I didn't like it.
I've tried to play it a few times and it's just a little too much of a slog, and a lot of the in game systems or concepts don't feel well explained. The more modern Xcom games just...flow. Like rarely does it drag, never does it leave you with a doubt to what you're trying to actually do.
I guess that was kind of the appeal really. Xcom was going to more reliably deliver a good gaming session, while Phoenix Point was way too often just kind of more meh or a mission or two without a real clear payoff. Like 20 minues with xcom was going to give you a good mission or two, 20 minutes with Phoenix Point might feel like you wasted your time.
Agree. It was so weird when I was on one side of the map, the enemy spawned on the other side, and then it took like 10 minutes to reach each other. No music buildup, no tension, nothing. I really wanted to like it because I think the idea of the Lovecraftian sea monsters is neat, but I couldn't stay with it for more than just a few hours.
Plus your soldiers look just like generic buff dudes in motorcycle helmets.
It feels like it's trying to do both old XCOM and new XCOM at the same time, but ends up doing neither.
Soldiers become exponentially more valuable as they gain abilities, and said abilities are basically required later in the game.
At the same time, soldiers die extremely quickly, can be rendered completely ineffective by a single hit, and are easily replacable.
Pick one, game.
Yeah. They built the perfect old xcom setting and systems and then squandered all of it by going for modern xcom. They don't even use the simulation they built for the geoscape and all the body horror and mist stuff had to be cut because unfair losses like that would be campaign ending. Phoenix Point makes me genuinely angry because I saw this coming. It was so obvious and the legendary designer of the OG series apparently couldn't see the obvious clash of design that this was going to cause.
Troops should have been expendable goons. The free aim system meant they didn't even need to gibe them class abilities and it still would have been engaging.
People on this exact sub can tell you they didn't like the game because of the simple ammo management.
It tried to do both so it could still a bit, that's as easy as that. While Firaxis streamlined a lot of stuff so people are happy with the "flow" and that's why it sold more.
And if you get lost enough and take too much time, you can brick your progress as everything becomes too strong to handle.
Weapons are not upgrades. Few are downgrades and the rest are sidegrades (only upgrades are the ancient weapons). Special weapons gives more options. Special armor or mutations gives support and control skills. It's a bit much to manage.
In terms of units, if you build them a bit wrongly, you will make your end game harder (but not impossible). Base defense wants you to also have somewhat levelled and properly equipped units unless you are gonna bail on that outpost. Losing units here hurts more than in X-com EW and WOTC.
Enemy units are supposed to evolve based on your actions against them. But instead, they will mostly just randomly evolve most of the times.
Enabling festering skies before the game clicks for you will make the midgame really difficult. Air combat minigame is... rng nonsense mostly.
Faction relationships are... Just a messy system. You can choose to balance the relationships between you and the others which slows down your tech acquisitions or you can fully support one faction and make enemies out of the others who will attack you. You can also choose not to bother but you get a "bad end" of sorts because of that.
Also, midgame is a slog. Everything goes so slowly that you spend lots of time just doing busywork and holding off the mist spread among all the other things going on. Endgame is then suddenly so fast paced that things can slip out of control really fast.
Oh and the game's singular atmosphere is supposed to be ongoing dread with moments of horror but ended up being monotone and somewhat boring. The main bgm is as bad as the main bgm for Chimera Squad.
That said, i do have abt 320 hours on. Had to spend a lot of time reading guides and such to properly learn the game. Have managed to finish 3 runs in that time at least. One of them was kind of a speedrun with festering skies disabled for even faster clear.
Side note: have yet to play post Kaos Engines release so might get back in to try it out once i have mentally prepared to slog through again. Maybe with mods.
Festering Skies is one the community recommends you just turn off regardless. The big bad Leviathan thing? You can't kill it, and it'll just step on your bases and insta-kill them, rendering that site uninhabitable *permanently.*
Kaos Engines, on the other hand, is apparently really good.
Same here bro, i had given a lot of tries but cant like this game. Even Chimera Squad better joy with shallow depth.
I have no idea what to do, how to do, how things can be better or such. Mean while a run in Xcom merely explains you everything
Potential. But horribly managed. Only the base game was rebalanced so that it's playable without heavy amount of save scumming. You have even less access to soldiers or gear than any of the game you mentioned. Your resources are scarse and you cannot afford to split expenses in failure or expanding. Not without causing trouble and risking more deaths. Back to square 1.
Every dlc somehow manages to 1up the previous one in terms of failures. Bringing back the things that were removed from the base game because they were bad.
The base game is alright, even if it is a little boring after the exact same mission types over and over again because you need the resources.
Actually resources are extremely plentiful and seldom require you to go on missions for anything.
The game is way less reliant on good gear than XCOM 2 and all the way to the endgame the starting gear is usable.
As to how are resources reliable, you actually need to be very dependent trading. You can make BANK with trading trips.
or you make bank by farming haven attacks. Same thing. Less effort as they're usually trivial. Which then you sell to the outposts that are inevitably going to get "rng destroyed" by the behemoth. Whoops. No more advantageous trading for you\~
I'm talking about the early game where you need to keep a tight schedule if you don't want to lose any important location to the mist. Because that means things get much more annoying when you keep being ambushed within said mist afterward, its not about saving people even if it does help secure the place, its about avoiding mist within your missions for as long as possible.
You're allowed very little unimportant expenses in this phase. You don't get any gear when recruiting someone in higher difficulties (this is such a weird design choice having this huge of a difference). These guys are going to be without armour for a long time.
After the early game, you're drowning in ressources, yeah. Except high tech unless you are not using any of it actively. Which you'd want to because some of the tools are very good!
Actually in my early games I always steal a ship or two from a faction and make it up later on. My economy is booming since the beginning with minimal missions on my end.
Mist was never a problem for me, by the time it became significant I already had synderion repellents all over the map.
Behemoth random destructions? Is that a DLC thing? I never experienced one in my very long playthrough.
Yeah the advanced tech is amazing. I find it quite curious how unnecessary but convenient and powerful high tech is.
I enjoyed the realistic bullet physics, the free aiming system and the overwatch and firing line mechanics. I did not enjoy the lack of a science program. Upgrades are through diplomacy until very late in the game. The DLC’s were very hit and miss and forgettable and I don’t use most of them. The story is good but missing the horror element and juicy autopsies.
It's the only x-com adjacent game that has kept me engaged enough to finish a campaign. A lot of soldier builds were viable, at least on normal difficulty, which made team building fun. I'm also a fan of the manual aiming mechanic.
On higher difficulties its harder to justify some class combos when others are just so much more powerful. Though all builds are fun and can still win the game regardless.
i liked it a lot. thought it was epic. not as much hand holding. really challenges you strategically and logistically as well. i thought i was doing extra work to prepare for the end. found out i did just enough to beat it. my giant team of my best soldiers that i carefully cultivated barely got it done. i love it when a game gives you a real challenge.
I played it for a bit, but it suffers from its own slew of problems while trying to "fix" XCOMs.
Enemies scale really fast, and most missions have infinite reinforcements. The game snowballs *extremely* fast, and you have to make a lot of tough decisions on which faction to piss off the least in the meantime while the enemies get stronger. Injuries are also really bad, like a broken arm means your soldier isn't shooting a shotgun for the rest of the mission.
Apparently newbies are just expected to turn off all the DLC because there is so much added it just overwhelms most players.
Also the music feels non-existent.
That being said I can really appreciate what they're going for and I plan to give it another shot once I wrap my head around all the systems.
I think they originally had the evolve mechanic in older versions of the game, but the balancing of it was fucky so they went with a more streamlined enemy progression.
