Phantom Doctrine

The game no longer works in newer systems and the devs are not bothering to fix it. Don't buy.

Screw all the nay-sayers - is this game the same engine/gameplay as XCom 2? Kinda. IS it XCom 2? No, so don't treat it that way. Y'all are gonna do to this game what was done to Alpha Protocol and sink spy thrillers for all of us - comparing that one to Mass Effect, or this one to XCom, because you can't be happy with something different, killed it. I bought this for $3 on sale and had never heard of it, and I'm loving it! The gameplay is pretty decent for an isometric, turn-based game, and NOT exactly XCom 2 probably to avoid legal dispute with Firaxis; it IS that close in the game combat environment, tho. You're a spy, you're meant to sneak around and have patience in the infiltration portions. The story is coherent and adds some cool little tidbits of real-world espionage and history into the mix. You spend a lot of time making decisions instead of in all-out combat with every pop-up event - Welcome to what espionage and recon actually is. This isn't a COD free-for-all, you're meant to stay hidden and get out of a situation without combat if possible. Nobody does these kinds of games. I really wish more did. Expect a cerebral, story-driven experience. Does it have quirks and bugs like a lot of reviews say? Yep. All games do. Are they prevalent and game-breaking? Not that I've experienced after fixing the CTD issue on startup by disabling internet access. Do the devs explain every little game mechanic prior to gameplay? Nope - that's half the realism with being a spy; being thrown into an unknown situation and figuring it out without being caught and killed. Is it AAA? Have you ever heard of Good Shepard Entertainment?... For an indie, this is phenomenal work. Great game overall! I'll definitely be looking forward to the announced sequel!

Worked fine for years, now crashes on open, no mention of this bug in the game news.

Phantom Doctrine is a thrilling and immersive turn-based strategy game that takes players deep into the world of espionage and covert operations during the height of the Cold War. Set in an alternate history where the global conflict between the US and USSR never really heated up, Phantom Doctrine puts players in the role of a commander of a secret organization tasked with protecting their nation's interests through secret means . The game offers a deep and compelling narrative that weaves a complex web of political intrigue, espionage and action. As the game progresses, players must gather information, recruit agents, and carry out a variety of covert missions around the world. From infiltrating enemy bases to stealing secrets from behind enemy lines, Phantom Doctrine offers a wide range of challenges that will test even the most seasoned tactical player. One of the notable features of Phantom Doctrine is its innovative investigation system. By analyzing clues and piecing together fragments of information, players can uncover hidden conspiracies and gain valuable information about their enemies. This system adds a level of depth and realism to the game rarely seen in the turn-based strategy genre. Another impressive aspect of Phantom Doctrine is its robust customization options. Players can choose from a variety of character classes, each with their own unique abilities and skill trees. From stealthy spies to brutal enforcers, there's a class for every playstyle. In addition, players can customize their weapons and gear, giving them a tactical advantage in the field. Overall, Phantom Doctrine is an outstanding game that offers an unparalleled experience for fans of the turn-based strategy genre. The immersive narrative, innovative investigation system, and deep customization options make it a must-play for anyone who loves immersive, story-driven games. Anyway, I can't wait for the recently announced sequel, Phantom Doctrine 2. With the promise of new features and improved gameplay, I'm excited to see what the developers have in store for us. https://store.steampowered.com/app/1345450/Phantom_Doctrine_The_Cabal/

