Merry Christmas to me, because I just finished Xenonauts 2 after countless restarts (thanks to the ending not being part of the game, yet). Well, now we are here. While the experience was not perfect, thanks to unfinished lore bits in the form of research, and having random crashes, I had a pretty good time. However, it’s not without problems; mainly, the campaign is still incredibly short, which has been my worry for a while. According to my end game stats, the campaign was completed in under 20 hours. Not exactly epic now, is it?
Remains the same
Everything from my article Round Seven still remains, the only things added since is stuff I have never seen before – like armors, weaponry and such. It’s basically just a new tier of equipment, so there isn’t too much to talk about. The terminator-esque armor is awesome, though, but let’s leave it at that. There is also a change in one of the robotic aliens, which thanks to this change made these dudes the most devastating unit when it comes to casualties inflicted. I’m talking about the Cyberdrone. They have gone from being a one-shot plasma attack, to a destructive artillery volley. It’s not very accurate, so in open spaces you might get lucky. The problem comes from them being in confined spaces, like alien bases. When one of these suckers comes around a corner with full time-units, you can wave farewell to your insertion team. Remember to spread out!
Not entirely sure how I feel about these dudes, as I liked how they were, but in the end, an increased challenge is not a bad thing. And that is one of my issues with Xenonauts 2, as it is. It’s way too easy, and it’s especially noticeable with how short it is. The new money-earning structure, thanks to the operation mechanic, and how easy it is to increase funding, cash-flow will never be a problem beyond the start. I was very rich by the end, and with some planning, the game actually never gave me any issues on the strategic level on the difficulty setting I played on (veteran). As I said, it just does not feel epic. It all progresses too fast, I even manage to bypass laser weapons, in how quick stuff evolves.
It’s a game
The whole game seems to be carefully balanced around not to have any kind of “grind”, to its detriment. Two missions of each UFO, then you will be penalized for going on them. Nothing else is needed, since you will have everything you want. It just comes off as extremely gamey, instead of feeling like an earth-defense simulator, leaving the choices up to you. It kinda kills the immersion, and while efforts have been made in the narration to keep the player involved, it becomes too structured. Especially so, if you think about repeat playthroughs.
Regardless, I had a good time, and in general I enjoy the gameplay. I just wish now, it was more in line with the first game, and its epic nature. With it being improved in every way, which to be fair, Xenonauts 2 is. Unfortunately, too much work has also gone in to make it easier and faster. On the end-game, I enjoyed the final missions, but thanks to me dominating the aliens, it was a bit lackluster. In the last part of the game, when the aliens start to nuke cities until you can take out their mega-canon in orbit, it never had its intended effect of terrifying me. Each city blown up increased the panic, but I did so well, that even when cities burn to the ground in super-heated plasma, the world never once turned on Xenonauts. I find that funny. A random strafing run killing four fishermen has a bigger effect nationwide, than obliterating a town into molecules.
Xenonauts 2 is not finished, but I don’t think too much stuff will be added when it comes to gameplay mechanics. I assume, it will be mostly bug-fixes and adding the missing art. Maybe in the future, someone will expand the campaign through mods. Could Xenonauts 2 be receiving its own Long War mod? Those not under alien control will see!
Thanks for reading.
/Thomas
Tom's Gaming Vault 