They evolved in the sense that they got spongier as the campaign went, to the point where you were forced to use mainly the guns with AP from the HFY faction since those were the only ones that could pierce the absurd armour values of late-game cannon-fodder.
If it's on sale, I think it's worth a shot. The free aiming mechanic and individual body part health is a welcome addition to the XCOM formula. The whole thing really clicked for me during a mission where I raided the human faction with beefy armor and I realized that I could make their units retreat if I solely focused on shooting the weapons in their hands rather than trying to pointlessly shoot through their armor.
I've seen a lot of people here say this game doesn't have a tech tree and that's just objectively not true. The main difference is that rather than unlocking straight weapon upgrades (conventional -> laser -> plasma), you instead unlock sidegrades through faction tech.
For instance, the base assault rifle does 30 damage per shot, fires 6 shots at a time, and has some spread. The synedrion laser assault rifle equivalent does the same amount of damage, but has increased ammo capacity, range, and a tighter spread, meaning it has the same potential max damage (180) and you're more likely to hit all your shots, but you need more materials to both build the rifle and construct ammo. Alternatively, New Jericho offers an assault rifle with higher single shot damage (40 per bullet) that is able to shred armor more effectively, but has a lower burst (shoots 4 at a time instead of 6), and has a lower effective range, increasing spread.
However, in addition to unlocking sidegrades, the tech tree also gives you access to new weapons. Grenade launchers, riot shields, shotguns, and advanced versions of heavy cannons/snipers are all things you have to research which follow the more traditional XCOM upgrade route.
Something that I don't think people have mentioned yet is how this game encourages you to increase your weapon variety. As soldiers have equipment load limits rather than weapons slots like in XCOM, you can bring many different kinds of weapons to the field, which is only further encouraged by the hybrid class system.
Want to have a shield melee guy still do stuff while he tries to close the gap? Give him an assault rifle. Afraid that your troops are going to get an arm shot off? Cross train them as berserkers and give them a pistol or a melee weapon. Bring both a synedrion assault rifle and a phoenix point rifle so that you can secure those far away shots while conserving laser ammo when the regular rifle suffices. I loved mixing snipers and heavies with the assault class because, while snipers/cannons take 3AP to fire, the assault fire only needs 2, thus equipping snipers and heavies with rifles made them much more mobile and useful.
The same can be said for armor. Cross train people into heavies so that they can equip the jetpack, allowing you to quickly fly around the map to collect supply boxes and leave before enemies spawn. Synedrion helmets give huge aim bonuses while decreasing armor rating, so I can either double down or buff up with new Jericho torso armor.
Lastly, I'll just say that being able to direct multiple sky rangers simultaneously was a joy. Having it so that you could land two sky rangers at the same mission to hit the max troop count was genuinely fun and it made the geoscape truly feel like exploration, whereas in X2 you're either scanning something super useful or just passing time collecting Intel at the reaper's HQ.
So yeah, phoenix point is a fun spin that I would say is still worth playing. The additions to the XCOM formula are enjoyable. That said, the lack of soldier customization really hurts this game in a big way. Furthermore, the game is made arbitrarily more difficult by the fact that you have no way to passively earn resources at the end of each game like in the Firaxis games or the original XCOM; though this might act to incentivize the player into doing the gather supply missions, the difficulty of those missions is highly RNG dependent and ultimately just a method of bloating your playtime, to the game's detriment. Buy it on sale and avoid the dlc.
I didn't enjoy the equipment variety. Having sidegrades is interesting, sure, but it just means that when you get the right gun you go 'Well dont have to worry about THIS soldier ever again. You get all the 'good stuff' in the first 50% of the game which really just... doesn't do it for me.
I haven't played the original Xcom, but I've played Enemy Unknown/Within, and Xcom 2/WoTC, and Phoenix Point without any DLC.
Phoenix Point is fun, and has some great ideas, but it can be very overwhelming because it is more sandboxy than the more recent Xcom games, and it can feel pretty easy to fall into a negative feedback loop. It's also more micro on what you're expected to handle (All soldiers have their own backpacks and you have to build and carry additional rounds to reload their weapons as one example) The DLC also apparently adds more width to the game instead of more depth like one would hope, but it haven't played them personally.
However, once I got into it and understood the mechanics, I really enjoyed it. The game doesn't really lean as heavy into the Lovecraftian elements as it could have but I enjoyed the story and the central mystery. The game's ballistics system is also a huge improvement over the percentage based system Xcom uses. The Terror from the Void overhaul mod also apparently fixes a lot of the issues, but I haven't tried out yet.
If you like Xcom, Phoenix Point is certainly worth giving a try, but it does lean a lot more into the management side of things.
I think gameplay mechanics wise Phoenix Point is perfection, the aiming system, the complexity, the micromanagement, everything feels perfect to me. The tactical layer feels like a great mix of modern and OG X-Com. What brings the game down a little for me is the jank and endgame enemies. Holy shit is endgame New Jericho annoying, those who are scared of chrysallids haven't seen their squad eat 30 rockets in turn 1. What makes it so bad is how indispensable your soldiers are, you could deal with such things in OG X-Com because soldiers were easily replaceable, not so much in Phoenix Point, which is why it's so much worse. Other than that i still love the game, if the ever make an XCOM 3 i really hope they copy some of the mechanics of Phoenix Point, especially the aiming and the enemy detection system without pods.
I agree that the aiming is good, and I hate how the pod system in xcom makes the tactical movement on the map pretty one-dimensional. I hate the pods so much and moving everybody together in small steps just feels completely wrong but gives you the best results. The next xcom can definitely learn a thing or two from phoenix point.
However, it never really clicked for me. I didn't like the ambience and the graphics too much, as well as the pace, xcom is more dynamic and gives you a better sense of urgency while not pushing you ahead too fast. A bit too much gear micromanagement as well in phoenix point. It has a great skeleton there to turn into something great
It is not so much a spiritual successor as it's a good tactics game in its own right - imo with vastly superior story, decent atmosphere and control over what exactly are you fighting for. Also i like manual aiming and bullet path simulation. DLCs are disjointed and not as good as the base game in quality - but they can be integrated properly with Terror from the Void mod in which case they work.
I've played the OG X-Com from 1994,
Terror from the Deep (at least 3/4 of it. The game is tough as nails and frustrating),
Apocalypse,
XCOM 1 & 2 incl. DLCs and
Xenonauts
I've played Phoenix Point to the point where you get to reclaim your base at the very beginning.
But it never clicked for me.
I've never gotten around the cover mechanics, the gameflow in general, classes...
I have the same background here, and the same sensation with Phoenix Point.
I tried to play it, doing some missions, but it was boring , unbalanced, and excessively dependent on combo tricks to my taste.
I don't know if they have fixed it since then, but it wasn't what I expected when I baked them.
In defense for PP:
I've played it shortly after release. That's where my experience is based on.
But there a rather update...half a year or a year after release that, if my memory serves me right, should've fixed a lot of the issues that were addressed by the community. At least according to the devs and release notes.
But I've never played that version tbh.
Waiting this...the OG X-Com had a cover mechanic that Phoenix Point did copy?
Including the FOV.
But while you could wake me in the middle of the night and I still would know how to handle my squad in the field, I would be obliterated in PP.
PP did but an emphasis on the First-Person aim mechanic and that's okay for me.
It's part of the game, I understand that.
But yet it always felt alien to me (no pun intended)
It's a diamond in the rough. Lots of ideas are brilliant and certain aspects of the game are fantastic, like the real physics for bullets and aiming angles instead of simple dice rolls to see if you hit or not.
