When comparing Call of Cthulhu: The Wasted Land vs Xenonauts, the Slant community recommends Xenonauts for most people. In the question“What are the best Turn-Based Tactics games on Steam?” Xenonauts is ranked 17th while Call of Cthulhu: The Wasted Land is ranked 18th. The most important reason people chose Xenonauts is:
This game goes back to the original roots the UFO: Enemy Unknown, as the whole X-com franchise should, and raised it to another level. Without a doubt this is the best "X-com" type of game.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Requires good planning
Each character in the game has a set amount of action points meaning the player needs to tally how much it would take to move and then use a weapon when deciding on where to place each of their characters. this requires careful planning and makes for fun strategy focused gameplay.
Pro Back to the roots: The original UFO: Enemy Unknown
This game goes back to the original roots the UFO: Enemy Unknown, as the whole X-com franchise should, and raised it to another level.
Without a doubt this is the best "X-com" type of game.
Pro Spiritual successor to original X-Com franchise
Xenonauts took its inspiration from the original X-Com game, giving fans a new game in similar style but expanded on the finer details of the game to give an even more deep experience. This should appeal to those familiar with X-Com as well as those looking for a fun yet deep strategy game.
Cons
Con Individual characters much more important
While gameplay-wise this is very similar, there are mission fail-states if core characters die, meaning you don't get quite the same meat-grinder recruitment as in the X-COM/XCOM games.
Con Can be difficult for newcomers of the genre
There is no in-game tutorial and there is only an online manual for the game, which means users who are not familiar with this game type and what is expected in play may have a difficult time learning all of the ins and outs. Online video tutorials may help as well, but of course this is all time spent not playing the game n order to learn its mechanics, which some people may not enjoy or have the time for.
Con Lack of additional animation and more original ideas
Seems like they copied all the mainstream ideas from original UFO: Enemy Unknown, and added up some of their own which do not reflect well, like mechanized enemy units, instead of implementing original Snakeman and Muton species.
Game also lack a possibility of taking back fallen continents with some kind of anti-infiltrator missions.