Full playthrough feedback

[Ogilvy the Astronomer]

I’ve just completed a full playthrough, and had a great time! The game has come on such a long way since I last played an early access build. There are so many quality of life improvements, and countless well thought-out gameplay decisions. Splitting the game into Phases is ace. No crashes or bugs either. Congrats to everyone involved, the game is a real achievement!

In case it’s useful, I’ve splurged my thoughts for potential tweaks and improvements in a big bullet pointed list. All just my opinions of course, but maybe useful when considering future balance passes / possible DLC / mods.

 

·         Grenades feel slightly under-powered.
 

·         Stun guns are frustrating to use, their accuracy is too low. I stuck with stun batons.
 

·         Could shields be a bit lighter? Once I gave someone armour, a shield, and a handgun, they rarely had any strength left to carry even a single grenade.
 

·         MGs feel overpowered, at least in the latter part of the game. Maybe the high-end MGs, like fusion, should have some limitation to nerf them a bit. Maybe only 10 rounds in a magazine.
 

·         The difficulty spike when enemies started bringing fusion weapons felt a bit too extreme.
 

·         It would be great to have extra MARS upgrade options to make them more interesting and allow specialisms. For example, how about a MARS upgrade so it can be used as mobile hard cover for your soldiers? Or a medical upgrade so it can be like a medic bot.
 

·         I think there’s potential for a more specialised medic role. How about a new item, a trauma kit, that takes most of the space in the tactical vest but if applied to a “killed” soldier then it increases their chances of survival.
 

·         The 360-vision device is heavy and takes up a lot of space for the benefit it gives. I think it would work better as the ultimate upgrade for the tactical module, i.e. it gives accuracy bonus and 360 vision.
 

·         Grenade launchers feel meh, I tried them a few times and then skipped them forever more. Does anyone actually use grenade launcher plus smoke?
 

·         Similar for the knife, I never really considered ever using one.
 

·         Micromanaging base stores is no fun. I’d prefer every base to just have infinite storage space and no need for a storage room. Feels like a hangover from XCOM that could be streamlined away.  
 

·         For the missions when you need to extract soldiers, a win condition is that you can just get everyone onboard the chopper, but that isn’t specified in the top-left of the screen during tactical combat. It just says to kill all enemies. If you do get everyone on the chopper, the mission should end automatically. Instead, I had to click Abort Mission, which felt like I was admitting defeat.
 

·         The OP cost to complete repeated UFO crash missions feels too high. I get that you want to disincentivise grinding, but I found the OP cost so high that it was never really an option. Maybe have the OP cost half of what it currently is? Then it would be more of a tactical decision, rather than a “no” every time.
 

·         Maybe it was just the luck of the draw during my playthrough, but I encountered sooooo many Wraiths.
 

·         I only came across two or three Eternals during the entire game.
 

·         If you go overweight for a soldier, your TUs are reduced until they’re over-burdened. I think it would be good if the opposite were true as well, i.e. soldiers under their carry capacity get some bonus TUs. That would be more interesting than just filling your soldiers’ pockets with grenades every time. You could have some designated runners during abduction missions, for example.

 

·         I saw a tooltip about soldiers becoming unconscious and being able to revive them with a medkit, but I didn’t encounter this situation even a single time during the entire playthrough.

 

·         The in-game tutorials are excellent, but they seem to be missing for base building.

 

·         I’d have appreciated some reminder / hint about building a second base. For example, maybe once you reach Phase 2, if you haven’t built a second base then the Ops Director could say that it would be good to build one.

 

·         It would be super-useful to know in advance about the 16-person limit for base defence missions. Maybe as part of a base tutorial. For example, I decided to defend my second base just with sentry guns, to avoid having the cost and hassle of garrisoning troops there. So, I built 30 of the things. Thought I was being clever…

 

·         The best mission was the UOO Bridge Attack. It felt perfect for the very final mission. Desperately holding off waves of enemies, keeping the control console clear. Great! By contrast, the actual very final mission was quite easy. I beat the initial enemies, then opened the doors and just let rip at the Eternal.

