Author Topic: Phoenix Point  (Read 4293 times)

Offline Nikita_Sadkov

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Phoenix Point
« on: January 28, 2020, 09:13:58 pm »
What are your thoughts on the game?

Virus seems to be the theme of the later XCOM-like games, starting with Abomination and UFO Aftermath.  And now China began bringing sci-fi into life.
« Last Edit: January 28, 2020, 09:17:16 pm by Nikita_Sadkov »

Offline memmaker

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Re: Phoenix Point
« Reply #1 on: January 28, 2020, 11:11:09 pm »
Just started playing the game.

imho, it can be quite overwhelming on the first try without expansive studying of online resources.

I was struggling to get to know the differences in basic game mechanics while the game ramped up mission counts like they were getting out of style. Having several different missions to choose from was both fun and stressful at the same time.

What I really like are the exploration & decision mechanics on the GeoScape. Allowing for discovery at ones own pace. The decision making via dialogue choices in the GeoScape screen struck me as nice little way to add some depth to the faction interactions and story-telling.

I am not sure about the balancing yet. I assume I'm in the midgame and not really had to re-load much. There were however some lonely missions that I found had quite a difficulty spike.

I also like the weapon proficiency system. Having four APs seems to be a good middleground between the TUs and the two AP system. Not ending the turn on firing is also a good choice, imho.

But the best feature, imo, is the manual aiming, which reduces the "Why didn't that hit???" moments to near zero for me.
« Last Edit: January 28, 2020, 11:55:40 pm by memmaker »

Offline WaldoTheRanger

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Re: Phoenix Point
« Reply #2 on: January 29, 2020, 07:36:30 am »
From what I've heard (based off of months of lurking on snapshot game's forums/watching some youtube reviews) is that at it's core, it's a good game.

improvements over predecessors:
manual aiming
absolutely incredible story. (i've read all the background stuff they released prior to launch, and based off of that I say it could easily be a best selling novel or two even without the game)
good graphics

generally good stuff:
best geoscape/basescape since the originals
cool faction interactions (in theory/early game)


bad stuff:
the Ai is moronic. they can't figure out how to use cover (in a system where good use of cover matters more than ever before)
their best strategy is overwhelming numbers rushing you head-on with massive amounts of armour, or just sniping you from across the map with explosive mortars beast things, or abusing the mind control mechanics.
even the human Ai is no smarter.

which starts to lead into the overall problem of wtrazor is even balance/difficulty curves.
it's all over the place. it gets to be a super hard game (even on the easiest difficulty), to the point where by mid game save scumming can become mandatory to win if you're unlucky.
unless you learn a couple cheese builds and tactics that don't make logical sense. then it's manageable. until you learn too many and the game becomes so easy it's trivial.

the last major thing is that the faction warfare doesn't really make sense/isn't satisfying. they all kill each other too quickly once things really get going, and you're basically forced into picking a side. being the neutral savior of humanity (which makes the most sense for phoenix point to be) isn't a thing.

after that, there's a couple bugs. there's a controversy around this thing called return fire. the tech tree/research generally could use a bit more time in the oven and a little more seasoning. the devs seems a little bit bogged down by all the feedback, don't know how to handle it all maybe.


but it's making progress. slowly but surely. they're keeping their promise of continuing support.

overall, it seems that JG was just too ambitious, and as a result the game had to be rushed to fit in everything they wanted/promised, and basic balance concerns took back seat.


by the time it comes out on gog and the other, lesser, game platform, it should be well worth it.
right now your experience will be too dependent on rng for me to strongly recommend it.

do remember though, I've never played the dang thing. I haven't even seen any play-throughs because I don't want to spoil the story.
« Last Edit: January 29, 2020, 07:39:29 am by WaldoTheRanger »

Offline WaldoTheRanger

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Re: Phoenix Point
« Reply #3 on: January 30, 2020, 06:16:34 am »

imho, it can be quite overwhelming on the first try without expansive studying of online resources.

Snapshot has a video series on their channel called: phoenix point for xcom fans.
I assume you (memmaker) have found this already, but I wanted to point it out to anyone else who needs a starting place for such research.

Offline memmaker

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Re: Phoenix Point
« Reply #4 on: January 31, 2020, 10:32:24 am »
Had a look at it, but it is way too superficial.

I am more like: Why do my units suffer -10 will nearly every turn in this mission?

What to do against enemies who douse the whole map in mist, etc..

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Offline Nikita_Sadkov

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Re: Phoenix Point
« Reply #5 on: January 31, 2020, 03:50:49 pm »
What to do against enemies who douse the whole map in mist, etc..
That is actually the coolest feature :D

Offline memmaker

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Re: Phoenix Point
« Reply #6 on: January 31, 2020, 05:05:04 pm »
It is a very cool feature. But it can also get really irritating fast:

Having lots of fog around you and getting sniped out of nowhere is pretty harsh.

Not that those units needed the mist, some variations are stealthed additionally. So you get fired upon by red radar blips merely 2 tiles away from your units which cannot return fire at all. Guess I have to learn some counters for those guys.

Offline Bobit

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Re: Phoenix Point
« Reply #7 on: January 31, 2020, 10:41:08 pm »
The balance is terrible, terrible, terrible. I'll play in a year when it's not about alphastriking 20 enemies a turn, and they have actual upgrades rather than one gun being universally OP and aliens just becoming uber-meatshields.

It did not reasonably fulfill its core promise of an adaptive AI. Geoscape is one giant lootbox, there's no actual "4x" gameplay, which is okay.

I think it has a lot of  potential as the abilities are very fun. Oh yeah, manual aiming is awesome and adds way more to the game than one would think.
« Last Edit: January 31, 2020, 10:46:42 pm by Bobit »