Has anyone else been following this? Now that we know Firaxis is making a new X-Com game it might be put on the backburner but I've been following it since the initial announcement and have been sufficiently impressed that I've shelled out the $20 for a pre-order (which I've never done for an indie game) and am downloading the beta right now. Hoping for a good tactical strategy game.
I've been following for a while now but hasn't got to the point where I'll pull the trigger on a pre-order. I would also be interested in impressions.
If there can be 2 fps games. Battlefield 3 and Modern Warfare 3. There can be 2 tactical commando games.
Alright so I played a little bit before work this afternoon. First there is no geoscape (I'm not sure if that is just a feature they haven't implemented or not but either way it isn't very important besides the fact that the poles are not present in the game) so the map is a flat 2D representation of the Earth. The game starts in 1979 and you get to build a single base to start with. The world is divided into regions which have their own funding just like the original and large cities are noted (hopefully for terror missions). The base screens are all basically the same as X-COM and you start off with ten recruits, three interceptors (two F-17's which are weaker but have better close range weapons and a MiG which has better long range missiles), as well as two scout tanks which can be equipped with either machineguns or a rocket launcher. Basically all the base management screens are well designed and the UI is at least as good if not better than the original game. I only had enough time to check that out and engage in two or three UFO's and here is where I've noticed the most improvement compared to the original. I intercepted my first UFO off the coast of Tunisia and where in the original you would just proceed to shoot the scout down instead I was given the chance to simply tail the UFO until it was overland (which is a major improvement) but by the time it did so it outran me and right now I'm just getting ready to take on another UFO I downed in Ireland. I'll post some impressions and screenshots of the tactical gameplay later.
Thanks, CSL. I look forward to more. Hopefully at some point it will be available for purchase on Steam. I could think of some great cheevos too.
I've been following this as well but not sold enough to pull the trigger on a pre order without some more input. I'd be interested in hearing all of your impressions, I loved the original X-Com to death.
That is a damn pretty map - I can live with a flat geoscape that looks like that. Colour me cautiously optimistic! If they can get this out in the next 6 - 9 months they should beat the Firaxis remake, whilst also simultaneously benefiting from the xcom marketing and buzz going on.
I'd strongly considered buying this, but with the Firaxis X-COM on the way there's little chance that this is getting my money and none whatsoever prior to the real release. I hope they continue the development and knock this out of the park, but I think they have a tough road ahead.
These guys aren't lacking in the art design department, that's for sure -- have you seen the concept art on their website?Very cool!
So it looks like the devs are planning on going after some of that sweet crowd-sourcing money. Their first mistake is that they refer to it as a "Kickstarter" even though it's actually going to be on IndieGoGo.com (since they aren't from the US), which I'm sure will cause some confusion. Secondly, people can already pay for and play early builds of this game, so a bunch of their supporters won't really have a reason to give any (more) money to the project and it makes their idea of putting out a demo less interesting (even though it will be free). As someone who paid for early access I hope this is successful because what they have already is good and it just needs a little more work on implementing the gameplay systems and getting the rest of the content added, and I want them to be able to buckle down and get it done.
You could do this in X-Com as well. There wasn't a 'wait til overland' option, but you could minimize the interceptor window and pursuit would continue, then pop it back up once they were overland.
The Kickstarter is now up! In less than one day, it's already raised almost US$7,000. You can grab the newly-released demo from one of two places: direct link; official torrent. Here's my preview. Short version - I'm quite impressed at a design level. As promised, it takes the original game as its basic foundation, but sands away annoyances, spruces up the interface, and introduces additional meaningful decisions. At an execution level, it's a bit early to comment - it's not as far along as, say, Endless Space - but I think this is one game well worth watching.
Thanks for the updates and impressions, guys. I pre-ordered this awhile ago, and while I'm not keen on hammering my head against alpha and beta versions, it looks like it's shaping up pretty well.
I really love their art style and the project lead seems to have his project delivery hat firmly affixed. I was thinking of pre-ordering this a few days back, will probably back this one. Rock Paper Shotgun will post the kickstarter to their front page and they will blow through the required $50k in no time.
