Xenonauts - The Good Kind of Remake

On the nuances of the possibly suicidal endeavor of remaking a classic
Twitter: / rycluse
Channel art: / bruno_desn
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Music:
Ode to Joy - Ludwig va Beethoven
Air Combat 01 - Xenonauts OST

[@Rycluse]

Do you have any idea how hard it is to come up with 40+ meme names for soldiers? Hey guys, it's been a while. I originally wanted to post a video around May, but a few things happened. Mostly it's that the video demanded a higher degree of knowing what the hell I was talking about, which isn't my strong suit. Plus I had to convince a bunch of assholes to give me a piece of paper saying I mastered science or whatever, so that took some time. But then this video idea came to me and the script practically wrote itself, so here we are. I'd like to release at last one more video before the year is over, possibly two if things go well. The Portal 2 video is about 70% written, but like I said I'd like to take my time with it to ensure I don't make too big a fool of myself. As for what's after that, well, I have a few ideas, one of which you might spot a hint for here. 'til next time.

[@Onionblast1000]

Can’t wait for the next video.

[@Rycluse]

@@Onionblast1000 y'all won't let me catch a break lmao

[@PsychadelicoDuck]

Could you say a bit more about your nitpicks with the suppression mechanic? I haven't gotten a chance to play the game myself yet, but it sounded interesting, and from the gas grenade portion of the video sounds like it added to the strategy. I'd be interested to hear about it's problems as well, no matter how nit-picky.

[@Rycluse]

@@PsychadelicoDuck I wouldn't say I have any nitpicks, I'm just saying some people may not like it. The idea is that any time a bullet passes close by a unit, friend or foe, they have a chance to be suppressed, which forces them to crouch and cuts their TUs next turn in half. Because machine guns shoot so many bullets they're more likely to do this, which makes up for their poor speed and accuracy. I'd say it's overall a good mechanic that balances out the weapon types, makes it so not all missed shots are useless, and can lead to some tense situations in firefights. On the other hand getting half your squad suppressed can get kind of annoying at times, but it's an interesting puzzle to have to work around on the fly, so I guess whether you'd like it depends on whether that kind of twist being thrown at you sounds fun or not

[@PsychadelicoDuck]

@@Rycluse Ah so you weren't complaining about it yourself, just syaing that someone might. Thanks!

[@kingnull2697]

On the humor in the xenopedia, "Which I find funny but occasionally tries my patience." is kinda the descriptor of most high-functioning turbonerds, like the lead scientist who writes the xenopedia entries.

[@kenobiwanobi889]

Yeah, that guy is being a huge asshole because he knows he's irreplaceable. One of the few Xenopedia Entries that is written by a different character makes it very clear that the rest of Xenonauts leadership finds him obnoxious, too. That being said, I still find him much more likeable than Dr. Valen from Enemy Unknown. When he isn't talking shit about the Engineers, he is doing a very good job, and, unlike Valen, he approaches the aliens with the neccessary cold rationality instead of developing a weird fascination for them.

[@vaclavjebavy5118]

Dr. Snidely gonna snide

[@R3GARnator]

He's Giaus Baltar from Re-imagined Galactica.

[@runawayspodiac2945]

“They might fall into the hands of those pesky aliens, or even worse... ... THE RUSSIANS” lmao

[@michaelmaryn5718]

RunawaySpodiac better red then xeno

[@CipherLck]

Ifuriirirx!kfifuytjjfjfjjffjfjfz!ktkkrktiu5u5ututututuutuutututituututufuxiitiuyuyixxujrjrjeirjrjr!xpititaiuzxv!!^=&=¥*=*=*=*=(=riìiwoaxxzjekr4kŕþ

[@croxion]

@Derp Inshmurtz Found the alien spy.

[@lv1543]

Who knew selling laser rifles to jihadi terrorists could be so profitable

[@mckitsune7600]

@@lv1543 found the luddite

[@Girder3]

7:19 - The trick to using missiles against fighters is to launch two missiles at intervals. They can dodge the first one, but they can't immediately do a second dodge to get away from the second one. I found that firing the second missile while the first one is about half way to its target is a good rule of thumb.

[@Harvest133]

In military terms that fire mode is called Ripple

[@shiroamakusa8075]

Funny thing, in XCom Apocalypse selling weapons and gear willy-nilly did actually result in you essentially arming your enemies and was therefore something you should only do sparingly.

[@PerfectDeath4]

Apocalypse has many great concepts, which I don't think other devs have emulated much, which is a shame. The game's focused on the city scale, which makes it easy to show those kind of details while in a global scale you'd at best get a footnote.

[@xtxownage]

Xcom apocalypse was a fun game. I wonder if you could flood the market with low tier weapons would it actually nerf your enemies.

[@Blarrgggyuum]

The new games, and xenonauts to some extent, just lack the meatgrinder feel. X-COM 2 I feel like I am raiding dungeons and pulling mobs instead of being in a real war with aliens. I am 6-7 missions into a new hard mode ironman campaign and have only lost a rookie, where-as UFO defense even 4-5 missions in I can have a memorial with like 20+ casualties. Not that the new games are bad by any means, but they just lack the scale and lethality of the older games. Going into an alien base with 26 soldiers and coming out with like 6-7 or less was just brutal and really made you appreciate that high ranking soldier in the back lobbing blaster bombs.

[@CallyMayz]

Also due to the less meatgrindery nature it feels like the games are balanced around high level soldiers a lot more, especially the firaxis games, and getting unlucky and losing your high level team can be a game ender.

[@MrKoalaburger]

They went the direction of having a specops style unit, with specops style missions. As opposed to a shock troop, sweep-and-clear style.

