care, and game fails to make me care. [*] You don't really feel your strength growing. Every time you develop something that evens the odds, enemy gets a boost in form of a better air units, weapons, or elite troops. In X1, you were playing catch-up, but by the end of the game, situation had evened out and even tipped slightly in our favor. In X2, they completely destroyed that feeling, making all that effort pointless. [*] Compared to the previous game, game has been simplified in many ways. For example, in X1, a crashed UFO was a treasure trove of technology, but you always had to be extremely careful while fighting inside it to avoid additional damage. Now it simply contains a set amount of allenium and alien alloys, and it doesn’t matter how much you wreck it. Another example is the unlimited supply of aircraft ordnance once they’ve been built for the first time. [*] It's obvious that AI is cheating. It always knows where your soldiers are and maximizes its own gains at your expense. I tested this and found that it always plays aggressively if your soldiers use up all their time units (TU), and very cautiously if they don't. [*] Your soldiers can't peek around a corner to see what's there or provide covering fire for their teammates. This is a bad design choice because the game forces you to act illogically - that is, to step out from behind cover and risk walking into an ambush or coming under enemy fire. [*] Game locations looks too pristine and clean. Let’s take the maps of downed UFOs as an example. If we were to look at this with a realistic eye, there should be some signs of a forced landing e.g., a gouged-out trail in the ground, damaged buildings, broken or burning trees/cars, etc. However, once we load the map, it’s easy to see that everything looks normal, while the UFO itself is given a “damaged” appearance instead of the standard one. [*] Overwatch. Despite repeated assurances from the developers that everything is fine with it, in my opinion, it either doesn't work properly or is full of bugs. Sometimes it works correctly, but other times my soldiers wouldn't respond, even though they met all the requirements for it to trigger. [*] There's no point in capturing enemies alive - it doesn't yield any additional information or tactical data, and in terms of additional technology, benefits are practically zero (with one [b]1[/b] exception). [*] Game is poorly optimized. It uses more hardware resources and loads slower than it should. This isn’t the fault of the Unity engine, because I have city builder games based on that engine, and I haven’t seen performance as poor as this anywhere else. [/list]

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.

So let's get the good things out of the way first: the music is basically the MVP of the entire game, excellently setting the mood and building a tension the gameplay frankly doesn't deserve. The fact that the OST isn't up for sale or download is a crying shame. The writing is also very solid and occasionally wryly amusing. If you're looking for a game that's like the original X-COM/TFTD but a bit more polished and pared down to be slightly less repetitive, and you do not further interrogate your gaming experiences or their history, Xenonauts 2 is for you. For me... man I was disappointed. 90% of the game is just re-used Xenonauts 1, with one truly major change, which is kind of baffling considering that it had a several-years-long open beta to polish it. It also still maintains a number of bugs people have complained about for years, like sound effects occasionally being scratchy for no apparent reason. There's also a weird loss in that some of the writing has less personality and some of the art(like when you complete research) being blander and more detailed. It's not bad, but if you compare the Xenonauts 1 Live Reaper Capture art with the Xenonauts 2 version... in 2 it basically just stands there, in 1 it flails at the glass, covering it in scratches. Likewise, the sound and general combat effects are pretty mid. Like, I get a railgun sniper rifle and the projectile looks like I'm tossing a snowball at the enemy in terms of velocity and flair, and sounds about the same. There are jetpacks, but I used them like, twice, because the battlefield is very two-dimensional even compared to the original X-COM. It's also less... interactive. Original X-COM was defined by some of the unexpected things that could happen: burning grass creating smoke screens, a stray shot setting off a gas pump or ammo explosion, buildings collapsing due to their bottom floors being destroyed and... there's just none of that either. The whole strategic interface layer also feels... kind of half-baked. Like, they throw in a surprisingly elaborate air intercept mechanic but after doing it twice you just mash autocomplete because there's no reason to do anything else except if you really wanna listen to the intercept theme. A handful of base defenses negate all enemy attacks on your bases. Keeping Doomsday and Panic timers under control is trivial on normal difficulty. And the tactical layer is... honestly everything that sucked about original X-COM, except that it feels way more random, and at the same time keeping veterans alive is way more important. So, sure, I could let the dice fall where they may, but the complete lack of pressure from the strategic layer means that all I'm doing by doing so is wasting my own time training up more troopers. The fragility of troops and the randomness of the combat never really combine to form interesting stories or events, just annoyance at the mechanics, like when ankle-high bush provides as much cover for the ten-foot alien doom warrior as a bunker wall does. MARS combat drones should be your disposable metal wall but for most of the game the money and time to build/rebuild them is short enough that they don't even really serve that purpose. About the only thing it feels like the Xenonauts devs learned since Xenonauts 1 was that letting alien psionics work without line-of-sight was a bad move, and thankfully they removed this so it's actually possible to play through the endgame missions without taking a bite out of your keyboard. Good job on avoiding the most obvious error imaginable that you already made once before, I guess. The notably smaller maps than original X-COM also tends to mean you're in view of four or five aliens the moment you step out of the landing craft and taking hits as a result is entirely RNG and completely decoupled from your decisions. Which feels like it defines a lot of Xenonauts 2. I rarely ever felt like a lost or wounded soldier was related to a mistake I made, and instead it was generally down to the RNG and the miserable hit odds calculations. Oh! Speaking of miserable calculations: between the start of the game and the end of the game, the exact same enemy types end up at about 300% of their starting health, plus gaining a bunch of armor. Coincidentally, this more or less tracks identically with your weapons upgrades, thus making the whole thing kind of pointless except for punishing you if you don't keep up. I didn't need Skyrim-style level scaling in my X-COM game. Lastly, even the writing seems to have, despite all this time, missed a final pass in the endgame. Spoiler ahead: [spoiler]The wind-up for the endgame mission describes blowing up the alien transport network so their homeworld will wither without its empire and they can't reach Earth. Instead, when you win, humanity seizes the network instead. I like the ending result, but this felt disjointed to me.[/spoiler] So yeah, ultimately. Maybe a game to buy on sale? But in general a quite unpolished performance. Also as a last aside the main menu background art has some odd jank artifacts that honestly look like it was grafted together from multiple other pieces or the artist used AI to create it and missed some cleanup.

Вполне годный клон X-COM: UFO defence. Фундамент игры успешно сохранен, фасад подкрашен. Тактическая часть - прекрасна. К тому, как организованы исследования и производство есть вопросы. Политическая часть ощущается лишней. Учитывая ностальгию по X-COM - 7/10.

The success chance for recommend was 85%. But when I clicked, it somehow ended up as not recommended. I get it, this is a game about dice rolling, and sometimes you roll 1. But then my LMG dude goes full send at an alien next to him, and one of the beams hits behind LMG dude and destroys a wall section, it’s no no for full release. I can accept that from 10 shots, 7 misses, even in this situation, even if the LMG has a colonel rank. But the wall behind? Same with grenades and grenade launchers dropping grenades next to the soldier using them. I get the percentage shows only 70% hit chance, but please make the miss happens on the end of the arc, not at the beginning of it. Will finish it, but I'm disappointed. Buy only at a discount.

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.

2026 game. Coded with the spirit of a man who peaked in 1994 and refuses to acknowledge it. This doesnt "pay homage" to retro design - it IS retro design, shipped in 2026, as if nobody told the developers that constraints from the DOS era existed because of hardware limitations, not because they were good ideas. Camera? Apparently this was ported from braille. Movement controls? Even chess got it figured out. Mechanics? Leave ChatGPT in charge of that. Modern XCOM'likes understood the assignement. Xenonauts 2 did not even get the memo cold war ended.