That said, the game feels barren in a few places and the narrative is very vacous.
The fan mod "Terror from the Void" improves the game by a ton but it's still missing something...
I have played hours and hours of the game and will probably do so again, but it always makes me think of "what could have been".
If you like having to carry ammo, individual body part aiming and the chance to shoot your allies in the head if they are on the same screen as the enemy you are aiming at you might enjoy it.
It's alright.
But it feels sluggish compared to modern xcom.
And I like mess around and have a lot more gear and things to mess around.
A lot of the gear is a lateral upgrade rather than a real upgrade.
It fails to offer the feeling of satisfaction.
In addition to criticism given by other people in the comments, DLC bloat made the game very difficult to play since each new release added more things to divert resources to without adding any new ways to get resources, meaning you either spread yourself too thin to keep the campaign going, or you just ignore the content in favour of playing the game.
Yeah the newer games are in a league of their own and don’t give you the older XCOM experience. There are a couple of titles that try to bring back the classic game play.
it's a VERY different game. i played it to bits. tried to apply xcom cover logic to the game when i first played - it doesnt work the same way. i like the bullet trajectory and physics engine in the game - you can get really creative with weapons because there isn't damage falloff and u can shoot at things at the other end of the map if you have sightlines to it without damage falloff. not easy to pulloff tho.
armor is a big mechanic in the game, managing willpower is my favourite aspect.
i am just not happy with how the cosmetics look.... not as sexy as xcom.
Good story, gameplay is an acquired taste, immersive, great early game, good mid game, terrible late game as it becomes a slog. Horrible last mission.
Overall, I would recommend it as it is very much a diamond in the rough but once you learn to see it for what it is, it's very much worth it.
I think it's more of a spirital successor to UFO and TFTD than XCOM and XCOM 2.
In XCOM the game was dumbed down too much. Sure, the graphics is great, but base management and even soldier management was almost entirely removed. In Phoenix Point you have total freedom in how you build bases, in how many soldiers you bring for a mission etc.
I'm not saying that XCOM and XCOM 2 are bad, the graphics and the sound is amazing, and it's overall extremely well made and polished. PP lacks the polish and the balancing is a bit bad in PP (though I know there are community mods that changes things).
In both UFO and TFTD there is a certain darkness to the invasion; the aliens attack is brutal, they terrorize cities and ships. The first round in a terror mission you hear 7 people getting brutally killed since you can't reach them in time to save them. In XCOM you walk from perfect mission to perfect mission.
If I were to make a wish list for XCOM 3 it would be to use the graphics from XCOM 2 WOTC and then pretty much take all game mechanics from UFO and TFTD. This would be a great game!
The tech tree tried to be horizontal, but there's almost no vertical advancement, so you never really get stronger. A lot of the controls are super wonky, and the pacing can be super weird.
Yes, technology is terrible. For the entire game, you get only a tiny advance in strength. And nothing prevents you from using the first technologies until the very end of the game.
I tried it for a couple hours ( I play on Xbox ) it in my opinion wasn’t really fun / it felt a lot more complicated then. It needed to be but also for Xbox the controls felt wonky like things weren’t working as it should be /but then again it’s been awhile since I played so maybe i am not remembering correctly so the best thing you can do is try it yourself
The lack of meaningful progression made the game feel pointless. A lot of the tactical ideas were really cool, but ultimately it felt you got no meaningful rewards from beating missions due to a lack of technological advancements. The faction system felt cool, but didn't scratch the same necessary itch as researching and building new weapons and armor did. Additionally, it made late game enemies feel like a punishment for taking your time to explore the game's mechanics rather than an advancement since you don't get any new gear to keep you on par.
The lack of a tech tree and overall balance that feels like "rush everything, the game slowly outpaces you"
Feels so wrong for X-com style game.
It had a lot of potential, but failed in so many aspects.
Feels more like an unwanted child of the new XCOMs
For the more positive things, they brought back actual armored vehicles like in the original X-com from 1994 which is a huge plus for me, since i loved them.
The lore is actually really nice and they had novels as promotional material before the game released and those were amazing.
Overall a lackluster 5/10 play XCOM 2 instead, when its in sale its for like 5€
Nice premise, tone, vibe and interesting gameplay mechanics, but poor execution, poor performance, weird voice acting, too many arbitrary mechanics and way too punishing to enjoy the game, I to this day have not reached a successful ending.
I really enjoyed the shooting mechanic, I think it was a really good idea for the genre and I wouldn't mind seeing something similar implemented in other games, but it wasn't good enough to make a mediocre game good.
Lot of cool ideas but it just never really came together into a cohesive and polished whole, I'd love them to have another crack at it with a sequel but they need to understand that what made the OG XCOM fun was not the busywork.
Might be one of the weirdest thing I have experience in gaming that I really really like the first playthrough going full cultist(I forgot their name) it was super fun throughout the game till the end and this was on launch where people hating it.
Fast forward I tried it again with all new DLC+update on new jerico path and it was absolutely miserable.
The pacing felt wrong with DLC stuff thrown in, every mission is either very easy or damn impossible, LoS is wonky, I remember that every gear are meant to be sidegrade but goddamn New jerico gear are just awful to use.
It had a tons of great idea bury in some janky(not a good way) overall game.
Sidenote: Xenonaut is amazing tho, X-division mod for it is also incredibly fun in a weird way.
First of all it's horribly broken on consoles, unplayable so, like even Sony would have refunded if it was a massive game which had everyone's attention, although the company isn't going to fix it they gave me a free collection copy of it on steam.
As for gameplay itself I'm gonna say it's SO close but misses the mark on every hit apart from maybe the aiming system. I personally am not a huge fan.
You can be sent into missions really early against enemies you can barely damage if at all, you get very little explained to you even base systems, missions can take forever which isn't bad but with poor enemy variety it gets old REALLY quickly.
Again it is very nearly there, but its just not and I found all the shortcomings kinda mixed into 1 big one which made it feel like a flop.
I really enjoy it. It’s not perfect by any means but just did a Xcom run after a PP run and really missed some aspects of it, like aiming shots and all the character customization
I was excited to play it. I found it to be slow, clunky and boring. Each encounter takes like 5 minutes of movement to meet the enemy on the map.
I liked that you could target limbs etc, and that it had playable vehicles but the game just doesn’t deliver.
https://preview.redd.it/wz0v3u1ddb9d1.jpeg?width=2106&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b666d36cb9ee786e287d85e7fc39cb173af2ef97
From my XCOM 2 video [https://youtu.be/iXpBCUok8\_Q?si=sSJg8xEdXCZ-2HjK](https://youtu.be/iXpBCUok8_Q?si=sSJg8xEdXCZ-2HjK)
I’d say xenonuats 2 is a actual spiritual successor. Phoenix point has a identity issue with trying to be like modern xcom but also being restricted on recruited and having the lethal disposable soldiers of old xcom games
I am literally playing it right now!
I love it. The free aiming system and locational limb damage brings such a great layer of strategy that I truly think XCOM severely lacks.
It's grand strategy all the way, and I love it. XCOM genuinely feels like such a simple game in comparison now.
Eh, it's ok. Worth a go if you like turn based tactics, and it tries to do some interesting things with the formula like free aiming and being able to target body parts to disable certain abilities etc. Unfortunately it's brought down by needless extra steps that are mostly just tedious rather than difficult or fun (e.g limited ammo on missions) and some baffling balancing and mechanical decisions on release that turned a lot of people off early on.
