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Xenonauts 2
Description
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Xenonauts 2 is a strategy game that puts you in charge of a multinational military organization tasked with elimina...
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
Popular achievements
First Of Many
Lose a soldier in a tactical combat mission.
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38.81%
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[This is July 2023 early access review ; I'm a backer and have played the first xenonauts]
Compared to the first xenonauts there is enough changes and improvements to make it worth playing for me.
Apart from some quality of life improvements, there are changes to equipment, the number of soldiers that can be taken on missions, the role of the support vehicle (there is a less of a tradeoff between taking soldiers and the vehicle now, which is a plus for me). The gas rockets are gone, and overall using the rocket launcher is not as good choice as it used to be in the first installment.
There is a bit more variety in missions now, including item retrieval, diffusing bombs, and sometimes added time-pressure. The crashed/landed UFO missions are still the majority. There are new enemies, including one that is hard to kill using firearms, unless its sensitivity to noise is exploited.
The storyline was also changed, which is nice. This time we don't start fighting the invasion immediately, but after initial few missions aimed against their human helpers.
The aircombat is announced to be changed in future updates, but at least for now I had more luck with the autoresolve than the manual combat.
Some of the research descriptions (autopsies mostly?) are still missing at this point.
I wish the global view was showing a globe instead of a flat map, given that the engine is now 3D.
TL;DR Good game with imporvements on the original. Buy if you're a big fan of the original and want to justify playing the game again or if you're new to Xenonauts and want to experience a more user friendly game. But also the game is early access and things can drastically change for better or worse as development continues.
Much like a nut is a delicious snack, a chocolate coating elevates the experience. Xenonauts 2 is that coating of goodness around the solid core of the original.
Some good, the visuals are largley inline with the original but with more refinement, clarity and a modern UI, which is good because the original art style still holds up and didn't require a massive overhaul. The mechanics so far seem to simply build upon what the first game established, providing more challenges and dynamic situations for the player to encounter. Sound design is immaculate, the guns are punchy, the lasers are "zappy", its all just wonderful. The music is likewise equally stellar and so far hasn't become grating or annoying during gameplay.
That's not to say the game is without issue, it is still in "early access" and like so many other games this is cause to be warry of the game. While I personally am confident in the devs to deliver a full and polished product, for most people I'd recommend holding off until the game is further along to spend your hard earned money on it; especially if you already own the original. A major issue in my experence is a problem with crashing and stuttering when trying to complete actions quickly. I understand it's a turn based game, but its a tad annoying when I'm checking my sectors quickly to figure the best solution and the game slows to a crawl. Additionaly, the game crashes during loading screens and the aforementioned quick scanning around the map, which is particularly agonizing as multiple times its crashed near the end of my turn where my troopers hit most of their shots only to reload and have them miss everything.
The game is fun and interesting, an improvement over xenonauts 1 albeit with the same theme.
I would recommend it, but one also has to take into account that the development by the programmers is taking really much. Perhaps wait until you can finally complete the final mission and finish the campaign, it's not available up to now (13_9_2024).
They are improving on many of the things from the first one and adding things for good and bad, timed missions are on the bad side, never really liked them especially when its a really short timer combined with reinforcments from random directions or all sides at the same time.
People seems to mention bugs and crashes but they have not been a big thing for me, 200 ingame days and the game only crashed 2 times, my problem is that they need to work on the balance, even if you choose the easiest difficulty, use flashbang and multiple smoke grenades so does it seem to be impossible for the aliens to miss.
I read the book that came with the first game with ideas that never was implemented and i hope they use some of them now like maybe larger scale battles longer into the campain, something i would also like is more use of friendlies, neutral and hostile forces, the cleaners was a good idea but they where a really small part of the game.
So the game is fun but lack a lot of stuff atm, it has lots of potential and i hope they use as much of it as possible.
Caution: As of Time Writeing This Review Xenonauts 2 is Pre Release. On Milestone 4 i Like the Round Based fights. It Has some rough Edges, but still i started a new Game for every released Milestone. For me it is a 4.5 Star Title, but i am not expecting a full XCOM experience from the Developmentteam.
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