 

·         Back to the UOO Bridge Attack mission, it would be good to know in advance that once the mission is complete then all your soldiers will be automatically teleported away. I positioned them ready to run back to the starting point, and was loading the bodies of fallen comrades to carry them out of there in the hopes that they’d survive. Then everyone just teleported away in a *poof*.

 

·         The time gap between accelerated weapons and then and lasers feels very fast.  

 

·         Same for gauss and fusion.
 

·         Lasers are the most interesting weapons. Armour penetration, upgrades for damage, and upgrades for recharging. I know other tiers have the damage upgrade, but it would be neat to see more variety too. For example, armour penetration upgrade for gauss, accuracy for accelerated, maybe fusion clip capacity is lower to start with and needs an upgrade to increase.  
 

·         I liked how there was a countdown for each phase, but that’s lacking for Endgame. You can just keep things ticking over for ages, building your forces up and milking crash sites for cash. The sense of urgency that’s been there for the entire game just disappears.
 

·         Some missions turned into a tedious bug hunt, looking for a sole survivor. I like the mechanic where you can reveal the aliens’ location if you hold a ship bridge. Maybe on other missions, the whole map is revealed after x turns. In-game explanation could be that Xenonaut spy satellites are in position over the battle location. This could even be a researchable bonus, come to think of it.

 

·         I liked the scanner device from the original XCOM. Potential for that to be an item?

 

·         It would be neat to have multiple endings depending on the choices you made during your playthrough. Maybe the General makes an appearance if you captured rather than killed him, for example.  

 

·         I liked the early parts of the game the best, with the cleaners and early aliens. There was interesting plot, the cleaners were a mystery, and the missions were the most involved. Things like raiding the data centre, ambushing a convoy, rescuing soldiers… all really good. And the option to kill or capture the Cleaner leader. (Way back on this forum I used to bang on about needing more variety in mission types, and I’ll admit to feeling somewhat vindicated!)

Then this momentum kind of fizzles a bit during the mid and particularly late game. The plot in particular becomes a bit generic. The initial segments made me think there were going to be some twists in the story. The cleaners being previous-generation Xenonauts is a rich vein. I wondered if somehow the current Xenonauts were being mind-controlled, and the Cleaners were actually the good guys.

I think that a few different mission types (here I go again…) specific to each phase would help. Maybe in one of the phases there’s a mission when you have to rescue prisoners, breaking them out of a facility and carrying them on your backs to the chopper. And then for a later phase the aliens attack military bunkers of allied nations, your team can’t get there in time so you’re put in control of local forces, mounting a desperate defence.

If the quality of Phase One could be maintained for the entire game then it would be a real 10/10!
 

 

Ideas for a DLC expansion

·         Prelude Phase. Maybe you’re the Cleaners? Ends with your defeat.

·         Post-endgame Phase where you’re the liberated aliens, taking on some rogue Eternals that still have their own cohorts.

·         Skirmish mode where you build a team with points. Can play as Xenonauts or Aliens. Potential multiplayer aspect.

[Chris]

10 hours ago, Ogilvy the Astronomer said:

I’ve just completed a full playthrough, and had a great time! The game has come on such a long way since I last played an early access build. There are so many quality of life improvements, and countless well thought-out gameplay decisions. Splitting the game into Phases is ace. No crashes or bugs either. Congrats to everyone involved, the game is a real achievement!

In case it’s useful, I’ve splurged my thoughts for potential tweaks and improvements in a big bullet pointed list. All just my opinions of course, but maybe useful when considering future balance passes / possible DLC / mods.

 

·         Grenades feel slightly under-powered.
 

·         Stun guns are frustrating to use, their accuracy is too low. I stuck with stun batons.
 

