Xenonauts is not a forgiving game, and this means it’s important for players to make sure that they have overlapping fields of fire covering potential angles of approach and that they leave as many characters as possible with the time units required to get off a reaction shot. Players have to carefully manage them in order to make sure that they get into advantageous tactical position and into cover while also scouting the entire level for potential alien threats. The core of the game is based on turn-based tactical battles that pit a squad of human soldiers against aliens in a deadly dance which can result in the defeat of the human force – a sign that the campaign needs to be restarted, or the death of all invaders, which means that Earth can live for another day.Įach character has an allocation of time units, which can be used to move, fire, change perspective, crouch and use other abilities. Those who have played the original X-Com created by Julian Gollop or the new XCOM from Firaxis will be instantly familiar with the concepts behind Xenonauts, but the developers at Goldhawk Games have also introduces some new elements in order to improve the overall experience.
This is also a great way of creating freedom for gamers to focus on the mechanics of the title, which involve the classic squad-based firefights, but also aerial engagements, resource management, and careful use of alien tech and weaponry. The narrative created by the developers at Goldhawk Interactive is pretty limited, but gives the player plenty of space to create his own stories of failure, or the most common or uncommon heroism. Xenonauts is a game which takes the classic X-Com experience as inspiration and never strays too far from its core concepts, even if the story and the mechanics are improved here and there and the whole package comes with some quite generous resources for fans to learn about the experience and its unique elements. Xenonauts can be the story of how Earth managed to unite and work together in order to respond with force and ingenuity to a powerful alien invasion, and of how the squads of one capable commander managed to hold and push back the enemy despite their superior tech.īut, for most gamers, the title will mostly be about those moments when the Earth tried to fight an alien assault and failed miserably because a sniper managed to shoot his own friends in the back before any other creature made contact.
I have finished the mission with one dead soldier and three promotions, which is a good deal in the world of Xenonauts. I then use a rocket launcher to create an opening and I am quickly welcomed by three angry aliens who unluckily manage to kill my assault trooper, who had returned to the frontline. The rest of the arctic landscape seems nearly devoid of life, and I slowly creep my way to the crashed alien craft, creating a perimeter designed to maximize the amount of firepower I can deliver.
Xenonauts base attack Patch#
He gets shot with some kind of energy weapon, panics and moves to the back, but I manage to take out the alien with the rest of my squad, and I allow myself to hope that this will turn out ok, especially after I patch up my wounded soldier. My dropship is on the ground as I prepare to explore my third UFO crash site in order to collect alien items for research and some bodies that my scientist can analyze, and I am fairly confident after losing just one soldier in the last two engagements.Īnd then the door of the Chinook drops and I see a lizard staring straight at me, taking one shot at the best operative I have, who specializes in assault.