Revolution 11
Senior member
- Jun 2, 2011
- 952
- 79
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Expanding on my previous post, the main obstacle in Xenonauts, subjectively, is the budget and the air combat. Both can be game-breaking at times. And if you suck at air combat like me, that really hurts your budget.
Compare to the original game where the main obstacle was the ground combat. You struggled for every inch of ground, never knew where the enemies will come from, and lost a soldier every time the very accurate enemies hit you.
In Xenonauts, the AI is better, more proactive and less predictable but it gets hampered by lower accuracy, lower damage weapons, and much longer view distances (which improve sniping). There is also a cover mechanic that drastically improves survival chances, hurting the game's feel. Explosives also feel a lot weaker because rooms and buildings are a lot bigger (in terms of tiles) and soldier mobility is higher (because there are a lot more tiles). Which reduces the claustrophobic feel of the original game.
Because the Xenonauts air combat requires some form of reflexes or motor skills, players like me are over-penalized. Because the budget is tight in Xenonauts, this reduces the margin of error in air missions. Soldiers however are cheap and in the original game, where the budget and air missions are not problems, the only way you will fail is if you suck at the ground combat. Which is turn-based, no timers, no reflexes required, and you fail by being stupid, not slow at the controls.
I am not really harping on the game. It is much better in many ways. Execution of the developer's vision is markedly better, but there are aspects of that vision which are really flawed. I like the game, but newcomers should keep the negative aspects in mind.
Compare to the original game where the main obstacle was the ground combat. You struggled for every inch of ground, never knew where the enemies will come from, and lost a soldier every time the very accurate enemies hit you.
In Xenonauts, the AI is better, more proactive and less predictable but it gets hampered by lower accuracy, lower damage weapons, and much longer view distances (which improve sniping). There is also a cover mechanic that drastically improves survival chances, hurting the game's feel. Explosives also feel a lot weaker because rooms and buildings are a lot bigger (in terms of tiles) and soldier mobility is higher (because there are a lot more tiles). Which reduces the claustrophobic feel of the original game.
Because the Xenonauts air combat requires some form of reflexes or motor skills, players like me are over-penalized. Because the budget is tight in Xenonauts, this reduces the margin of error in air missions. Soldiers however are cheap and in the original game, where the budget and air missions are not problems, the only way you will fail is if you suck at the ground combat. Which is turn-based, no timers, no reflexes required, and you fail by being stupid, not slow at the controls.
I am not really harping on the game. It is much better in many ways. Execution of the developer's vision is markedly better, but there are aspects of that vision which are really flawed. I like the game, but newcomers should keep the negative aspects in mind.
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