·         Could shields be a bit lighter? Once I gave someone armour, a shield, and a handgun, they rarely had any strength left to carry even a single grenade.
 

·         MGs feel overpowered, at least in the latter part of the game. Maybe the high-end MGs, like fusion, should have some limitation to nerf them a bit. Maybe only 10 rounds in a magazine.
 

·         The difficulty spike when enemies started bringing fusion weapons felt a bit too extreme.
 

·         It would be great to have extra MARS upgrade options to make them more interesting and allow specialisms. For example, how about a MARS upgrade so it can be used as mobile hard cover for your soldiers? Or a medical upgrade so it can be like a medic bot.
 

·         I think there’s potential for a more specialised medic role. How about a new item, a trauma kit, that takes most of the space in the tactical vest but if applied to a “killed” soldier then it increases their chances of survival.
 

·         The 360-vision device is heavy and takes up a lot of space for the benefit it gives. I think it would work better as the ultimate upgrade for the tactical module, i.e. it gives accuracy bonus and 360 vision.
 

·         Grenade launchers feel meh, I tried them a few times and then skipped them forever more. Does anyone actually use grenade launcher plus smoke?
 

·         Similar for the knife, I never really considered ever using one.
 

·         Micromanaging base stores is no fun. I’d prefer every base to just have infinite storage space and no need for a storage room. Feels like a hangover from XCOM that could be streamlined away.  
 

·         For the missions when you need to extract soldiers, a win condition is that you can just get everyone onboard the chopper, but that isn’t specified in the top-left of the screen during tactical combat. It just says to kill all enemies. If you do get everyone on the chopper, the mission should end automatically. Instead, I had to click Abort Mission, which felt like I was admitting defeat.
 

·         The OP cost to complete repeated UFO crash missions feels too high. I get that you want to disincentivise grinding, but I found the OP cost so high that it was never really an option. Maybe have the OP cost half of what it currently is? Then it would be more of a tactical decision, rather than a “no” every time.
 

·         Maybe it was just the luck of the draw during my playthrough, but I encountered sooooo many Wraiths.
 

·         I only came across two or three Eternals during the entire game.
 

·         If you go overweight for a soldier, your TUs are reduced until they’re over-burdened. I think it would be good if the opposite were true as well, i.e. soldiers under their carry capacity get some bonus TUs. That would be more interesting than just filling your soldiers’ pockets with grenades every time. You could have some designated runners during abduction missions, for example.

 

·         I saw a tooltip about soldiers becoming unconscious and being able to revive them with a medkit, but I didn’t encounter this situation even a single time during the entire playthrough.

 

·         The in-game tutorials are excellent, but they seem to be missing for base building.

 

·         I’d have appreciated some reminder / hint about building a second base. For example, maybe once you reach Phase 2, if you haven’t built a second base then the Ops Director could say that it would be good to build one.

 

·         It would be super-useful to know in advance about the 16-person limit for base defence missions. Maybe as part of a base tutorial. For example, I decided to defend my second base just with sentry guns, to avoid having the cost and hassle of garrisoning troops there. So, I built 30 of the things. Thought I was being clever…

 

·         The best mission was the UOO Bridge Attack. It felt perfect for the very final mission. Desperately holding off waves of enemies, keeping the control console clear. Great! By contrast, the actual very final mission was quite easy. I beat the initial enemies, then opened the doors and just let rip at the Eternal.

 

·         Back to the UOO Bridge Attack mission, it would be good to know in advance that once the mission is complete then all your soldiers will be automatically teleported away. I positioned them ready to run back to the starting point, and was loading the bodies of fallen comrades to carry them out of there in the hopes that they’d survive. Then everyone just teleported away in a *poof*.

 

·         The time gap between accelerated weapons and then and lasers feels very fast.  

 

·         Same for gauss and fusion.
 