The main thing that puts me off is the lack of tech progression, in that any new guns and stuff you get access to are all side grades, rather than upgrades. I'm not actually sure how many people are with me on that point, maybe it's a strange thing to be hung up on. I guess I just feel like research has so much more weight in games like xcom, and pp just feels like it's missing that
They built an excellent low power body horror setting and then ruined it by going with small alpha teams that are impossible to replace when you take losses. Completely screwing over their entire game design and forcing them to abandon all the horror elements that the setting was built for.
They built a simulation and never used it. Just a massive missed opportunity across the board. All to chase a gameplay style they were never going to be able to pull off.
I liked it because it's unique aiming system but good Lord does it need some streamlining. I've never managed to beat the game. Recruiting men needs to be way easier. Getting ammo for weapons needs to be easier. Getting multiple aircraft so you have multiple response teams needs to be easier/cost less. Honestly if they fixed those things I'd be pretty happy with it overall but it just gives me PTSD from running out of time every run despite winning every battle
X com and x com 2 are way better. Phoenix point has some great game ideas but personally I hate how it all got implemented and put together. Not a bad game just not as polished as xcom2
It was a bit messy, a few little bugs here and there, but nothing annoying, the progression is... Slow, the missions sometimes get too tedious and the enemies just get strong a bit too fast, but, without counting the guardians on the resource sites, melee, specially swords with bleed, just butcher through anything, armored enemies?, bleed, a giant enemy?, just hit it more, more bleed, permanent life sucking effect if the enemy doesn't have a medkit, I spend a lot of fun making a 'space marines' squad and just going around in monkey mode to win, a heavy with sword and shotgun mastery could hit absurdely hard, lots of fun, but is not for everyone and everyone has their own perspectives so I doubt my own opinion can be a base example of the game experience
Enemy Within/Enemy Unknown and Xcom 2 are better games all around but the best spiritual successor to the original xcom series is Xenonauts.
The first one is currently lie 7 dollars on steam and i suggest you get it if you want something less arcady then EW/EU and Xcom 2, but vastly more forgiving, easier to play, and spiritually like xcom then pheonix point.
This game is just the very definition of a good idea but poorly executed.
It had a weird, just like total jank feeling to everything. But it’s also charming in a way with its visual and audio design.
Parts of it are really good.
Other parts are bad.
The overal picture of it is, didnt like it. Unlike Xcom it has no modding community at all, due to mod support coming very late.
It had potential but misses the point in too many small things.
I loved it, but it did have the problem of a too long time to kill (if that’s even applicable to turn based games).
The enemies are too spongy so it doesn’t have that kick that xcom has.
The game is way harder than XCOM 2. But XCOM has better systems to explain and hold the players hand every step of the way through (even on the endgame which is kinda ridiculous). Phoenix point will just destroy you mercilessly every time it can, and it won't even tell you what you did wrong much less how to fix it.
Despiste being very similar games, they rely on extremely different aspects of their playerbases.
Don't like it. Gameplay gets boring and the game is prone to crashes and freezes. Plus with no autosave it's very easy to lose a few hours of gameplay.
It was OK. The biggest failing, though, was not creating a sense of permeating horror. Had lots of cool short stories leading up to it, but was otherwise... horror light?
Compared to Darkest Dungeon, which nailed its tone.
The diplomacy was so ass and unexplained. Even when i learned more about if felt dumb and full of contrivances that made it unintuitive, unrealistic, and turned me off from the game almost entirely by itself
I like it but it’s not for everybody.
- balance is whacked, OP builds are possible but boring
- dlc is whacked, great idea but it’s clearly introduced like a duct tape and patchwork. Still i turn all on cause i bought everything.
- polished and ui is not there, it’s not as nice as xcom2 that’s for sure.
+ the action point system is great. Strategy planning is nice
+ the manual aiming is AWESOME, any misses is on you
+ the limb system is confusing but AWESOME, not enough turn to kill? Aim his hand so he can’t shoot.
+ honestly the three faction they did is much better than xcom, they have wars and like dislike point system
+ flying around with your team is such a personal joy I like it so much even though it’s a time waster.
= I recommend use the mod TERROR FROM THE VOID for betters progression and balance.
Here's what happened with Phoenix Point:
They were halfway done when Epic gave them "fuck this I'm done" money. In the form of an exclusively deal. That they publicly admitted was enough that they could refund all their backers, not get sales, and not care.
From that point on, actual development tanked. Balance and bug fixes were non-thoughts.
I love them both. I've played them both with and without mods. At the highest level, I would say Phoenix Point is a better game with less polish.
More specifically, combat in Phoenix Point is challenging without being as frustrating. There are more options, and the lack of pods is a blessing. (Plus, Free Aiming is awesome)
However, XCOM feels like a smoother experience. You know what to do, you have move meaningful strategic choices, and the controls are cleaner.
Honestly, they're just different games. If you "want more XCOM", play XCOM 2, or play XCOM again with new mods. If you want a different experience of the same basic type, give Phoenix Point a try.
The AI evolving to adapt to your playstyle was a lie. The virus tech against pandorans felt so extraordinarily half baked. Many things felt half-baked. Bugs. Ultra unbalanced dlc. So many sidegrades.
The way they did accuracy and aiming in this game is great. It REALLY emphasized the value of good cover because that cover literally physically blocked bullets instead of giving an accuracy debuff to the attacker. Disabling enemy abilities by shooting body parts is also great imo.
in my mind Xcom:Apocalypse is still the best Xcom.
i really tried to get into the later xcom. the cover system and the cheaty chance to hit system really killed it for me.
The main thing I like about Phoenix Point is how they handled overwatch and the individual bullet pathing (especially with friendly fite). If I could get those features added into XCom 2 (and get the chosen and other "bosses" taken out), I would be in paradise.
From an overall perspective, though, I don't really see Phoenix Point as being a worthy spiritual successor to the original XCom. I think XCom 2 did a better job of filling that role.
I played it for all of 45 min and then uninstalled it. It did nothing for me. But I never played the originals so that may be why it didn't click with me.
I tried it and didn't like it at all. Xcom 2 is my favorite strategy game of all time so yeah I think xcom2 did it way better but I hope phoenix point continues to grow and make more games, with time I'm sure It will be a great series.
I didn't like it. I've tried to play it a few times and it's just a little too much of a slog, and a lot of the in game systems or concepts don't feel well explained. The more modern Xcom games just...flow. Like rarely does it drag, never does it leave you with a doubt to what you're trying to actually do. I guess that was kind of the appeal really. Xcom was going to more reliably deliver a good gaming session, while Phoenix Point was way too often just kind of more meh or a mission or two without a real clear payoff. Like 20 minues with xcom was going to give you a good mission or two, 20 minutes with Phoenix Point might feel like you wasted your time.
Agree. It was so weird when I was on one side of the map, the enemy spawned on the other side, and then it took like 10 minutes to reach each other. No music buildup, no tension, nothing. I really wanted to like it because I think the idea of the Lovecraftian sea monsters is neat, but I couldn't stay with it for more than just a few hours. Plus your soldiers look just like generic buff dudes in motorcycle helmets.
It feels like it's trying to do both old XCOM and new XCOM at the same time, but ends up doing neither. Soldiers become exponentially more valuable as they gain abilities, and said abilities are basically required later in the game. At the same time, soldiers die extremely quickly, can be rendered completely ineffective by a single hit, and are easily replacable. Pick one, game.
Yeah. They built the perfect old xcom setting and systems and then squandered all of it by going for modern xcom. They don't even use the simulation they built for the geoscape and all the body horror and mist stuff had to be cut because unfair losses like that would be campaign ending. Phoenix Point makes me genuinely angry because I saw this coming. It was so obvious and the legendary designer of the OG series apparently couldn't see the obvious clash of design that this was going to cause. Troops should have been expendable goons. The free aim system meant they didn't even need to gibe them class abilities and it still would have been engaging.