[@FriendlyHouseCentipede]

I think part of the lack of the meatgrinder feel is because the game limits you more in the amount of troops you can carry. I remember in UFO Defense if someone died you would just go "OK, I still have 15 other guys on the ground, no biggie." If you want the best experience, load a mod that allows you to sell jackal armor for twice the amount to make it and edit the game files so you can bring a larger amount of troops into an LZ.

[@TheMrkoos]

Aye. Making games easier and easier so more people can play them (or rather BUY them) is a big problem with modern gaming imo. Also - maybe it's just my imagination but... - in the good ol' days I had a feeling that games were made mostly for fun - it was like 'just make a game people will like and we (developers) will make money on this occasion'. Now I feel that most games (with some exceptions) are created mainly to make money, and "fun factor" is secondary or even tertiary. Like 'story not so important, singleplayer campaign can last 4-6 hours, just make graphics pretty ok with pew pew guns and a lot of blood and someone will buy it'.

[@bigbrainenergyguy]

@@TheMrkoos I'd say that it's not so much that they're making games easier, it's just that those are the ones that get popular. They're selling an 'experience' rather than a 'challenge,' and that makes them more marketable. Hard games are out there, but they usually don't get as popular so you have to look for them. Even looking at xcom, the Firaxis-era games are only easy if you're a baby and save scum on normal difficulty. Beating it on impossible or classic ironman is pretty challenging to say the least. As for the lack of a 'meatgrinder' aspect to the new games, I honestly think taking 26 soldiers into a turn based battle sounds like a fucking nightmare and there's no way I'd play a game that lets you do that. Way too much time to get through 1 turn.

[@KrolPotato]

I actually really like the graphics design of Xenonauts - if you look closely at the maps (and even your own base) the graphics are very detailed and good looking. I also like the 80's style cars, shops etc. - it grounds the game very well. I hope Xenonauts 2 maintains this graphics style because I don't want to see an X-COM look-alike. It would be a bummer.

[@alphen9676]

You don't have to be an Xcom lookalike to be appealing to look at. We are talking about a 80s/90s alien invasion. It doesn't have to be camp but jesus add some character and flavor to the game. Its so boring to look at.

[@al_kaloid]

I'm not opposed to the overall look, in fact the geoscape and actually most of the game is really charming. The character design is pretty ugly though (imo). Seems like they weren't sure if they wanted to approach a more realistic look or just weren't capable at the time and came out with an uncanny hybrid thingy. Xenonauts 2 is getting even more uncanny, but since the models are approaching a more convincing realistic look I actually quite like them.

[@pwnmeisterage]

I haven't played xeno. At a glance I love the look of those UFOs ... and the image quality in terms of pixels and colours is great ... but the dull interchangeable soldiers, armour, weapons, and the general rectangular blockiness of the other battlescape objects looks very half-assed. Like the graphic assets were lifted out of forgettable games.

[@baltulielkungsgunarsmiezis9714]

"I actually really like the graphics design of Xenonauts" And I dont. "if you look closely at the maps (and even your own base) the graphics are very detailed and good looking." I do not like the aestetic and nothing can fix that. Its just too bland and in that free to play game from Y8 style. Look at the end of month report screen in the original game, there is a man who has come up to you with a briefcase of money and in the dark background there are near identical and intimidating soldiers in armor you would not see IRL. You will find nothing like this in Xenonauts.

[@liukang85]

​@alphen9676 yup the art style is awfully bland. Funny thing 8s it's high res but would probably look a bit better in low res lol... all that detail makes it look even weirder

[@CoffeePotato]

It's been mentioned below, but man. X-Division. It's basically to Xenonauts what Long War was to EU, and sweet goodness does it have content. Manufacturing isn't necessarily profitable, but it's used as a sort of material repurposing system, which brings back the old engineer base, but makes it far more interesting than just "we need to pay our rent for the month, and those 40 new scientists ain't cheap". It deepens every mechanic in the game by a ridiculous degree, and holy crap man, it becomes amazing. As someone who found Long War to be a bit too repetitive, but loved the ideas, X-Div somehow has kept my interest for well over a year now, and I look forward to each new stream's discoveries. Literally almost every mission has some new research, it's such a good loop.

[@doom7ish]

X Division the only mod to have driven me to insanity.

[@stanlesspider]

I will say this X division is far far far harder then long war was at least for me. the sheer scope of what could be done in that mod was damn right devilish with me having to have a whole ass spreadsheet that I set up just to track capture targets and when I needed to send out the riot squad. The big problem I have with XDivision is it doesn't play like an ongoing struggle more like tiered cliffs. Things are not organically and periodically introduced so much as hey we hit x mass of points so the whole ass army just advanced 5 levels overnight. It feels like your constantly reset to the beginning of the game at each tier up in terms of difficulty spikes. The only difference is the losses get harder and harder to replace. Eventually you just start replacing losses with a guy with a rocket because thats as good as it gets even when you at one point had 4 teams worth of combat potential.

[@CoffeePotato]

@@stanlesspider See, I'd disagree somewhat on that one. I'd say that it foregoes many of the norms of the genre in order to be more genuinely free in your options, which tends to cut both ways. I think the 5 levels thing may be on account of something that got me a few times during my second Ironman run. The different UFOs are doing different jobs, and sometimes there are scouts that are just a clown car of rare hyper elite units. The difference is that you didn't ever need to take that mission. In the original, or most of the genre, you lose reputation or money for not taking the mission. In XDiv, you're only missing the opportunity for finding something in there. Those scout limos, as I like to call them, are basically your chance to score some sudden massive leaps in tech. Hell, one time I had some 30 different research projects unlock from one successful raid of one. As for the rocket thing, it comes down to preference. I've seen folks do perfectly fine with conventional tactics and units of all experience levels, others going for more bizarre approaches, and I personally just preferred to boost morale through shock and awe before shifting to lockdown tactics. You can get really creative with your approaches, I've legitimately had a squad of flying jetpack guys that rolled in and sawed out building foundations with automatic rail shotguns in order to flatten units with architecture. Or a sniper that never hit a single target, but suppressed so well they were a mainstay before they got hit by a stray rocket from the automatic fusion missile barrage strategy I was getting a feel for that week. Do you always need to flatten 80% of the map by turn 3 to secure a terror mission? No. But I wasn't about to deal with another xenomorph loss that week. Also most of the people had huddled in one corner, so that's a win. I could go on for ages, it just feels so good when it's working.

