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.
I was expecting something like "This War of Mine", but I wasted 2.5h of my time on repeatable micromanagement and investing in a story that does not mature (IMHO). The game has a potential: animations and sound create a marvellous climate, the curiosity slowly builds through the early game. The idea is great, and this is what lured me into playing this game. Unfortunately, both game mechanics and the story are underwhelming. The mechanics boil down to sending the same people to do the same chores, just managing their work/rest balance. If you forget to catch someone right after they come back from scavenging and send them to rest, they will keep working and freeze to death outside the shelter. That's it. No upgrades (beyond storage capacity), very primitive learning, no new locations, resources, etc... Oh, once upon a while, a piece of equipment will break. You must repair it ASAP, and there is no strategic decision making. To win, you must collect a certain amount of resources as quickly as possible. The breakups just force you to spend some of these resources, without giving any real challenge or advancing the plot. Two leaps forward, one backwards, all hail RNG. After 1h, when I realised that there isn't more to this game than sending people to work and rest, I was just going through to see the plot, these breakups really annoyed me. The plot: it starts great; it looks like a complex story with a lot to discover. However, these teasers at the beginning (flashbacks/hallucinations, dialogues mentioning supernatural events...) remain an unfulfilled promise. There is no moral complexity at all, there are no interactions of crew members, and the grand finale left me with the question: seriously, that's it? I've been playing games for 20 years now, and "Symmetry" was so tedious and unrewarding, that I decided to write my first ever review. If the game were dull and stupid, I wouldn't complain. I'm disappointed because the game has potential and wastes it.