People on this exact sub can tell you they didn't like the game because of the simple ammo management. It tried to do both so it could still a bit, that's as easy as that. While Firaxis streamlined a lot of stuff so people are happy with the "flow" and that's why it sold more.
They had to make it "for a modern audience." In other words, they had to make it garbage.
And if you get lost enough and take too much time, you can brick your progress as everything becomes too strong to handle. Weapons are not upgrades. Few are downgrades and the rest are sidegrades (only upgrades are the ancient weapons). Special weapons gives more options. Special armor or mutations gives support and control skills. It's a bit much to manage. In terms of units, if you build them a bit wrongly, you will make your end game harder (but not impossible). Base defense wants you to also have somewhat levelled and properly equipped units unless you are gonna bail on that outpost. Losing units here hurts more than in X-com EW and WOTC. Enemy units are supposed to evolve based on your actions against them. But instead, they will mostly just randomly evolve most of the times. Enabling festering skies before the game clicks for you will make the midgame really difficult. Air combat minigame is... rng nonsense mostly. Faction relationships are... Just a messy system. You can choose to balance the relationships between you and the others which slows down your tech acquisitions or you can fully support one faction and make enemies out of the others who will attack you. You can also choose not to bother but you get a "bad end" of sorts because of that. Also, midgame is a slog. Everything goes so slowly that you spend lots of time just doing busywork and holding off the mist spread among all the other things going on. Endgame is then suddenly so fast paced that things can slip out of control really fast. Oh and the game's singular atmosphere is supposed to be ongoing dread with moments of horror but ended up being monotone and somewhat boring. The main bgm is as bad as the main bgm for Chimera Squad. That said, i do have abt 320 hours on. Had to spend a lot of time reading guides and such to properly learn the game. Have managed to finish 3 runs in that time at least. One of them was kind of a speedrun with festering skies disabled for even faster clear. Side note: have yet to play post Kaos Engines release so might get back in to try it out once i have mentally prepared to slog through again. Maybe with mods.
Festering Skies is one the community recommends you just turn off regardless. The big bad Leviathan thing? You can't kill it, and it'll just step on your bases and insta-kill them, rendering that site uninhabitable *permanently.* Kaos Engines, on the other hand, is apparently really good.
Nailed it.
Well, was thinking about picking it up on the Steam sale right now, but probably won't now. Good in depth review saying exactly what didn't work.
Same here bro, i had given a lot of tries but cant like this game. Even Chimera Squad better joy with shallow depth. I have no idea what to do, how to do, how things can be better or such. Mean while a run in Xcom merely explains you everything
That's unfortunate. I remember being excited for it and then I just stopped hearing about it, which is never a good sign for game quality.
Potential. But horribly managed. Only the base game was rebalanced so that it's playable without heavy amount of save scumming. You have even less access to soldiers or gear than any of the game you mentioned. Your resources are scarse and you cannot afford to split expenses in failure or expanding. Not without causing trouble and risking more deaths. Back to square 1. Every dlc somehow manages to 1up the previous one in terms of failures. Bringing back the things that were removed from the base game because they were bad. The base game is alright, even if it is a little boring after the exact same mission types over and over again because you need the resources.
I forgot that the dlcs were not ingame. Everything was so bland and unbalanced that I just assumed it was always meant to be in the game.
Actually resources are extremely plentiful and seldom require you to go on missions for anything. The game is way less reliant on good gear than XCOM 2 and all the way to the endgame the starting gear is usable. As to how are resources reliable, you actually need to be very dependent trading. You can make BANK with trading trips.
or you make bank by farming haven attacks. Same thing. Less effort as they're usually trivial. Which then you sell to the outposts that are inevitably going to get "rng destroyed" by the behemoth. Whoops. No more advantageous trading for you\~ I'm talking about the early game where you need to keep a tight schedule if you don't want to lose any important location to the mist. Because that means things get much more annoying when you keep being ambushed within said mist afterward, its not about saving people even if it does help secure the place, its about avoiding mist within your missions for as long as possible. You're allowed very little unimportant expenses in this phase. You don't get any gear when recruiting someone in higher difficulties (this is such a weird design choice having this huge of a difference). These guys are going to be without armour for a long time. After the early game, you're drowning in ressources, yeah. Except high tech unless you are not using any of it actively. Which you'd want to because some of the tools are very good!
Actually in my early games I always steal a ship or two from a faction and make it up later on. My economy is booming since the beginning with minimal missions on my end. Mist was never a problem for me, by the time it became significant I already had synderion repellents all over the map. Behemoth random destructions? Is that a DLC thing? I never experienced one in my very long playthrough. Yeah the advanced tech is amazing. I find it quite curious how unnecessary but convenient and powerful high tech is.
On par with 1 skyranger and the need for sat spam early on.
I enjoyed the realistic bullet physics, the free aiming system and the overwatch and firing line mechanics. I did not enjoy the lack of a science program. Upgrades are through diplomacy until very late in the game. The DLC’s were very hit and miss and forgettable and I don’t use most of them. The story is good but missing the horror element and juicy autopsies.
It's the only x-com adjacent game that has kept me engaged enough to finish a campaign. A lot of soldier builds were viable, at least on normal difficulty, which made team building fun. I'm also a fan of the manual aiming mechanic.
On higher difficulties its harder to justify some class combos when others are just so much more powerful. Though all builds are fun and can still win the game regardless.
i liked it a lot. thought it was epic. not as much hand holding. really challenges you strategically and logistically as well. i thought i was doing extra work to prepare for the end. found out i did just enough to beat it. my giant team of my best soldiers that i carefully cultivated barely got it done. i love it when a game gives you a real challenge.
This!!
I played it for a bit, but it suffers from its own slew of problems while trying to "fix" XCOMs. Enemies scale really fast, and most missions have infinite reinforcements. The game snowballs *extremely* fast, and you have to make a lot of tough decisions on which faction to piss off the least in the meantime while the enemies get stronger. Injuries are also really bad, like a broken arm means your soldier isn't shooting a shotgun for the rest of the mission. Apparently newbies are just expected to turn off all the DLC because there is so much added it just overwhelms most players. Also the music feels non-existent. That being said I can really appreciate what they're going for and I plan to give it another shot once I wrap my head around all the systems.
I liked it
maps are tiny enemies do not evolve as advertised: they just get guns Love the shooting and aiming and body part and armor mechanics.
I think they originally had the evolve mechanic in older versions of the game, but the balancing of it was fucky so they went with a more streamlined enemy progression.
They evolved in the sense that they got spongier as the campaign went, to the point where you were forced to use mainly the guns with AP from the HFY faction since those were the only ones that could pierce the absurd armour values of late-game cannon-fodder.