[@stanlesspider]

@@CoffeePotato oh yeah don't get me wrong I love it and I come back to it once every year or two. Its extremely open-ended and has a vast amount of viable options for approaches to gameplay. The biggest thing that I enjoy immensely is games that understand how enjoyable side grade weaponsdifference

[@graycard668]

I always thought that the xcom remake alien invasion was basicly a hostile uplift program. The fleet parked over a planet and rolled out their slave races until resistance ultimately crumpled, and the planet's population was harvested then modified and added to the next big test. All ultimately, in search of the next addition to the galaxy. By the end game, humanity has made light years leap in tech. Unlocked psychic and joined one of themselves to the collective mind of the aliens. In all of this, I wonder to myself. How better would it have been if the last words of the final boss were. "Congratulations, you passed."

[@dinoblacklane1640]

ooohhhh thats a good idea.....I'm totally stealing that

[@ganr1277]

XCOM 2 clearly states that the Alien Invasion it's an "hostile uplift". However, you got the point in the main plot hole, Ethereals' plans have no sense...

[@Dhumanio]

Another thing to consider which too little people talk about it's the music. I always hear in reviews of games in general, that they say "the music is great", period. In this particular case, one of the key features for me that made so much of the original game, is the lack of humanity in the presentation of the audio (No voices, only some kind of reminder of sounds that humans and aliens make, but no insesant dramatic chatter, that's why Homeworld for example does it so well, because the whole atmosphere is like being in a weird dream) AND talking about the music, in the original Xcom, the combat music does ALL the work almost... That continuos misterious and scary synth music with little to no quality (because you know, at the time, really early sound cards for PC had their own set of limited sounds to use) is what makes the atmosphere of that game so simple, scary and effective. Not to mention, the rythmic nature of the lower synth in the combat stages and the lack of so much audio effects like reverb and known instruments like samples of orchestral strings for examples, made the synths feel upclose and personal... Idk, I think that's something to consider as well.

[@JkaaraKoDi]

I still listen to it. Oh, and UFO:Aftermath music too

[@dinhnguyen2110]

The original XCOM's music should be added to the geneva convention. It's one of those negative emotion-inducing rhythms like Who Wants to be a Millionaire? If you made someone listen to the stuff for hours on end, it would not be appreciated.🤣

[@baltulielkungsgunarsmiezis9714]

I am here because I was looking for x-com ufo defence music.

[@looseycanon]

Actually, Stingray missles had a use. Smaller UFOs, basicaly anything up to the large scout could get outright destroyed by Avalanche. Furthermore, Avalanche usually caused damage to UFO, that would translate to destroyed components, slowing down your research. So keeping a single craft for intercepting scouts equipped with Stingrays is a good idea.

[@ashleycornett6812]

It's better to shoot down a UFO than put one of your aircraft (and possibly your base or whatever) at risk

[@looseycanon]

@@ashleycornett6812 Not if you need the resources inside that UFO. At best, you'll get some alloys, however, what you need are the power cores and navigation systems.

[@Henskelion]

The artstyle is something that's hit or miss for me. While I like the emphasis on the Cold War look and feel to a lot of the early game visuals, there's also a sterility to it as you said. A lot of the art assets remind me of a mobile game, albeit a decently polished one.

[@psychodrummer1567]

It reminded me of the infographics / posters from that era, so it's actually good.

[@Anonymouthful]

Exactly my thoughts, lots of improvements but the arstyle doesnt seem appealing at all.

[@darthrevan454]

Well art is subjective. Not everyone is going to like the art style. Me personally I don't judge games by their art styles and this one makes little to no difference to deter me from playing it.

[@alphen9676]

I agree with this. Xcom had a wonderful comic book style and they should have leaned into that instead of this ugly game.

[@darthrevan454]

@@alphen9676 cry about it then

[@huntersmith9673]

i love the air combat ost, that tune slaps so good

[@happyjohn354]

Xenonauts is also good because its able to be relatively easily modded. One of the ones I used to use was a mod that fixed the economy and gave a % chance for friendly military NPC's to spawn with better armor and weapons based on how much of it you sell.

[@cohlroxkim4819]

there used to be a mod that adjusted all the sale prices on all the equipment so that you could sell them for a slight profit. It disappeared a few years ago. I think the original mod author either stopped updating it or removed it. Ive been looking into modding myself lately in an effort to remake that mod.

[@kubli365]

I think the relevant file in the is "items.xml" in the assets folder, my dude. :)

[@markuscriticus8278]

Loved playing the original X-Com and never even heard of Xenonauts before! Thanks.

[@SireBab]

Not gonna lie, I can respect that you liked the logistics bit, but holy shit I don't want to touch that sort of tedium with a 10 ft pole.

[@bificommander7472]

I played it because I missed the original Xcom, and wanted that experience with a less massive interface. It was fun, but I do prefer the Xcom reboot. The biggest problem for me is that the ground battles change so little over the dozens of hours you fight them. The balance between the weapon types is good, but it stays the same for each tech level. The 50-150% damage spread on shots means upgrading your weapons doesn't give you guarantees that you can kill something in two hits that took 3 before. Upgrading armor gives you a few extra options (jetpack, 360 vision, carry LMGs easily) but they're not massive changes. And upgrading soldiers just makes them better at what they already did. Only the strength upgrade that lets you carry a sniper and carbine sidearm changes the battle slightly. The biggest change comes from the inclusion of new enemies like the reaper or that teleporter. But they are usually outnumbered by various slight stat upgraded versions of the greys or reptiloids. And the funny thing is, the short air intercept minigame does noticeably change over time. Different UFOs require at least slightly different strategies, newer fighters handle differently and even weapon upgrades are immediately impactful. There is no damage spread, and a fixed ammo count, so a stronger weapon can reduce the needed amount of fighters to down a particular ufo. By the end of the game, I burn out on infantry battles, but look forward to interception missions.