A good game, but the balance is... off. It has a lot of interesting twists on xcom. Combat is completely deterministic; attacks always hit, but units have a pool of Awareness points that are spent to mitigate or avoid damage. Henchmen die en masse while enemy agents take coordination to bring down. Weapon classes have distinct advantages and weaknesses; machineguns excel at covering fire and whittling down agent awareness, while SMGs excel at breaching rooms, etc. The issue is that, if you're playing to win, none of that ever matters. 99% of missions can be entered with at least one agent in disguise. While disguised you can only carry small arms and no armor, but it doesn't matter. Enemies completely ignore you unless they see you attack someone or interact with an objective. Enemy agents can eventually detect you unless your agent has the Actor perk, but that's not hard to come by and it's always objectively the correct choice when available. On the recommended difficulty you can knock anyone out silently with a single punch and magically disappear their body, so a determined spy can clear an entire map without ever raising an alarm. The's only two exceptions to this. One, a tiny handful story missions force you into combat at a certain point, usually right before you have to evac. And two, very [i]very[/i] rarely during regular missions you'll be exposed via 'force majeure', aka the game rolled a die and broke your cover based on nothing. It came up exactly once in my playthrough and I had to google what I did to trigger it. Nothing triggered it, there's just a one in a thousand chance to screw you. As a result, basically every mission reduces to agents leisurely walking around the map, bonking guards and clicking objectives, then leaving. You never have to do anything that will risk exposure, and the only thing that could expose you is completely out of your control and too rare to worry about. On harder difficulties, enemy agents are harder—if not impossible—to knock out, and on the hardest you can't hide bodies. While that addresses the biggest issue, it also ramps the difficulty straight from 'kinda boring because I can't possibly lose' to 'frustrating because this randomly generated mission is nearly impossible' with nothing in between. In a sequel I'd like to see a middle ground, with more interesting ways for missions to go wrong. Keep it so enemy agents can't normally be knocked out, but add mechanics for distracting them. Maybe make you have to stow bodies somewhere so you have to plan out your KOs, rather than a toggle between 'instant and free' or 'completely impossible'. Maybe just more missions where you have to go in hot to break up the monotony. And remove the force majeure thing; it's dumb to make everything else deterministic, but to then add extremely rare RNG to force things to go wrong anyway.

I bought this game a few years ago. Put in over a 100 hours. Overall decent game. However, I recently re-installed the game and it will NOT load. Apparently, it does not work well with Windows 11. I found some complicated steps, on how to possibly fix this issue but I dont want to screw up my PC> If devs were to update and fix this launch issue, i would give this game a glowing review.

well...reloaded this game after some time away now it crashes at start..over and over and over...great job breaking a game that did work... DON'T BUY IT till they fix it which I'm guessing will be never about now... Found the fix in discussions using "set OPENSSL_ia32cap=:~0x20000000 && %command" add under properties, general tabs

Pretty decent XCOM-like game. I appreciate the design that combat is to be avoided and is very painful for your agents. The game play cycle gets boring pretty quickly and with the similarity in maps, it gets just old. I am tired of having to watch my agents do small basic items like hiding a body. It is a frustrating experience and should be able to be skipped. Overall the entire game is enjoyable, I love the variety of art of profiles even if the character graphics are on the lower end of the spectrum. My major problem and why this game is not recommended is that you typically have errors launching the game. It crashes upon launch. I spent more than an hour surfing the forums and other items in order to play this game. The first fix was to just play offline and disable the internet connection on my device. The stops the achievements from populating as well as time played. The second fix I found was to disable certain files within the game files and create firewall rules to block incoming/outgoing traffic. This is entirely unacceptable for a game to continue to have these issues so far after launch. You should be able to purchase a game from steam, install it and play it. No other games on steam I have played have had so many issues just trying to launch the game. Occasional crashes still occur.

Stupid Bug - game worked fine on release played for months here n there / off for few years now cant play coz every time i load game it starts then shuts down / DEVS NEED TO FIX THIS CRAP / should not be on us the players who pay for this ♥♥♥♥ to find a fix for the game devs broke after release / only fix that has worked for me is to unplug from modem to start in offline mode / unplug modem cable plugging back in after game boots up crashes game soooo broken ! will change to thumbs up if devs fix issue Phantom Doctrine 2 has just been announced. try fix this abortion b4 starting new game devs will not buy PD2 until u fix crash on start , should not have to go offline to play this game!!!