Classic X-COM-like Xenonauts 2 is heading to early access later this year

It should be hitting Steam sometime between April and June

It’s inevitable that as soon as you make a list of yourmost anticipated gamesfor the year, more excellent games start getting announced the moment you hit publish. Case in point: Goldhawk Interactive’s long-awaitedXenonauts 2has just been confirmed to be heading to Steam early access later this year. Huzzah! The original Xenonauts wasan excellent homageto the hyphenated school of X-COMs / UFO: Enemy Unknowns of old, so I’m feeling pretty pumped to find out how its sequel builds on its classic, squad-based tactics.

Much like Xenonauts 1, Xenonauts 2 will see you take control of a multi-national military organisation in order to defend Earth from an alien invasion, which you’ll be doing in good ol' turn-based fashion. On top of some spruced up visuals, Goldhawk have said they’ll be adding more maps to Xenonauts 2, a larger tech tree, a more detailed and immersive strategic layer in its GeoScape, and plenty of new aliens this time round as well, many of which you can glimpse in its shiny new gameplay trailer above.

I’m excited, and with an early access release onSteamscheduled for sometime between April and June, I’ll be keeping my eyes peeled for a more precise early access date in the coming months.