The game looks good, but is hampered somewhat by occasionally odd-looking debris (although the design overall is fantastic) and glitches which have been reported online. Perhaps the largest downside, however, is the polish. The game casts you as an outside force, reviving a project to end the virus, so lets you deal with factions as you please. Factions have individual views on each other and you. You can play each faction as you please and this adds a great deal to the game. There is also much conflict between the factions. For example, one faction mutates themselves to gain powers, so their weapons look vastly different from the advanced capitalist faction. This system also allows you to work with them for technology. You can help or hinder each faction as you see fit and can go as far as sabotaging a faction’s haven or stealing their aircraft and technology. There are three other factions occupying the globe in the world of Phoenix Point each with different views and weapons. There are other important gameplay additions, most importantly is diplomacy. This is perhaps the biggest narrative difference: the feeling created is one of mystery and unease, due to the slow, creeping soundtrack and ever-growing spread of the virus on the globe you see as you fight your way through missions. They also evolve to defend against your tactics. A virus borne from mist which mutates humans, so rather than little grey alien men you fight mutated crab people and other monstrosities. While XCOM is about an alien invasion with everything that usually comes with, Phoenix Point explores a far more interesting concept. Perhaps the most immediate thing that sets Phoenix Point apart from XCOM is the setting and the enemies you face. By this token, the game certainly appeals to hardcore fans of the original XCOM, but in terms of fans of this type of game, it does add its own new ideas to make it distinct enough to warrant a playthrough. I lost a member of my team in the very first proper mission, and the method to get new ones is harder than in XCOM both new and old. Any enemy can easily kill you in a few hits, and allies and enemies can take damage to their limbs stopping them from wielding weapons, moving, etc. Unlike the modern XCOM games, ammo is an item you have to bring – it’s not infinite. Thankfully the game avoids that, the game looks modern but retains the brutal difficulty and ‘un-streamlined’ approach many wanted. The easiest, perhaps, is it feeling like a 90s game, avoiding many of the conventions of the last two decades that would objectively make the game better. Phoenix Point avoids the main pitfalls that it very easily could’ve fallen down. Phoenix Point hopes to reverse much of this streamlining and carve its own path. The main criticism of the modern XCOM games is their ‘streamlining’ of the XCOM formula, making the game easier. While Gollop is fairly unknown outside certain circles he was one of the key developers of the 90s classic X-COM: UFO Defense, which over time (and without his direct involvement) evolved into XCOM: Enemy Unknown and XCOM 2, released in 20. Phoenix Point was developed by a relatively new unknown company, Snapshot Games, but headed up by the well-known Julian Gollop. I first saw the game in February 2018 at the PC Gamer Weekender. Phoenix Point has been a long time coming.
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