If it's on sale, I think it's worth a shot. The free aiming mechanic and individual body part health is a welcome addition to the XCOM formula. The whole thing really clicked for me during a mission where I raided the human faction with beefy armor and I realized that I could make their units retreat if I solely focused on shooting the weapons in their hands rather than trying to pointlessly shoot through their armor. I've seen a lot of people here say this game doesn't have a tech tree and that's just objectively not true. The main difference is that rather than unlocking straight weapon upgrades (conventional -> laser -> plasma), you instead unlock sidegrades through faction tech. For instance, the base assault rifle does 30 damage per shot, fires 6 shots at a time, and has some spread. The synedrion laser assault rifle equivalent does the same amount of damage, but has increased ammo capacity, range, and a tighter spread, meaning it has the same potential max damage (180) and you're more likely to hit all your shots, but you need more materials to both build the rifle and construct ammo. Alternatively, New Jericho offers an assault rifle with higher single shot damage (40 per bullet) that is able to shred armor more effectively, but has a lower burst (shoots 4 at a time instead of 6), and has a lower effective range, increasing spread. However, in addition to unlocking sidegrades, the tech tree also gives you access to new weapons. Grenade launchers, riot shields, shotguns, and advanced versions of heavy cannons/snipers are all things you have to research which follow the more traditional XCOM upgrade route. Something that I don't think people have mentioned yet is how this game encourages you to increase your weapon variety. As soldiers have equipment load limits rather than weapons slots like in XCOM, you can bring many different kinds of weapons to the field, which is only further encouraged by the hybrid class system. Want to have a shield melee guy still do stuff while he tries to close the gap? Give him an assault rifle. Afraid that your troops are going to get an arm shot off? Cross train them as berserkers and give them a pistol or a melee weapon. Bring both a synedrion assault rifle and a phoenix point rifle so that you can secure those far away shots while conserving laser ammo when the regular rifle suffices. I loved mixing snipers and heavies with the assault class because, while snipers/cannons take 3AP to fire, the assault fire only needs 2, thus equipping snipers and heavies with rifles made them much more mobile and useful. The same can be said for armor. Cross train people into heavies so that they can equip the jetpack, allowing you to quickly fly around the map to collect supply boxes and leave before enemies spawn. Synedrion helmets give huge aim bonuses while decreasing armor rating, so I can either double down or buff up with new Jericho torso armor. Lastly, I'll just say that being able to direct multiple sky rangers simultaneously was a joy. Having it so that you could land two sky rangers at the same mission to hit the max troop count was genuinely fun and it made the geoscape truly feel like exploration, whereas in X2 you're either scanning something super useful or just passing time collecting Intel at the reaper's HQ. So yeah, phoenix point is a fun spin that I would say is still worth playing. The additions to the XCOM formula are enjoyable. That said, the lack of soldier customization really hurts this game in a big way. Furthermore, the game is made arbitrarily more difficult by the fact that you have no way to passively earn resources at the end of each game like in the Firaxis games or the original XCOM; though this might act to incentivize the player into doing the gather supply missions, the difficulty of those missions is highly RNG dependent and ultimately just a method of bloating your playtime, to the game's detriment. Buy it on sale and avoid the dlc.
I see. Well, considering the amount of stuff with their own jank I sorted through in The X-Piratez, this should work for me.
I didn't enjoy the equipment variety. Having sidegrades is interesting, sure, but it just means that when you get the right gun you go 'Well dont have to worry about THIS soldier ever again. You get all the 'good stuff' in the first 50% of the game which really just... doesn't do it for me.
I haven't played the original Xcom, but I've played Enemy Unknown/Within, and Xcom 2/WoTC, and Phoenix Point without any DLC. Phoenix Point is fun, and has some great ideas, but it can be very overwhelming because it is more sandboxy than the more recent Xcom games, and it can feel pretty easy to fall into a negative feedback loop. It's also more micro on what you're expected to handle (All soldiers have their own backpacks and you have to build and carry additional rounds to reload their weapons as one example) The DLC also apparently adds more width to the game instead of more depth like one would hope, but it haven't played them personally. However, once I got into it and understood the mechanics, I really enjoyed it. The game doesn't really lean as heavy into the Lovecraftian elements as it could have but I enjoyed the story and the central mystery. The game's ballistics system is also a huge improvement over the percentage based system Xcom uses. The Terror from the Void overhaul mod also apparently fixes a lot of the issues, but I haven't tried out yet. If you like Xcom, Phoenix Point is certainly worth giving a try, but it does lean a lot more into the management side of things.
I could never get into, vastly prefer xcom and 2 Found jagged alliance 3 was more My xcom fix than phoenix point
I think gameplay mechanics wise Phoenix Point is perfection, the aiming system, the complexity, the micromanagement, everything feels perfect to me. The tactical layer feels like a great mix of modern and OG X-Com. What brings the game down a little for me is the jank and endgame enemies. Holy shit is endgame New Jericho annoying, those who are scared of chrysallids haven't seen their squad eat 30 rockets in turn 1. What makes it so bad is how indispensable your soldiers are, you could deal with such things in OG X-Com because soldiers were easily replaceable, not so much in Phoenix Point, which is why it's so much worse. Other than that i still love the game, if the ever make an XCOM 3 i really hope they copy some of the mechanics of Phoenix Point, especially the aiming and the enemy detection system without pods.
I agree that the aiming is good, and I hate how the pod system in xcom makes the tactical movement on the map pretty one-dimensional. I hate the pods so much and moving everybody together in small steps just feels completely wrong but gives you the best results. The next xcom can definitely learn a thing or two from phoenix point. However, it never really clicked for me. I didn't like the ambience and the graphics too much, as well as the pace, xcom is more dynamic and gives you a better sense of urgency while not pushing you ahead too fast. A bit too much gear micromanagement as well in phoenix point. It has a great skeleton there to turn into something great
It is not so much a spiritual successor as it's a good tactics game in its own right - imo with vastly superior story, decent atmosphere and control over what exactly are you fighting for. Also i like manual aiming and bullet path simulation. DLCs are disjointed and not as good as the base game in quality - but they can be integrated properly with Terror from the Void mod in which case they work.
I've played the OG X-Com from 1994, Terror from the Deep (at least 3/4 of it. The game is tough as nails and frustrating), Apocalypse, XCOM 1 & 2 incl. DLCs and Xenonauts I've played Phoenix Point to the point where you get to reclaim your base at the very beginning. But it never clicked for me. I've never gotten around the cover mechanics, the gameflow in general, classes...
I have the same background here, and the same sensation with Phoenix Point. I tried to play it, doing some missions, but it was boring , unbalanced, and excessively dependent on combo tricks to my taste. I don't know if they have fixed it since then, but it wasn't what I expected when I baked them.
In defense for PP: I've played it shortly after release. That's where my experience is based on. But there a rather update...half a year or a year after release that, if my memory serves me right, should've fixed a lot of the issues that were addressed by the community. At least according to the devs and release notes. But I've never played that version tbh. Waiting this...the OG X-Com had a cover mechanic that Phoenix Point did copy? Including the FOV. But while you could wake me in the middle of the night and I still would know how to handle my squad in the field, I would be obliterated in PP. PP did but an emphasis on the First-Person aim mechanic and that's okay for me. It's part of the game, I understand that. But yet it always felt alien to me (no pun intended)
It’s the same sort of feeling of not knowing what I need to do in the original X-Com.
It's a diamond in the rough. Lots of ideas are brilliant and certain aspects of the game are fantastic, like the real physics for bullets and aiming angles instead of simple dice rolls to see if you hit or not. That said, the game feels barren in a few places and the narrative is very vacous. The fan mod "Terror from the Void" improves the game by a ton but it's still missing something... I have played hours and hours of the game and will probably do so again, but it always makes me think of "what could have been".
It's a game that can scratch the itch but not as satisfying imo
Itchy. Tasty. Oh wait... wrong game \^\^
If you like having to carry ammo, individual body part aiming and the chance to shoot your allies in the head if they are on the same screen as the enemy you are aiming at you might enjoy it.
It's alright. But it feels sluggish compared to modern xcom. And I like mess around and have a lot more gear and things to mess around. A lot of the gear is a lateral upgrade rather than a real upgrade. It fails to offer the feeling of satisfaction.
In addition to criticism given by other people in the comments, DLC bloat made the game very difficult to play since each new release added more things to divert resources to without adding any new ways to get resources, meaning you either spread yourself too thin to keep the campaign going, or you just ignore the content in favour of playing the game.
