Xenonauts

I was pretty late to the X-COM scene, not discovering it until around 2006 or 2007 when a friend had insisted I play it. It was not too long before the very unforgiving game won me over. I fell in love with the immense freedom it gave the player on the battlefield. Often rewarding inventive methods of defeating enemies, be it through altering the landscape around you or experimenting with different load-outs and teams. The ability to build, manage, and defend bases all while balancing available resources was intriguing and rewarding. And naturally the ability to rename soldiers/sacrifices added some great entertainment value as well. Needless to say, I was suitably impressed! With the arrival of the Firaxis version; "Enemy Unknown", I was skeptical. I learned they had removed many of the mechanics and features I had enjoyed so much in the original. When I did pick it up I found that it was actually very enjoyable in its own right. While I lamented the loss of much of the freedom I enjoyed in the original, I found that Firaxis had (in my opinion) made it far more approachable and user friendly. With flashy graphics and enjoyable combat, it was a pleasurable experience. But all the same I still missed the freedom of "UFO defense". Xenonauts came as a bit of a surprise to me though. At first glance it appeared to be just a clone of the original X-COM with updated graphics (which initially I was not very impressed by). And for quite some time I ignored its development. Incidentally it was the same friend who introduced me to the franchise that suggested Xenonauts. And when I saw it was on sale in the Humble Bundle, i decided I ought to give it a try. After 40 hours I can safely say it was a great experience and a truly worthy successor. The story is very well done, base building and geoscape events are satisfying, and I even ended up thoroughly enjoying the art. I would argue that it offers a welcome polish to the formula of good old X-COM. And I highly recommend giving it a shot!

I absolutely love this game. I got it from GOG for free (thanks!), and it ended up as one of my favourites. I am still waiting for a decent successor for Jagged Alliance 2 1.13. Xenonauts are far from that, but they make the endless waiting more manageable ;-) It is an X-COM in Cold War setting. I like the minimalistic graphics and interface, I love the Cold War climate, sounds, music, and that I quickly start to care about my grunts. Tactical gameplay is good, even though it misses some important features (leaning, throwing grenades against the walls, laying prone, playable interruptions, etc.). Despite simple rules it gives suprisingly complex and rewarding gameplay. Strategic level is ok; I like the idea that for a long time you cannot cover the enitre world. You are sitting ducks frantically trying to defend two or three continents, while UFOs rummage through other parts of the world. You see casualties counter going up, and there is no thing you can do about it. That creates strong immersion into the dark climate of the game. Air combat is simplistic, but fun to play once you learn how to do it properly. Cons? In tactical, sometimes RNG plays too big role. Sometimes it also feels a bit repeatable; as a self-imposed challenge, I force myself into ironman. It presses me to use more cautious and realistic squad tactics. I like that, but I understand that's not for everyone. Air combat feels a bit gamey: e.g. a given UFO always locks on one of your planes, so you can use it as a bait and finish it off with other planes which it ignores. It is hard, especially in the early- to mid-game. If it isn't hard enough for you, try it on hard difficulty. Not yet happy? Get ready for the mods. Geez, I love it :) This game has huge replayability and it can remain challenging even if you know how to play it.

... its unreadable. Same goes for the mission-interface. I should have read the other comments...

I've played the original XCOM countless times, so I thought this will be fun... Well, it was for the first few hours. The early game is nostalgic.. unfortunately, also at the interface level. All the flaws and illogicalities are there. The tactical map, which was XCOM's greatest strenght, is a frustrating gore-fest. Prepare to reload, reaload and reload again. With an autosave ONLY at the beginning of the mission! Hours to achieve limited success in a single mission? Devs, you're not doing it right! Plus, the mid-game. The aliens (on Normal difficulty) get very strong really fast. After a few months, you have first upgraded fighters, while they start dishing out the heavies! And there's simply not enough money to build more stuff, hire more researchers (in XCOM, I had research-specialized bases; here, I barely manage to maintain research in only the starting base!). You can't do shit! In XCOM, you could earn more money by producing and selling advanced tech. Here, not only it takes DAYS to manufacture a single rifle, but also the sale value... is BELOW the manufacture cost! So, with very limited funding from the nations, you can only run the main base, with 2-3 outposts with only fighters and a radar... which isn't enough. So, all in all: nostalgy: check; broken difficulty: check; broken missions: check; broken financing: check. All in all, a huge let-down. I regret buying this and wasting over 10 hours. Definitely NOT worth buying.

In short, closes old school XCOM reboot you can get at the moment, with some potential (there is a an "official" community edition). Notable mention is "XCOM: Enemy Unknown" by "2k games", it's a big budget game, which is miles ahead in visuals, but lacks the simulator feel of the original XCOM. Pros: much better air combat, which, if you are bored, can be "auto resolved" with a click of a button, on top of being able to control aircraft, you can group them into squadrons of up to 3 community version is pushing a bunch of features missing in the official release (they are even supposed to become part of the official release as of 10th of Dec 2014) Local police/military also fight aliens (don't recall that from the original XCOMs, have played only the first 2 though) Alien weapons are usable upfront, although with heavy aiming penalty ("uncomfortable to hold", makes sense) Cons: Crushed UFO is graphics, you can't break into its hull, the only way is the entrance. Viewing angle is fixed. Because of it, you always know, that UFO is somewhere on the left. Overly simplistic UI is a step back even compared to the XCOM from 90th. I haven't finished it yet, but alien bases that I've got so far were much smaller than in original UFO and I cannot find good reason for that. UI is pretty dumb at times, you can position your squad at the entrance, open the door, shoot shoot shoot, close the door => nobody will come out to retaliate. Simplified inventory (can't put a grenade on your shoulder etc) Can't throw the weapons/aliens around, interrogate aliens at will.