1 October, 1979: Unidentified forces presumed of extraterrestrial origin arrive in Earth orbit. Panic spreads globally when attempts at communication fail and initial attempts to repel the invaders as they scout the upper atmosphere are met with heavy losses and little success. The only successful interception occurs over the Baltic sea, conducted by modified interceptors that appear at least partially resistant to the extraterrestrial weaponry. A clandestine organisation known only as the ‘Xenonauts’ establishes communication with the major world powers and claims responsbility, demanding both funding and authority to operate within their territory and airspace in exchange for protection.
For humanity, a glimmer of hope remains – if they can withstand the attacks long enough unravel the secrets of the alien aggressors, the Xenonauts may find yet a way to defeat the alien invasion. Should they fail, millions of years of human history will be brought to a close in mere months…
Xenonauts is a single-player PC strategy game. Primarily a strategy game, it straddles several sub-genres and so we’ve resorted to describing it as a ‘planetary defence simulator’. The player is in control of an organisation tasked with defending the planet against extraterrestrial invasion; establishing bases across the world that house the aircraft, scientists, technicians and soldiers that will be used to protect humanity. The skies must be defended against alien incursion, while ground teams must be sent into combat to capture crashed UFOs or cleanse terror sites to retain the confidence of funding nations and capture new extraterrestrial artefacts and technology to study. As the game goes on, the player researches the captured artefacts to unlock new units and battlefield technology to use in the fight against the aliens while slowly discovering their origins, eventually learning enough to defeat the alien invasion – assuming that they have not already been overrun!
The game is heavily inspired by the classic X-Com / UFO: Enemy Unknown, released in the mid-90s by the now-defunct Mythos / Microprose. It is not a straight remake; though the core mechanics remain similar much has changed or been updated – so much so, in fact, that we prefer the term ‘reimagining’ to remake’.
The game consists of three main elements, the Geoscape, Air Combat and Ground Combat. Full details on each are explained on their respective overview pages.
The game is not yet complete, but is due for release in 2012. However, a playable alpha version of the game is available to customers who pre-order the game. This build is regularly updated with new features as development continues, and allows the community to give us feedback on how the mechanics are working so far (pre-orderers will also recieve a full version of the game on release). For further details, please see our Why Pre-Order page.
