Phoenix Point - new Julian Gollop turn-based strategy game

Games
#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.

#1505

Same. Clicking fire after manually setting up a shot is just so much more satisfying than tactics games where you just click a button with a percentage.

If somebody could mod out the constant end game haven invasions, or just let me improve them so they can handle themselves, I might finally finish a full play-through of this thing.

#1506

Thank you all for the feedback. Or should I curse, you all for doing nothing to help with my backlog?

It sounds like Phoenix Point, is a game I should really sit down and play.

#1507

I played through X-COM/X-COM 2/Phoenix Point a few times each, including a couple of ironfox runs in all. I’ve never played any of these below the 2nd hardest difficulty. I’ll usually reload missions if I screw up badly enough, but won’t use saves to the extent that I’m just rerolling individual shots. I’ve really enjoyed all of them, but I think X-COMs ruleset overall was simplified/abstracted too far in the direction of boardgame style play e.g. 2AP with most actions ending the unit’s turn immediately, and some very weird looking line-of-sight issues when firing (specifically from overwatch).

I really love Phoenix’s 4AP system, it’s a neat compromise between the ultra-streamlined 2AP system and the numberwang soup of the OG games. I especially like that you don’t consume an AP all in one go when moving (so you can move, shoot, move and usually have a full AP left over). Plus the manual aim/every bullet is modelled system is so good.

On the other hand I think it has a lot of problems after the mid-game. Things drag a bit and I end up resenting getting dragged into missions that are way below the abilities of my team; an autoresolve would’ve been great in some contexts and would certainly help ‘haven defence burnout’. I don’t recall this feeling being that prevalent in either X-COM (maybe WOTC?).

Balance also skews in weird ways that aren’t entirely satisfying. Losing a soldier from full health due to a single sniper shot always feels cheap and becomes an issue from the midgame onwards. Unfortunately choices to mitigate against that are kinda limited since armour plateaus at a midgame tier despite weapons advancing slightly beyond. You may lose a soldier in a single turn in X-COM but generally not due to a single shot. Lots of other examples but I don’t want to get into the weeds. I think my simplest take is probably that X-COM’s streamlined approach serves it better over the course of the entire campaign whereas Phoenix really gets off to a great start but gets too… muddled by the end of it (actually, this is something I feel is true for WOTC also).

Perhaps my biggest complaint is that tonally I think Phoenix Point squanders its premise and never lives up to the horror aesthetic it threatens; it’s a very generic looking apocalypse and the weirdest/creepiest thing you’ll see are, oddly, havens belonging to the Disciples. X-COM did a better job with its setting (more of a ‘thing’ in 2, admittedly) but on reflection it pivoted so hard into a Saturday morning cartoon aesthetic in WOTC my feelings there are mixed also.

#1508

At last!

Now some skilled modders will be able to bring the best of XCOM into PP and make the definitive game!

#1509

Aw yeah! The custom campaign mod they’re releasing first seems like a good way of tempering some of the events that make the late game so long-winded. Can’t wait to see what folks do.

#1510

Thing is, the initial release of the game was brilliant in my opinion! no late game slog, and when you combined certain powers/skills you could CRUSH the enemy that was an effort up to that point!

Discovering those combos, made the game an easier game for sure, but the game was throwing tougher and tougher enemies at you, so powering up to walk over the starting enemies felt satisfying, even as you STILL had to work and hide to take out artillery, Scylla and Sirens.

Nerfing powers later was kind of a letdown for me, and upping busy work on the strategic map bordered on becoming a slog, and actually becomes a full-on slog for anything above veteran difficulty.

#1511

Final update out on steam - workshop support, a demo and 45% discount on everything. I have this on Epic but that’s a good deal to have the complete version on steam with workshop.