It's been my first opportunity to jump onto a ground combat build of Xenonauts and I'm pretty blown away by the progress to date as well as the polish already demonstrated in the V8.1 existing assets.
I messed about in a ground combat mission and for the most part the gameplay was smooth, looked great and most importantly reminded me of the gameplay I so enjoyed as a kid. The best part is that it already has a few great little tweaks and items I've always had in my XCOM wish list.
Animations in particular were very polished and smooth to watch. Everything from bringing the shotgun to bear to vaulting over small obstacles was fantastic. The smoke and fire effects are very nice too - the explosions also have a nice animation.
So far I'm really impressed by the devs. Keep up the good work!