Anyone else playing Xenonauts? (Spiritual Successor to X-Com)

[AFurryReptile]

I picked this game up when it released two days ago, and I've already put 10+ hours into it. I can't put it down! People have called it a spiritual successor to X-Com, but I can't say for sure how true that is since I've never played the original. The few reviews I've watched have said it's quite close.

The 60's setting, the stylized visuals, and the music all fit very well. The in-game "Xenopedia" is useful and the descriptions of literally every item, technology, and alien are interesting. The game was easy enough to learn; the interface feels intuitive and I picked it up quicker than I usually do in new games. I feel like I've barely cracked the surface of the "story" yet, but I've already found a half-dozen new technologies, a handful of new weapons, and new enemies. Battle locations fairly varied, and they seem to be randomized; I've yet to fight in the same place twice. Environments are destructible, which adds some interesting options for surprise flanking attacks.

The part that really impresses me is the difficulty, and the strategy required to win. Even on normal I've restarted the game a number of times after my squad was obliterated by storming the wrong building, flubbing a grenade throw, or just trying to rush the attack. Often I find myself holding some units back, finding ways to get a few of them behind an area that I can't see so that I might flank the enemy from two sides. The usage of height and line-of-site is interesting, and feels realistic; I love running into a room with a defender crouched in front, holding a riot shield with my assault troops safely behind, firing their shotguns. Or sticking a couple snipers into the second story of a farmhouse, controlling open areas by shooting from the windows, and giving me a better view through the fog-of-war. Or sneaking my troops ever so slowly through dimly-lit corridors, only to have an alien pop up from behind the corner I missed and shoot me in the back.

Overall, I'm very impressed. The genre is new to me but if this is what X-Com was, then I wish there were more games like this!

 

[ImpulsE69]

I want to like it, but i so suck at these games because i never want to lose a guy.

 

[AFurryReptile]

I want to like it, but i so suck at these games because i never want to lose a guy.

Heh, yeah that was kindof annoying at first. But your troops are mostly disposable and none of them are directly tied to the story, so it's not usually a big deal.

Unless of course he's been through 14 battles with me, gained a ton of stats, rised through the ranks of Sergeant, and gotten like 3 purple hearts. Then it hurts.

RIP Sergei Volokov, you will be missed

 

[ControlD]

Overall, I'm very impressed. The genre is new to me but if this is what X-Com was, then I wish there were more games like this!

If you are interested in the original X-Com, OpenXcom was quite recently released. You still need the original game files, which are available on Steam, but it makes the old game much more playable on modern systems.

I plan on picking up Xenonauts as well. It looks like they did a pretty nice job making a game similar to, but not a copy of the original game.

 

[Topweasel]

How is the game play compared to EU. It's the first X-com I have played and I enjoy the heck out of it. But I don't know if I would enjoy the earlier ones or their spiritual successors.

 

[Revolution 11]

First, let me get the positives out of the way. The improved graphics, UI, and sounds makes Xenonauts a treat for most X-COM fans. I say most, because there is a list of caveats that come with Xenonauts.

Xenonauts feels different from the original X-COM even if the mechanics are similar. For one, the tiles in Xenonauts are far smaller yet the density of objects, enemies, etc is also scaled up. That means that you will encounter far more enemies in a map compared to the older X-COM.

To balance for that, the enemies feel weaker, or less deadly. Each encounter is less nerve-wracking, is more predictable, and more "fair" in a sense. Enemies also seem to miss a lot more. The instant reaction of death or survival when a projectile hits your squadie also dampens the anxiety. Ironically, the pause in animation in X-COM when your guy gets hit makes you more anxious as you don't know if he will die the next second or remain standing.


When I play Xenonauts, I am facing enemy squads basically, they look alien but they act and perform like humans. This "humanness" applies to even the more exotic enemies. In X-COM, the enemies actually feel alien in nature. They are scary, hit really hard, and feel more mysterious.


TL;DR = Xenonauts looks newer, better, and has updated UI/mechanics and overall is a fun good game but the loss of tone, mood, atmosphere, and even some gameplay tweaks means the original game still is the best experience.

