Xenonauts

Xenonauts for PC is a turn-based strategy game, heavily inspired by X-COM: Enemy Unknown and X-COM: Terror from the Deep. The production was developed by an indie studio Goldhawk Interactive.

The authors don't try to hide that they based the mechanics on the X-COM series. To adjust it for the demands of the modern players, however, they implemented some important changes.

Plot

The story of Xenonauts begins on 1st October 1979, when an alien army unexpectedly attacks Earth, resulting in a planet-wide panic. The governments all over the world decide to join forces and found a military organization, which is able to fight the invaders. Thus the Xenononauts are established, a force of alien-battling agents. Unlike the futuristic X-COM, the game features Cold War aesthetics.

Mechanics

You play as the leader of the organization, whose task is to oversee the fight with the dangerous enemy. Like in X-COM, the gameplay is divided into several parts: managing your base, developing your army, scientific research, viewing the Earth map (Geoscape), analyzing current situation, and searching for enemy units to eliminate them, as well as combat, both turn-based (taking place on the surface of the planet and involving up to 16 units controlled by the player) and in real-time, set in space. The latter makes the game differ greatly from its popular predecessor, making it even more expansive.

Xenonauts features an advanced AI system, randomly generated combat areas (with fully destructible environment), and various enemy units, which require different tactics to defeat. There are also many complex missions, which can have many different goals. Xenonauts features only a singleplayer mode.

Last updated on November 20, 2017