Regardless of XCOM being a borderline family identify at this level (Mario and Warhammer 40,000 have actually taken notice), few video games have mimicked the sequence’ origins as brazenly as 2014’s Xenonauts. As a love letter to 1994’s X-COM: UFO Protection, it added much more complexity to the already punishing turn-based formulation, weaving branching technological upgrades with tense tactical skirmishes. Xenonauts 2 continues that custom by doubling down on the depth, nuance, and issue of each Xenonauts and the sport that impressed it.
The premise of Xenonauts 2 sells itself: It’s 2009, however the Chilly Warfare by no means ended, and society is starting to fray. The ever-increasing UFO exercise, which has unfolded alongside international geopolitical tensions, has reached a boiling level. You management a multinational particular forces crew devoted to defending Earth and eradicating the intruders. The tech at your disposal appears barely dated (together with M16s and M9 Berettas), as if the world couldn’t make measurable progress within the absence of peace. That modifications swiftly as you start to assimilate and undertake alien wares. Narratively, the tone is charming, because it vacillates between foolish notes and others which are decidedly grim.
In the event you’ve by no means performed Xenonauts — or any XCOM video games, for that matter — you needn’t flee in terror. One of many nice strengths of this sequel is in how properly it communicates the internal workings of its overlapping techniques. The place the primary Xenonauts was a tough expertise with little to no hand-holding, this new incarnation options an in-depth tutorial, in addition to an exquisite nesting tooltip mechanism that means that you can shortly determine key phrases and processes within the UI. There’s quite a bit to internalize right here, and you will want to seek the advice of the textual content all through a number of campaigns, particularly due to the brutal issue stage.
In Xenonauts 2, there’s a relentless, potent rigidity upheld by the twin layers of native, squad-based battles and the overarching technique of the worldwide map. Half of the sport is spent in your conflict room again at base, the place you monitor the geoscape, a world map that highlights alien exercise and shows the attain of your headquarters’ sensors. As UFOs soar throughout your monitored airspace, you might have the chance to scramble fighter jets in an try to shoot them down. Success isn’t assured, and there are sometimes extra targets than you might have recent models with which to interact them.
This macro-level fight system is automated. The result of fights is randomized and considers the expertise, ability, and amount of your air response in figuring out the result. There’s an possibility for a extra detailed method that means that you can observe the automated struggle in actual time from a two-dimensional overhead show, however as developer Goldhawk Interactive factors out, it’s not but totally useful within the early entry model, so it’s tough to find out the depth of the function presently. Presently, it’s merely an elongated automation the place you may watch the encounter play out with abstraction. Nonetheless, this lack of end isn’t overly regarding, as the sport doesn’t dwell on these aerial skirmishes for lengthy. The majority of play is as an alternative centered on the extra intimate tactical floor battles.
Each system within the recreation is wrapped across the squad-based conflicts. The time you spend again at base managing your roster of troopers, upgrading their gear, and figuring out which analysis initiatives to pursue all feeds into this boots-on-the-ground section of turn-based fight. It’s satisfying to plan for forthcoming tactical challenges whereas again at base, solely to be confronted with situations which are equal components disorienting and exhilarating when you drop into the tactical layer.
There’s, in fact, the anticipated give attention to line of sight, cowl, and percentile possibilities to hit your alien targets. However there’s additionally a bevy of extra options that encourage you to be versatile in your method. Terrain as an example, is totally destructible. You possibly can blow down partitions and create new pathways all through the map. The action-point system is extraordinarily granular, permitting you to fireside every weapon in certainly one of a number of methods with the intention to optimize effectivity versus high quality of fireplace. It may be nerve-wracking figuring out whether or not to depend on low share snapshots to preserve motion factors, versus extra rigorously aimed fireplace, and even letting unfastened and going full auto to hit a number of targets. You additionally need to account for the morale and panic of your troops, together with the occasional impartial civilians that it’s a must to defend or defend. And these are the wrinkles that may come up on easy missions.
The assorted mission varieties add much more texture to the fight. The usual situation is the aforementioned hunt and subsequent securing of the UFO your fighter squadron has downed. This permits a contact of creativity in your half as commander, as victory might be achieved by eliminating the entire foes on the map or by simply finding and holding the alien vessel for a number of turns in a row. Different mission choices will seem as time passes throughout the marketing campaign, a few of which progress the “major storyline.” These embrace investigating and raiding “Cleaner” outposts — the hideouts of a clandestine human faction that works in opposition to your trigger. You typically must steal information off servers, or eradicate VIP targets. It’s all assorted and compelling, and, mixed with the flexibility of various maps, regularly morphs campaigns till their (hopefully favorable) conclusions.
Selection and unpredictability are the defining variations between Xenonauts 2 and the unique recreation. There are numerous extra alien varieties, extra gear, a great deal of new analysis choices, and new situation varieties. Crucially, the sequel’s skirmishes additionally happen in a completely 3D atmosphere. You possibly can rotate the digicam, which is greater than easy novelty, because it means that you can spot new traces of sight or get a bead on a goal you couldn’t fairly make out beforehand.
However that’s the factor: These enhancements are welcome, however because the hours whoosh by, they find yourself feeling flat. For higher and for worse, the general loop of Xenonauts 2 is strikingly much like that of the 2014 title. Goldhawk nudged Xenonauts 2’s graphics in a contemporary course, with vivid character fashions and sharp particular results. The assorted techniques and subsystems retain their complexities and grit. The storyline is a broad rehash. These content material with their hours spent within the authentic title and on the lookout for one thing markedly totally different, such because the leap seen between XCOM: Enemy Unknown and XCOM 2, or XCOM 2: Warfare of the Chosen after that, gained’t discover one right here.
It’s additionally essential to reiterate that that is very a lot an early entry title. Along with the detailed aerial fight layer being unfinished, there are complete pages of textual content lacking in sure sections of the story, as an alternative that includes a distinguished “[placeholder]” tag. This isn’t overly irritating, nevertheless, as the rationale to dive into this title is the pleasant turn-based fight, which does really feel totally featured and potent. However Xenonauts 2, in its present type, does wrestle to clean over its tough edges all through the marketing campaign.
Xenonauts 2 isn’t a revolutionary launch. It’s a conservative modernizing of an old-school tactical predecessor. It sits comfortably in that bizarre little area of interest of a sequel to a love letter of a ’90s traditional. The improved selection and demanding situations could not push the envelope a lot additional than the place it was in 2014, nevertheless it was already in a terrific spot to start with.
Xenonauts 2 will likely be launched on July 18 on Home windows PC. The sport was reviewed utilizing a pre-release obtain code supplied by Hooded Horse. Vox Media has affiliate partnerships. These don’t affect editorial content material, although Vox Media could earn commissions for merchandise bought by way of affiliate hyperlinks. Yow will discover extra details about Polygon’s ethics coverage right here.