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Phoenix Point
Released On: Dec 3, 2019
74
5.8
All Platforms
Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 50 Critic Reviews
74
58% Positive
29 Reviews
29 Reviews
38% Mixed
19 Reviews
19 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 50 Critic Reviews
74
58% Positive
29 Reviews
29 Reviews
38% Mixed
19 Reviews
19 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Phoenix Point is, without a doubt, one of the best strategy games to come out in the last few years.
In some ways, the game may look simple, but the opposite is true. Thanks to the difficulty and intriguing environment you will spend dozens of hours playing the game. [Issue#301]
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 400 User Ratings
5.8
40% Positive
161 Ratings
161 Ratings
24% Mixed
95 Ratings
95 Ratings
36% Negative
144 Ratings
144 Ratings
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 400 User Ratings
5.8
40% Positive
161 Ratings
161 Ratings
24% Mixed
95 Ratings
95 Ratings
36% Negative
144 Ratings
144 Ratings
- Excelent turn-based combat
- Good graphics and sound effects
- As good as XCom 2
- Good management options (research, build bases, manufacture equipment)
- Diplomacy adds a new dynamic do the game, comparing do XCom series
- Loading maps is very slow on Xbox One, but game is very good
- Game still have some minor bugs on Xbox One and I had 3 crashes after 50 hours gameplay. But the game is good and worth your pattience.
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PC
Phoenix Point stands out in the tactical-RPG genre, even from obvious comparisons to XCOM, because it so fearlessly explodes the management systems on the battlefield. Even among tactics fans, it's clear this isn't a game for everyone, but if you're looking for something to really sink your teeth into, Phoenix Point is it.
Strategically delicious, Phoenix Point’s biggest problem is lackluster technical execution.
It was made with true passion but at the moment it’s unpolished and unbalanced. The ambitions of Julian Gollop and his crew were clearly bigger than the game’s budget. [02/2020, p.38]
Phoenix Point is a good try at capturing some of that XCOM magic, but it falls short of being great. I found myself enjoying the experience, but at the same time, couldn’t help feel that something was missing. Hopefully it’s something that can improve in a sequel, if it ever comes.
With the pedigree and ideas going into this, Phoenix Point should have been much, much better than it is. The cool ideas are overshadowed by ever-present bugs, glitches, and hiccups that constantly get in the way of the player. Even excusing these, the ideas and presentation come off as incredibly bland very soon into the adventure. Little customization, little options, and little reason to care about your soldiers or base, round out reasons this is in need of massive updates and overhauls if it is to be saved.
A game in the XCom style which tries to improve on the 2010s versions by adding back features from the 1990s versions. However, it's mired with poor camera controls, glitches and lags
Good:
- the 4AP system is closer to the original 1990s XCom and is a major improvement compared to the 2AP system which sadly became so common in the more recent squad-based tactical games
- extensive character customization and classes taken from the later XComs are good
- the story is nicely written, it's higher-quality sci-fi with at least no obvious logical inconsistencies. Factions with their ideologies are believable
- music is great and deserves a download for listening when not playing the game
- graphics and sfx are good
- the tutorial does a good job showing you all the numerous game systems
- the aiming system is a good idea (borrowed from Fallout New Vegas), it works better than I'd expect
So-so:
- like in all newer XCom games, overwatch is still king. You can put a few snipers on constant overwatch in the corner of the map and that's it. The game tries to discourage this by putting resource barrels which the enemy will destroy if you don't rush forward - but I guess a bit of lost loot is still far better than a dead soldier. Btw in the original 1990s XComs there was the same issue: there you could just skip 35 turns, the aliens will rush forward to find you, and you put a line of crouched soldiers with laser rifles - the game turns into a shooting practice. The real solution to this was offered by JA2 with its mix of real-time and turn-based modes + interrupts (based on wisdom stat and soldier's line of sight).
- the game shows approx locations of enemies which makes the game a bit too easy. The original XComs had this tension where you could never know where the next alien will come from - that's lost here
Bad:
- can't reconfigure key bindings. E.g. I'd want to flip Q/E, T/G and mouse wheel but that's not possible. Rotating the camera was a constant pain for me. Instead of Q/E, camera should be freely rotatable, say, with middle mouse button, since it's a 3D game. Also, I was constantly trying to zoom out to see where the enemies are - in vain. The camera just refuses to be controlled properly. Most likely, it's because this game was made for consoles first, not PC first. So, everything is optimized for controllers, not mouse and keyboard
- there are missions where you need to reach a location or pick an item - even after all enemies are dead you still have to move each soldier in turn-based mode
- performance is bad: even at "low" gfx preset, my gaming laptop with NVidia GTX1100 had noticeable lags. When you move around the cursor, it aparently runs pathfinding all the time, so there are delays when all those lines and borders of movement are shown. This creates a laggy experience overall and takes out much of the fun
- vehicles are a nusiance. They drive through scenery objects including barrels, explode them and take damage. Instead, vehicles should only enter objects if you explicitely tell them to go there. Or maybe hold "shift" while clicking to move
Try it if you're into the newer XCom releases. I'll just wait for Xenonauts 2 instead.
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PC
It would be a very good game if not a HUGE number of unnecessary actions that developers add every DLC. For example, what they did with a seemingly good DLC about the weapons of the ancients is simply infuriating. Or an DLC where a Behemoth makes an already difficult game to regret that you yourself are not a mutant with 5 hands. This game deserves a better rating than 7, but so far it is the only one.
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PC
I tried to like this game. I really tried. I bought a lot earlier, a long time ago. I started and tried to get this to work before they hit DLC, hoping it would get better, but it got worse and worse.
"Festering Skyes" was the death of it for me, with a shovel of lime thrown over a stinking corpse.
DLC FS is an idiocy that sadly resembles a very bad old Atari game using a recent GPU. In fact, those were better because they were what they could be. This one, october/2022, lacks control and speed, each upgrade has to be tested and it's expensive, very expensive, everything is very expensive.
There is no balance of costs and earnings on missions.
Attending the factions of idiots who are trying to kill themselves while the world is under terror is the biggest of the stupidities that leads to think better monsters win because these humans really deserve to die, unwilling to help one or another faction.
It's the end of this game for me.
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PC
[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]
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PC
Summary 2022 – The Pandoravirus Unleashed. An unusual virus discovered in melting permafrost excites the scientific community. It has a massive genome, and only 1% of its genes match anything in existing databases. “What the hell is going on with the other genes?” asks researcher Jean-Michel Moreau. “This opens a Pandora’s box. What kinds of dis...
Platforms:
- PC
- Xbox One
- PlayStation 4
- PlayStation 5
Initial Release Date: Dec 3, 2019
Developer:
- Snapshot Games Inc.
Publisher: Snapshot Games Inc.
Genres:
