Phoenix Point – Played
Julian Gollop expanded the real-time strategy genre by a significant franchise in 1994 with the game UFO: Enemy Unknown, the XCOM series. In 2013, the Briton founded Snapshot Games, which wants to “back to the roots” with its second game, Phoenix Point, and thus builds on proven gameplay principles. The studio has raised more than $700,000 on the crowdfunding site Fig and currently plans to release the game in the summer of 2019. The developers have fortunately provided me with the recently released third backer build to do a preliminary report. But Phoenix Point can convince in its current state?
Altried-and-tested principle overhauled and removed
Similar to the XCOM series, you play a commander who sends his team around the globe, only that, unlike the alien model, even the story plays an essential role. The player controls a cell of the “Phoenix Point Project”, a worldwide organization created to protect humanity. After the Pandora virus was released in 2022, it decimated the human population to the last detail, leaving only a handful of fragmented groups to defend themselves against the virus. About a year ago, the developers started publishing short stories about the game to build up the setting and the story.
Phoenix Point builds on the established XCOM mechanics and doesn’t reinvent the wheel, yet it stands out from the other games in the series not only in complexity, but also in depth. The game takes place in two different parts, namely in the geosphere and in the individual missions.
The geosphere offers the player a view of the globe and its current world situation. Here you plan all sorts of things as a commander: Operations, missions or construction projects. As a player you can keep track of all events and establish contact to other factions.
There are many types of missions, but all of them are based on interaction with other people. As part of the Phoenix Point Project you are responsible for mediating between the different factions, but also supporting them in defending against the alien hordes. Sabotages, infiltrations, assassinations, takeovers and defences are all part of the plan. The player also has the opportunity to strike back, but you have to expect a lot of resistance. Even if at the time of the article not all of these features are in the game yet, the existing ones seem well implemented and thus lay a solid foundation for more. Even raids against so-called alien walkers, gigantic creatures as big as cities, should be present in the finished game.
Revised technique in early stage
As in a typical real-time strategy game, you control a small group of soldiers in each mission. The game is turn-based, once it’s the turn of the player, then the aliens. Actions can only be performed with enough action points, if these are used up the character has to wait until the next turn to influence the game again. Soldiers can have different classes and abilities. Similar to XCOM, they develop further the longer they are in use and also have individual strengths and weaknesses. Depending on how the player proceeds and which faction he is dealing with, these aspects also influence how the player’s research progresses or what equipment he has at his disposal. Later it will be possible to combine different technologies of different groups.
In addition to the usual values, such as health points, the soldiers also have will points that allow them to use special abilities on the battlefield. The classes include the Heavy, the Technician, the Storm Soldier, the Sniper and the Infiltrator. Each of these units plays differently and allows the player to consider different approaches.
The abilities of the soldiers are not only convincing with their effects, but also with the fact that you can interact with the game world with them. Because on the battlefields at Phoenix Point you can destroy a lot. From small covers to whole houses collapsing, everything is inside. Although this feature isn’t yet fully developed, seeing such a mechanic in a real-time strategy game is refreshing and makes the game world look much more alive. In addition to the visually appealing effects, Phoenix Point also shines with its level of detail, even if occasionally blurred textures still hide, which is certainly to be blamed on the current state of the game. The musical background is standard food and doesn’t stand out very much, but the sound effects are mostly very lovingly designed and feel very real.
Not quite as good is the current performance of the game, here should be done still some more. Opponents who stand still for ten minutes are not uncommon and crashes have occurred several times. But that’s forgiven Phoenix Point because, as I said, the release will not take place until the middle of summer next year.
Dangerous, deceptive and yet delicious
Once you have arrived on the battlefield, you will get it, depending on the situation, with the different opponents. Whether you defend a faction’s base against a horde of aliens or attack them in their base makes a big difference. If you are on unknown ground, it can happen that you stumble over one or the other alien. However, they know how to defend themselves. Because one of the most praised features of Snapshot Games is that opponents can adapt the game style of the commander and take appropriate countermeasures, as well as mutate in different ways. This also increases the difficulty in the course of the game. So it can happen that aliens react to monotonous actions of the soldier and adapt in order to put a spoke in his wheel. For example, an alien can develop a shield to protect him from remote attacks or give him greater armor at certain areas of the body.
In order to be prepared against the different mutations, the developers have come up with something special, because you have the possibility, similar to Fallout with the V.A.T.S. system, to select individual parts of the body and to prioritize them when shooting . In this way, the commander can make his battles even more individual. Do you first remove the legs so that the alien can no longer move, or do you prefer the arm that can attack you from a distance? These are all questions that the player must ask himself in the heat of the moment. But if a soldier doesn’t hit, that doesn’t mean he won’t. The shots are calculated no matter if they hit the target or not. This means that with enough luck you can hit the opponent behind the target, or better said, not the comrades in front of you.
These features are especially noticeable when dealing with one of the bosses. Phoenix Point occasionally surprises the player with a stronger opponent, where it is particularly important to use the mechanics of aiming at different parts of the body. So the boss battle is divided into different “phases”, because with each separated link, the alien begins to change and changes its tactics. These opponents also have a great variation in their abilities. Once you gave birth to a mobile sign station that summons other aliens into the battlefield, the other time to a defensive protector who protects his peers with large armour and fog.
FAZIT
Phoenix Point is packed with ideas that have never existed before in a game of this kind. The destructible environment, the mutating aliens, the target system – all these are features that weren’t there before in a game of this kind, but somehow weren’t missing either. Until now! Because during my first game session it became more and more clear to me how much such details bring fresh wind into the proven XCOM gameplay. Even though these may all be changes that don’t really seem to matter at first glance, they give Phoenix Point the tactical depth I’ve been waiting for for a long time. The game will probably not be released until next summer, but after the first hours there is nothing in the way of my pre-ordering. Because even though it still has its flaws and the technology may not be quite mature yet, I’m sure that Snapshot Games will produce something really big with their project, which could also eclipse the award-winning XCOM 2.
What is Phoenix Point? A real-time strategy game from the inventor of the XCOM series, in a futuristic setting.
Platforms: PC, Xbox One
Tested: Version 1.0.9 on PC Intel Core i7-6700HQ, 8GB RAM, GeForce GTX 960M
Developer / Publisher: Snapshot Games
Release: July. 2019
Link: Official Website
