Phoenix Point Reviews

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.

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 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.

One good turn deserves another.

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 leaves Phoenix Point in a state that still feels very experimental and unrefined – but it’s an interesting experiment, to be sure.

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 launcher-wielding crabs that disable most of your weapons in the first two turns or those blasted Sirens that mind control units willy-nilly unless you focus fire on their heads. But, as long as you’re willing to weather some fairly harsh storms, deal with lackluster onboarding and presentation and, in the worst cases, restart a campaign or two, Phoenix Point’s great aspects do eventually shine through.

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.

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.

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then Phoenix Point just wrote a love letter to XCOM, for better and for worse.

Even though it doesn't reinvent the wheel, at the end of the day, strategy fans - and certainly XCOM fans - will enjoy the improvements that Phoenix Point makes, especially if this is just the beginning.

The creator of XCOM returns with some interesting new ideas, but without the budget or time to refine them Phoenix Point struggles to offer a viable alternative to its more established rival.

Phoenix Point will appeal to you if you're a big fan of the new XCOM games but wish they had more complexity. If you're turned off by punishing strategy and a hands-off approach, Phoenix Point is not for you.

May not meet the legacy of its celebrated forebear X-Com, but then few games ever will. Elegant, atmospheric, and energetic, Gollop’s latest remains remarkably hard to put down.

A turn-based strategy game full of great ideas, but also annoying bugs.

There’s slow-burn greatness in Phoenix Point. It’s a game where you might be exploring a site, bracing for ambush, but instead find an abandoned theme park dedicated to a novelty boy band of hedge fund managers called the Lucrative Lads. Where you dread the thud of a parasitic worm dropping from a roof to the ground at your feet. Where the cold utilitarianism trained by XCOM slowly melts, and ideology begins to influence your diplomacy. It’s warmer, stranger, than its genremates. But it’s harder work to enjoy. Like its most outlandish guns and powerful armours, it takes a few hours’ research to get there.

Phoenix Point’s blend of combat, research management and global exploration is thoroughly compelling, even if the factions can be a little trying. Whether you’ve got fond memories of Julian Gollop’s original game or not, he and his team have taken old school strategy and dragged it kicking, screaming and gurgling into the modern day.