[@BananaSoupProjects]

xenonauts is my fav xcom type of game even after playing all the others

[@nocabgamedesign4832]

Great video, and great analysis! At around 7:30 you talk about the risk of "fixing" flaws from the base game that's being remade. In my opinion, I think you talked about the solution earlier: play testing. Developers who are also players or fans of the original game (hopefully) have some idea of what made the original special. They effectively are their own play testers in that case. Refining and capturing the core of one game will always cause some things to be cut, but if the designers are trying to author a specific experience then sometimes that's a good thing. Anyways, nice video! Well thought out and much appreciated!

[@X3105i]

Shotguns are your friend in this game. Like my tactics was. If I can't get him at range make him come to me. Or in a building rush him with 2 shotguners. Man they where good

[@user-ro9zf9kz1h]

Personally prefer riot shield and rifle man combo.

[@q31544]

Man, this is a great channel.

[@vongeneralissimo8635]

Glad you've revised opinion about Xenonauts after finally playing it~!

[@DagarCoH]

Nice one! For someone who has not touched the vanilla game in years it is quite interesting to see what X-Division has changed... it's A LOT!

[@orxy5316]

What mods do you use?

[@DagarCoH]

@@orxy5316 Standard X-Division 1.0.10

[@forrestorange]

Thanks for the vid. I tried this game 2+ years ago and couldn't play it for more than an hour, the graphics and the interface just put me off. Tried it again with X-division, after watching your video and I can't stop playing. Great game, which feels more like the original UFO Enemy Unknown than anything else currently on the market.

[@BoebertTheBlind]

like you mentioned, open xcom did an amazing job at revamping xcom. They made micro management much easier, just by allowing saving soldier equipment and the copy paste equipment sets. That alone was a game changer. And they were a fan based addon. Much better than the fan made additions to fireaxis' xcom long war, i hated that. I know open xcom wasnt a remake, but it brought life back into a game that was fun but sometimes too tedious.

[@baltulielkungsgunarsmiezis9714]

Without micromanagement there is no x-com.

[@IncoherentOrange]

Xenonauts is something I'd play more if aliens didn't teleport goddamn nades through doors on your stacked up dudes

[@Latsch82]

I got you 100% buddy. I bought it instandly, but lost interessest after 20 hours. Now i love the game and recommend this game to every oldschool X-Com Fan. Xenonauts lifted the original X-Com feeling great into the nowadays!

[@kebman]

Oh boy, this review should really go out to more people!

[@theforgot3n1]

Spent 200 hours on this game or so. A great predecessor.

[@ryguy9876]

I actually prefer Xenonauts' item system, as it means that you have to be careful with your funds and make them stretch as much as possible, and it forces you as the player to make tough decisions concerning your missions. Do you send your guys out to this UFO you just downed, or do you air strike it and hope for a bigger/easier craft? XComs system was super easy to exploit and the player could very much wind up with effectively infinite money and alloys.

[@PerfectDeath4]

I havn't seen the mid or late game economy of Xenonauts 2 (from closed beta footage on max difficulty); however, the early game is very strap'd for cash, captures sell for double that of corpses. So it does reward a focus on capturing the xenos/cleaners (new early game threat). The stress/recover rate on solders seems to be rebalanced which might be a bigger issue? Either way, I feel like an economy rework would be too much of a controversial thing for the developer to do for the sequel that may be better left to modders.

[@token112]

Awesome vid

[@RailRoad188]

Glad this popped up after watching your original UFO Defense video because the game really looks great to scratch my turned-based, isometric squad simulator itch! 👏

[@endersblade]

Xenonauts is hands down the best X-COM clone there is. Fun fact, this game was made on the Diner Dash engine. Xeno2 is made on its own in-house engine (far as I know).

[@evilwillhunting]

The biggest thing I remember about Xenonauts was the air combat. I was used to the You-are-at-the-RNGs-mercy air combat in X-Com. But in Xenonauts, you can actually use skill and tactics in the air combat. Plus engage with multiple units (something I never understood why X-Com wouldn't do). It was so refreshing and exciting to have air combat feel like an actual duel and not a draw from the Chance of Community Chest deck. With some fancy flying and daring, you could take out a far superior enemy... whereas in X-Com you only could pray the RNG gods would cut you a break. The in-game graphics were flat, though. It was weird that X-Com had far lower res but it somehow felt better. I guess because it was colorful and dynamic, whereas Xenonauts somehow felt cold and bland with its graphics.

[@Eshanas]

You can engage with multiple fighters in Xcom, up to 4. If you mean nuxcom, then I dunno, but you can get four fighters on a ufo in ogxcom. Just wait until the others come by, you can minituarize the fighter popup until the rest come in.

[@TCrag]

Greate take, I'd love to hear your take on Xenonauts 2 when its finished.

[@sinisterhunter]

playing it right now

[@baltulielkungsgunarsmiezis9714]

The best way to make money without manufactury bases would be to allow you to copyright lazer rifles, have others manufacture them and you get a cut, like real life.

[@nejrunia4334]

warframe, DE, listening to the community? (great video btw) nice one! you had me going for a minute there.