·         Lasers are the most interesting weapons. Armour penetration, upgrades for damage, and upgrades for recharging. I know other tiers have the damage upgrade, but it would be neat to see more variety too. For example, armour penetration upgrade for gauss, accuracy for accelerated, maybe fusion clip capacity is lower to start with and needs an upgrade to increase.  
 

·         I liked how there was a countdown for each phase, but that’s lacking for Endgame. You can just keep things ticking over for ages, building your forces up and milking crash sites for cash. The sense of urgency that’s been there for the entire game just disappears.
 

·         Some missions turned into a tedious bug hunt, looking for a sole survivor. I like the mechanic where you can reveal the aliens’ location if you hold a ship bridge. Maybe on other missions, the whole map is revealed after x turns. In-game explanation could be that Xenonaut spy satellites are in position over the battle location. This could even be a researchable bonus, come to think of it.

 

·         I liked the scanner device from the original XCOM. Potential for that to be an item?

 

·         It would be neat to have multiple endings depending on the choices you made during your playthrough. Maybe the General makes an appearance if you captured rather than killed him, for example.  

 

·         I liked the early parts of the game the best, with the cleaners and early aliens. There was interesting plot, the cleaners were a mystery, and the missions were the most involved. Things like raiding the data centre, ambushing a convoy, rescuing soldiers… all really good. And the option to kill or capture the Cleaner leader. (Way back on this forum I used to bang on about needing more variety in mission types, and I’ll admit to feeling somewhat vindicated!)

Then this momentum kind of fizzles a bit during the mid and particularly late game. The plot in particular becomes a bit generic. The initial segments made me think there were going to be some twists in the story. The cleaners being previous-generation Xenonauts is a rich vein. I wondered if somehow the current Xenonauts were being mind-controlled, and the Cleaners were actually the good guys.

I think that a few different mission types (here I go again…) specific to each phase would help. Maybe in one of the phases there’s a mission when you have to rescue prisoners, breaking them out of a facility and carrying them on your backs to the chopper. And then for a later phase the aliens attack military bunkers of allied nations, your team can’t get there in time so you’re put in control of local forces, mounting a desperate defence.

If the quality of Phase One could be maintained for the entire game then it would be a real 10/10!
 

 

Ideas for a DLC expansion

·         Prelude Phase. Maybe you’re the Cleaners? Ends with your defeat.

·         Post-endgame Phase where you’re the liberated aliens, taking on some rogue Eternals that still have their own cohorts.

·         Skirmish mode where you build a team with points. Can play as Xenonauts or Aliens. Potential multiplayer aspect.

Thanks for the thoughts. There's a few interesting points in there that I'd not considered before, and in general I think your feedback mirrors what other players have said - the first third of the game is the strongest, and it gets a bit less varied and interesting (and also easier) as the game goes on.

We can make some improvements to things just by tweaking the numbers, but yeah I think we're going to need to ensure any DLC we release are focused around maintaining a decent supply of interesting new content and / or enemy abilities in the middle and later stages of the game.

[PorT_Lobo]

On 4/23/2026 at 9:01 AM, Chris said:

Thanks for the thoughts. There's a few interesting points in there that I'd not considered before, and in general I think your feedback mirrors what other players have said - the first third of the game is the strongest, and it gets a bit less varied and interesting (and also easier) as the game goes on.

We can make some improvements to things just by tweaking the numbers, but yeah I think we're going to need to ensure any DLC we release are focused around maintaining a decent supply of interesting new content and / or enemy abilities in the middle and later stages of the game.

Nice Chris, that are good news... Mind Control need to be stronger also. An ideia is that when a soldier becomes mind controled by an alien, he never becomes free again until player kill the alien in command (in that case, an alien can only control a soldier at a time). Keep the good work, i am waiting for your improvements to play X2 again... and already made an analisys recommending the game (in portuguese) at Steam.

[mortyporky]

Hello, congratulation on 1.0. relase. 

I have some suggestion on balance of weapon. 

