Xenonauts is a PC strategy game due for release in 2013. It is a spiritual successor to the classic X-Com strategy games, putting the player in control of an organisation defending the world from an alien invasion. It is a grand strategy game that involves building and managing bases across the entire planet, controlling jet fighters and ground troops in battle against the alien forces, then researching captured extraterrestrial technology to unlock their secrets! Linux version uses WINE.
Even though it has been sometime since I last played this, I, unfortunately, cannot raise my previous score, because, while it has everything going for it; atmosphere, the enemy, the lore and information, details, etc., the MAJOR problem this game has is that the difficulty spike is just ridiculous.
In the original XCOM, even if you're being lazy and just sit around with one base, the difficulty increases gradually in terms of how often the size and number of ships increases. Here though, it's just way too much at one time. You're happily raking in more money when all of a sudden, larger ships appear out of nowhere, wreaking havoc in areas you can't cover. And then the interceptor that's supposed to balance it out, isn't exactly great. The 'pedia warned that it isn't a good dogfighter, but...going down in just one shot? The starting interceptors can soak up a modest amount of damage but the heavier one? One shot one kill? Seriously?