[@Rycluse]

This was a few years ago lol

[@stompstomp8033]

2022 and we're still waiting for Xenonauts 2 :(

[@AdmiralLink]

There were some positives with Xenonauts. Bombing run if you don't want to deal with recovery mission. You get help from random npc in certain missions. One issue I dislike in the game is psyonics. Pretty much your soldiers are screwed when it comes to psyonics because you cannot protect yourself or aliens is able to connect but they don't have line of sight. Another issue is RNG with aiming even though you have 100%+ accuracy but still miss with a shotgun.

[@jasonscarborough94]

5:11 "The First man in line has the rifle, the next man in line has additional ammo"

[@rorystockley5969]

I adore the artstyle. It's just so Cold War.

[@fjkladsj3424]

As you're clearly an XCOM expert, I would love to see an analysis and your opinion of the current state of Phoenix Point. Have you planned anything like it?

[@Rycluse]

Hmm, perhaps. I didn't really care for it but I know its had a lot of updates since then

[@ChunkyAppleCider]

@@Rycluse Set-up for a later video count: 1

[@mannofdober873]

Sorry but you're wrong about missiles. Shoot one missile. Alien ship barrel rolls. Pause the moment it does and shoot your other missile. Bang dead alien ship.

[@baltulielkungsgunarsmiezis9714]

Why is the Xenonauts map not a globe? And on such a flat projection not only should the sunlight have distorted lines the radar detection range should also be distorted detecting more north than south.

[@KingOfKent507]

One name; Black Mesa

[@AndroidPCMMORAW]

HEY hey hey Xenonauts 2 is almost here :)

[@ruffusgoodman4137]

1:21 - that scientist looks like the scientist killed by aliens in Independence Day, only younger

[@sachad964]

cant wait for Xenonauts 2

[@roaldthamesen533]

WE WANT MORE!!

[@Rycluse]

On it

[@roaldthamesen533]

@@Rycluse moar XCOM vids? :D :D

[@Rycluse]

@@roaldthamesen533 More vids? Definitely. More XCOM? Maybe. Phoenix Point might be worth talking about at some point

[@Whatever4690]

Xenonauts did alot of none graphical real improvements from massively overhauling the aircraft fights to small things like some civilians being armed and not having to visit every crash site, atmosphere was also close to the almost horror original. However there were many things i disliked over the original. The mechanics and physics seemed better in the original. The flat map lost alot of the charm of the originals. But the worst offender that almost ruined the game for me was removing mind control from your side but allowing the aliens to do it to you with no defensive technology to help. Also the end mission was stupidly hard that encouraged save scumming as you were certain to fail first time.

[@user-25352]

mind control was so OP, they had to do something with it. Tho perhaps developing "anti-psionic" tech could work out better than "humans have no psionics"

[@HoangTran-wu6se]

Here's a tip, I found out that use stun baton will bring back your mind controlled soldier. So now I keep a baton for every soldier.

[@Whatever4690]

@@HoangTran-wu6se Useful if i knew that back then.

[@himedo1512]

I think Xenonaughts is also designed to bridge the gap between new and old x-com. As someone who started with enemy within, and never played the old x-coms xenoaughts is very fun. And it seems to skip out on huge annoyances for people who never had to deal with stuff like managing bullets or grenades. It bridges convivence of new x-com, with gameplay and brutality of old. You can really replicate if you throw the game on hardest difficulty, get a mod to up the squad size a lot and mod to increase enemy count and local forces count shit gets bloody and insane. Bringing in two armored cars and 12 dudes and coming back with 3 wounded men, all the civlians and local forces dead, the city in ashes, and dozens of dead aliens is a whiplash you cannot get from newer xcoms. and it ain't even a run ender. A lot of the criticism do not apply if you never played the first x-com, because they're like the newer ones. Like not manufacturing stuff for money.

[@ewaldseiland8558]

I loved UFO as a kid and I really liked Xenonauts as an adult. Thanks for this video, looks i'll have to reinstall Xenonauts once more

[@coreliousc8915]

There is the XDivision mod. Insanely hard, very rewarding, and adds so much tech.

[@galacticnerds5276]

Hehe, I saw that Ross Scott

[@Rycluse]

Loads more references than that!

[@UCannotDefeatMyShmeat]

I specifically mixed and matched my swquad to make sure half had stun blades, half had fire. Free damage is free damage after all

[@chrisg5219]

Have you looked at the sequel? I am more than a little concerned based on how long it's been taking.

[@cwam1701e]

I have been reading the monthly updates - they do seem to be making progress, although it is very slow. You can also search for videos on YT of people trying out the latest test versions.

[@PaulLeach123]

The thing no one talks about that made the original XCOM so paranoia inducing. Was that the aliens had a different fog of war than the soldiers. You could get shot from the dark. Had no idea where it was coming from, and had to seek out the alien. Or else you could get picked off and slaughtered. The new XCOM really runs based on the soldiers fog of war, and you see a lot of players just creeping around the map, only triggering one Pod at a time. Because of this, the new XCOM is not as intense.

[@tezereth]

Have you reviewed UFO AI? It’s a great X-com inspired game.

[@Maioly]

6:45 or you could do my tactic purple cloud of sleep-death in which you saturate a room holding a capture target with as much gas as possible, sending in those who can resist it only, if even that.

[@BlueBaron3x7]

@Rycluse did you know there was a Playstaton version that had a graphics update and was the best version. I wonder why no one made a mod for Xcom with the same graphics.

[@wingren13]

it'd be neat to see you go over homeworld,

[@MrSpartanspud]

0:24-0:30 Remembers watching a speedrun which finished XCOM in under 10 minutes. 🤔

[@iceball3xd]

Can I ask, have you tried out the XCOM: Files mod, Rycluse? It's a mod for open xcom and from what I've played of it it seems -really- nice.

