|
 Phoenix Point is an Xcom-like from the creator of the original Xcom, Julian Gollop. It was backed via crowdfunding and blew away its original goal of $500,000 by eventually getting backed with $765,948. Having been in development since 2016, it was released fully from Early Access on December 3rd, 2019. Website: https://phoenixpoint.info/ About the game It's a post-apocalypse where the environment has collapsed due to the Pandoravirus - a mutagenic organism that escaped from melting permafrost - mutates the ecosystem of Earths oceans. This culminates in the Mist, an airborne version of the virus that infects all who come into contact with it, compelling affected humans to walk into the sea where they mutate into human/alien/sealife hybrids. Human society as we know it collapses and only three factions remain (excluding Phoenix Point). Phoenix Point itself was originally supposed to be the XCOM to this world, but they failed and collapsed. Now, the player has to try and rebuild by locating Phoenix Points' old bases, hiring troops and taking the fight to the Pandorans. One of the founding ideas behind PP is Xcom Apocalypse. If you haven't played it, it was an outrageously ambitious sequel to the original Xcom games set in a megacity with a plethora of factions. Some friendly, some neutral and some hostile. These included the police, the government, crime syndicates, corporate weapons manufacturers and pro-alien cults. Pissing off the government meant you don't get paid. Infuriating the police means that police vehicles will not only attack your troops on sight, but will sometimes invade your facilities. Pissing off a weapons or vehicle manufacturer meant you lost the ability to buy anything they produced. This is reflected to a certain degree by PPs faction system which, while a decent attempt, is nowhere near as ambitious (probably for the best, see issues) In order to get anywhere, Phoenix point will need to hire troops, obtain new weapons tech and trade for resources. This can only be accomplished via the three in-game factions and they don't like each other very much. Since it's impossible to hire troops outwith these factions and they possess all the meaningful weapons technology, backing at least one of them is basically required to survive. Factions  Synedrion Techno-commie-anarchist-syndicalist-pacifist-ecoactivists. They believe in a world without hierarchies, are pro-environmentalism and scientific reason and rationalism. The most technologically advanced faction, they assert a need to co-exist with the Pandoravirus, its creations and the new world. They start with Laser weapons (which if you are used to Xcom, are not necessarily much better than their projectile counterparts) and the ability to inflict Viral damage (essentially a poison that attacks Will points rather than health). They also have the Infiltrator class which, specced correctly, is absolutely, hilariously, ridiculously overpowered (see: issues).  New Jericho Led by a sort of dour Tony Stark former arms dealer, New Jericho is a human-supremacist militaristic survivalist faction with access to the strongest weapons of the three factions. They take a dim view to mutations but are super into cybernetics. In terms of soldier classes, they are the closest to Phoenix Point, having all three of PPs basic classes: Assault, Heavy and Sniper. In addition to this, they have their own unique class, the Technician which leverages the mountable weapons systems and cybernetics unique to their faction.  Disciples of Anu A religious cult that worships mutations and uses them to 'enhance' humanity. Obviously this puts them in stark contrast to NJ and they really don't get along. Their relationship with Synedrion is more complicated as Anu is obviously a religious cult and Synedrion places a high value on freedom of religion, but they also don't approve of Anu's much more hierarchal society and are suspicious of their religious principles as they are at odds with Synedrions reason and rationality based values. Probably the least like Phoenix Point, they only have one soldier class the same as the other: The Assault class. Their other two classes consist of the Priest, a psychic-focuses soldier with a proficiency for Viral weapons and the Berserker, a melee-focused class. As you might expect from a faction that worships mutations, they possess technology that allows them to mutate their soldiers with a variety of body mods capable of giving troops better perception, armour, regeneration and more. Gameplay Honestly, if you've ever played an Xcom game, a lot of this will be familiar. The game is divided up into the Geoscape, where the grand strategy, base building, troop hiring, research and manufacturing all takes place. However, you can't place a base manually. You always start off with your initial base (Phoenix Point) and from there, you send out your sole aircraft with your sole squad to small blips on the globe, exploring them to gradually uncover areas of interest, Havens belonging to other factions, scavenging missions and other special events.You can only visit places you've detected and you can only detect them by 'scanning'. This is effectively a sonar ping you do from your aircraft that slowly expands and unveils new points of interest as it goes. You can only do it one at a time (depending on what facilities you have at your bases) so you can't just run around firing off scans willy-nilly. Unlike other Xcom games, you can't just hire in troops at will. You can only hire troops directly from faction Havens who will obviously be equipped with and of a class corresponding to their faction. You can't hire a Priest from a NJ Haven and a Synderion trooper from one of their Havens will possess Synedrions' armour and weapons. In addition to troops, you can trade resources which come sin three types: food (which you can produce yourself in base facilities) and Tech and Supplies, neither of which you can produce yourself at all and can only be gotten as rewards from missions, traded with