14 DAY TRIAL // At first sight, the turn-based combat system in Xenonauts seems to be pretty similar to that created by Firaxis in XCOM: Enemy Unknown, but it takes just one full battle against the aliens to discover that the team at Goldhawk Interactive is much more interested in depth and complexity than in fast gameplay.
Cover is important in the new game and can make the difference between dead aliens and dead human soldiers, but all objects on the battlefield also have an annoying way of blocking firing lines, which makes movement much more important.
The fact that the environment is destructible also makes heavier weaponry, from grenades to rocket launchers, more effective because they can easily be used to open up new avenues of advance or deprive enemies of their cover.
But the biggest change in Xenonauts is the introduction of night missions, which put the player at a big disadvantage early on and can result in big losses that, sometimes, cannot be replaced.
The more I played the game the more I saw how it resembled the classic Jagged Alliance when it comes to elements like the user interface or the focus on always overlapping arcs of fire in order to make sure that no soldier can be easily surprised.
The mix that Goldhawk Interactive has created is very tense at times, especially right before contact with the alien forces is made, when the possibilities are endless and both sides seem to have an equal shot at victory.
Once battle is engaged, there are high enjoyable moments of bravery, solid tactics and lucky shots, but the game also manages to convey the despair of being surprised by aliens and then shot with plasma weaponry.
Unfortunately, the soldiers and the other human survivors that at times take up arms against the aliens are sometimes walking examples for a range of stupid behaviors and I kept asking myself who in the Human Resources department decided that they were the best that Earth had to offer.
The mercenaries in Jagged Alliance were always smart on the battlefield and even managed to deliver some solid quips while gunning down enemies.
The development team that created Xenonauts has done a lot to add support for mods to the title and it will be interesting to see whether a group of fans manages to put in the work required to create a solid remake of the classic Jagged Alliance titles using the new engine.