 

[GoodRevrnd]

I heard they didn't get random map generation working. If that's true, how many maps are there?

 

[Revolution 11]

A lot. In practice, you will only notice the same map again after 5 hours of gameplay. Maps are not the issue with Xenonauts.

 

[Harrod]

I saw this thread and immediately bought the game, I've always loved the original x-com games and played one round so far. I think it is definitely an improvement over the original games without taking away what made them great to begin with.

Seems like everything is about the same, but I like how you can suppress the enemies, and the changes to how you intercept UFO's.

Graphics are better, the animations are better as well. I wouldn't mind the old x-com music playing in the background, that's my only complaint.

 

[Rhezuss]

I'll check that one out! Thanks!

 

[Revolution 11]

To those who have never played the X-COM games before, Xenonauts is a good modern version but I would wait for a Steam or GoG sale. Veterans will definitely enjoy the series, but I should not have paid full price in hindsight.

 

[_Rick_]

Have graphics improved over the pre-release?

Back then the screenshots were so atrocious, that they actually turned me off the thing quite hard. "Better graphics than original X-Com" isn't exactly high praise

 

[Revolution 11]

Not really? There is no more clipping, graphics artifacts, glitching, CTD bugs, and completely wonky animations. They have improved how explosions and weapons fire look and behave but the core graphics are the same. But the art style is still realistic, not stylized, so the graphics will look outdated almost on release.

And I agree, the art style and graphics are not so great, even when it was in alpha. The game was in serious development problems from the start as the engine programmer had no clue what he was doing and when the project creator let him go, it was too late to fix the mistakes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8zpB0Gw46g

 

[Revolution 11]

Overall, I'm very impressed. The genre is new to me but if this is what X-Com was, then I wish there were more games like this!

If you like Xenonauts, you will really like the original game. It is $5 on Steam, well worth the price.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/7760/

One caveat: Watch a YouTube video to see if the controls are not too clunky for you. Xenonauts clearly has better controls so this will be your only sticking point. Otherwise, X-COM is better in almost all aspects.

Here is Kiloskia's Super Antarctic LP of the game where he fails hard.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8zpB0Gw46g


EDIT: With the Steam summer sale, the price is now $2.50.

 

[Olivier Duff]

First, let me get the positives out of the way. The improved graphics, UI, and sounds makes Xenonauts a treat for most X-COM fans. I say most, because there is a list of caveats that come with Xenonauts.

Xenonauts feels different from the original X-COM even if the mechanics are similar. For one, the tiles in Xenonauts are far smaller yet the density of objects, enemies, etc is also scaled up. That means that you will encounter far more enemies in a map compared to the older X-COM.

To balance for that, the enemies feel weaker, or less deadly. Each encounter is less nerve-wracking, is more predictable, and more "fair" in a sense. Enemies also seem to miss a lot more. The instant reaction of death or survival when a projectile hits your squadie also dampens the anxiety. Ironically, the pause in animation in X-COM when your guy gets hit makes you more anxious as you don't know if he will die the next second or remain standing.


When I play Xenonauts, I am facing enemy squads basically, they look alien but they act and perform like humans. This "humanness" applies to even the more exotic enemies. In X-COM, the enemies actually feel alien in nature. They are scary, hit really hard, and feel more mysterious.


TL;DR = Xenonauts looks newer, better, and has updated UI/mechanics and overall is a fun good game but the loss of tone, mood, atmosphere, and even some gameplay tweaks means the original game still is the best experience.

Yes, these are more or less my impressions as well. I really do think that the original X-Com will remain unrivaled and that magic will not be recaptured, although Xenonauts is a very nice try.

That reminds me, I need to give that Openxcom 1.0 a try.

 

[Kalmah]

I might give this a try.

 

[Kalmah]

Damnit.. Is anybody having problems with Steam right now? Xenonauts downloads to about 500mb then it stops and goes into a 'download queued' mode.

 

[crownjules]

I really enjoy Xenonauts and don't see myself going back to XCOM. I like the height of the Cold War setting and style of it over the comic book near future of XCOM. The graphics aren't bleeding edge but I don't think they went with an ultra realistic look that will quickly become lackluster. The only drawback I find is the lack of diversified aliens like you'd encounter in the first.

