Xenonauts

By default this game is 'pretty good'. With X-Division mod, becomes legendary. Still has major flaws, mainly late game but good gameplay until then. Default Xenonauts has a lot of cancer with mind abilities/Reapers (which are designed to go where you have no LOS btw), never made sense with the vehicle oneshots either. And generally lacks content. X-Division generally improves on this, although it does have its own threats. Think of it as a 'Long war' type of mod, but also extending the game with additional content rather then stretching out what exists. It can be difficult to install as it is 3 separate files designed to be unzipped together, but by default one of the files needs to be renamed or it won't work. This has given a lot of people grief trying to install it. I think it was changed and never tested before being abandoned.

Loved XCOM Eu and 2, didn't play the originals. Wanted to love this game but I ultimately don't have the patience for it. So much clunk to the tactical combat, a learning curve that feels more about learning this game's arcane tactical language than it is about thinking tactically. I like difficult, but this feels unrealistically difficult, like it's designed to be punishing beyond what the presented scenario entails. You're punished for not leaving your characters facing every direction between turns, for example, as if soldiers can't turn their heads or hear giant hulking aliens coming. That's not realism, that's just a game with very few variables to work with, variables selected at every turn to benefit the opfor. It feels like there's a very specific playstyle that it's trying to train me into adopting, and I don't have the patience for it. I don't find that "you made a MISTAKE and your squad must all die as punishment" kind of loop very rewarding. And when reviewers talk about mistakes, they don't mean leroy jenkinsing into fights, we're talking, like, setting up reaction fire in a way that doesn't quite anticipate the enemy's movements. I recognize I could probably master this eventually if I read some guides or something, but I kind of think yall are just masochists. Yes, EU and its ilk are less punishing, but there's a heroic fun to it (like a 3 out of 10 cartoonishness to this game's 1). This game has helped me realize that I need more actual fun along the way to enjoy this kind of tactical grind.

Game summary: Hit chance 90%...missed! Load game. Chance of throwing the grenade 80%, your soldier drops it between his feet and it explodes on its own. Load Game. Repeat endlessly. dogfighting doesn't make any sense. three fighters against 1 UFO, the self-resolution gives me a 70% chance of victory. if you play that battle your planes will fire all the ammunition (which they will hit) but the UFO remains operational! I tried the same fight several times with the same results. How is it possible that self-resolution gives victory? do they do like in the independence day movie? some game mechanics are absurdly idiotic. like the one that if you lose a continent subjugated by aliens you have no way of reconquering it BUT if there is your base it continues to function normally or my favorite: when aliens take control of your soldier. in theory it should hit soldiers with low courage and the morale bar at minimum, in reality it can hit even the best of yours with maximum morale. completely random and you have no way to defend yourself or regain control

Takes a bit of learning curve but veteran difficulty seems to be a good balance between challenge and fun.

Having fun so far. Couple things I think could use improvement: Throwing or shooting over objects like a fence that is not taller than the character; I can see not being able to shoot over these things when crouching that would be logical but when standing there should be a clear path to fire. Throwing grenades should not be blocked by these type of objects in my opinion unless its near the end of their throw path where their grenade is naturally falling closer to the ground as gravity does its thing. Not necessary but might be a nice addition would be 360* camera panning so you can see from different angles.

This game is what XCom should be

hard af but it's good