#goldhawk interactive

Hooded Horse announces publishing X-COM sequel with Xenonauts 2 and Arcen Games’ city builder Heart of the Machine

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Opublikowaliśmy nowy post http://gamerweb.pl/2017/02/26/demo-xenonauts-2-dostepne-dla-niecierpliwych/

A love letter to 1994 Xenonauts Developed by Goldhawk Interactive Microsoft Windows Released on 6 June 2014

Xenonauts is Goldhawk Interactive’s spiritual successor to the critically acclaimed 1994 turn-based strategy game UFO: Enemy Unknown. It was, from the start, designed to emulate that game’s major design decisions, and as a result the two games feel and play remarkably similar, despite the…

In 1979, the world was technologically disadvantaged as it neared the end of the Cold War. That is, when comparing the technology of the time to the aliens now invading Earth in Xenonauts. Being outmatched technologically, sets the tone of the game: you’re always the underdog and feel equally overwhelmed at all times. You’re always on the brink of collapse, and this is what makes Xenonautsa more…

You might have already read something about this game somewhere and it was most likely written by someone who had played something along the lines of X-COM, UFO or XCOM before. Because what kind of gamer hasn't at least played one of those, right? ...ahem. Well, let's not linger on that! Xenonauts has been out of early access for a few weeks now and I played some hours of it. Here's my early impressions – written by someone who shamefully has to admit never to have played an X-com-like game before.

Here's a little anecdote. A few days had passed since the first aliens had appeared, some UFOs had been intercepted and some land battles had been fought. It was tough, but Sgt. Zaytseva had been under my command for a few missions already and had very much proven herself under my command. She had been wounded in action, received a few medals, recovered and was ready to go again. Everything was going well and I had finally gotten the funds and the research to get some better equipment for the men and women under my command. I knew all their faces and all their names and I felt responsible for them. I gave my front line soldiers better armor, making them a bit slower, but more durable to laser weaponry. I equipped one other soldier with a sniper rifle and one with a rocket launcher to have some more tactical options and sent them out to a newly intercepted alien vessel I had shot down somewhere above Mexico. Sgt. Zaytseva was equipped with assault equipment, she was meant to be up close and personal with our grey-faces enemies, wielding a shotgun and having been equipped to survive a shot or two.

The mission was going well and Sgt. Zaytseva had taken cover behind the ruin of a wall, while an enemy was right behind her. My rocket launcher guy, Cpl. Roth, was in the perfect spot to be the hero of the moment, as he locked on the target with a whopping 60% chance to hit him directly – and even if he would fail a direct hit, the area damage of the rocket would be enough to obliterate the alien.

He didn't hit him directly, not even with the area damage. He did hit a certain ruined wall though and neither the wall nor Sgt. Zaytseva were anymore. One risky choice, some bad luck and less then a second turned my well armored veteran into a bloody pile of flesh and bones. It took me a moment to process how much I had messed up just there.

This was a risk I took in the heat of the moment and probably shouldn't have taken, but the game is brutal even if you play safe. If you don't have vision of the enemy during its turn, you'll just have to wait and hope that there won't suddenly be a laser shot coming out of the dark and hitting one of your soldiers, because one shot is all that it takes. If you're well armored, you might survive it – depending on the type of armor you wear and the type of weapon they use. But especially in the first few missions before you can even get better armor, one shot hitting its target is all that it takes. Pvt. Miles never got around to seeing an actual alien on my first mission. He was behind cover, never expecting a shot from that angle and that was it.

This kind of fear for your team is something I haven't experienced in a game before. It's exciting and awesome, but it's also the reason why I'm not playing a lot of Xenonauts at the moment. I have a lot of other stuff going on and not a lot of concentration left when it comes to gaming and this game needs me to concentrate hard or it will kill everyone I hold dear, obliterate humanity and make me watch. It's a dick like that. But I also want to play it because of that. It will just have to wait until I have the concentration and time it demands of me.

This didn't cover a lot of the stuff that goes on in Xenonauts and I should write about its very well written lore, its focus on realism and authenticity, its aerial combat and base building, etc. but as far as first impressions go, this was the thing that impressed me the most and this is also the reason why I haven't touched the game in a few days. If you want to play something epic, brutal and demanding, you should absolutely get this game. I'm looking forward to a time, when I will have the nerve to play more of it.