Goldhawk Announce Xenonauts 2 For 2017

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You'll have to watch out for crop circles in 2017 as Goldhawk Interactive has announced Xenonauts 2 will be taking the fight to the invading menace from the stars. The studio reveals it's not a direct sequel but instead uses an alternate Cold War timeline.

That's right freedom-loving Westerners will have to get chumming with the authoritarian Iron Curtain to deal with our common foe.

"We are planning a full announcement for the game in the next couple of months that will be complete with a website, concept art, the universe lore and our full vision for the gameplay. However the excitement created by the imminent release of XCOM 2 has also generated interest around our plans for the Xenonauts franchise, so we felt this was a good moment for us to confirm that we are working on a sequel and release a few high-level details about the game," read the official Xenonauts 2 website.

Goldhawk are shamelessly riding the thunderous roar of a rival alien-fighting franchise, and it's a pretty smart move. 2K and Firaxis' XCOM is an evolution of the original game itself as they take it in a more action orientated direction, while Xenonauts stays closer to the roots of the original X-COM. In truth they compliment one another.

Goldhawk have listed their areas of focus for Xenonauts 2:

  • Game Engine – using Unity3D will give us a much more capable platform for development than our previous engine, so expect fewer bugs, improved performance, better modding support, etc
  • 3D Graphics – moving from 2D sprites to 3D graphics will improve visual fidelity, but will also be valuable for gameplay – it allows for things like rotating cameras, vastly improved animation, physics objects, accurate projectile tracking, etc
  • Ground Combat – we will be retaining the Time Unit combat system, and will enhance the interface and giving the player additional tactical options: destructible UFOs, better use of terrain verticality, human psionics, etc
  • Geoscape – we want to add a lot more strategic choice for the player with regards to the research tree and how they choose to expand their organisation (there was definitely too much strategic railroading in the first Xenonauts)
  • Air Combat – redesigned to be turn-based and to feature larger numbers of combatants, with the goal of making it a less frequent occurrence but more tactically involved when it does happen
  • Aliens – we are visually and mechanically redesigning all of the enemies, and creating a more intelligent and challenging foe by developing gameplay systems that allow the aliens to respond and adapt to your tactics and technology

"The experience and income we have accumulated from the development of Xenonauts mean that we can make a sequel that significantly improves and expands on the first game – and this time we can be more innovative than before."

Xenonauts 2 releases 'hopefully' on PC in 2017.

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