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[Sinatar]

Developer: Goldhawk Interactive
Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux
Release Date: June 16, 2014
Available @: Steam, Direct from developer, GOG
Cost: $19.99 (US) at launch, $24.99 normally

What is Xenonauts?

Xenonauts is a strategy game in which you control a multi-national military organisation defending a Cold War-era Earth from alien invasion, using small squads of persistent soldiers to eliminate the extraterrestrials and recover their technology in turn-based ground combat. A detailed strategic layer allows you to co-ordinate the defence of the planet, using your interceptors to shoot down UFOs and researching captured artefacts to learn about your foes and unlock new combat equipment to use on your missions.

Xenonauts is a spiritual successor to the classic X-Com strategy games from the 1990s. We aim to improve the graphics, add new content and streamline the interface whilst still retaining all of the key mechanics of the original games. Devoted fans should love this game, but we're also keen to introduce the joys of old-school grand strategy to a whole new generation of players who might not otherwise experience it!

Features
- Geoscape featuring the ability to build multiple bases and house multiple squads of soldiers.
- Expanded aerial combat minigame for interceptions, with the option for X-COM style auto resolves.
- Tactical combat on fully destructible maps.
- Action points!
- Base Invasions!
- Vehicles! (a variety of tank type stuff)
- All the other stuff that XCOM skipped that the OG X-COM had!

Media

Launch Trailer

Reviews

None yet

A PC exclusive indie strategy game released right in the middle of E3 mania, over under on this thread getting more then 10 posts?

 

[epmode]

I bought this like thirty years ago. I'd play it more if it handled >1080p resolutions better.

Nice to see that it was finally released though! Someone needs to remind us that the reboot dropped a lot of awesome simulation elements. Great game, just a little too streamlined for my taste.

 

[afternoon delight]

Been playing since their Desura releases, and having seen it reach 1.0 has been great. Sayeth the loading screen tip: upon a successful hit, damage dealt is between 50% and 150% its base value.

Ooooh them commander feelings.

I think it's great. Random map content and alien spawns. Scenario events. Crisp clean AI. Mod tools.

 

[ZoddGutts]

Will eventually get this.

 

[Remachinate]

How fiddly is this game? One of the reasons I really enjoyed new XCOM is that it streamlined the strategy layer to only the important decisions. I'm not opposed to more complicated decisions, so long as they're more of the "how do I react to the enemy" and less of the "how do I Tetris my base".

 

[afternoon delight]

More how to react but I lose base invasions soooo fiddlyish.

 

[decoyplatypus]

I'm in.

 

[HP_Wuvcraft]

Eh, it's okay.

 

[moolamb]

Wow, I bought this a long time ago and gave up hope of it ever being finished.

 

[Burt]

Oh wow, been waiting for this for quite a while, didn't realize it was available. Any word on how the Early Access in terms of completion/missing features?

 

[Sinatar]

Oh wow, been waiting for this for quite a while, didn't realize it was available. Any word on how the Early Access in terms of completion/missing features?

It's basically done, it leaves early access on June 16th.

 

[Bog]

Then XCOM what?

 

[Sinatar]

Then XCOM what?

Fuck.

 

[eroots]

Will pick this up soon... I need more x-com goodness in my life.

 

[-tetsuo-]

This is finally coming out? Shit.

 

[TimeEffect]

Then XCOM what?

Play more XCOM, then play it again.

 

[Sinatar]

Yay thread title fixed.

Spoiler

totally not bumping this... nope. no sir.

 

[SourCinnamon]

Great job Sinatar. I'm waiting for the formal release to play it.

Could you mention the vehicles in the OT? I think it's one of the most important features for the people that only have played the XCOM.

 

[afternoon delight]

Good call, the vehicles become really important.

I like how there is no encounter rating, it just ramps up spawns over time.

 

[Fragamemnon]

I prefer the fluidity of play of XCOM:EW w/ Long War, but this game is totally ace. It's more faithful to the source material than any other X-COM derivative, while not being completely beholden to the mistakes of that title.

 

[Sinatar]

I haven't actually tried the Long War mod yet, I should get around to that.

 

[ThreePiMatt]

I have this installed, technically its "released" but they said there's a bug patch coming on the 16th I believe that sounds pretty important. So I got it shelved until then.

 

[Deadbeat]

Ive been waiting on this since I played it like 2 years ago or something. Will probably pick up soon or steam summer sale of course.

 

[schragnasher]

So is it like done done? IV had it on my steam list forever but they keep saying "its done, but we still have to add ???"

 

[Sinatar]

So is it like done done? IV had it on my steam list forever but they keep saying "its done, but we still have to add ???"

It's done done. It leaves early access for official release on the 16th.

 

[schragnasher]

It's done done. It leaves early access for official release on the 16th.

I'm in. Haven't played any of the prerelease so I can go in fresh. Been a long time coming.

 

[wastedyears]

Hopefully there is more depth than Enemy Unknown/Within have. And during battles I'd like to see the aliens starting from either random or fixed locations, then moving and reacting tactically to the player, instead of just having a set number of aliens spawn into existence and move to cover during the player phase.