[@Rycluse]

I haven't but this video and the Phoenix Point one have gotten me a lot of recommendations for it, so I may check it out

[@epicstyle1000]

i paused for the text nit pick...and loved the aircombat

[@theyellowarchitect4504]

Couldn't have said it better. It is a good remake, it just falls off short in some points to become from good to literally unplayable for those who seek a "better than the original" experience. Personally, it wasn't so much the market "freedom" you had (or lack of it), but the artstyle. Damn, atop the the generic artstyle, it didn't have a dark/threatening atmosphere *at all*. All in all, thanks for making this. I tried 2 times getting into Xenonauts and just couldn't do it, and all your points seem valid and well-made! (also the editing on QoL changes was really good) Off-topic: I don't know if you have seen into OpenXCOM overhaul mods, but if you look for a new xcom experience I would suggest you take a look, definitely a better choice over xenonauts imo

[@theforgot3n1]

I didn't mind the artstyle. I thought it was totally fine. But then again I never played the original. I'd guess it comes down to the expectations you might have on a UFO defense game... although I did play XCOM before Xenonauts, but they are so different I guess they don't count.

[@anthonywilliams379]

Tbh I like that mods add more weapons, although more would have been cool

[@Ozymandias2x]

I miss the autocannon. Where's my huge rotary cannon with variable ammo types, Xenonauts?

[@bruhder5854]

Never played the og xcom just because I find it hard to get into old games. Have played the firaxis ones and I liked them quite a bit. Really like rimworld so now knowing that the og is apparently more in line with that (as a sim game), I'm intrigued by this game. P. S what about wastelands 3? I've been looking into it but haven't yet so curious about the community's response on it.

[@xamurai00]

Played Xcom enemy unknown way back on the playstation 1 in 1998. If you want a truly unique experience, try playing it on a controller :) best turn based game i had ever played and still yet to be beaten.

[@DIREWOLFx75]

In regards to the mention of stun gas grenades, that's already added in XCOM-3 and are definitely potentially very useful there, so not THAT new.

[@martincontreras5030]

xcom 3?

[@DIREWOLFx75]

@@martincontreras5030 Yes? XCOM 3 Apocalypse, 3rd in the original trilogy and in many ways the best, despite having something like 2/3 of the game cut before release. The modern remakes don't deserve to share the name.

[@martincontreras5030]

@@DIREWOLFx75 oh I didnt think about that. You dont like the new xcom games? I kind of agree that the story is not as good as the old ones.

[@DIREWOLFx75]

@@martincontreras5030 The new games have the same stupid fail that Diablo 3 achieved, they're more focused on being "arcade-y" and looking cool than on being good games overall. The strategical side is mostly gone and the tactical side is so stupidly designed that when i tested modding, the results caused by various changes were completely insane. Changing just ONE single stat too much for either aliens or XCom completely swapped who dominated the tactical fights to a point where it was just ridiculous. In the old XCom 1 to 3 games, you had to boost ALL stats for just one side massively to even begin to get such a binary result, and even then, it was still never completely guaranteed either way. And the randomised maps from the old games, the difference it makes is massive. Not to mention how boring all the fricking SCRIPTED alien popups in the new games get. In the old games, the alien AI could have them attack you directly, play hide and seek, guerilla warfare etc or sometimes even just try to avoid your soldiers completely unless they were alone, this extra dimension is utterly gone in the new games. Only scripting left. Which makes the replay value near zero, because once you've played a map once, you know that , next turn there will pop up an alien THERE and then the turn after that 1 alien each drops down here and here... BOOOOOORING. if you haven't played the originals, get the OpenXCOM, then go to GOG and buy XCOM3.

[@tibbers3755]

Only gripe about xenonauts i have is the enemies firing from fog of war before i even know theyre there. Its like the stealth mechanics in xcom 2 but it only benefits the ai. All fun and games till your best rifleman gets one tapped by a random plasma bolt from the shroud

[@PerfectDeath4]

You never played the original XCOM did you? =P If you are fighting at night your solders have no night vision but the xenos do, and they often have better or same range of sight. Exiting from the skyranger in OG XCOM night missions was sometimes like landing on Omaha beach, and you'd suffer most of your casualties just trying to exit the narrow 2 tile wide exit. Xenonauts gives us 3 wide main exit and 2 one tile side exits, such luxury! xD Firaxis XCOMs introduced the pods that would activate the entire group, but until that activation the xenos would not be able to attack the player giving you one turn to react. It results in a completely different approach where you want as many actions as possible before you activate a pod. Meanwhile in OG XCOM and Xenonauts you should expect that using too many actions in the open can and probably will trigger reaction shots. Many of the meta strats i've seen in OG XCOM rely on throwing grenades to clear terrain and xenos who are concealed for ambush. Xenonauts adds the shields, so if you want to run a clearing or have to station someone to be exposed then the shield gives a buffer to that soldier.

[@himedo1512]

Thats xcom baby. Don't go at night. they have longer sight unless you use sun flares, cars, or maybe late game armor.

[@syweb2]

10:43 What happened with StarCraft? I'm kind of out of the loop. Was Remastered disappointing?

[@feist__]

Nice Ross Scott reference

[@IL4NR]

So, thoughts on Phoenix Point?

[@Rycluse]

I actually just got it a short time ago. I have... pretty mixed feelings. Combat is great. Geoscape gameplay is new and interesting. Balance is absolutely wack and really killing my desire to play. It feels like it was released too early. I'm not giving up on it yet but it's still disappointing, more so because other aspects are clearly so good

[@FhargaZ]

I had total dominance of the sky, everything was ok on ground also and suddenly every country surrendered and my base was destroyed....WTF? 🥴😑

[@CountYulith]

Sounds like a bug, unless you were just ignoring certain alien missions that messed up your relations. You should play the Community Edition, which fixes many bugs.

[@captainsternn7684]

Now do a video on X Division Mod for Xenonauts.

