Phoenix Point

I will give the game a negative review because of the developer greed. Short story of what they did: 1) Game was a kickstarter game, a lot of people supported them. They got a few million dollars. 2) The devs had a lot of closed betas for backers and promised the world to them. The devs pretended the game is very close to being finished 3)Game got infinite delays and a lot of features were cut from the game, gameplay was buggy. 4)Devs promised Steam keys to everyone BUT got an epic deal and released the game on Epic games. The backers did recive their money back but only in certain conditions and if they knew about the change. This was probably 3-4 years after kickstarter started. 5)A lot of the cut content never made it back into the game. The epic release was an epic failure and they never bothered to fix the game because epic doesn't have a review system so why should they fix the game? 6) The dlcs were horrible. There was a dlc simply with OP weapons and the other dlcs introduced game breaking bugs or just made the game harder for no reason. 7)At some point the devs managed to release all dlc(barely) and somewhat fixed the game but then they abandoned the game. 8) The game is only worth buying and playing if you have the Terror from the void mod. These devs are absolutley the worst, you should look at how they promised and pretended to care during the kickstarter period.

As a life long XCOM/UFO Defense fan, I backed this game back when all we had was a tech demo and lore snippits. Since release there were hiccups and valid criticisms of the game but today the dev team did something I haven’t seen before. They worked with and incorporated features/balancing from the most popular overhaul mod this game has. All I gotta say is: great work you guys. I’m proud to have been a kickstarter.

Phoenix Point is yet another candidate that desperately deserves a “Mixed” review. Unfortunately, Steam doesn’t do nuance, so this one ends up with a negative thumbs-down from me. That verdict comes after two full playthroughs and, especially, after a recently started one that reminded me why I stopped in the first place. TL;DR: Phoenix Point is a 6–7/10 game. On sale, it might scratch that XCOM 3 itch just enough to hold you over — while simultaneously reminding you why XCOM 2 is such a masterfully designed game. Pros: Phoenix Point is far more of a sandbox than XCOM 2 and allows for significantly more micromanagement across almost everything. Ammo for different guns must be manufactured individually, weapons and armor can be freely mixed across classes, you’ll quickly operate multiple bases, move multiple squads with multiple aircraft, etc. On level-up, soldiers get several upgrade options per class, and individual stats (like speed) can be improved separately. If you enjoy deep, hands-on control over systems and loadouts, this can be genuinely engaging. Combat introduces some fresh — or at least “new-old” — ideas. Instead of XCOM’s RNG-based hit chance system, Phoenix Point uses a free-aim system that lets you manually line up shots. Soldiers operate with four action points per turn, allowing for more granular decisions. At point-blank range, shots are effectively guaranteed, and in theory you can target any exposed body part sticking out of cover. On top of that, individual limbs can be disabled, weakening enemies (and, of course, they can do the same to you). On paper, this is a very cool idea. Cons: Phoenix Point’s biggest weakness is the lack of quality-of-life features needed to make turn-based combat feel smooth and enjoyable. The game frequently wastes your time. Unlike XCOM 2, soldiers can only be moved one at a time, and you can’t start another unit’s action until the current one has fully reached its destination. With squad sizes of up to 8, movement alone can take an absurd amount of time. This becomes even more noticeable during enemy turns. Enemies outside your line of sight often take ages to complete their actions. Multi-shot attacks (such as pistols firing several times) are played out individually, with pauses in between. The result is that you often spend minutes just waiting to get back to your own turn. The frustrating part is that the underlying combat mechanics could be genuinely cool — they’re simply dragged down by a turn structure that stretches everything to a painful degree. Bonus points for the highly repetitive mission structure: defend a location, clear an enemy base, then defend again. Everything takes an eternity, which only amplifies the pacing problems. Combat also feels oddly stiff. There’s no punchy soundtrack or satisfying sound design to give the firefights any real weight or excitement, making already slow encounters feel even more lifeless. Balance issues are most noticeable on the level of individual enemy types, not the overall difficulty. Phoenix Point is not too hard, even on higher difficulties. The problem is that certain enemies slow the game down and turn encounters into a slog rather than a challenge. The prime example are “sniper aliens” that can cripple your soldiers’ arms from outside your line of sight, hitting through cover thanks to the true-aim system. Once your healing resources are depleted or insufficient, affected soldiers are reduced to using one-handed weapons like pistols. This isn’t so much difficult as it is exhausting. There are very few proactive ways to deal with this, even if you already know where the sniper is positioned. These enemies don’t end runs — they stretch them out, drain momentum, and make otherwise manageable missions feel tedious. Finally, story and progression. Instead of classic aliens, you’re fighting what amounts to “aliens in blue” crawling up from the ocean floor, alongside three fairly generic post-invasion factions. Due to the sandbox-heavy structure, it’s often unclear how you’re actually supposed to progress toward the game’s end goal. Summary: Phoenix Point could have been a real XCOM competitor, but questionable design decisions ensure it falls short. The promise of fresh ideas in XCOM-style turn-based combat and a more open strategic layer is quickly overshadowed by the game’s flaws. The biggest offender is the agonizingly slow, drawn-out combat. Not because it lacks interesting mechanics, but because the way turns are handled turns potentially cool encounters into a test of patience. Combined with irritating enemy designs and weak pacing, Phoenix Point ultimately delivers something you could call well-maintained boredom.

