Phantom Doctrine

I picked up Phantom Doctrine right after finishing the latest season of Slow Horses, and for a brief moment I was living my best fantasy of being a grumpy, morally questionable spymaster. Controlling a team of spies, shuffling assets around the globe, and pinning clues on a corkboard scratched that espionage itch surprisingly well. The investigation board in particular is genuinely fun. Connecting evidence, chasing leads, and slowly unravelling conspiracies is easily the most satisfying part of the game, and I wish more of the experience leaned into that. Unfortunately, once boots hit the ground, the cracks start to show. The lack of a minimap is baffling. Planning movement becomes a chore because you constantly have to scan the entire map just to find exits, objectives, or that one document hiding in a corner. The game heavily nudges you toward stealth, which is fine, until it suddenly decides to trigger an alarm through sheer force majeure. No warning, no buildup, just instant chaos. When that happens, you are often left with a poorly-armed agent surrounded by enemies who very much did not get the stealth memo. Then there is the grind. Turn-based games already magnify repetition, and Phantom Doctrine leans hard into that weakness. Missions start to blur together, and doing the same sneaking and takedowns over and over feels more like routine paperwork than high-tension spycraft. Instead of feeling like a clever operative adapting to new situations, I often felt like an office drone filing the same form in different countries. This is one of those moments when I wish Steam has the option to provide a "not-yes-but-also-not-no" recommendation. Phantom Doctrine has style, atmosphere, and a great concept, but it struggles to maintain momentum. The espionage fantasy is strong at first, then slowly eroded by clunky design decisions and repetitive pacing. I wanted to feel like Jackson Lamb pulling strings behind the scenes. Instead, I often felt like an intern who forgot where the exits were. 6 out of 10, just barely passing, and probably best enjoyed in shorter bursts before the grind sets in.

TLDR: An XCOM like turned based strategy game with a lot of stealth and a bit more emphasis on micromanagement. While it strays far enough from the tried and true XCOM recipe to be different, it isn't necessarily a good thing. Repetitive, grindy and forgettable. Story: You will have to choose from CIA or KGB (there is a third option once you've beaten the game), each with a slight variation on their first chapter, but eventually all 3 agencies are all a copy and are all essentially the main campaign. So there is no continuity between each but rather whichever you pick ends up being the only one that ever happened. There is the ''extended'' option, which offers some extra scenarios and an extra mission at the end, tying up one loose end. The events take place in the 80s, and are mainly explained through too few cinematics (which look like a bad wallpaper from wallpaper engine, mind you) and voice overs that barely keep you interested enough to care. In short, you will be operating an agency of your choice on a world wide hunt for informants, moles within your ranks, enemy agents and their operations, etc. It sounds great on paper, but, at least to me, it didn't manage to keep me interested. Gameplay: I'm a pretty big fan of XCOM so you may find a lot of comparisons or examples within my explanations. Much like XCOM, you have 2 main types of gameplays, your base (hideout) and missions. ---Base: The majority of Phantom Protocol's gameplay time will be spent doing micromanagement. Figuring out how to optimise your agents strengths and your income all while efficiently deploying your agents on the world map so they are ready at a moment's notice making them able to answer any suspicious activity on the spot. Unlike XCOM, there is no such rush to complete any big mission as there is no ''doom clock'', which can be good, but you can get lost in finishing every little thing. Which is the 1st of 3 reasons I spent spent so much time on this game. In your hideout you will have to assign agents to make money and items which in turn can be sold at a profit (really, make them items, you actually make money off of selling them!). You can also specialise your agents through training, remove specific bad perks they might come with (a mole agent, for instance), hospitalise wounded agents, pump them full of drugs which unlock as you progress and find them, and manage MkUltra which I won't get too much into because it's a lot of explanation and it's a review, not a guide... but essentially, it's like a torture chamber for captured enemy agents (or your own for that matter) to get what you want from them, at a price. ---Missions: Pick your agents, choose a deployment spot, position your tactical team (those are optional and provide outside help; snipers smoke grenades, grenade launchers, etc) and the sneaky snake begins. You will initially start off in infiltration mode, being able to move around the map with little to no resistance. Don't get spotted and many, many, many missions are 100% doable with little to no engagement whatsoever. Get in, bonk that pesky agent first and dispose of his body, grab x and y, get out. Mission accomplished. While this is initially fun it quickly becomes a bit too easy and, well... repetitive. You got spotted or the game decides to throw a major F U and says you got spotted even if you didn't? (yes, it happens, they call it force majeure in the game, weird choice IMO), then the combat starts. Combat is very similar to XCOM; Player's turn, then enemy turn, covers and half covers, certain amount of actions by player before he's done for his/her turn, and LoS all play major roles. The main difference is that there is 0 RnG in Phantom Doctrine (for combat anyways). If you are close enough, you will get 100% shot in the face, but remember it goes the other way around too. There is a stat named awareness that is used to dodge, minimise, inflict extra dmg and usable for some actions. It's very interesting and offers enough variety to feel very different from XCOM, however it also comes at a price. If you've positioned yourself poorly and you're meant to die, you're going to die. There is 0% chance you won't. It's also worth noting that if you're a fan of stealth, this game may be a lot more appealing to you, I personally just found the balance of stealth vs conflict way out of whack. Graphics: While the environments are just fine, I wasn't too sold on the the characters. They all tend to look like they bought Halloween costume facial hair and are playing spies. So for a 2018 game, it looks average, at best. Audio: It's repetitive. So repetitive that I had time to sort out my playlist while playing the game. Which is now the 2nd reason why I have so many hours on the game. The 3rd being I watched movies cuz I could not stay interested. It's just so repetitive man, same music, same voice actors after every first chapter of every agency, it's just... ugh. Solitaire and chest are thrilling action flicks comparing to my personal experience of this game. If you're buying this for more XCOM like games, I get you. I was the same. But if I had known that all 3 campaigns were so similar, I would NOT have beat the game 3 times over. It's like a slap in the face. You're much better off with other titles like Final Fantasy Tactics, XCOM: Chimera Squad, XCOM 2, Gears Tactics... Just... ugh... if it wasn't for my insane stubbornness to finish every game I play, I would've stopped around 150 hours ago. I must be clinically insane.

Very playable XCOM type agent game. Analyzing board is nice touch.

Buggy. Here is a quote online: Phantom Doctrine getting stuck during the enemy activity phase is a known bug often triggered by AI pathfinding issues, scripted enemy agent actions (like restarting security), or area-of-effect visual glitches. To resolve this, restart the game, as it often autosaves at the start of your turn. Great developer support, if spawn reloads is the suggested solution...

I've bought this game with won gift card from allkeyshop. An X-com game in the espionage cold-war universe. I've enjoyed the story and the possibility of playing any major Secret Agency Is great. Agents can be "upgraded" in numerous ways like training, conditioning, perk revealing, equipment, leveling. What is nice here is that there are many ways of successful finishing the map, and those enemy agents coming from nowhere(fog of war) really spice things up. One of the better games out there. No problems playing this on Linux.

после обновления не включается, заставка выкинуло сразу

Здравствуйте. Бюджетная версия X com . Есть пара интересных механик, но в целом игра очень простенькая, моментами заставляет подумать, за свои деньги однозначно брать к ознакомлению всем любителям жанра. Сразу играть на максимальной сложности дабы был интерес. Хочется еще чего нибудь написать, но советами только испорчу впечатление. Да и какие советы, повторюсь игра не сложная в целом, особенно ближе к концу когда уже вник в тонкости и раскачался. Ну вот спойлерить начал -_-