Xenonauts 2 Review (_ÅPØPHĪŠ_)
TlDR: The game is not ready to play. Too unbalanced and unrefined.
I would like to start off by saying that Xenonauts 2 itself is a good game, with a major aspect, graphics, and combat improvement of Xenonauts 1. But it seems some of the issues I've seen in the first game have been amplified in the second game. There are also some new issues. All of the issues I will mention below I have seen in other posts on here and on other platforms such as Reddit.
First new issue: Progression is INSANELY fast.
In the first game, it wasn't as bad, but it was still an issue. Sometimes, your team would be too injured, too preoccupied, waiting on upgrades to at least hold their own against the new enemies, or all dead. So you would postpone or skip missions. Doing so in the first game could be severely punishing, with one missed mission setting you back dooming your whole playthrough. It's far more devastating in X2 due to the fact that the game flies by. Next thing you know, your research is full and taking weeks, your whole team is dead and made up of inexperienced privates, and the aliens have ravaged the planet and you lose the game. Air superiority became impossible because one day there were scouts, and the next day, capital ships were spawning, and you were completely outmatched by them. One day its the cleaners, the next its wraiths. I should NOT be fighting high level Wraiths and drones on my FIRST UFO Mission. Even if you somehow unlock the technology fast enough, good luck building it, because you cant shoot anything down, and your armed hood rats that call themselves xenonauts cant kill for shit so you cant win any missions. Lets say you win a mission, congrats! You can now make 1 laser pistol!
Next Issue: The Cleaners
Now, don't get me wrong. I love the concept and the lore behind them. I also love the missions they offer. But dear god even on the easiest difficulties they are God's greatest warriors. For quote-unquote "Untrained Government Agents," They are crack shots and have iron skin. There should be no reason that a cleaner should survive a point-blank shotgun blast, or any other gun for that matter, especially if stunned or from behind. And dear god their accuracy. SMG volleys and pistol shots hitting from across the map??? Ill have my guys with a shield, crouched behind hard cover, and these guys can hit them all the way from up the road and take away half their health and give them 2 wounds! The cleaners are harder to fight than the aliens, much harder. But I will say, the aliens are not too bad, I think that their ground combat advantages (in the event I don't immediately fight high-tier aliens an hour into the game) are a little more balanced and realistic.
Next issue: Xenonaut accuracy.
Im sure we ALL know about this, its a problem in the first game, and a problem here. Ok look, I understand balancing and the whole thing about gunfights and CQB scenarios. But the fact that Earth's greatest heroes, ex special forces, fighting for humanity's right to exist. Will REPEATEDLY miss their shots at point-blank range. Now this just throws rationality out of the window. You could argue the stresses of combat or claim people shoot like this in real life. Brother, if you have a pistol and you fire 10 shots over 3 turns on an enemy that is a FOOT in front of you, and only ONE hits and does 3 damage. There is definitely an issue. This makes ground combat a living hell. I understand that you are meant to be outmatched in the war against the aliens, but the fact that the xenonauts consist of teenage insurgents makes this all the more unreasonable. Even at farther ranges, in optimal conditions (realistically), No rifle, machine gun, or sniper rifle can be reasonably effective.
Other smaller issues:
Cover: Cover has never worked in Xenonauts 1 let alone 2. It only serves to break line of sight. Now when the enemy uses cover, they are unkillable. You on the other hand, you just become a sitting duck.
Storage management: Lets say I want to build some weapons, armor, or aircraft at a seperate base across the world. And I have only one effective base (Thats how most playthroughs are). I have to manually send over the specific parts to that base, so mass production becomes such a chore. Honestly, having a system where all of your collected resources are in a fixed pool that all bases can access would make sense and be much less of a headache. Store rooms and additional bases would expand its storage capacity.
Civilians: Why. Do. They. Run. Towards. The. Aliens.
Teamkill: We would LOVE a feature that prevents overwatch from killing teammates. It just doesnt make any sense, why would anyone, let alone a trained infantryman, instinctively shoot at a threat by shooting THROUGH THE BODIES OF THEIR TEAMMATES? Now to be fair, this should only apply to overwatch fire.
Soldier weight: As a servicemember, its pitiful to see how little these elite soldiers carry and immediately age 50 years. At least lower the weight for throwables and some ammo. Armor and weapons are pretty balanced
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Now, I am not saying dont buy or support this game, its a good game with a good dev team and story. But I suggest you dont spend your money on this game yet. In a perfect world, these problems will be fixed once the game is finished, but I doubt these features that plague the game so much will be recognized. Thats just me. It can be fun, but winning reasonably is out of the question for most people. I just hope the game doesnt end up like KSP 2.