"We're planning to continue improving and patching the game after launch."



When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.

Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team.

You are now subscribed

Your newsletter sign-up was successful

Want to add more newsletters?

Every Friday

GamesRadar+

Your weekly update on everything you could ever want to know about the games you already love, games we know you're going to love in the near future, and tales from the communities that surround them.

Every Thursday

GTA 6 O'clock

Our special GTA 6 newsletter, with breaking news, insider info, and rumor analysis from the award-winning GTA 6 O'clock experts.

Every Friday

Knowledge

From the creators of Edge: A weekly videogame industry newsletter with analysis from expert writers, guidance from professionals, and insight into what's on the horizon.

Every Thursday



The Setup

Hardware nerds unite, sign up to our free tech newsletter for a weekly digest of the hottest new tech, the latest gadgets on the test bench, and much more.

Every Wednesday

Switch 2 Spotlight

Sign up to our new Switch 2 newsletter, where we bring you the latest talking points on Nintendo's new console each week, bring you up to date on the news, and recommend what games to play.

Every Saturday

The Watchlist

Subscribe for a weekly digest of the movie and TV news that matters, direct to your inbox. From first-look trailers, interviews, reviews and explainers, we've got you covered.

Once a month

SFX

Get sneak previews, exclusive competitions and details of special events each month!

XCOM 3 may still be nothing more than a glint in Firaxis' compound eye, but Steam's digital walk-in freezer is bursting with alternative tactical lifeforms to dissect. These range from Julian Gollop's own attempt to modernise XCOM in Phoenix Point, to The Long War creators' absurdly complex Terra Invicta, which blows out X-COM's alien invasion concept to grand strategy scale.

Then there's the Xenonauts series, arguably the truest attempt by a modern dev to replicate the look and feel of Gollop's X-COM: UFO Defense. The original Xenonauts was released back in 2014, celebrated for its rigorous adaptation of Gollop's fundamentals. Since then, developer Goldhawk Interactive has been beavering away on a sequel, which launched into Steam early access in July 2023.

Now, Goldhawk has almost finished expanding its base and writing up its research notes as it prepares for the final assault on the alien mothership. Xenonauts 2 will officially leave early access next month.

The Steam post announcing the 1.0 doesn't reveal what, if anything, the launch version will bring. Instead, it focuses on what Goldhawk has added to the game during its three years of early access. Which, to be fair, is a lot. Across seven major updates, Goldhawk has introduced four new aliens, five UFO types, whole new geoscape systems, additional storylines and mission types (including several missions set an alien space station) "many" new maps that push the total number of battlefields above 180, and the actual ending to the game.

And whatever 1.0 brings, Goldhawk says Xenonauts 2's development will not stop there. "Although reaching 1.0 is a major milestone, it doesn't mean our work is done—we're planning to continue patching and improving the game after launch". Again, Goldhawk doesn't provide many specifics here, though one thing definitely coming post-release is modding tools.



I checked PC Gamer's archive to see if we'd written anything about Xenonauts 2, and it turns out some idiot called Rick Lane intercepted it on its early access debut. The fact I have no memory of playing it should be considered a slight on my ageing brain rather than Goldhawk's sequel. That said, it seems I thought the alpha version lacked a bit of spice. "Xenonauts' classically minded tactics are as rewarding as they are ruthles...Read more: Full article on www.pcgamer.com

What do you think about this?