Wow, after ~30 hours the game is already up to $37,439. I bet it'll reach its target by this time tomorrow night.
I took the demo for a brief spin. Delicious. Intuitive UI, good design on everything from intercept combat to loadouts to movement and positioning, and definitely evokes that "WTF COULD BE AROUND EACH CORNER" feeling. Pledged the moment one of my dudes busted a window in order to snipe through it. Did the original XCom grunts miss so much? Holy crap, total misses from like 5 squares away.
This and a few other Kickstarters are on my list of "want to back, but I've backed too many this month".
I get where you're coming from, but as far as I'm concerned, I'll be more than happy to buy both and let them fight it out for my attention. It's not like good, turn-based squad tactics games for the PC grow on trees.
Well, to be fair I posted that 4 months ago. With some of the additional information revealed by both games, there's probably space for both in the marketplace.
Up to $45,636, from 1,267 backers! XCOM: Enemy Unknown occupies a different niche of the turn/squad-based genre to Xenonauts, I think. If you divide the genre into three archetypes: X-Com, JA2. Dynamically generated battles that involve sweeping the map, fighting individually powerful enemies. Emphasis on terrain and positioning. No character management beyond "oh, you get this gun and that armour". Fire Emblem, Valkyria Chronicles. Scripted battles that involve sweeping the map, taking care to avoid being overwhelmed by a larger number of weaker enemies. Enemies wait for you to come within a set radius before they react. No character management beyond equipment. Final Fantasy Tactics, Tactics Ogre. Scripted battles. Individually strong enemies who aggressively move across the map to fight you. LOTS of character management: choosing classes and skills, firing off special abilities in battle, etc. ... then Xenonauts is pure Type 1, whereas Enemy Unknown (dynamic battles, individually powerful enemies, AND small squads with extensive character management) is a hybrid between 1 and 3. That makes one-to-one comparisons between them a bit problematic. In any case, I love all three types of game, and if Goldhawk and Firaxis can execute on their respective designs, there'll be ample room on my shelf for both.
No, but it does have emphasise character classes and special abilities. Edit: Dude, I mentioned 'dynamic battles' in my original post. XD
It has classes? I must've missed that. All this XCom/Xenonauts talk makes me want to fire up Afterlight now.
They cracked $50k and posted some stretch goals: Getting DRM free version via either gamersgate or humble bundle store Female soldiers if they hit $200k (extra art). Seems to be a litle bit of grousing about that, but they made clear it was a stretch goal to entice interest - might still get them at lower amount mac / Linux port at $100k I'm waiting till they provide a bit more detail on the art book, mostly just to decide which level to back. Interestingly "DRM free" seems to be a big selling feature / barrier to sale on Kickstarter. http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/69341191/xenonauts/posts
Latest update regarding the stretch goals: So we might see female soldiers (the one I'm hoping for -- sure, it might not be realistic, but it was a key cosmetic aspect of the original game for me) earlier than $200K. Sorry, Marcin -- were you referring to Xenonauts or Enemy Unknown? My understanding is that Xenonauts battle maps are randomly constructed from a pool of "X" building blocks, and that pool varies by terrain type (e.g. farmland vs industrial area vs terror site). Sounds pretty similar to the original game.
There is no trace of randomization in the demo, and the dev has stated a few times that he's "working on more maps, they take long", rather than referring directly to randomization engine improvements/development. Hence my concern.
Yeah, words are great. I'm talking about what currently exists and is playable. I dug a little deeper into the forums. Found the following: The industrial map I crashed the smallest UFO type on was identical every time, so when he says "regularity" well ... I suspect the final product will need more work, based on the initial post. 4 tiles per map! That's not much granularity at all, and like I said all, all of mine seemed the same. Warehouse, parking lot, ufo, power station were the 4 easily identifiable 1/4ths, and all were in the same place. Then I ran into the endless swarm of killer UFOs and never managed to crash another, so can't comment on larger UFO types. I'll have to restart a game in farmland or something ...
