Phoenix Point - new Julian Gollop turn-based strategy game

Games
#1485

I interrupted my most recent playthrough after getting hooked on Old World but eventually I’ll get back to it. Despite having logged over 300 hours, I’ve only actually completed exactly one (1) game to victory conditions.

However, I’ve only ever played on the default (veteran?) difficulty level and I’ve never had a problem placating all of the factions. I’ve generally done the faction specific missions, but I generally don’t do any raiding, for RP reasons.

I find the strategic and tactical layer very satisfying. I’ve never played with festering skies turned on (that doesn’t look fun!) and the one game I did complete had the early dlc and the corruption dlc but none of the others.

I’ve never discovered a broken build, but maybe I’m not that good at the game, and I have trouble with builds anyway. For that matter, I’ve rarely used mutations or cybernetic. For that matter, I’ve rarely used ground vehicles (in fact I usually sell them off) because I enjoy the squad based tactics so much. But I can see how they would be useful in scavenger missions.

It sounds like I’ve barely scratched the surface. I guess I’m going to have to start another playthrough. After this game of Old World.

#1486

I save scum all the time, or ‘restart’ missions, which is kind of the same thing. You are going to get matchups occasionally that are basically impossible for your guys.

The most Sirens I’ve seen on missions is three, which sucks, but manageable depending on your tech. Helps when they don’t show up all at once. If you don’t have a good head shot, destroying their tails slows them down quite a bit. Also, don’t let them get close to soldiers with lower will points, if possible. They are super annoying, for sure.

#1487

I recently tried hero mode, and by the late game i gave up. Mission saturation was just too much late game, too many missions of base attacks, haven attacks, and air attack sucked the fun out of the game for me.

Going to take a break for a month or so and try again in comfortable Veteran mode. 😁

#1488

How’s this? A few missions after my first Siren, the Phoenix Point base was attacked. This was my first base attack and who did you think came calling? Yep, two Sirens and many other Pandorans. A couple of mind fraggers in the mix too.

My saving grace was that I recruited a Technician a few weeks ago and not knowing what to do with him, I left him in the base and he slowly leveled up to Level 4. The other coincidence was that one of my researches, which allows the fabrication plant to manufacture turrets, was also completed recently, so I had about 3 turrets to face the onslaught.

One Siren came charging face on, while the other, surprisingly, took a right turn, thinking that she could flank my team. That right corridor was long and by the time she came out to the other end, my team had killed most of the Pandorans. The Phoenix team suffered equally bad damage and the technician became another life saver as he could heal and mend broken limbs. Oh, he could also remove mindfragger with 100% success!

Anyway, that last Siren actually panicked and tried to run away to a dead end. The whole team cornered her and took our time picking at her cherry (head) but before she died, she swiped my assault guy with both of her pincers! He almost died and his last returning shot killed the Siren, ending the game immediately.

This is probably one of my best levels so far, in terms of having great tactics, luck, and a great ending.

#1489

I have never had a base invasion. I’m pretty good about clearing nests when they pop up but I’ve assumed that they were so rare I don’t even bother preparing for them. Weird.

#1490

In that last game I played, I forgot/didn’t realise that the pandoran citadel research you gain after completing your first citadel mission gives you the ability to actively detect pandoran buildings… I ended up booting it way down my research priority list due to all the extra DLC stuff to research (aircraft weapons and the like). Consequently my bases were getting raided non-stop in the mid to late game.

That said, they’re about the easiest missions you can do anyway since there’s always just a single bottleneck; I love just parking a scarab or whatever in the doorway to the hangar and blocking off all those dumb crabbies with it. It’s worth having one in every base you own (if you can afford it).

Remember the good ol’ days when every siren had mind control? And they’d show up in like mission 5 when you were still fielding nothing but those crappy starting phoenix guns? Painful.

#1491

Not all siren has mind control? Mind blown!

#1492

Nope, takes awhile for them to evolve that ability now, so even when they do first show up near the start of the game, they aren’t so punishing any more. That said, the non-mind control ones can still have psychic scream - which is still pretty bad.

You can right click enemies and go to the info screen to see what abilities they have, for when you need to prioritise targets.

Also, you can research/make slamstrike shotguns, which are pretty nifty at disabling body parts (heads) early on for well armoured targets. They can shock too. You should equip 2 or 3 weapons on all your troops for more tactical options.

#1493

Some I’m looking for a new game, and Phoenix Point.

I didn’t get it earlier goes cause got my X-Com fix, with X-Com2 and various DLCs.

My big question is initial reviews mentioned both a lot of bugs, and very poor AI.

Anybody want to comment on those now?

#1494

I don’t know…I’ve been playing it a lot, both on XBox and PC, for the last several weeks (and I have have played it a fair amount since release), and I don’t really remember any of what I’d call bugs. And playing with all the DLC, the AI seems vicious to me. (On veteran) I’m sure there are people really good at the game who can take advantage of the AI, but I certainly wouldn’t describe it as poor.

Just my experience.

#1495

The Year One Edition is perfect. No bugs so far and I started playing a few weeks ago.

#1496

If you’re looking for an X-Com fix today, there is no better option. :)

#1497

Wow… maybe I’m very slow, but this is a seriously long game. I’m playing the Year One Edition with all the expansions turned on and I’m pretty keen for the game to end now. So many haven defense missions!

I’m allied with all the factions and they are all at war with each other. Just starting my first alien citadel mission now. I’m at the point in the plot where I’m about to start the second mission looking for Dr. Symes.

Do I have much left?

#1498

Is there really no way to sort or search… anything? There’s so much scrolling while squinting at icons - inventory, personnel, research, etc.

#1499

Nope, the UI sucks and is easily one of the worst bits of the game.

#1500

I’m asking the same question. Not very far into the game but after seeing how huge the tech tree is, and underwhelming the new weapons and armor, it seems like there will be a lot of repetitive battles.

I finished most but not all of Xcom-2 expansions, but I was anxious for them to end.

#1501

I did manage to finish it. The stats reported afterwards said that I had done about 100 battles. That’s quite a lot.

I ended up looking up in a wiki how to get to the final battle. It turned out that I was just a few research topics away, but it wasn’t easy for me to understand which. The list top left in the UI of the next steps to take, include steps required for different endings so I did not have to do all of them. Which was a bit confusing.

#1502

Thanks very much. 100 is at the upper limit of my patience.

How would you compare to XCom-2 as far as the overall experience, did you like it less or more.
What level were you playing at?

#1503

I enjoyed the combat more, everything else less (research, story, graphics, …). Which sounds bad, but combat is a pretty large part of the game. I enjoyed it enough to finish it which is a somewhat high bar for me.

I played at veteran. Which seemed about right for me. I was a bit hard in the middle of the game until I got the DLC weapons unlocked.

#1504

I played at Veteran but:

I honestly don’t think I could go back to XCOM now. I enjoyed those games for a while but the wildly inconsistent percentages coupled with unfair pod spawns and turn interception hobbling movement (ie. move-and-overwatch crawling) made the combat feel so unsatisfying (I think this is why I loved Mario + Rabbids so much). Phoenix Point is more granular which makes it more fiddly and time consuming, but I think the resulting experience is much richer. The aiming and damage model (enemy and environment) coupled with time units allows you to do some serious big-brain tactics which I find endlessly entertaining. My only real issues are some repetitive environments (minor) and the end-game slog (major). That said, it sustained my interest longer than both XCOMs combined so, yeah.