Xenonauts
In 1958, Earth made first contact. A UFO was spotted heading for the US. Ruled out as a nuclear strike due to its suddenly changing course for Iceland, it proved deadly to conventional aircraft and was grounded but not destroyed with the Nuclear Option. A joint NATO and Soviet force moved on the crash site, but took bitter losses and failed to recover anything of worth. In the wake of the Iceland Incident, the Xenonauts were clandestinely formed through West-Soviet collaboration. As time passed and further alien contact failed to materialise, however, funding and manpower was cut, stripping the organisation to the bone.
1979. An alien fleet arrives in Earth orbit, refusing communication and resisting almost all attempts to repel them. The sole success: A mysterious interceptor taking down a scout craft.
The world's governments receive calls from the Xenonauts, asking for funding and permission to operate in their territories against extraterrestrial forces...
Xenonauts is a Turn Based Tactics game where you command the eponymous organisation, sending interceptors and strike teams out to fight the alien menace. It is a Fan Remake of X-COM by indie developer Goldhawk Interactive. Its homepage can be found here. It underwent a Kickstarter campaign to raise money to add new features, which was met with success. The game was officially released on June 16, 2014.
A sequel, Xenonauts 2, came out, with a pre-alpha, and was available for free during (insert day).
- AKA-47: Aircraft include the "F-17", "MiG-32" and "CH-48".
- Alien Invasion: Involves an initially slow-going one that rapidly escalates as the aliens get their bearings and improve their own logistics.
- Alternate History: The sequel, though also starting off in the 1970s is slated to take place in an alternate version of the Cold War.
- Armor Is Useless: Averted. Even the basic armour allows your troops to survive what would be fatal to an unarmoured soldier, albeit badly hurt.
- Chainmail Bikini: Averted. Female troopers' armour is sensible.
- Cold War: The game starts off in 1979.
- Curb Stomp Battle: X-120 Fury interceptors against anything. To the point there won't be a crashsite left.
- Dueling Games: With the new official installment Enemy Unknown, though Chris England is cordial about the competition.
- Easily-Thwarted Alien Invasion: Subverted. It's revealed early on that the reason why mankind hasn't "already lost" is because the aliens are not prepared to fight inside the atmosphere, and they need to refit their spaceships, starting with the smallest ones. This in turn allows the Xenonauts and humanity at large a chance to actually fight back, buy time and reverse engineer the aliens' technology. It's even possible, though not necessarily easy to stop the threat before the attacks intensify into a full-blown invasion.
- Enemy Mine: The Xenonauts were formed through NATO-Soviet collaboration.
- Psychic Powers: The Praetors, and to a lesser degree Caesans, have them.
- The Grey: Caesans.
- The Reptilians: Sebillians.
- With This Herring: Averted in the sense that you get lousy newbies only if you manage to get the reasonably-experienced starter squad killed.
