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Xenonauts 2

in library

4.1/5

( 86 Reviews )

4.1

86 Reviews

English & 10 more
39.9939.99
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Xenonauts 2
Description
From city building to grand strategy, turn-based tactics to RTS, see more strategy games from Hooded Horse. To access experimental builds, kindly switch to Experimental branch. Xenonauts 2 is a strategy game that puts you in charge of a multinational military organization tasked with elimina...
User reviews

4.1/5

( 86 Reviews )

4.1

86 Reviews

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Product details
2023, Goldhawk Interactive, ...
System requirements
Windows 10, Intel® Core™ i5-4690 (or equivalent), 8 GB RAM, NVIDIA® GeForce™ GTX 770 (or equivalent)...
Time to beat
24 hMain
-- Main + Sides
-- Completionist
24 h All Styles
Description





From city building to grand strategy, turn-based tactics to RTS, see more strategy games from Hooded Horse.


To access experimental builds, kindly switch to Experimental branch.


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 duals 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.

Copyright Goldhawk Interactive 2018

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System requirements
Minimum system requirements:
Why buy on GOG.COM?
DRM FREE. No activation or online connection required to play.
Safety and satisfaction. Stellar support 24/7 and full refunds up to 30 days.
Time to beat
24 hMain
-- Main + Sides
-- Completionist
24 h All Styles
Game details
Works on:
Windows (10, 11)
Release date:
{{'2023-07-18T00:00:00+03:00' | date: 'longDate' : ' +0300 ' }}
Size:
4.7 GB

Game features

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User reviews

Posted on: July 18, 2023

Early Access review

Elalew

Verified owner

Games: Reviews: 4

Camera Rotation is a Big Deal

Loved the first one, love this one too. This kind of gameplay never gets old. The story variations, the improved graphics and especially the camera are a good enough set of reasons to dive into the old UFO Enemy Unknown routine again. I much prefer this to the flashy, scripted, pod activation style of the Firaxis X-Com games. Yes, it took these guys a long time (I bought this game about 5 years ago), but give them a break, they obviously have a small team and they're finally pulling it together...unexpectedly well to be honest. A-class alienation elimination.


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Posted on: July 24, 2023

Early Access review

Archbandit

Verified owner

Games: Reviews: 9

Wait for release

Been playing the current build(s) for a while now. So far it's a poor reskin of the original, so if you have that don't buy this. If you don't, buy that. There's really nothing else to say at this stage: wait and see what the final one looks like but if it looks like this, don't bother.


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Posted on: July 23, 2023

Early Access review

Dev hell on a road to nowhere ?

I backed the game. It's years late, still in alpha, with several overalls in story and direction. I played the beta a few years back. I was looking like a clone of the first game, for the most part, but, with a more ressource intesive engine. I tried to play again, seeing that the devs released on steam : new stuff, improvments ? I can't tell you. The game crash after loading. It's the straw that break the cammel back for me. I want to like this game, I love the concept, I even still trust the good intentions of the devs. But I cannot recommend it for now, unless you go in with low expectations, and know that this product is neither finished, nor stable, not holding most of the promises that were made during it's crowdfunding.


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Posted on: July 19, 2023

Early Access review

Xinef

Verified owner

Games: 1145 Reviews: 1

Work in progress

I'm a little surprised be people giving low ratings to the game and explaining that it's only a slight improvement over the original Xenonauts. I mean, if you take an amazing game and make slight improvements, that should make it an even better game, shouldn't it? It's hard to make a game much better than something that is already quite good. The game is basically a modern take on the original 1994 X-Com UFO Defense, taking the solid gameplay and providing it with modern graphics and UI, and other improvements, as opposed to the Firaxis XCOM which changed the gameplay significantly, making it more linear and simplifying the strategy layer that was so crucial in the original game. So, Xenonauts has more meaningful decisions where you can take many different paths. The difference is most noticeable on the geoscape, with multiple bases etc., although in tactical combat you also see differences (time units vs action points, the reaction shot mechanics, soldiers develop attributes rather than leveling up). Anyway, I'm giving a 4 star review because, as a Linux user, I have to use workarounds to run the game, and loading times are SLOW, and I've had the game crash from time to time. Since the game is in development, it's to be expected. Not to mention Linux isn't supported ;) So I shouldn't judge a game harshly when it fails to do something that the devs never promised it would do. I will give 5 stars if/when the game runs flawlessly on Linux (whether natively or not, I don't mind either option).


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Posted on: February 11, 2024

Early Access review

Manlig

Verified owner

Games: 1662 Reviews: 8

First impressions

These are my first impressions after playing the tutorial and the first couple of missions after that. Why write a review that soon? Because, sadly, I'm unsure for how much longer I am going to keep playing. As others have stated, you will recognize most things if you've played Xenonauts or XCOM before. The setup is familiar - you're defending earth from an alien invasion, you need to build bases and launch interceptors to bring down UFOs and send tactical teams to deal with alien incursions. Nothing bad with that; the formula worked well before and a few small changes here and a new twist there can turn it into a fresh experience. However... as you've probably surmised there's also a few issues that spoil the experience. In short, the game improves on the first game in some ways but seems like a downgrade in other ways. It definitely feels less refined, and I guess that might change since it is still in development. Still, the graphics are less appealing to me than the original and have a cartoonish feel. The load times are worse and the gameplay feels more kludgy. On the plus side there are improvements to gameplay, You can rotate the camera, you have different firing modes, you can preview hit chances after moving - all good things, but not enough to overcome the awkward gameplay in general. This is really sad, as I was excited about this game. Maybe it can still deliver with updates, and I rate it as three stars mostly because there is promise here of a good game. In the meantime, I suggest that Phoenix Point is a better modern XCOM style game - or just play another game of the original Xenonauts!


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