Xenonauts

Xenonauts is the closer succesor to X-Com than Fireaxis' X-Com: Enemy Unknown. It doesn't have all the restrictions Fireaxis has put in their game. Have a look at it. I've never played X-Com before but I already have got the feel for the game since the first time I started up the game.



Kickstarter: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/69341191/xenonauts
Website: www.xenonauts.com
Demo: http://x-com.org.uk/xenonauts/Xenonauts_Kickstarter_Demo.zip
Desura: http://www.desura.com/games/xenonauts



The setting is familiar. During the coldwar, aliens come to visit planet Earth. They come in peace and shoot to kill. Lore wise humans won the first round when they fought off a scouting party. Now the aliens came back with a whole invasion force. You're the commander of a clandestine organisation founded after the first attack. Completely forgotten by the world before the second attack. Your organisation is the first and last line of defence against the invaders from space.

I'm not going into very much detail as the game is pretty much straight forward enough. Engage aerial combatants with fighters. Once they crashed you clear the crashsite with your ground forces. Permadeath for anyone who dies so keep that in mind. When you manage to wipe all defenders you can sell off the loot and use the rest for research. Don't forget to protect that Chinook with a fighter or you will lose all your guys in a single explosion.





Research leads to better understanding of your enemy and the ability to create better weapons and armour. This takes time and money as it has to be manufactured by your engineers. This happens inside a Xenonauts base. Bases can be built at the start of the game and when you have enough money to start up another one. Bases have buildings that need to be built so it is not a one-time construction thing. Bases have to be defended by anti-air and ground forces as they can be attacked by the alien forces.

Your soldier have their own inventory and equiment screen. Balastic weaponry will need their ammunition. An M16 needs stanag rounds. Likewise a Smaw will need a HEDP rocket. Later in development soldiers will be able to supress enemy units. Right now suppression is being fleshed out but there has been a disdain for simply sapping ones AP. More then likely supressed units will either be forced to the ground or be forced to run away. Not only that but accuracy suffers as well. Kind of like BF3 if you will. Suppression is not yet in the game.

AP is the name given for the actions a soldier can take. It is apply called Action Points. With these Action Points you can open doors, turn around, move, fire and more. These Action Points can be spent during your round. That is right the battles are fought Turn Based. Only the ground combat keep in mind. Air combat is very much realtime but you can pause whenever you please.

I have to give props to the sound artists. Truly once I loaded up the world map I was sucked in because of the music that was playing. Really felt like we were in a dire situation. The air combat on the other hand had more faster paced music that would befit the fast aerial combat, if it was fast. Not only music but sfx like stepping on metal or shooting a door came over as realistic.



I already bought the game a couple of months ago but it was still imperative to put the game up on Kickstarter. It has already exceeded its goal of 50 000 dollars in the first 3 days. Good job Chris England! I remember he had troubles getting on Kickstarter as you need to be a US citizen because of Amazon. He is British btw.

At this point in time you might be wondering why Fireaxis' game isn't by default better. It has a 3d engine. Fireaxis profile themselves as hardcore X-Com fans. A better financial situation.

The few simple reasons I shall explain to you why it will fail gamers like us.

1. No inventory management
2. Smaller squadsize
3. AP removed. Now it is either 2 movements or 1 movement and 1 action IIRC.
4. Annoying pop-up action buttons (sorry I don't really know what this is really called. I know right mouse button will give an attack order you do not need to show me)
5. Personal peeve but I dislike the styalized appearance. I'd rather have the grim world of Xenonauts.


EDIT: Few other tidbits

Tiles can be destroyed
Flashbangs will be available
Transfering equipment and soldiers between bases can be done

Been watching this for a while, looks very interesting. Didn't realise it was up on kickstarter, I've pledged!

I can only pledge to a single game right now but if I actually had a creditcard I would plegde to this game. I want one of them shirts

"cough" GEEKS "cough"

I'll be doing another playthrough for this version of the game (v10.2.1) on my YT game channel pretty soon. Then I'll put it in my original post.

The original X-com or UFO unknown (whatever you want to call it) is still one of my favourite games ever. It's rare I'll go more than a year without a new playthrough.



Bring on Xenonauts!

Looks awesome!

There is one more game that is free and has a same style its called UFO: Alien Invasion just google it

Can't wait!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!