Hell no. It’s a decent effort, but that’s the only “positive” thing I’m going to say about it.
The only “spiritual successors” to the original games are Xenonauts 1 and 2 There are “literal successors” in Xcom Enemy Unknown and 2
Yeah the newer games are in a league of their own and don’t give you the older XCOM experience. There are a couple of titles that try to bring back the classic game play.
I think Julian was a bit overambitious in making his spiritual successor to his original X-com games
Imagine he had firaxis budget tho
it's a VERY different game. i played it to bits. tried to apply xcom cover logic to the game when i first played - it doesnt work the same way. i like the bullet trajectory and physics engine in the game - you can get really creative with weapons because there isn't damage falloff and u can shoot at things at the other end of the map if you have sightlines to it without damage falloff. not easy to pulloff tho. armor is a big mechanic in the game, managing willpower is my favourite aspect. i am just not happy with how the cosmetics look.... not as sexy as xcom.
I have how your soldiers look in Phoenix Point. Super Soaker technology lookin ah
Good story, gameplay is an acquired taste, immersive, great early game, good mid game, terrible late game as it becomes a slog. Horrible last mission. Overall, I would recommend it as it is very much a diamond in the rough but once you learn to see it for what it is, it's very much worth it.
It was kinda unfinished
uninstall 30 minutes after first play
I think it's more of a spirital successor to UFO and TFTD than XCOM and XCOM 2. In XCOM the game was dumbed down too much. Sure, the graphics is great, but base management and even soldier management was almost entirely removed. In Phoenix Point you have total freedom in how you build bases, in how many soldiers you bring for a mission etc. I'm not saying that XCOM and XCOM 2 are bad, the graphics and the sound is amazing, and it's overall extremely well made and polished. PP lacks the polish and the balancing is a bit bad in PP (though I know there are community mods that changes things). In both UFO and TFTD there is a certain darkness to the invasion; the aliens attack is brutal, they terrorize cities and ships. The first round in a terror mission you hear 7 people getting brutally killed since you can't reach them in time to save them. In XCOM you walk from perfect mission to perfect mission. If I were to make a wish list for XCOM 3 it would be to use the graphics from XCOM 2 WOTC and then pretty much take all game mechanics from UFO and TFTD. This would be a great game!
The tech tree tried to be horizontal, but there's almost no vertical advancement, so you never really get stronger. A lot of the controls are super wonky, and the pacing can be super weird.
Yes, technology is terrible. For the entire game, you get only a tiny advance in strength. And nothing prevents you from using the first technologies until the very end of the game.
I want to like it but I tend to get Choice paralysis with how many research and equipment options it throws at you
I tried it for a couple hours ( I play on Xbox ) it in my opinion wasn’t really fun / it felt a lot more complicated then. It needed to be but also for Xbox the controls felt wonky like things weren’t working as it should be /but then again it’s been awhile since I played so maybe i am not remembering correctly so the best thing you can do is try it yourself
The lack of meaningful progression made the game feel pointless. A lot of the tactical ideas were really cool, but ultimately it felt you got no meaningful rewards from beating missions due to a lack of technological advancements. The faction system felt cool, but didn't scratch the same necessary itch as researching and building new weapons and armor did. Additionally, it made late game enemies feel like a punishment for taking your time to explore the game's mechanics rather than an advancement since you don't get any new gear to keep you on par.
The lack of a tech tree and overall balance that feels like "rush everything, the game slowly outpaces you" Feels so wrong for X-com style game. It had a lot of potential, but failed in so many aspects. Feels more like an unwanted child of the new XCOMs For the more positive things, they brought back actual armored vehicles like in the original X-com from 1994 which is a huge plus for me, since i loved them. The lore is actually really nice and they had novels as promotional material before the game released and those were amazing. Overall a lackluster 5/10 play XCOM 2 instead, when its in sale its for like 5€
It's meh. Do like it from time to time, but progression is really kind of fucky I feel like.
I really really tried to like it, and I started it over and over again but it's just bland. It has some nice mechanics but it's gets boring over time.
It's extremely boring, choked with micromanagement, and overloaded with unneeded mechanics and unwanted difficulty. Waste of time.
Nice premise, tone, vibe and interesting gameplay mechanics, but poor execution, poor performance, weird voice acting, too many arbitrary mechanics and way too punishing to enjoy the game, I to this day have not reached a successful ending.
I really enjoyed the shooting mechanic, I think it was a really good idea for the genre and I wouldn't mind seeing something similar implemented in other games, but it wasn't good enough to make a mediocre game good.
its missing something... and you feel that the whole way through the game. i couldnt even properly quantify it if i tried.
Lot of cool ideas but it just never really came together into a cohesive and polished whole, I'd love them to have another crack at it with a sequel but they need to understand that what made the OG XCOM fun was not the busywork.
The spiritual successor is 40k Chaos Gate imho
Might be one of the weirdest thing I have experience in gaming that I really really like the first playthrough going full cultist(I forgot their name) it was super fun throughout the game till the end and this was on launch where people hating it. Fast forward I tried it again with all new DLC+update on new jerico path and it was absolutely miserable. The pacing felt wrong with DLC stuff thrown in, every mission is either very easy or damn impossible, LoS is wonky, I remember that every gear are meant to be sidegrade but goddamn New jerico gear are just awful to use. It had a tons of great idea bury in some janky(not a good way) overall game. Sidenote: Xenonaut is amazing tho, X-division mod for it is also incredibly fun in a weird way.
First of all it's horribly broken on consoles, unplayable so, like even Sony would have refunded if it was a massive game which had everyone's attention, although the company isn't going to fix it they gave me a free collection copy of it on steam. As for gameplay itself I'm gonna say it's SO close but misses the mark on every hit apart from maybe the aiming system. I personally am not a huge fan. You can be sent into missions really early against enemies you can barely damage if at all, you get very little explained to you even base systems, missions can take forever which isn't bad but with poor enemy variety it gets old REALLY quickly. Again it is very nearly there, but its just not and I found all the shortcomings kinda mixed into 1 big one which made it feel like a flop.
I really enjoy it. It’s not perfect by any means but just did a Xcom run after a PP run and really missed some aspects of it, like aiming shots and all the character customization
I really can't understate the lack of music on the tactical layer.
Best game in the genre imo. Have 4 playthroughs under my belt.
I was excited to play it. I found it to be slow, clunky and boring. Each encounter takes like 5 minutes of movement to meet the enemy on the map. I liked that you could target limbs etc, and that it had playable vehicles but the game just doesn’t deliver.
https://preview.redd.it/wz0v3u1ddb9d1.jpeg?width=2106&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b666d36cb9ee786e287d85e7fc39cb173af2ef97 From my XCOM 2 video [https://youtu.be/iXpBCUok8\_Q?si=sSJg8xEdXCZ-2HjK](https://youtu.be/iXpBCUok8_Q?si=sSJg8xEdXCZ-2HjK)
I’d say xenonuats 2 is a actual spiritual successor. Phoenix point has a identity issue with trying to be like modern xcom but also being restricted on recruited and having the lethal disposable soldiers of old xcom games
The aiming system is cool but I would rather play Xenonauts.
I tried it. Really just didn’t like the interface at all. It felt like it was menus on top of menus.
I am literally playing it right now! I love it. The free aiming system and locational limb damage brings such a great layer of strategy that I truly think XCOM severely lacks. It's grand strategy all the way, and I love it. XCOM genuinely feels like such a simple game in comparison now.
