14 DAY TRIAL // The sequel to Xenonauts, an XCOM-like turn-based game released back in 2014, is just around the corner. After running a successful Kickstarter campaign five years ago, developer Goldhawk Interactive is expected to finally release Xenonauts 2 sometime this year.
Since X-COM: UFO Defense is one of my favorite childhood games, I jumped with excitement when I got access to a very early version of Xenonauts 2. This build will be playable during Steam Next Fest between February 6-13, so you might want to wishlist Xenonauts 2 and download the demo once it goes live.
After playing for several hours, I can definitely say that this is a faithful recreation of one of the first XCOM games, but with some twists and improvements. Only hardcore fans will probably notice these new mechanics added by Goldhawk Interactive, but if you played the original Xenonauts game, the most obvious change is the switch to Unity, so the there’s 3D graphics now instead of sprites.
Xenonauts 2 is set in an alternate timeline in which the Berlin Wall still exists and the Cold War has become fiercer. It’s 2009 and a cover organization called the “Cleaners” are trying to suppress all news about sightings of UFOs in an attempt to allows the aliens to remain in the shadows until it’s too late for the world to push back.
You are part of a clandestine organization, the Xenonauts, who are actively fighting to prevent aliens from conquering Earth. This sets the stage for an underground war on a global scale, which requires not just soldiers and resources, but also a lot of knowledge. Research plays a very important role in Xenonauts 2, just like it does in any XCOM game.
The faster you research new weapons, armor, and technology, the quicker you’ll be able to gain the upper hand in the war. The gameplay loop doesn’t differ from what you’re used if you’ve played any of the XCOM games. You start by choosing a location for you base, which will automatically scan for any UFOs that fly within range. Once detected, you can send your interceptors to down the spaceship and then your transport ship carrying soldiers to neutralize any surviving aliens.
In the process, you recover new weapons and bodies, which can be researched back at your base to unlock new technologies. Unlike XCOM, Xenonauts 2 allows you to choose to collect a bounty after downing an UFO instead of sending your Skyship to kill the survivors, but you’ll be giving up any potential alien technology that you could recover.
However, if you’re in need of money, that’s a great source to take advantage of, and it’s also a more than welcomed mechanic when your soldiers are recovering from a previous mission, so you don’t have enough to send temporarily.
Another new mechanic that I have learned to appreciate is that some missions have alternative objectives. Basically, instead of having to clear the map of all aliens, you can just hold a certain location for a number of turns and the mission will end victoriously.
You still have the hit statistics just like in XCOM, and you’ll probably curse a lot when missing an 80% hit, but that’s part of the game too. The directional cover system is another mechanic that sets this game apart from XCOM, and from what I played, it did help my soldiers a lot.
As far as the improvements from the first game go, Xenonauts 2 introduces quite a few new things, including a more detailed and immersive Geoscape, more tactical maps, a larger research tree, as well as new and improved aliens.
Friendly NPCs continue to appear on the map and sometimes they involve themselves in combat, but don’t rely on them, they’re just cannon fodder. From a tactical point of view, this is very helpful because they sometimes attract enemy fire, so it’s better to have a “civilian” killed rather than one of your units.
Speaking of units, soldiers in Xenonauts 2 gain attributes based on how well they performed during a mission. Whenever a unit receives a medal for killing a certain number of enemies during a mission, or simply surviving, it gains attribute points and time units. The latter is the main resource in Xenonauts 2 and allows you to perform actions like move, fire, heal, crouch, and just about anything else.
In fact, time units is probably the best stat in Xenonauts 2, because the more time units your soldiers have, the more actions they will be able to execute. They can move farther, shoot more than once, move and shoot or throw a grenade in the same round, and a lot more.
And for XCOM fans who want a bit more thrill, there’s actually an option in Xenonauts 2 that allows you to manually control your interceptors if you’re not content with the outcome, something that’s missing from Firaxis’ games.
Conclusion
Overall, I really enjoyed Xenonauts 2 and I can definitely say that it’s all I wanted from a traditional XCOM game. I just wished the studio had a bigger budget to expand on what they’ve already created. Better visuals and animations, customization features, improved destructions physics and much more would help the game a lot.
I decided a long time ago that I’ll play this in whatever shape and form it will be released, and I’m not backing down after playing this demo build. Anyway, if you’re in need of an XCOM fix, Xenonauts 2 will definitely scratch that itch and then some.
Demo key was provided by the publisher.