 

[Mermaidman]

I'm an X-Com fanatic and after playing Xenonauts for ~50 hours, I give it 3 alien thumbs up! :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

Great Xenonauts modding community here:
http://www.goldhawkinteractive.com/forums/forum.php

 

[Ganeedi]

My family seems to like Xenonauts. My dad has 460 hours, and my brother has 300 hours, i have 40 hrs. We're all old school xcom fans. So thumbs up from us too.

(While xenonauts is quite good, I prefer xcom ew long war mod so i guess that makes me the black sheep).

 

[Topweasel]

Still wondering. Everyone keeps comparing it to UFO Defense. How does it compare to someone that was introduced to Xcom through Enemy Unknown and has a blast playing that?

 

[Mermaidman]

Still wondering. Everyone keeps comparing it to UFO Defense. How does it compare to someone that was introduced to Xcom through Enemy Unknown and has a blast playing that?

When you say "that," do you mean EU or original X-Com? If you like the original X-Com, then you will love Xenonauts. People compare Xeno to UFO Defence because their game play is almost identical, in a good way.

In Xeno, air combat is more complex and more important. You can automatically resolve air combat, but later in the game you get better results by not automatically resolving. (You'll be using the space bar a LOT! :biggrin

Xenonauts is similar to chess - The pace can be as fast or as slow as you want. Patience is rewarded.

 

[Topweasel]

When you say "that," do you mean EU or original X-Com? If you like the original X-Com, then you will love Xenonauts. People compare Xeno to UFO Defence because their game play is almost identical, in a good way.

I know my grammar could be questioned at times but after rereading it, I don't see how "that" in my sentence could be referring to anything other than EU.

In Xeno, air combat is more complex and more important. You can automatically resolve air combat, but later in the game you get better results by not automatically resolving. (You'll be using the space bar a LOT! :biggrin

Xenonauts is similar to chess - The pace can be as fast or as slow as you want. Patience is rewarded.

I guess I was hoping for a better breakdown. Good to know about the air combat. It's pretty simple in EU but I never really thought of that as a part that needed adjusted.

Guess I am more wondering about progression and normal combat missions. People tend to wax poetically about older games. This one being modeled after the original Xcom. I guess I was hoping to know if someone that really enjoys EU would still like this game.

 

[Mermaidman]

I know my grammar could be questioned at times but after rereading it, I don't see how "that" in my sentence could be referring to anything other than EU.


I guess I was hoping for a better breakdown. Good to know about the air combat. It's pretty simple in EU but I never really thought of that as a part that needed adjusted.

Guess I am more wondering about progression and normal combat missions. People tend to wax poetically about older games. This one being modeled after the original Xcom. I guess I was hoping to know if someone that really enjoys EU would still like this game.

Ah - I am sorry! When you said X-Com in that sentence, I thought you meant the original game, UFO Defence, and that you have played both. My mistake.

In light of the clarification, then I will say that EU and Xenonauts are very different and should not even be compared with each other. Xenonauts is very similar to the original UFO Defence, but instead of early 1990s graphics, you get early 2000s graphics. :biggrin:

Here's an informative review with screenshots: http://www.pcgamer.com/review/xenonauts-review/

 

[Revolution 11]

I guess I was hoping for a better breakdown. Good to know about the air combat. It's pretty simple in EU but I never really thought of that as a part that needed adjusted.

Guess I am more wondering about progression and normal combat missions. People tend to wax poetically about older games. This one being modeled after the original Xcom. I guess I was hoping to know if someone that really enjoys EU would still like this game.

I can tell you that the air combat is something that I do not enjoy in Xenonauts. It was far simpler in Xcom and I liked it for that. Now you have to micro-manage air combat in later stages and it is a pain, even if you are good at it, which I am not. And aircraft seem a lot more vulnerable in Xenonauts, which is bad because you have even less money than in XCom, it feels like.

If you loved EU, you will like this game (I am differing from mermaidman here). It will not be the same level of affection because there are some critical flaws, namely the air combat and the reduced lethality of enemies (but more of them) which I have explained in this thread.

If it is on sale for $10, I would get it.