1. Granade vs demolition charges: Granade ( all type ) should be little lighter ( they are smaller in inventory too ) and with little longer range - demolition charges are bigger and do more damage and they need to have little less range ( they are heavy and clumsy ). They all weight 6 and have same range, there is no point of same weight and range. I dont use frag. granade there is no advantage over demolition charges ( only flashbang and smoke are on good use for supression and acc. ).

2. Upgraded ( new weapons ) - need little tweaks on damage and range. All new research weapons  need little more punch. It is too little difference on damage, the range is the same ( new weapon need to be better on all segment ). They dont need to be over powerd but little more deadlier yes. They cost a lot to manufacture. For now it is better to skip 1-2 generation of weapons than to manufacture new generation rifle, especialy when we need to build bases, aircrafts, etc.. . It is better to shoot one bullet more with normal rifle than spent money, alenium and alloys to gain 4 damage more with new gun and the same range.

3. Mars should cost little less to produce. It is not tank, it is support vehicle.  Hangar and missile battery are cheaper to produce and use more than MARS., 

4. Please add face picture on face when we select new campaign and difficulty.  Here are some examples. 

5. Add more maps into do game, so that game dont loose interest to play. I hope that we will get map editor. After few mission on one type of biome maps are get repeated and boring to play.

Thanks on great game it is throw back in time. I hope that this game will grow with time and that the game will get better and better. 

 

[Ogilvy the Astronomer]

On 4/23/2026 at 9:01 AM, Chris said:

Thanks for the thoughts. There's a few interesting points in there that I'd not considered before, and in general I think your feedback mirrors what other players have said - the first third of the game is the strongest, and it gets a bit less varied and interesting (and also easier) as the game goes on.

We can make some improvements to things just by tweaking the numbers, but yeah I think we're going to need to ensure any DLC we release are focused around maintaining a decent supply of interesting new content and / or enemy abilities in the middle and later stages of the game.

Thanks for the reply Chris, and again congratulations on X2 being as good as it is!

A couple more quick thoughts I forgot to add into my epic bullet pointed list:

·         Using alien corpses for ballistics reports is a great idea. I think that currently too many corpses are needed, or at least that was the experience during my playthrough.

·         The aliens started using poison grenades, but there was no mention of this, no research options or anything like that. No reverse engineering possibilities. How about a project to add a poison effect to smoke grenades? Would make smoke more potent in the latter stages of the game.

 

I’ve been thinking a bit about potential DLC content, and would like to pitch an idea for you to consider or completely disregard as you see fit! I’ve tried to come up with something that would improve three core aspects of the game: variety, replayability, and tipping points (when things become so bad you’re on an inevitable downward spiral to failure; or so well that you steamroll the enemy and it becomes exponentially easier).

Xenonauts 2: Terminal Protocol DLC

My main idea is to introduce player choices and moral ambiguity that lead to multiple endings. This is inspired by some moments in the current X2. Specifically, when I learnt that Cleaner Agents were basically good humans that had been misinformed; that the aliens could use technology to mind control humans (like the General); and then later on with the UOO, the Chief Scientist isn’t that bothered because military bunkers will be safe, but the Ops Director is horrified about the potential death toll. I thought that these were all interesting moments that could be expanded on.

So, how about throughout the game there are multiple forks in the road so to speak, where you have to make decisions that have tangible consequences. The Chief Scientist can support the pragmatic but morally dubious options, while the Ops Director flies the flag for the morally good options. The difficulty of the game should be such that it’s nigh-on impossible to complete the game and be squeaky clean yourself. Compromises will have to be made, and it’s up to the player to decide where they’ll draw the line in the sand.

I’ve listed some initial ideas, all pretty rough but they’ll explain the kind of thing I mean.
 

·         Install Mind Control tech in world leaders
After reverse engineering the Cleaner mind control technology, near the end of Phase One you have the option to use your covert ops to install it in key world leaders, effectively placing them under your control. This would give you a big funding boost and panic reduction, but will make you worryingly similar to the enemies you’re battling. A player might think that they’d never do that – but what if the doomsday counter is close to 100, and their bank balance is close to zero. Might it be worth making this decision to try and save the world from a greater threat?

