The game looks much worse than Xenonauts 1

[Voxette]

I know it's still in Alpha, and I don't know what will be changed, but I hope the overall quality of the textures and animations on the Battlescape is improved. Things are just much less crisp and defined than Xenonauts 1, which I thought looked excellent. Also, the way the edges of foliage interact with fog of war is very unappealing and results in a lot of jagged edges.

I understand the need to switch to a new game engine, but I really liked the 2D look, and I think it's going to take a lot of work to achieve the same level of fidelity in 3D (look at an old 2D game like Desperadoes or Robin Hood: Legend of Sherwood compared to 3D games even years later...). I hope there's still a lot to be done, and that it will look great! It would be a shame if the sequel continued to look inferior to the original.

Note: I'm not talking about the obvious placeholder art.

[Alienkiller]

The Game is in Beta-Status. There are many many Differences to the Original Xenonauts-Game. After it goes in Early Access-State you will see the Differences, Reworks and big Improvements to the Original Game.

The Devs deciced to make a new Version of the Game for many reasons. The Predecessor was nice to play for a short time, but then it get more and more boring. There were no variety in the Basemanagement and on Geoscape. Then the old 2D Stile and the same Groundfight-Maps which get no variety too. Both were the big Mistakes the Devs were become aware very fast. This and the other big Problems Xenonauts 1 involved (esp. the Geoscape-Work, no Upgradeposibility etc.) were the Reasons to give up the Work on Xenonauts 1 and programming Xenonauts 2 asap.

In one thing your are right: There is a lot of Work left to do (like the special Improvements and Research- / Development Texts). The Game has included many Differences to the Predecessor in the existing Beta-Versions, which look great. And many more will come. The Predecessor is still in my Steam-Bibo as a nice memory of a 2D Game, but not installed anymore.

[odizzido]

Art can always be improved anytime during a project with minimal impact on other things...same with sounds(so often overlooked). There is still plenty of time for that to be worked on. I hope X2 is pretty as well

[Alienkiller]

X2 will, that I can say. Esp. the big Improvements which can´t be implemented in the first Game. That´s why the Devs are programming a new Xenonauts. We don´t know when the first Early Acces Version will come, but all will be impressed, like we Beta-Testers.

Sadly some things which get promised in Kickstarter and shown here (like the cool new Base) are not there anymore, but other cool Stuff is already implemented, which can´t get brought in the old Code on which X1 belongs.

[Bobit]

I agree and I think this is a valid criticism because the devs chose this engine / graphical style over the old one specifically for better graphics. Sure it's in beta but eh, much of the art seems implemented.

[Dagar]

It tends to be the case that games that go from 2d sprites to 3d are looking worse afterwards. That said, who was playing Xenonauts for the visuals to begin with? That does not mean that your criticism is not valid, I have some grudges with the presentation as well, but let's face it, this is no FiraXCOM, and that is exactly why we are here.