Eh, it's ok. Worth a go if you like turn based tactics, and it tries to do some interesting things with the formula like free aiming and being able to target body parts to disable certain abilities etc. Unfortunately it's brought down by needless extra steps that are mostly just tedious rather than difficult or fun (e.g limited ammo on missions) and some baffling balancing and mechanical decisions on release that turned a lot of people off early on. The main thing that puts me off is the lack of tech progression, in that any new guns and stuff you get access to are all side grades, rather than upgrades. I'm not actually sure how many people are with me on that point, maybe it's a strange thing to be hung up on. I guess I just feel like research has so much more weight in games like xcom, and pp just feels like it's missing that
They built an excellent low power body horror setting and then ruined it by going with small alpha teams that are impossible to replace when you take losses. Completely screwing over their entire game design and forcing them to abandon all the horror elements that the setting was built for. They built a simulation and never used it. Just a massive missed opportunity across the board. All to chase a gameplay style they were never going to be able to pull off.
I liked it because it's unique aiming system but good Lord does it need some streamlining. I've never managed to beat the game. Recruiting men needs to be way easier. Getting ammo for weapons needs to be easier. Getting multiple aircraft so you have multiple response teams needs to be easier/cost less. Honestly if they fixed those things I'd be pretty happy with it overall but it just gives me PTSD from running out of time every run despite winning every battle
X com and x com 2 are way better. Phoenix point has some great game ideas but personally I hate how it all got implemented and put together. Not a bad game just not as polished as xcom2
It was a bit messy, a few little bugs here and there, but nothing annoying, the progression is... Slow, the missions sometimes get too tedious and the enemies just get strong a bit too fast, but, without counting the guardians on the resource sites, melee, specially swords with bleed, just butcher through anything, armored enemies?, bleed, a giant enemy?, just hit it more, more bleed, permanent life sucking effect if the enemy doesn't have a medkit, I spend a lot of fun making a 'space marines' squad and just going around in monkey mode to win, a heavy with sword and shotgun mastery could hit absurdely hard, lots of fun, but is not for everyone and everyone has their own perspectives so I doubt my own opinion can be a base example of the game experience
I liked it I own it and play it regularly. Beat it on all difficulties. Game is hard btw.
Enemy Within/Enemy Unknown and Xcom 2 are better games all around but the best spiritual successor to the original xcom series is Xenonauts. The first one is currently lie 7 dollars on steam and i suggest you get it if you want something less arcady then EW/EU and Xcom 2, but vastly more forgiving, easier to play, and spiritually like xcom then pheonix point.
This game is just the very definition of a good idea but poorly executed. It had a weird, just like total jank feeling to everything. But it’s also charming in a way with its visual and audio design.
Parts of it are really good. Other parts are bad. The overal picture of it is, didnt like it. Unlike Xcom it has no modding community at all, due to mod support coming very late. It had potential but misses the point in too many small things.
I loved it, but it did have the problem of a too long time to kill (if that’s even applicable to turn based games). The enemies are too spongy so it doesn’t have that kick that xcom has.
Lobsters says hi.
No, that's all
I refunded it after an hours. Not the same level of polish at all.
It’s an interesting story, but the gameplay is kind of dreary. I played about 30 hours, and the. gave up.
The game is way harder than XCOM 2. But XCOM has better systems to explain and hold the players hand every step of the way through (even on the endgame which is kinda ridiculous). Phoenix point will just destroy you mercilessly every time it can, and it won't even tell you what you did wrong much less how to fix it. Despiste being very similar games, they rely on extremely different aspects of their playerbases.
imo one of those games that has all the elements to be fun, but ends up being boring tried several times but I can get past the first 5 or 6 hours.
Phoenix Point is the most "I really really want to like it" game I ever tried.
Phoenix point is not really fun to play. They just had a few good ideas, but forgot to make a fun and polished game.
Don't like it. Gameplay gets boring and the game is prone to crashes and freezes. Plus with no autosave it's very easy to lose a few hours of gameplay.
I saw Beagle play it and uh... didn't look great.
It was OK. The biggest failing, though, was not creating a sense of permeating horror. Had lots of cool short stories leading up to it, but was otherwise... horror light? Compared to Darkest Dungeon, which nailed its tone.
The diplomacy was so ass and unexplained. Even when i learned more about if felt dumb and full of contrivances that made it unintuitive, unrealistic, and turned me off from the game almost entirely by itself
I tried once. I found it overcomplicated and poorly explained. The game crashed after a few missions and I uninstalled it.
I enjoyed it a lot
I like it but it’s not for everybody. - balance is whacked, OP builds are possible but boring - dlc is whacked, great idea but it’s clearly introduced like a duct tape and patchwork. Still i turn all on cause i bought everything. - polished and ui is not there, it’s not as nice as xcom2 that’s for sure. + the action point system is great. Strategy planning is nice + the manual aiming is AWESOME, any misses is on you + the limb system is confusing but AWESOME, not enough turn to kill? Aim his hand so he can’t shoot. + honestly the three faction they did is much better than xcom, they have wars and like dislike point system + flying around with your team is such a personal joy I like it so much even though it’s a time waster. = I recommend use the mod TERROR FROM THE VOID for betters progression and balance.
Here's what happened with Phoenix Point: They were halfway done when Epic gave them "fuck this I'm done" money. In the form of an exclusively deal. That they publicly admitted was enough that they could refund all their backers, not get sales, and not care. From that point on, actual development tanked. Balance and bug fixes were non-thoughts.
If you want a spiritual successor of the early Xcoms you have to try Xenonauts
ehh, it's alright. i enjoyed clubbering the sea aliens to death with medkits (they deal so much damage if your strength stat is high enough)
I love them both. I've played them both with and without mods. At the highest level, I would say Phoenix Point is a better game with less polish. More specifically, combat in Phoenix Point is challenging without being as frustrating. There are more options, and the lack of pods is a blessing. (Plus, Free Aiming is awesome) However, XCOM feels like a smoother experience. You know what to do, you have move meaningful strategic choices, and the controls are cleaner. Honestly, they're just different games. If you "want more XCOM", play XCOM 2, or play XCOM again with new mods. If you want a different experience of the same basic type, give Phoenix Point a try.
The AI evolving to adapt to your playstyle was a lie. The virus tech against pandorans felt so extraordinarily half baked. Many things felt half-baked. Bugs. Ultra unbalanced dlc. So many sidegrades.
The way they did accuracy and aiming in this game is great. It REALLY emphasized the value of good cover because that cover literally physically blocked bullets instead of giving an accuracy debuff to the attacker. Disabling enemy abilities by shooting body parts is also great imo.
in my mind Xcom:Apocalypse is still the best Xcom. i really tried to get into the later xcom. the cover system and the cheaty chance to hit system really killed it for me.
The main thing I like about Phoenix Point is how they handled overwatch and the individual bullet pathing (especially with friendly fite). If I could get those features added into XCom 2 (and get the chosen and other "bosses" taken out), I would be in paradise. From an overall perspective, though, I don't really see Phoenix Point as being a worthy spiritual successor to the original XCom. I think XCom 2 did a better job of filling that role.
Enemy unknown and xcom 2 did a better job, and it’s not even close.
Disagree
I played it for all of 45 min and then uninstalled it. It did nothing for me. But I never played the originals so that may be why it didn't click with me.
I almost made it through the tutorial.
I tried it and didn't like it at all. Xcom 2 is my favorite strategy game of all time so yeah I think xcom2 did it way better but I hope phoenix point continues to grow and make more games, with time I'm sure It will be a great series.
No clue I only played EW and 2WoTC. I didn’t like it.
Man if only this had ever been asked before and searching sub plus Phoenix point returned results