[@Josep_Hernandez_Lujan]

Last game I worked on was Xenonauts. If you like X-Com, check it out! Imo best X-Com style ever. I'm biased, but I think it's better than those new X-Com games. AMA

[@PatrickMartinez1]

Thanks for the video. This game reminds me of Underrail, a spiritual successor to Fallout 1 and 2. Great game.

[@carlocappello67]

Anyone got any mods to recommend to improve the experience?

[@Meanslicer43]

well. The only mod I know that I could recommend would be X-division which is not exactly a game improvement as it is a complete rebuild into a much harsher game.

[@carlocappello67]

@@Meanslicer43 trying it rn Its kicking my ass.

[@GreenBlueWalkthrough]

Renegade-X is my favoite remake. Becuase it gets you the feels of CNC Renegade in a modern engine... Well modern for the time... It has issues but is being curently devloped and a expenstion to a later Command and conquer setting is in the works. BF1943 is fantastic at updating Battlefield 1942 looks and elements while bringing the franscrise to the future of gaming(The now if not past) and providing a new expernce at a low price... It was also my first Xbox 360 game and my Key app next to Halo 3:ODST. CS2D the only counter strike game I really like becuase it oddly well made and works well as a twin stick shooter. But yerah their are lots of good remake, remasters and reimangings they caqn just be overshadowed by the bad ones or are considered clones/l.ikes.... Like Revenfeild the best Battlefeild singleplayer expernce and the many Ace combat likes are ver much a thing and all are good in the more is more way.

[@freshboy3968]

9:22 Lol

[@Leadershinji]

Xenonauts 2 has solved some of the issues mentioned here. Good video tho !

[@Rycluse]

I'll hopefully be making a Xenonauts 2 video soon!

[@ToTheNines87368]

I played Xenonauts for 40 hours but never really touched it again. I’d say it’s my favorite modern X-Com like. I didn’t really enjoy the 70s Cold War aesthetic though. Feeling it’s a bit far fetched for that tech to go up against aliens, but then again it probably also is for some future f-22 raptor clone.

[@Rycluse]

I'd say it's fine since they explicitly say the first few months of UFOs are the shitty ones. My the time the big ships start roaming around you have new planes that incorporate alien tech

[@Jeff-cn9up]

2:45 That "huge list of optional features" is an Open Xcom mod. Didn't exist in the original game. You allude to this but I wanted to make it clear.

[@samz8691]

Another attempt to make a game similar to classic Xcom is the UFO series (Realtime Xcom basically) with UFO Aftermath/Aftershock and Afterlife.

[@jessemacaspac443]

I'm surprised that even with all the love for XCOM: UFO Defense, there isn't a mod that makes the economy better (aside from selling jackal armor mod for profit). Now the main game pretty much relies on monthly income or random ufo attacks. Which, for all intents and purposes, means that you can't lose missions or men because you're on such a tight budget that you can't afford it. Unless you're extremely good at the game, I daresay that this actively encourages save scumming because of how the economy is reworked. As for the original game, I could lose half of my entire squad but still salvage every valuable piece of alien equipment after aborting a mission. That kind of stuff isn't really seen in xenonauts, despite it's faithfulness to the original. However, I wouldn't have much of a problem with this if your men had better accuracy. You can literally miss 9 out of 10 95% shots, and you can infuriatingly miss at close distances even with a shotgun. This is why, if I'm not playing Ironman, I have no reason to accept the outcome of a mission or attempt to abort.

[@jessemacaspac443]

@Derp Inshmurtz I love xcom ufo defense; but i have since stopped playing it for a few years now. Only because the lack of QoL improvements(even with openxcom) and the pixilated artstyle burns my eyes to some extent. I had been hoping for more mods that transform xenonauts to become more like the original XCOM game. That being said I did try the warhammer 40k mod once, I don't remember what I thought about it. But I really do think people would be more willing to play XCOM ufo defense if it had a remaster or spiritual successor like Xenonauts (except the gameplay more reminiscent of XCOM).

[@Mantarhochen]

I find UFO: Extraterrestials Gold to be a good XCOM-style game.

[@Jeff-cn9up]

I miss the spherical geoscape.

[@JackJohnson-zh9ul]

was this video made in the community edition? its a free dev sponsered mod that really improves the game as a whole

[@Rycluse]

This was done in OpenXCOM

[@JackJohnson-zh9ul]

@@Rycluse sorry i meant the xenonauts portion of the video

[@Rycluse]

@@JackJohnson-zh9ul Man I got two of my own videos mixed up lol I though this comment was on the X-COM vid. No this was from the base game

[@TonySpike]

A note on gas grenades, .....i always figured the original dosnt have them because what would be the point What i mean is Sarin and Mustard Gas works on humans because it was designed to ....we know our own weaknesses But these things are fucking aliens ......how do we know sectoids even breath in the first place? Or have sensitive eyesight? Or are even able to be poisoned by Arsenic like we are? Put short .....we dont, at least not untill we research them anyways but even then an autopsy isnt going to tell you much The stun rod whilst idiotic to use, is probably the only option you have because even if the cattle prod bit dont work you can always wang it round the side of their head and hope they get a concussion lol

[@TheeOptionalGuy]