I tried to like this game, but let's break it down [The Good] Really cool free aim mechanic, the selling point for me; Cool interacting factions, with different ideologies, tech and strategies for you to uncover and build from; Interesting enemies, with multiple behaviours; Flamethrowers! [The Bad] The complete edition presents like "more content! more everything!", but if you start a game with all enabled as a first playthrough, you are in for a bad time, since there is a lot of content, there is a LOT of mechanics to get used to, and no proper time or intro to that, so is overwhelming. Tried again, less DLCs this time, but with the feeling that I am missing some content that I paid for, still grindy and with weird progressions, where the enemies evolve but your tech and equipment does not, the skill trees are weird and sometimes conflicting, you cannot build experimenting too because there is no reset for your choices and skills The things always seem to be out of your reach sometimes, some enemies and threats spawn too far away so you cannot go everywhere with few squads, and to have more squads it will require far more resources, that are kinda grindy and limited If something is out of my reach is not an interesting choice to move there and do something, is just the game telling you that you lost another settlement or that your far away base was destroyed and now cost a bazzillion (already limited) resources to fix I really love tactics games, but this one, (sadly) I will say, it is not worth it

Compared to xcom2: this has better combat overall. i liked the limb targeting system and the accuracy is slightly less BS. but the enemies are a lot spongier, making later battles feel like endless slug fests instead of gun fights. The world map and factions were a good idea on paper. in reality, it felt like the devs wanted to annoy and hinder your gameplay by micro managing resources that make no fing sense... 200-600 riffle bullets are equivalent in cost to a 6 person jet fighter or 4-5 manufacturing facilities (that make the bullets!) And to add insult to injury, your characters throw away excess ammo when they reload! The horrible aerial combat mini-game is put to shame by some old ATARI games. It does offer more replay value. but i would rather regrow my wisdom teeth, just to have them torn out again, than play more of this tedious mess.

Although it can be unfair at times, it is inevitable that any games review must ultimately compare it in some way to its predecessors. Customers expect improvement, innovation, and changes from the original formula, especially when it is clear that a game is marketed as having been inspired by a previous game. Phoenix point exemplifies this fact as a successor the firaxis games legendary XCOM series. In terms of gameplay, Phoenix point clearly draws upon and improves on many of the gameplay expectations of its predecessor to provide far more quality of life components while coming up short on some potential avenues of customization. Hit ratio's, a long standing issue in the previous XCOM games, have been heavily improved using a clear spatial indicator and chance to hit relative to individual rounds rather than attacks. Likewise, the overmap and grand strategy components which were present in X-com 2 have also made a return and have been expanded on by adding individual settlements with individual interactions ranging from peaceful to hostile. However, while the games individual components and controls have been improved, its pacing and equipment availability have not. From the beginning of the intro cutscene, the player is introduced to the Phoenix Project, am international conglomerate of scientists and military personal long disgraced due to political interference and having only returned to power as a result of the worldwide outbreak of the pandora virus. Yet, throughout the entirety of the games developing campaign, vary little comes forward to suggest that the Phoenix Project has any real scientific merit or true achievements or technological achievements that set them apart from their piers. Synderion has energy weapons and stealth tech, while New Jericho has pioneered railgun tech, cybernetics, and turret tech. Even the disciples of Anu, which would seem the least likely of the three to achieve much in terms of technological breakthroughs, quickly surpass the phoenix project in bio-research and viral weapons research. Yet what few research projects truly originate from the phoenix project are disappointingly primitive. Grenade launchers, riot shields, classic pump-action shotguns. There is verry little in terms of gameplay that supports the idea the the Phoenix project are nearly the savants they claim to be. This issue also persists in the equipment sections of the game. Although weapon variety is plentiful throughout Pheonix Point, and equipment options range wildly on available tech, most armors lack true improvement over the course of the game. Almost every armor, with the exception of class specific armors unique to later appearing classes, are available at the begining of the game and show vary little, if any, deviation in terms of statistics or faction flavor. New Jericho heavy armor has nearly identical stats and abilities to Phoenix Project heavy armor, which has only slightly better stats than independent heavy armor despite independent heavy armor lacking a jetpack. This similarity in armor stats ultimately results in most armors appearing as side-grades or minor cosmetic changes at their best while forcing players to rely on individual solider leveling and stats to improve survivability, and heavily handicaps any true value of pursuing armor research from other factions being that most recruited soldiers will typically come pre-equipped with their own armor. The only exceptions to this rule are the cyborg and mutation armors, which I truly hesitate to call armor as much as permanent modifications. From a lore perspective, Phoenix point is game that follows a bolt premise combining a potent blend of zombie-survival overtones with the interesting twist of using marine life as a catalyst for its monsters. However, its heavy atmosphere and suggested horror overtones tend to be muted somewhat by its bright popping colors and somewhat cartoonish armor, vehicle, and weapon designs, lack of real defining visual horror scenes like scripted sync kills or complicated and disturbing mysteries, or even potential game mechanics such as viral infection rates and their impact on the players. Havens begging for help against invasions are not hailed by a terrified radio channel plea screaming for protection, but a dull computerized voice announcing the event with as much bravado as it would announce that a cup of coffee was ready, and scenes that describe visceral horror are sequestered into passive lore blurbs while investigating search zones while having virtually no impact on gameplay whatsoever. In honesty, I would have suggested that this game should be told from the perspective of an individual clan of survivors that found their way into a phoenix base while making a much larger component of the game to investigate the secrets of the long lost phoenix project. This would have opened far more doors into potential horror aspects while justifying some of the more hostile behaviors that exist in game such as raiding settlements and more primitive tech developments. I would also have expanded the phoenix base system in the game to act as its own haven with a functional population that the player must protect and add to as part of the games goal of protecting the human species from extinction. As stated before, it is inevitable that every game be compared in some way to its predecessor, and Phoenix point is no different. In some ways it is clear that the developers have learned from the gameplay aspects of their earlier successes in the XCOM series, but the variety and storytelling of Phoenix point fall woefully short of Firaxis's previous games. Phoenix point, like so many other games, has a promising foundation with many different avenues for storytelling and player exploration, but it is painfully held back by its lack of meaningful content, shock moments, available mystery, and lackluster faction diversity. It is an okay game, neither bad nor good. If you want to give it a shot, then go ahead during one of its sales periods. Otherwise, its nothing really to write home about.

