Rating
Phoenix Point
Phoenix Point is the new strategy game from the creator of the original X-COM series. It features turn based tactics and world based strategy in a fight against a terrifying, alien menace.
Details
- Released
- December 3, 2019
- Developer
- Snapshot Games
- Genres
- Role-playing (RPG) · Simulator · Strategy · Tactical
- Publisher
- Snapshot Games
- Platforms
- PC
Similar Games
Phoenix Point Reviews
Professional reviews from gaming critics
Phoenix Point expands upon the XCOM formula brilliantly, offering a fantastic campaign that leaves you twisting and turning. Despite a bit of a slog through the middle section of the game, there’s a lot to love here, and Snapshot Games has every right to be proud of the work that they’ve put in to bring this wonderful end-of-the-year delight to life.
Were you playing PC games in 1994? Truly it was a different era. The games were clunky and unpolished. They often bit off more than they could chew. But there was a gritty punk rock feeling to everything. When the creative culture is so messy, you’re more likely to arrive at weird ideas, the sorts of things that the studio system would grind into a smooth, predictable shape. Phoenix Point tries to have it both ways, and it largely succeeds.
Phoenix Point is a turn-based tactics and world-based strategy sci-fi game by the original X-COM game designer.
Turn-Based Tactics games have made a resurgence over the past seven years. Following the launch of XCOM, the industry seemed to realise that these titles, when done right, could be very well received and successful. From XCOM and XCOM 2 to titles like Phantom Doctrine and the outstanding Valkyria Chronicles 4. Phoenix Point, developed by Julian Gollop - the man behind X-Com - looks to enhance and improve on the XCOM formula.
Phoenix Point is a collection of fantastic new ideas installed on the solid foundations of the X-COM franchise. While it lacks the content to offer the replay value of the more recent X-COM games, it's still a great game that will test your strategic mettle to its very limits.
Phoenix Point has a lot of interesting ideas to contribute to the revitalized turn-based tactics genre but many of them are in need refining and balancing. Things like managing faction relationships and disabling individual enemy body parts are great, and it strikes a good balance of complexity with inventory management. At the same time, it’s woefully underdeveloped in certain areas like mission variety and base-building, and a late-game difficulty spike is so severe and unfair-feeling that it crushed the spirit of this XCOM veteran – twice. Combine that with a general lack of polish and it l...
From the original creators of the XCOM franchise, Phoenix Point is a brand new IP. Directed by the legend himself Julian Gollop, this is his grand return to the strategy genre.
Phoenix Point can be quite a handful initially and takes a while to settle into its usual pace. It’s no stranger to great ideas, like free aiming and the mutation system, but it’s also home to soulless randomly generated levels and repetitive, tedious, or impossibly difficult battles, particularly towards the latter portion of the mid-game and beyond, that sometimes feel like middle fingers to the work you put into leveling up your units. I can definitely see people soldiering through all the challenges just like I can see people giving it up after the third encounter with armored grenade laun...
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.
Phoenix Point comes from the creator of the original XCOM, and as such you’d think it’d be an imperious, spiritual successor to the pre-Fireaxis series. Instead, it’s a decent if disappointing addition in its current state and in dire need of some TLC from its creator.
If I could have handpicked what X-COM 3 would be, it would have looked a whole lot like Phoenix Point. While the game is by no means flawless. It does so much so well that while I could definitely nitpick it to death, I don’t feel the need to. It’s everything I hoped it could be and more that I didn’t know I wanted. Its flaws, the clunky inventory screen, for example, simply pale compared to how much I enjoy everything else.