other factions or stolen from factions. Yes, you read that right. One of the things this game did try to incorporate from Xcom Apoc was the ability to raid faction Havens and steal technology and supplies. In fact, if you don't ally with a faction (which is pretty difficult to do and won't happen until at least the mid game), Phoenix Point as a faction has pretty crap weaponry and very little research that unlocks new gear. If you want better weapons, to use NJ's cybernetics or Anu's mutations, you have to steal that tech if can't ally with them. This is dangerous because as pointed out, if you piss off a faction, or even an individual Haven belonging to a faction, you can't trade or hire from them anymore. Battles take place in a traditional Xcom-style turn based combat with your squad versus the enemy. One massive change from all other Xcom style games and one which is pretty tough to get your head around if you are an Xcom veteran is the ballistics system. In Xcom, you had an accuracy percentage and you either hit or missed - there was no middle ground. In PP, while there is an accuracy rating, line of sight is now almost entirely supreme when it comes to protecting your troops. If your troop is in cover, that really doesn't matter - what matters is if that cover is capable of actually physically preventing projectiles from hitting you. While this abolishes the irritating scenario of being right up in an enemies face, shooting them with a shotgun with a 95% hit chance and still missing. On top of this, you actually have the ability to manually aim in first person with any given troop and fire at whatever you want. Want to pick off an explosive canister next to an enemy? Aim and fire!  There is also a limb and body part targeting system, with the ability to disable limbs and even directly target and damage or destroy weapons and equipment wielded by enemies. Not convinced you can take down a dangerous foe in the turns you have remaining? Disable an arm and they can no longer fire any two-handed weapons like rifles. That Pandoran giving you issues with their irritating Chameleon ability? Damage the torso enough and they ain't hiding no more. Take out a leg and now they can't run or hide. Of course, this all applies to you as well. Remember to carry a backup pistol at all times in case you lose an arm! Issues Hoo boy. So if you look up reviews to this game, you'll find its... mixed. And having played it for a while, I can see why. Despite being officially released now (albeit with at least 3 new DLCs due in 2020) it definitely feels unfinished. On top of pretty serious crashes and bugs (none of which I've experienced so far, touch wood) the basic pacing and feel of the game just feels off. First, the system where your faction cannot obtain much decent tech unless they steal it leads to a very boring slog through the early to mid game because you don't have too much to aim for research-wise except a handful of story projects you need to research. On top of this, the inability to get resources without stealing or completing missions leaves you constantly struggling to get new troops or manufacture gear. Once your troops are hurt, you have to park your aircraft at a base with a medical bay (and also a barracks, cos your troops loose stamina for every mission they participate in without resting) which can take ages. Since troops are expensive and a second aircraft is even more so, and also takes ages to build, a lot of your time in the first few hours will be spent dicking around, waiting for your troops to recover. This isn't like Xcom, where troops are expendable until they prove themselves. Losing a trooper can be a big blow, and getting a squad wipe is virtually irrecoverable unless you're late game and have the backup troops to make up for it. Second, dear loving lord, the balance. This game has some phenomenally cheesy and unbalanced abilities. This is down largely to the Will system which is put simply a kind of Mana bar. Dash, for instance, lets your soldiers move with Will instead of AP. With enough WP, you can complete certain mission types in one or two turns without firing a shot. Quick Aim lets Snipers fire their rifle twice, or their pistol literally as many times in a turn as they want as long as their ammo and Will last. These are just the smallest examples I can think of, don't even get me started on the ability that lets you fire off the entirety of a clip in a single move. TL;DR Phoenix Point has a lot of potential and has a number of DLCs on the way that promise to introduce not just new techs, weapons and enemies but whole new mechanics. Festering Skies, the third DLC due for release, will add in interception mechanics like in XCOM but it feels very much unfinished right now. I'm one of those weird creatures who really like the UFO: AfterX series (especially UFO: Aftershock) and the similarities with this game is striking, especially with the factions.However, in its current state, I would probably go for Aftershock for now.
|
#
?
Jan 10, 2020 14:55
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 17, 2024 19:38 |
|
|
<Reserved for guides, updates etc>
|
|
#
?
Jan 10, 2020 15:11
|
|
|
Seems like the game might get good around the time it gets released on Steam. E: poo poo, I was so close to sniping that first post. 
|
|
#
?
Jan 10, 2020 15:15
|
|
|
Uh, there's already a thread for this game, though the OP for this one's good. https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?noseen=0&threadid=3847975&perpage=40&pagenumber=29#lastpost
|
|
#
?
Jan 10, 2020 16:59
|
|
|
Mordja posted:Uh, there's already a thread for this game, though the OP for this one's good. Gah! I did do a search but I didn’t spot a dedicated thread. Oh well. Feel free to converse on that thread if you like
|
|
#
?
Jan 10, 2020 23:07
|
|
|
Games bad, op.
|
|
#
?
Jan 11, 2020 00:13
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 17, 2024 19:38 |
|
|
Glenn Quebec posted:Games bad, op. Sadly I can only half disagree
|
|
#
?
Jan 11, 2020 15:05
|
|