 

·         Install Mind Control tech in your own troops
They don’t want this, but you can force them to undertake the procedure. They’d get a big bravery boost, and maybe some other stats get buffed too. It’s abhorrent to even consider – but if alien psionics are buffed and your soldiers are getting mind controlled every mission, maybe you’d do it…
 

·         Rebel Human Faction
If you take some morally dubious decisions (like Mind Controlling world leaders), a new human faction arises to protest your abuses. They sabotage your supplies, take out your operatives, and ambush you on the way to missions. The question is then, how do you deal with them? Your choice is kill or stun. Stunning is the morally good choice, but would require investment in Stun weapons, and be more difficult overall. (A theme with my ideas being that it’s harder to be good than evil!)
 

·         Xenonaut Terror Mission
You find an alien logistics hub, mainly staffed by unarmed aliens. Alien civilians, in other words. Do you attack it anyway? It has low tactical value. (Basically a terror mission where *you’re* causing the terror).

 

·         Prisoner Dilemma
Operatives have found two prisoner transports preparing to depart. You’ve only got time to raid and rescue one. The dilemma is that one has Xenonaut prisoners (that join your roster if you rescue them); the other has civilians (no real benefit to you, but they’re totally innocent in all this). The actual mission would be fun too, breaking into a facility, finding the cells, blowing the doors, then carrying the prisoners back to the chopper.

 

·         Free Aliens, or make them fight for you?
You’ve found a weakness in the algorithm used to mind control a specific ship full of aliens. Do you break the mind control, allowing them to escape to freedom and live their lives? Or use the mind control yourself to make them fight for you?

 

·         Bio Weapon
Juicy late-game one, this – the Chief Scientist finds a weakness in the genome of a specific alien species. He can engineer a bio-weapon that you can use to wipe out the entire species. It’s genocide, but this is war… What do you choose? Maybe you get to choose the species to wipe out!

 

·         Top tier MARS and Interceptor
Reverse engineering Cyberdrone technology has shown that incorporating an organic brain is superior to machines alone. We can build top-tier MARS units and Interceptors, but the harsh reality is that to get the required performance, a human brain is needed. So as well as alloys, alenium, and money, you need… a dead Xenonaut. Luckily the Chief Scientist has kept all the casualty corpses on ice in the morgue (can definitely imagine him doing this!) Your soldiers didn’t sign up to this, they should be left to rest in peace. But you don’t get the top tech unless you take this step into the abyss… This one would be a good leveller for players that are having an easy game and so don’t have many casualties!

 

·         Colossus
Similar to the idea above, what if Colossus units aren’t armoured suits, but rather Robocop-style cyborgs made from dead Xenonauts? Pretty grim, but if there’s a decent gap between Colossus and the ultimate armour, then it’s a genuinely tough choice.

 

 

After completing the game you have variety endings based on the decisions you made. And you get to see what other people chose too. “You are among the 65% of players who decided to use the remains of dead Xenonauts for Colossus units.”
 

A “stretch goal” for this idea, and to increase the replayability aspect in particular, is inspired by the Westwood Studios Blade Runner game. I don’t know if you ever played that, but it was very clever. Each new game had a secret seeding that randomised key plot points and events. For example, which characters were replicants (including you), and whether or not your boss was corrupt. Something like that could work with Xenonauts. For example, in each game there’s a 20% chance that during late-game the Chief Scientist uses Colossus units and sentries (that he’s build in secret and are under his control) to try and usurp you and take over the Xenonauts. The odds of his betrayal could increase if you’ve used mind control technology yourself. This concept would be good for tempting back players that have already completed the vanilla X2.

 

Anyway, that’s about it. Was fun to think about all these ideas! File away for later consideration or immediately forget as you see fit!