Phoenix Point
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Mutating Alien Menace: Face down an ever-changing alien threat that adapts to your tactics and offers no respite even as your team becomes more powerful and technologically advanced.
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Uncover the Secrets of the Pandoravirus: Phoenix Point features a complex narrative, with multiple endings that the player can only uncover via multiple playthroughs. Discover a secret history, as you learn about the origins of the mutants, the Pandoravirus, and Phoenix Point itself through exploration, diplomacy, and research.
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Manage Diplomatic Relations: The Phoenix Project is not the only organization trying to reclaim the Earth. The militaristic New Jericho, the mystical Disciples of Anu, and the technophiles of Synedrion all offer unique rewards for co-operation and threats for opposition. It is up to you to decide how, or even if, to deal with them.
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Take Aim on the Battlefield: In addition to equipping and commanding units, Phoenix Point lets you take direct control of your soldier’s shots in combat, with a unique free-aiming system. Target enemy weakspots, weapons, or valuables, or just go for center mass.
- Next-Gen Tech with Classic Pedigree: Phoenix Point was designed by Julian Gollop, the creator of the X-COM series in the 1990s. Keeping the core ethos of X-COM while updating the visuals, technology, and systems to modern standards has made Phoenix Point best-in-class.
Phoenix Point Review
One of the biggest differences to XCOM is the 4X element. Three other factions exist in the world: the Disciples of Anu, who use the Pandoravirus to deliberately mutate themselves; Synedrion, a highly advanced faction intent on creating a new human civilization, and New Jericho, a militaristic dictatorship ruled by a former billionaire. They each have their own goals, their own alliances, and they shift and flow like a changing sea. With resources unsurprisingly scarce, all three will inevitably turn to the Project for something. How you deal with each of them will directly affect your relationships with the other two. They’ll look to you for protection, trade, research, and occasional political favours. It’s much more involved than just having some anonymous committee overseeing your every move. Often you’ll find yourself backed into a corner by one of them, and forced to make a difficult decision there and then which can have dire consequences down the line.
Your base, initially at Phoenix Point, serves as your barracks, hangar, lab and workshop. There you’ll manufacture gear, train your soldiers and work tirelessly to come up with new ways to survive. Like in XCOM you can customise, name and nickname every soldier under you, forming bonds that make it all the more painful when one of them is cut down because of a mistake you made. And they will be cut down. Sooner or later you’ll start to lose soldiers you’ve invested in.
Combat is turn-based, and if you played either of Firaxis’ games you’ll be instantly at home here. The similarities are stark and completely unflinching. Full and half-cover, a movement grid, action points that determine how far you can travel or how many times you can shoot… You have Assault, Heavy and Sniper class soldiers (to begin with), and you can equip them all with grenades, spray-on medkits and ammo packs. Sound familiar? That’s because it is. You can use words like “homage” and “spiritual successor” all you like, but the simple truth is that this is built on the bones of XCOM and XCOM 2, even down to some of the animations and sound effects.
Graphically, Phoenix Point is more functional than flashy. Environments, particularly rural areas, have a nice level of detail, and there’s a good variety to the enemies, but for the most part it it never really does anything that will make you gasp. Character animations are limited to the point that every soldier moves exactly the same, while I’d have liked to see more variety or customisation options in the armour. I will say though that the performance did occasionally struggle, and I saw noticeable drops in the frame rate now and then – and my CPU and Graphics card are well above the baseline to run this game on Ultra settings.
Die hard fans of XCOM will likely fall in love with Phoenix Point, a hard-as-nails challenge that offers procedurally-generated replayability and a suite of tactics to help you thrive on and off the battlefield. It’s sometimes frustrating, sure, and doesn’t always feel as atmospheric as XCOM, but there’s no denying that Phoenix Point brings something new and exciting to the table.
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