Trying to decide between Xenonauts and XCOM

[Woody]

As the title says.

[KT Chong]

Did you play the original XCOM: UFO Defense? Did you enjoy it?

I played the original XCOM back in the mid-1990s. Which I did NOT enjoy. In fact, I hated it. I depised the original XCOM. Yet, I have immensely enjoyed XCOM: Enemy Within. I would put the new XCOM among my all-time favorites turn-based tactical game, up there along with Jagged Alliance 2 and Heroes of Might & Magic III and V.

XCOM: Enemy Within took the basic premise and ideas from the original XCOM from the 1990s, and made a lot of changes, renovations and improvements to it. So, the new XCOM is more of a "reimagineering" of the original gameinstead of a remake. I like almost all of the changes and improvements. However, many "old school" diehard fans of the original XCOM despise the new game because of those changes.

On the other hand, Xenonauts is a straight-up remake of the original XCOM. It retains almost all of the implementations, executions and ideas from the original game.

So, if you enjoyed the original game from the 1990s and are looking for the same experience, then go for Xenonauts. If you did not enjoy the original XCOM, the new XCOM may actually make you happy.

[K. the Land-Surveyor]

What the guy above me said about Xenonauts.

XCOM uses a boardgame ruleset. It's not an alien killing military simulation game, it's an alien killing boardgame that has been digitized. Which is great! As a standalone, it's a great game, and as a follow up to the original X-COM it's fantastic. There's still lots of depth to the game and your choices have weight. I just think it's important to be up front about the boardgame aspect, because there's something about seeing a plasma projectile clip through a corner of a building to hit your soldier that makes people's brains break.

That isn't to say that game isn't without its issues, but it's still a good game.

[spacealf]

Get XCOM EU and EW and correct video card drivers that will play the game (other game will play also but not all video card drivers are the same anymore).

XCOM has the Element of Suspense in the game where as in the other game it is more at least what I think - straight kind of game straight-laced which is different like the old original XCOM UFO Defense , whereas XCOM Enemy Unknown and Enemy Within is different with different animations of the aliens and such. (crazy aliens included).

[Milk]

I had bad experiences with Xenonauts back when it was not fully released. It may have changed since then. One of my biggest complaints was the chinook (ie the Skyranger) not having enough range to go very far, and often you couldn't even reach terror sites. The inventory management in-game was a nightmare on the battlefield, and I couldn't use people as ammo mules anymore. You also can't just research alien weapons and use their weapons. You have to develop your own weapons based on them (due to ergonomics).

In short, it's not a copy of the original. It took out a lot of concepts and added its own, such as a much more complex air game (imo didn't enjoy), the addition of friendly NPCs on maps, the removal of human psionics (?) (They may have readded it in, but in the forums I remember they said it wasn't in the game), weird hit detection, and no blaster launcher (my personal hated removal).

It could have gotten better though. Go watch some LPs of it. I still have it in my library, might give it another go one of these days.

[Woody]

Thanks for the replies. I thought asking in both game forums would help me decide but seems to have made it harder. Maybe I'll just get both eventually.

[IIFriggII]

if you don't care for graphics, and don't mind the slow pasted gameplay of the old days, then xeno is the Far supirior game (it's basicly a true successor to the first ufo games: but it still got a ton of faults which the old one also had os yer, it's basicly an updated version of it :P ).
:)

[Milk]

引用自 Tjaranis：

if you don't care for graphics, and don't mind the slow pasted gameplay of the old days, then xeno is the Far supirior game.
:)

It's actually a lot more fast paced since you can just give everyone M60s and hose down the place.

Actually, I'm gonna go play the game now, that sounds like fun, gonna make a Rambo squad. Shame you can't dual wield though.

UPDATE: Yeah, the rocket launchers still aren't worth a ♥♥♥♥ except for clearing terrain. They'll turn your guys into pink mist, but their version of "sectoids" can take one to the face and still keep shooting.

[arekasama]

引用自 Woody：

Thanks for the replies. I thought asking in both game forums would help me decide but seems to have made it harder. Maybe I'll just get both eventually.

In the long run, I'd say that both. I do like both but I prefer by a wide margin XCOM:EU/EW. Fortunately, both are of different style which means that you can have both of them and get different fun experiences.

If you enjoy the style of simulation that the original XCOM/UFO offered, Xenonauts gives you the same experience. I like it and the only real problem I have with Xenonauts, is the Psi area. It's not just that humans have no access to it, which is kind of ok. It's that you get no real defense against it beyond being lucky, dropping weapons before the end of the turn every turn, modding Psi abilites to null and/or reloading when your soldiers fail their RNG. Not even veteran soldiers are safe from RNG and, unlike Firaxis' game, the mindcontrolled soldiers get a turn as soon as they are mindcontrolled. I'll let you imagine what usually happens. Otherwise, it's a fun, difficult and interesting game. The 2D is quite well done, imho.

This game is more a boardgame than a simulation. It has it's weakpoints (like the strategic layer once you figure it out) and lacks some depth that Xenonauts has but it's a more fun game, faster, awesome music... And I guess that it also has one of the most brutal mods just in case you happen to find the regular game too easy.

[Milk]

I tried out Xenonauts again, they fixed almost everything I hated. I'd recommend it now, although I also recommend EU/EW.

[Kniescheibe]

XCOM:EU with long war mod is (in my opinion) the perfect mix of both games

[dadnaya]

引用自 Kniescheibe：

XCOM:EU with long war mod is (in my opinion) the perfect mix of both games

Someone told me to do that, can I know what is it exactly?

[Kniescheibe]

have a look in the other topic

[Noble Ten]

I've been interested in Xenonauts too, but those battle graphics look so..... 90's.. compare that with X-com's battle graphics... To me X-com looks way nicer, but Xenonauts seems to have more Statergy campaign which X-com lacks. But x-com does look way nicer.

[Milk]

引用自 Noble Tenshi：

I've been interested in Xenonauts too, but those battle graphics look so..... 90's.. compare that with X-com's battle graphics... To me X-com looks way nicer, but Xenonauts seems to have more Statergy campaign which X-com lacks. But x-com does look way nicer.

X-COM is made with the Unreal 3 engine, while Xenonauts uses a modified Diner Dash engine. Of course it looks way nicer.