 

[SourCinnamon]

I have this installed, technically its "released" but they said there's a bug patch coming on the 16th I believe that sounds pretty important. So I got it shelved until then.

Yes, I'm waiting for that bug fix release.

Do we have any news about user-generated content? It seems like it's pretty flexible about mods. This is from the web page:

"How moddable is Xenonauts?
Very moddable, at a basic level. Less so at a high level. Xenonauts has been designed so that pretty much every stat of every unit, item and research project in the game (as well as most global settings) can be changed usng only a text editor. You can also reskin any window in the game using a text editor. This means it’s ideal for any armchair game designers out there, as you can change and rebalance the game to your heart’s content. There are also powerful map generation tools available to the community, so creating your own maps is easy. However, deep changes to the gameplay aren’t really possible. You won’t be able to turn Xenonauts into a totally different game as you could with, say, the Source engine.

 

[Sinatar]

There is already a pretty extensive mod called XNT - Into Darkness. Adds a ton of stuff:

- 17x New weapons added to the game
- "The Slaves" available in the game (Sebillian Human Prisioners has been transformed in a horro beast called "Gargol")
- 1x New Aircraft!
- 2X New Alien weapons
- Armor color and animations
- 2x New Rank units added to REAPERS! (Exclusive in this edition - "Creepers Remake")
- Special Alien Class Analysis (Lore+ Mod Included)
- Weapons, Damage and Balance complete modification.
- Alien Races has changed completly
- Building Unkeep, Economy and Manufacture has been reviewed and fixed.
- New Paths of Research tree.
- KABILLS UFO HULL BREACH compatible version, you only need to extract maps and tiles of Kabills pack

 

[EulaCapra]

Xenonauts
Dragon Ball Xenoverse
Xenoblade Chronicles X

GAF, are you Xkay?

 

[afternoon delight]

I'm really interested to see what mod scene develops, hopefully genre aficionados will pick up on the already substantial amount in game and turn this into a carnival of fun. It seemed from reading their forums pre-release that a lot of great user material made it into the final build, so they are certainly willing.

 

[Sinatar]

I'm really interested to see what mod scene develops, hopefully genre aficionados will pick up on the already substantial amount in game and turn this into a carnival of fun. It seemed from reading their forums pre-release that a lot of great user material made it into the final build, so they are certainly willing.

I'd love to see Steam Workshop support but the devs are against it because they have non steamworks versions available. Unfortunate.

 

[Luigi87]

Holy crap this is just coming out? Seems like so long since it first popped up
Well interested in impressions.

 

[Sinatar]

 

[Sub Zero]

I bought this as soon as it hit the Steam Store but I didn't play it until recently. I haven't played the original XCOM but EU was my 2012 GOTY, Xenonauts is really promising so far

 

[SourCinnamon]

lol

I remember that the first time I played Xenonauts during the beta I used those rocket launchers for almost everything. That was until I killed 2 teammates by mistake :/

 

[afternoon delight]

Alternative Steam grid icon made by Mimir in the custom thread.

 

[SourCinnamon]

A new update was released yesterday. It's a difficult balance patch:

We had not been planning to make further balance changes to the game, but there was enough player feedback about the Easy / Normal difficulty settings being too hard that we decided to make an exception

Some bugs were fixed too.

 

[afternoon delight]

Yeah, I read through those notes as well. What are you all's opinions? Sounds like it changes the early game up a little bit.

 

[Purkake4]

Wow, it actually looks really good from the last time I checked it.

 

[dejan]

Bought this yesterday from the Humble Store and I'm pretty excited to try this out later today. This looks like classic X-COM and I really, really like classic X-COM. Hm, maybe I should play this and OpenXcom simultaneously.

 

[Farks!]

The title kind of makes it sound like a jRPG, but this actully looks really interesting. Will definetly take a closer look.

 

[Sinatar]

GOG just put the game up for folks who prefer that service.

 

[FaustsBoon]

Couple hours left before the price hikes up a bit on Steam.

I was going into spending lock-down till the Steam-sale, but i'm going to wager a guess that this isn't going on sale quite yet.

Xcom 2012 really disappointed me and just felt.... light somehow, so i'm hoping this feels more like what I was hoping for.

 

[The_Poet]

So is this a re-skin of X-COM or a new game thats just heavily influenced by it?

 

[FACE]

Oh shit, it's finally out!

So is this a re-skin of X-COM or a new game thats just heavily influenced by it?

New game.

 

[Sinatar]

So is this a re-skin of X-COM or a new game thats just heavily influenced by it?

It's a new game, but it's *heavily* influenced by the original. Most of the changes they made to the formula were balance changes to fix stuff that didn't work so well in the original game.

 

[Sir_Crocodile]

I backed the ks of this a couple of years ago, but have kept away from any updates. Looking forward to trying it this weekend.

 

[FaustsBoon]

So is this a re-skin of X-COM or a new game thats just heavily influenced by it?

It is the X-com remake we deserved, but not the one we "got", in all but name according to most folks... plus it is being notably mod-supported already which should give it some legs.

 

[SillyEskimo]

Looks like a decent tablet game. I would consider an ipad hame purchase if they decide to make one.