Xenonauts 2

The doomsday clock mechanic takes so much away from this reskinned xcom rather than add to it. Its such a shame as I loved the first game dearly. If there is a way to turn off this feature, that'd be great

Doom's day clock is a big no, gameplay now feel so rushed from time limited mission...some mission have repetitive map layout, better just go play Phoenix Point at this point

Wait until it leaves Early Access, and wait until mods are in place to figure out something to replace the doom's day timer. For a game that has been in the oven a LONG time, it still needs more cooking.

Played original X-com and Terror from the Deep and this is complete nostalgia trip.

tl;dr Xenonauts 1 is the more complete game, but Xenonauts 2 has much better features. I think Xenonauts 2 will be the better game once it is finished, but it is already an excellent game and shows clear improvements over the first. [hr][/hr] As of July 2025 most of the development of the game is finished. I played my first campaign on Normal/ Ironman and achieved a victory, only seeing three instances where the game was incomplete (all of them just missing artworks/ one typo). I plan to edit this review after beating the game on its highest difficulty, and adjusting my thoughts if that experience changes them. I played most of Xenonauts 1, and I consider it to be the better game, but there are a lot of things Xenonauts 2 improved upon. Namely, X2's accuracy breakdown on shots, the explanatory tooltips that let you study game mechanics mid-mission, the "aim preview" that allowed you to check a shot's accuracy from a different position before committing to movement, and the ability to rotate the map to view terrain from different angles are all fantastic and incredibly helpful. These are the strongest aspects of X2, as they all help the player better inform their decisions and learn how to get better at the game without as much trial and error as X1. Xenonauts 2's flaws are similar to X1's. The cover system seems intuitive at first, but can give inexperienced players a lot of false confidence in regards to how protected their soldiers really are. Understanding the Time Units system, Cone of Vision, and Reaction Fire mechanics are crucial to keeping soldiers alive, and ignorance of these can lead to a lot of confusion when movement blunders result in soldiers dying to an unseen alien. The general strength of the aliens relative to your own soldiers can also frustrate players from games like Xcom EU/EW/2, where humanity's finest are much more powerful. Thankfully, all of these flaws can be ironed out as you get better at the game. Mastery of mechanics will allow you to overpower the aliens with ease. There are several other reviews criticizing the time-crunch mechanics present in Xenonauts 2 compared to Xenonauts 1, but I think this is just frustrated players coping. The vast majority of the missions have no time limits or pressures, and allow you to move at whatever pace feels most comfortable to you. There are a handful of story missions that do have some form of time crunch, usually in the form of infinite reinforcements, but these missions are both easier than the untimed missions, and are great at communicating when the consequences of spent time will occur. There was also some complaints about the Doomsday Clock strategic game-over mechanic, but I found the solutions that the game provided for dealing with it to be more than generous. My Doomsday clock never exceeded 50%, and [spoiler] the Doomsday Clock goes away once the Alien Invasion begins, replacing your strategic game-over condition with the traditional increase in panic/ loss of 2 funding regions [/spoiler]. Some other reviews brought up some criticisms that I thought were valid. I would like options for soldier customization, and while I don't plan on utilizing mods, I would like mod support. I would also love to see some randomization of the mission maps. The developers have shown intent to implement many of these features in later updates, so if these are important to you, I would wait to purchase until the game's full release.

There is a doomsday timer out of the get go and I can't disable it in settings or anything - here is a negative review from me, sign here, here and here. Good luck.

Fine for what it is. On the tactical side, the wonky line of sight around corners needs fixing. Otherwise, there's simply not enough variety or progression.

Awesome tactical game! Humanity Vs Aliens. 10/10 I love it! I love the lore, the tactics, the customization of your load outs, the research and the combat turn based strategy.

The controls are so bad it's pain to even select a unit. That's not a challenge I was looking for

Honestly, this game is an impruvment to everything in the first game. Better UI, graphics, tech-tree, enemies, equipment, air combat, and so on.

Hugely nostalgic for any fans of original x-com series and the turn based combat, destroyable terrain and buildings and resource/base management will be familiar. Still in early access and about 95% finished but definately playable and enjoyable.

I've been playing XCom since the original in 1994 and have to say that this is the best take on that game I've played since then AND a lot of the improvements they're implementing (and still working on) are great. There's still work to be done, but they're the rare case of proving the Early Access is worth it.

Original X-com ('90s) but modern day made. I would well recommend it while we all still wait (impatiently) for X-com 3.

Sadly an less than mediocre UFO/XCOM clone. It has some good ideas but it doesnt achieve to stand out to the other titles of this genre. Even more, it takes all kind of ideas and mechanics from other games like this (which is totally fine imo) but then implements these worse than the originals. Also many QoL-Options are missing (for example speeding up turns of alies and foes). So in the end it feels very sluggish and kind of old (and not the cool "retro" kind of old, sadly). And the further you play, the more bugs appear, for example the game does not recognize some key inputs unless you press the key several times. how many times i had have to press a key even rised the further i played (ofc my first thought was that my keyboard was broken, but i could exclude this). Then it also started to crash more an more. First only sometimes in loading screens, then also sometimes when i saved or loaded a savegame. Then more and more often while save/loading, then sometimes even while in normal play (in tactical missions only). I guess it may be some kind of mem-leak, dunno. So i´m about 45hrs in and the game is unplayable for me now with this savegame. Repair and reinstall didnt help. As this game is in EA for quite some time now and is still in this state, i dont have much hope that this will get any better, but hey, i wish to get proven wrong here.

Absolutely most rediculous game going, insanely hard, expect multiple deaths even on basic setting. Played other xcom style games never this hard, do not feel for my troops as they are slaugtered on every mission, enemy has one shot one kill capability!!!!

The game is a sucessor of XCOM2 - Terror from the Deep mixed with the xcom next gen. I do like it. I will play it once it is finished.

Lost one of my longest serving veterans on the final mission to friendly fire.

too short game play. enemy to strong all levels

YAAAAAY!!! Tactical Mission Timers. This is SOOO cool, i mean, i so LOVE to be rushed around suiciding my soldiers because i have 5 turns before sh!t goes down (for no reason). Where didya copy that from? Oh, i have an idea. That's totally THE feature that has to be copy/pasted into every game of this sort!!! Scr3w this, lemme tune that effin' timers down... OH WOW, look at that! I have everything on COMMANDER difficulty, just timers increased from -1 to +1. My Achievement Difficulty is now... Recruit?! Yeah, figures. GTFO. NGL, game's still quite awesome though.

Great game, like the development of it and lots to get into

Classic X-COM inspired blend of strategic and tactial.

If you enjoy games like XCOM, you will enjoy Xenonauts 2.

Let's be Xenophobic, it's really in this year

Simple and exciting.

Great original XCOM clone!

great game :)

very fun

Anal probe these alien bitches.

Cool Game

This is one of the best games I ever played

Great game 10/10

An improvement on the first

Woo!