I wish you spoke more about the battlescape tbh. I feel like you did not speak about it nearly enough and it's something that needs just as much evaluation as the geoscape. I'm also surprised you didn't mention the severe lack of missions beyond ufo excursions. Maybe it's been patched since I was able to push myself through the game but in the one successful playthrough I did have, I only had 2 terror missions, 1 base defense and 1 base assault which I feel is stupidly low, and results in a ridiculously low amount of variety when it comes to your tactics and just the general feel of the combat. It's a shame too because the 2 terror missions I did have (especially the late game one) felt really different from the rest of the battles, instead of constantly creeping around in silence, we were constantly being fired at, reapers were everywhere trying to sneak behind the cars and fences we were using as cover, it felt like an intense gunfight happening in the streets, aided further by Xenonauts automatic weapons firing like automatic weapons and lending more to that feeling of being suppressed and pinned down. It really is a shame that it's so rare. I personally hated the airgame myself, not necessarily arguing in favor of XCOM's way of doing it but I hated the trial and error I had to take part in just to get the hang of a certain UFO squadron. It made it impossible for me to do Ironman since it just felt too devastating to allow 3 of my interceptors go down (yes, I know they get recovered and repaired but this game sends lots of UFO's at once and they have a more appreciable effect on your income if you let them have their way with the geoscape) so I'd have to cheat and reload to get around it and I just ended up autoresolving it by the end. But its not completely the airgame's fault, it really didn't mesh well with me for some reason. Finally, I don't know exactly how to explain it but the battlescape always felt really clunky to me in this game. The fact that UFO's can't be destroyed always felt awkward and kind of forced you to play by the alien's rules unlike XCOM, the cover system is crap, telling me that I can't see an alien from a certain angle but they can totally see me and fire at me, the aliens themselves take too long to diversify, too much time has to pass before the more interesting aliens show up which sucks since Sebillians and the sectoid equivalent are not nearly as interesting as the stuff that comes later and there's probably some other complaints I can't remember at this point. So yeah, I'm not saying I'm disappointed by this video because you liked the game btw, and overall I actually enjoyed the video, I just wish you'd gone a bit more in-depth (though I know time restraints are a thing) or at least mentioned the battlescape just a bit more, it's just as important as the geoscape and I feel like it has strengths and weaknesses that also should have been discussed. Anyways, good video, I look forward to the next one.

[@Rycluse]

Hmm, I guess I didn't mention that much about the battlescape because I didn't think there was much to say. I consider the controls to be improved in almost every way (cycling firing modes with right click especially, it was hard to go back when I recorded UFO defense footage). Surprised to hear about your number of special missions though, I had 5-10 terror missions, around 4 base assaults, and maybe 2 base defenses. Maybe it was patched? Anyway, The mission variety is basically same as the old game, which I don't consider a problem in either since the missions themselves have so much dynamism. Though I do wish Xenonauts had a few more tiles... I acknowledge that the air game isn't exactly balanced (see my nitpick slide), and I also lost a lot of craft early on. I know not everyone was as into the combat as me. I don't consider not being able to destroy UFOs an issue - in fact, I think it's pretty nice, since randomly destroying a UFO that you need to raid can be annoying, plus you can now just air strike the crash site if you don't want to bother with a mission. Now that you mention it though, I'd love to see more variety here. For some reason I'm thinking about the maps in XCOM 2012 where the crashing UFO leaves a long trail of destruction... I agree that the new aliens don't have as much charm as the old ones, but that's kind of an uphill battle to fight against a classic. I think they did well enough, particularly when it comes to having no absolutely pathetic aliens (looking at you, Reapers), but I found myself fighting Sebillians way too much for my liking.

[@TheeOptionalGuy]

@@Rycluse Thanks for the super quick response. Yeah I guess they must have patched the mission variety then, that or I just got extremely unlucky or I just managed to really effectively prohibit the aliens' progress without even knowing. I guess the UFO thing is mostly subjective, I don't personally mind a UFO occasionally being more busted up, makes some sense and makes the geoscape and battlescape feel just that little bit more connected since you can't expect every UFO to crash in such a way that leaves it ripe for the picking. I agree, I think the later aliens pick up a decent amount of the slack after the Sebillians and sectoid-equivalents, just takes them too bloody long to get involved. (their designs though do look 10x cooler in the research image than it does in-game, though none of the game's visuals do it that much justice to be fair, game looks pretty bland most of the time) .

[@Rycluse]

@@TheeOptionalGuy By the way, I don't know if you picked up on this, but UFOs actually can get damaged after being shot down, like before. It might be less common but in this very video I have footage of a supply ship filled with smoke because the main reactor busted (8:40). Plus there are some cases where all the crew is killed in the crash.

[@ashenwanderer3592]

Got this after a Rimmy video. Honestly the only thing I dont like is the tier 1 Armor. thats shits not armor, literally just a grey jumpsuit. also, the art is kinda off for it. it might just be me, but their uniform just looks like its a tad more cartoonish compared to everything else.

[@thelradame5508]

I'm one of "Those people" who prefers UFO Defenses Air combat. Why? Music. Also just shooting missiles at long range makes more sense than getting close.

[@Kipkat13]

mmmmm grayons

[@MJRSoap]

This man doesn't play Xenonauts Community Edition! Point and laugh!

[@Rycluse]

Y-yes I do Pay no mind to this Google tab I just opened

[@CountYulith]

@@Rycluse The Community Edition really is great, HOWEVER, it still doesn't address the money issued which you touched upon. I am hoping Xeno 2 does a better job with giving you more inventory to sell if you need extra cash.

[@linch5x5]

Ufo the two sides a very slightly tweaked classic Ufo defence with one major difference being that it is multiplayer pvp, one player controlling xcom and one in control of the aliens. But did get quietly requested to stop being worked on in 2010/2011 by phraxis cause of the new realse but anpollished up version was made by sone russains and released in 2018.

[@TheStapleGunKid]

Actually there was a good reason to use the plasma rifle over heavy plasma in XCOM: A soldier's strength rating. If a soldier had a low strength rating, you obviously didn't want to give him heavy plasma because it would weigh him down too much. Also there was a reason to use heavy lasers, as they were more powerful than regular lasers and even in the end-game you'd still want them when you go up against Sectopods.

[@enriquegarciacota3914]

I love Xcom , but I saw hbomberguy on your recommendations so I must like and subscribe now.

[@Rycluse]

Based