The reason some fans (myself included) were dissatisfied with XCOM: Enemy Unknown was because, in the name of streamlining and modernization, Firaxis had removed a lot of control and customization from the player’s hands. Since they didn’t have the rights to the franchise, Goldhawk came up with its own unique universe, setting, and rogue’s galleries of enemies while keeping the original’s turn-based gameplay, base management, and global “Geoscape” view. The small team at Goldhawk Interactive had been working on Xenonauts, a “spiritual successor” to X-COM, as Goldhawk says in the game overview on its website. Now, back to the future-I mean, back to the present. I apologize for dumping all that backstory and flurry of titles on you, but, again, it’s impossible to view Xenonauts without understanding the complicated history fans have with the series. After the backlash against The Bureau, 2K finally announced what the fans wanted: a more faithful remake, this time helmed by strategy veterans Firaxis, which would become the excellent (but flawed) XCOM: Enemy Unknown. In 2010 a new X-Com game from a big name studio was announced, but it was the alternate -1960s continuity shooter “ The Bureau: XCOM Declassified,” which provoked howls of outrage from fans of the original and it eventually flopped. X-COM has been remade several times: first there were sequels ( Terror from the Deep and Apocalypse), then a couple of ill-advised genre changes ( Interceptor and the truly terrible Enforcer), followed by a bunch of “spiritual successors” from other developers ( UFO: Aftermath, Laser Squad: Nemesis, etc). Whether you’ll love it or hate it, though, depends on what you want out of a X-COM remake. X-COM is widely acknowledged as a classic and regularly appears in lists of the top 100 games ever created, so Xenonauts has very large shoes to fill. It’s essentially a remake and update of 1994’s groundbreaking “ X-COM: UFO Defense” (known outside North America as “ UFO: Enemy Unknown”). Xenonauts is one of those games that is impossible to review on its own. If not, then you’ll likely still enjoy it, but you may not understand what all the hype is about. If any of this sounds familiar to you, then you’ll get a nostalgic kick out of Xenonauts. Every step could be their last, but they were humanity’s best hope. They were crafty Grey buggers, armed with plasma pistols, while my own anime-haired troops were frail and unarmored. Interface is still somewhat clunky.Ī big chunk of my childhood in the late nineties was spent hunting down pixelated aliens in cornfields. Vastly streamlined interface compared to the original X-COM. Will be a delightful nostalgia trip for fans of the original. Passed Inspection: Brings back the tension and complexity of the original X-COM. Publisher/Developer: Goldhawk Interactive. Hardly satisfying.Īlso, with base defenses only mattering if they can shoot down Battleships, what's up with missile and laser defenses? Without effecting base defense missions they are entirely useless.Xenonauts – PC Game Review By Matt Richardson I get that the aliens still want to destroy your base, but why send one battleship again, when the last got blosn out of the sky before landing? Shouldn't they send two the next time around? It would only make sense to me that aliens should increase their assault efforts (inevitably rendering your defenses pointless) or that blowing up an attacking battleship should re.ove the assault-your-base flag, in which case defenses become a tax to avoid a mission. Speaking of, the whole assault-your-base flag not getting turned off when a battleship is destroyed by base defenses is pretty lame in how it works. Second is to build plenty of defense and try not to be annoyed by the constant parade of Battleships knocking on your door. First is to not build any and leave a defense party to deal with raiders and stop the attacks. Until base defenses have an effect on base defense missions, there will only be 2 ways of going about base defense. You'd never have to leave your front yard, and even if you only got 50 elerium at each site, who cares when you had to fly 5 meters to the site? Build enough defense to render you impervious and that battleships will keep coming indefinitely and piling up crash sites without ever endangering your crafts. Having crashed battleships from base defenses would also just drop a steady supply of stuff at your doorstep and would be easily exploitable. A crashed Battleship means a lot of well equipped aliens for an average of 50 elerium, I'd let them repair and leave.
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