First of all, the developers poured a lot of love into the game(s). And it shows in the continues updates and all the efforts they take to improve the game. But in the end, it is the gameplay value that counts. Gameplay is almost identical to the first game... which is good and bad. I expected more from a sequel, but the reality is, Xenonauts 2 feels like a fork from the first game. With QoL updates and features that the first game desperately needed. Xenonauts 2 inherited all its ugly flaw from its predecessor. The improved game-engine is nice, but it is not 2016 anymore. It feels outdated, the option to rotate the camera feels flawed, because of the fixed isometric viewpoint you still can't see everything you want/need. The main font-size is still fixed to a unreadable small font, and no option to scale the UI. Personally I think that the menus / UI are an improvement over the first game, but everything else looks and plays exactly the same. A crash-to-desktop happend 3 times during my first mission. So clearly some issues need to be ironed out at this point. The game is still in early access, so things can change, however... I expect some QoL improvements, but noting major. In the long run, around the time this game releases, I've probably moved on to something else. Because Xenonauts 2 doesn't offer much more - or add anything different compared to the first game. After all those years it is nice to have a sequel, but I don't think it is worth it. (especially if we take the asking price in consideration) Xenonauts 2 has too much similarity with its predecessor. Even with all it's improvements compared to its predecessor, it doesn't add that much value. However, in the long run, Xenonauts 2 will eventually be the better version. For newcomers: get Xenonauts 2. For owners of the first game, you can skip this one or wait for a sale and judge for yourself.
Not the worst point 'n click, and not the best LucasArts game. The game is slow, the puzzles are (the further you get in game) vague at best. Lots of walking from place to place to find clues / solutions. The story is... Questionable. After finishing the game, there's no replayability value. The music is great, the animations are OK-ish (granted: in 1995 it was fantastic). Still... For (younger) gamers, into the pixel-art (retro) gaming, this is a good game to pick-up. --- My frustration: lack of info about load, save and quitting the game. The game runs on ScummVM, which means there is no main menu; Just CTRL+F5 to get into the ScummVM menu.
NOTE I am not against ZACHTRONICS games, I don't own this "puzzle pack", but I bought most of the bundled games years ago. The big puzzle is why the price of this puzzle pack is so steep. For a bundled pack you expect a sharp price, this is not! It is way overpriced. Considered the age of most of the bundled games I don't see a fair deal. That said, the games are "ok", it is hard to do a review on bundled pack. But for certain, the games are not for everybody. If you are into this kind of geeky puzzles, and don't own one of the titles bundled, this could be a nice way to "collect 'm all".... But do this in a sale.
