Xenonauts 2 Review: Old-school XCOM-like game that doesn’t blow through

While XCOM is a borderline household name at this point (Mario and Warhammer 40,000 have certainly taken notice), few games have emulated the series’ origins as openly as 2014’s xenonauts. As a love letter to the 1994s X-COM: UFO Defenseit added even more complexity to the already punishing turn-based formula, weaving branching technological upgrades with exciting tactical combat. Xenonauts 2 continues that tradition by doubling the depth, nuance, and difficulty of both xenonauts and the game that inspired it.

The premise of Xenonauts 2 Sells: It’s 2009, but the Cold War never ended and society is beginning to crumble. The ever-increasing UFO activity, which has taken place in tandem with global geopolitical tensions, has reached a boiling point. You control a multinational special forces team dedicated to protecting Earth and destroying the invaders. The technology at your disposal seems somewhat outdated (including M16 and M9 Berettas) as if without peace the world could not make measurable progress. That changes quickly as you begin to assimilate and adopt alien wares. The narrative tone is charming, vacillating between goofy and downright somber tones.

If you have never played xenonauts – or any XCOM games — You don’t need to flee in fear. One of the great strengths of this sequel is how well it conveys the inner workings of the overlapping systems. Where the first xenonauts Was a tough experience with little to no hand holding, this new incarnation features an in-depth tutorial as well as a wonderful tooltip nesting mechanism that allows you to quickly identify keywords and processes in the UI. There’s a lot to digest here, and you’ll need to consult the text across multiple campaigns, largely because of the brutal difficulty.

In Xenonauts 2there’s a constant, strong tension maintained by the two tiers of local, squad-based battles and the overarching strategy of the global map. You’ll spend half of the game in your base war room, monitoring the Geolandscape, a global map that highlights alien activity and shows the range of your HQ’s sensors. As UFOs fly over your monitored airspace, you have the option to blow up fighter jets and try to shoot them down. Success is not guaranteed and there are often more targets than you have fresh units to fight them with.

This macro-level combat system is automated. The outcome of battles is random and takes into account technology, skill and quantity of your air response when determining the outcome. There is an option for a more detailed approach, allowing you to watch real-time automated combat from a two-dimensional overhead display, but as developer Goldhawk Interactive points out, this isn’t fully functional in the Early Access version and therefore difficult to determine the depth of the feature at this time. For now, it’s just an extended automation where you can watch the abstraction encounter unfold. Still, this lack of completion isn’t too worrisome as the game doesn’t delve into these air battles for long. The bulk of the game instead focuses on the more intimate tactical ground battles.

Every system in the game revolves around the squad conflicts. The time you spend on the base managing your soldier roster, upgrading your gear, and determining which research projects to pursue feeds into this ground phase of turn-based combat. It’s satisfying to plan for upcoming tactical challenges based on that, only to be faced with scenarios that are equally confusing and exciting once you move down to the tactical level.

The expected focus, of course, is on line of sight, cover, and percentage chances of hitting your alien targets. But there are also a variety of additional features that encourage a flexible approach. Terrain, for example, is fully destructible. They can break down walls and create new paths across the map. The action point system is extremely detailed, allowing you to fire each weapon in one of multiple ways to optimize efficiency versus fire quality. It can be nerve-wracking deciding whether to rely on low-percentage snapshots to save action points, or whether to fire more accurately, or even let go and hit multiple targets in full auto. You’ll also need to consider your troops’ morale and panic, along with the occasional neutral civilian that you’ll need to protect or defend. And these are the wrinkles that can appear simply missions.

The different mission types add even more texture to the combat. The standard scenario is the aforementioned hunt and then secure the UFO that your fighter squadron shot down. This allows for a touch of creativity for you as the commander, as victory can be achieved by eliminating all enemies on the map or simply locating the alien ship and holding on to it for multiple turns in a row. More mission options will appear as the campaign progresses, some of which advance the “main storyline”. This includes investigating and raiding “Cleaner” outposts – the hideouts of a secretive human faction working against your cause. Sometimes you need to steal data from servers or eliminate VIP targets. It’s all varied and engaging, and combined with the versatility of different maps, continually changes the campaigns until their (hopefully positive) conclusion.

Variety and unpredictability are the key differences between Xenonauts 2 and the original game. There are many more alien types, additional equipment, tons of new research options, and new scenario types. Crucially, the sequel’s skirmishes also take place in a fully 3D environment. You can rotate the camera, which is more than a novelty, as it lets you spot new lines of sight or spot a target you couldn’t quite see before.

But that’s the thing: these improvements are welcome, but as the hours go rush in the end they feel flat. For better or worse, the overall loop is of Xenonauts 2 is strikingly similar to the 2014 title. Goldhawk nudged him Xenonauts 2‘s graphics in a modern direction, with lively character models and sharp special effects. The various systems and subsystems retain their complexity and complexity. The plot is an extensive repetition. They’re content with the hours they’ve spent on the original title and are looking for something distinctly different, like the jump in between XCOM: Enemy unknown And XCOM 2or XCOM 2: War of the Chosen After that I won’t find anyone here anymore.

It also needs to be reiterated that this is essentially an Early Access title. Aside from the fact that the detailed air combat layer is not yet complete, certain sections of the story are missing entire pages of text, instead featuring a prominent “[placeholder]Shield. This isn’t overly frustrating, however, as the reason to dive into this title is its delightful turn-based combat, which feels fully featured and powerful. But Xenonauts 2In his current form, he’s finding it difficult to smooth out his rough edges as the campaign progresses.

Xenonauts 2 is not a revolutionary release. It’s a conservative modernization of an old-school tactical predecessor. It fits comfortably into that odd little niche of a love letter sequel to a ’90s classic. The improved variety and challenging scenarios may not go much further than 2014, but it was in a great location from the start.

Xenonauts 2 will be released on Windows PC on July 18th. The game was verified using a pre-download code provided by Hooded Horse. Vox Media has affiliate partnerships. These do not affect editorial content, however Vox Media may earn commissions on products purchased through affiliate links. You can find For more information on Polygon’s Ethics Policy, click here.