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To whom it may concern.

Consensus is mixed, with the reviewering saying that whoever dislikes the cartoony, colored style of Firaxis X-Com may like Xenonauts, but should be aware of bad audio, interface and visuals.

http://www.gamestar.de/spiele/xenonauts-strategic-planetary-defence-simulator/artikel/xenonauts,49809,3028495.html

http://www.gamestar.de/spiele/xenonauts-strategic-planetary-defence-simulator/artikel/xenonauts,49809,3028495,2.html

http://www.gamestar.de/spiele/xenonauts-strategic-planetary-defence-simulator/artikel/xenonauts,49809,3028495,fazit.html

Xenonauts served at the UFO remake the opposite end of the scale as XCOM : Enemy Unknown . Who too colorful , too focused on casual gamers and too limited in its functions was the Firaxis remake , who did not like the role -playing elements with the talent selection and the campaign felt with their always the same maps as pre-cut , which was definitely a take look at the Xenonauten . Xenonauts is at least as bucking hard as the original and dispensed just like the 1994 edition to any help and tutorials, but provides veteran X-COM commander a new challenge as well as the research tree contains some surprises ( which we did not reveal at this point ) .

We recommend it highly resistant to stale graphics , economical snoring presentation with animations puny and discount graphics, not existing sound effects and a cumbersome interface. In its current state as a playable Early Access version on Steam Xenonauts also still missing a lot of elements . Description texts and images in the research tree are still placeholder , the user interface is not yet final. The balancing of weapons , aliens and inserts makes far no final impression. We are curious if the final version ( which should be ready before Christmas , 2013) makes fun enough to keep us from Enemy Within , on the 12th November 2013 appearing extension to XCOM : Enemy Unknown to tear .

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Overall a positive writeup, although they do seem to miss some points. The complaint about terrain destructability is odd as this game has as much possible destruction as the original. Rockets definitely do blow holes in buildings, despite what the author writes, and you can absolutely level the map.

And I still think the choice of graphics in the game is brilliant. 2D sprites mean the game looks simple but can in fact remain at a nice aesthetic level for a long time, while 3D graphics at an indie budget inevitably just end up looking ugly because they're years behind mainstream games.

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And I still think the choice of graphics in the game is brilliant. 2D sprites mean the game looks simple but can in fact remain at a nice aesthetic level for a long time, while 3D graphics at an indie budget inevitably just end up looking ugly because they're years behind mainstream games.

Couldn't agree more. 2d graphics ages very well, which is why it's ubiqutous in small games.

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Graphics in Xenonauts is something you get used to and to be honest for me, the rest of the game makes up for it.

It is the opposite for xcom12 because it has hardly any depth for me quite shallow it has to have graphics to paper over the cracks, we see if the expansion help as so many things were left out.

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Graphics in Xenonauts is something you get used to and to be honest for me, the rest of the game makes up for it.

It is the opposite for xcom12 because it has hardly any depth for me quite shallow it has to have graphics to paper over the cracks, we see if the expansion help as so many things were left out.

The aesthetics in Xenonauts is one of its major selling points for me, and reversly I consider XCOM2012 aestethics flawed and unappealing...

Each to his own :P

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To me the high light in xcom12 is graphics and soldier progression, grounds missions are ok if we had more maps they be a lot better.

But the BIG let down is the geoscape and base building only 1 base and side on as well so no base defense missions for me to much was cut out of it from the OG xcom, unlike Xenoaunts for me it has a lot more depth.

Edited by Queamin
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I don't either. I thought it was pretty straight forward.

As for the graphics, I largely prefer that of Xenonauts to Xcom 2012.

At best, it reminds you of those action figures you played with as a child. At worst...I'm constantly cringing at the numerous aesthetic choices (Big Burly Men and thin, petite women are the only solders Earth has apparently...).

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I don't get why they think the UI's bad.

I do.

And no, glowing blue or grey edges wouldn't help. =)

Take something as simple as the loadout management in the soldier equipment screen.

You click a button that shows a letter. No tooltip that I could see.

I did not go to the equipment screen with the intention of clicking on the letter "R". Why would I want to even try that... and find out that loadouts are in fact a feature?

If I click it anyway, I get a menu in the center of the screen, far away from where the mouse pointer currently is.

And this menu is completely separate from the initiating button. I need to operate it all by itself.

I can't even get rid of this menu by simply clicking somewhere outside of it! No, I have to click the CANCEL button!

How it could work:

  • There are < > arrows beside that loadout display / button.

    They allow you to switch through loadouts quickly.

  • There is an EQUIP button with these arrows that is greyed out if the soldier has the full loadout. If not, it allows you to "Equip Default Loadout"

    A double click on that button equips the default loadout for every soldier in the base.

  • Click-hold on the loadout button drops down a menu like

    • [graphical button 1] [loadout name 1]

    • [graphical button 2] [loadout name 2]

    • [graphical button 3] [loadout name 3]

      etc.

    • [graphical button 12] [loadout name 12]

    • Save current loadout

    Release the button and you have either selected something... or the drop down vanishes without a chance for you to unintentionally click something.

To select a different loadout you would click...move...release... done. Or use the arrows.

Checking each individual soldiers for the correct number of magazines or grenades... nope. One double-click and the game checks them all.

You got used to how it's currently working. The Gamestar tester only saw the reality of it. How it looks to a new player. =)

The loadout feature itself is great. I wish Firaxis' XCom had something like it! Only it's interface is atrocious...

And that's just one tiny feature.

This game UI needs some polishing. Actually, sandblasting probably wouldn't hurt. =)

The strategic UI (which this is part of) is being changed, though, so who knows? The real UI might be awesome. And if not, then the time to complain would be after we can actually see it. =)

Edited by Gazz
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I agree with Gazz--there really are a lot of small clunky things. Some of them we are told will be changed in the new UI, but that doesn't change what this reviewer saw. Also, say you're in combat and you want to pull up your soldier's stats. There is an inventory button which actually does this, but if you are not aware that inventory and stats is the same screen, you might end up fumbling around for a while, trying to click on the character portrait or the visible stats (neither of which do anything at all).

And then there's the fact that you still have to switch between two screens if you want to find out if a soldier is wounded. Also, tooltips take way too long to pop up. I think both of those are slated to be changed, but still.

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The thing is a lot of the finer points you need to read the forums for really as you do learn a lot that is hidden or hard to find in posts.

added

Will add most games nowadays hand things on a platter and no thinking or least as possible needs to be done really.

Edited by Queamin
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The existing strategic UI is pretty poor - the combat UI went through three iterations to become what it is now (it originally looked like this), but everything other than the topbar and the Geoscape in the strategic UI is still in its very first iteration.

The new UI will look better and will be easier to use. It's not going to be perfect, but it will be better. And once it's in, we'll be willing to listen to all the small fixes that cumulatively improve usability a great deal.

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This might be because I'm familiar enough with the game and the game it was based on but I don't really have any complaints. There are obviously a lot of very small issues that could be commented on like Gazz has but very few major issues standout.

Except one maybe. My principle dislike is the personel screen which feels annoying to use and somewhat redundant since with it all the useful current information about your soldiers is split between it and the soldier screen. But also there's no relocate personel function on that page. I found out how to relocate soldiers recently by coming to the forums, I'm still not aware if I can relocate scientists and technicians.

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The idea is that in my first base I end up with more labs and workshops later on than I want because later I have other bases and I need the floor space. It would be much nicer to relocate staff than to fire then hire 30 scientists. That shit's expensive, yo.

Edited by Tiktaalik
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