I want to recommend Phoenix Point. I played it a lot. However, it has too many bugs and UI flaws to be worth the time. I don't regret the time I spent playing PP but I wish I'd spent my time on other games.

Despite putting in so many hours into the game, I just couldn't finish playing the base game (but am trying with the Terror from the Void overhaul mod instead). The base game simply isn't designed or balanced very well. Enemies get progressively hard fast, and your development tree/points system can't be reversed, so if you're just learning the game, you get stuck into a spot where you can't possibly win against enemies, forcing you to restart the game from zero. Later in the game you realize some of the soldier development points actually contradict each other, meaning you can have a tank solider build but accidentally assign some weird ability to him which takes away all his special abilities because he doesn't have enough will points due to a weird, unbalanced tech tree system. Also, the game is a super grind. The amount of hours you have to put into each map/level and continue playing the same thing over and over again makes it super repetitive. Some fun can be had with the game, but overall the XCOM series is superior.

Personal preference, about as good as xcom/xcom2. If you've liked those this is a safe bet towards enjoyment. it does have some new mechanics and the game tries to do stuff differently to be able to stand on it's on legs, but overall experience hits the same sweet spot. Negative things -borderless doesn't work as intended -trying to complete all achievements on steam on this version needs a lot of digging through internet forums -so very minor bugs when targeting through walls -AI is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ stupid regardless of difficulty level -enemy turns can take full minutes sometimes and you have to wait for enemies in fog of war to move even if u can't see them, -while i liked the pacing of the game, in any difficulty other than legendary you will hit a slow spot in the midgame -some class/item combos are absolutely broken and fights get really repetitive if u end up using 1-2 units to clear every fight Still, it's been worth the time and money, i had fun with this game. ---{ Graphics }--- ☐ You forget what reality is ☐ Beautiful ☑ Good ☐ Decent ☐ Bad ☐ Don‘t look too long at it ☐ MS-DOS ---{ Gameplay }--- ☐ Very good ☑ Good ☐ It's just gameplay ☐ Mehh ☐ Watch paint dry instead ☐ Just don't ---{ Audio }--- ☐ Eargasm ☑ Very good ☐ Good ☐ Not too bad ☐ Bad ☐ I'm now deaf ---{ PC Requirements }--- ☐ Check if you can run paint ☐ Potato ☑ Decent ☐ Fast ☐ Rich boi ☐ Ask NASA if they have a spare computer ---{ Difficulty }--- ☐ Just press 'W' ☐ Easy ☐ Easy to learn / Hard to master ☑ Significant brain usage ☐ Difficult ☐ Dark Souls ---{ Story }--- ☐ No Story ☐ Some lore ☐ Average ☑ Good ☐ Lovely ☐ It'll replace your life ---{ Game Time }--- ☐ Long enough for a cup of coffee ☐ Short ☐ Average ☑ Long ☐ To infinity and beyond ---{ Price }--- ☐ It's free! ☐ Worth the price ☑ If it's on sale ☐ If u have some spare money left ☐ Not recommended ☐ You could also just burn your money ---{ Bugs }--- ☐ Never heard of ☑ Minor bugs ☐ Can get annoying ☐ ARK: Survival Evolved ☐ The game itself is a big terrarium for bugs ---{ ? / 10 }--- ☐ 1 ☐ 2 ☐ 3 ☐ 4 ☐ 5 ☐ 6 ☐ 7 ☑ 8 ☐ 9 ☐ 10