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…
