Phoenix Point is a tactics game with a surprisingly complex 4x-style overworld from Julian Gollop, creator of the original X-Com. Though the XCOM DNA runs through the veins of Phoenix Point, players will find a philosophically different approach to the genre; one that takes the streamlined systems of modern XCOMs and throws them out the window. Phoenix Point revels in nitty gritty resource management both on the battlefield and in the meta-game, and while it has some unique and well executed mechanics, it ultimately suffers from pacing issues that will turn off all but the most hardcore of tactics fans, as well as a general lack of polish that creates frequent pain points throughout the game.

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Fishmen And Politics

The titular Phoenix Point is a global resistance force on a mission to repel the Pandorians, an alien entity that has run amok on earth and decimated every ecosystem with a mysterious red mist. Your mission is to recruit and train a variety of soldiers to fight the aliens in small skirmishes across the globe while searching for the means to defeat them within the lost Phoenix Point facilities. Early on, you'll encounter three warring factions: The Disciples of Anu who believe the Pandorian invasion is a gift that will lead to the evolution of humanity (by way of mutating human DNA with Pandorian), a military faction called New Jericho led by Elon Musk-type CEO Tobias West, and the Synedrion, an idealistic democratic society that doesn't believe in hierarchies or leadership. Despite the impending doom of natural life on Earth, these factions are in constant conflict with each other.

Building favor with any faction will open up new research plans, in turn giving you greater access to weapons, vehicles, and gear. This will, of course, impact your reputation with the other two factions, so you'll need to make some tough decisions about which factions to support, and by how much. This is one of the more interesting components of Phoenix Point and probably the most compelling system for replayability. The factions will develop, battle, and compel you to sabotage each other Civilazition-style as the game progresses. Who you ally yourself with is completely up to you and each one opens up unique opportunities to strengthen your squad. There is an economy to manage, havens to defend, and narrative tracks available for each of the factions. In the end, I found the 4X side of the game to be more compelling than the tactics side.

No Shortcuts In War

Phoenix Point is a delightfully crunchy game. Rather than a movement/shooting phase system like XCOM, each unit in Phoenix Point has a pool of Action Points and Will Points used for every single action that unit takes, including movement, shooting, abilities, reloading, and even looking at their inventory. Action Points are further broken down into fractions of points depending on movement range, which is determined by the units speed, class, encumbrance, ect.

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Needless to say, there is a lot to manage on the battlefield. Once you build up a squad of eight units (or a mix of units and vehicles), your turns can be pretty lengthy as you strategize and position your fighters for efficient alien killing. Combat is physics-based, so your range, trajectory, damage fall off, etc. are all affected by the environment. There is a pseudo-V.A.T.S. system, the coolest mechanic in the game, that allows you to ADS with any unit and target specific body parts. You can target legs to reduce movement speed or target a particular limb to deactivate an enemy's special ability. All of that would be great and offer a lot of compelling strategies if (A) the systems always worked as intended, and (B) The mid-game wasn't such a painfully repetitive grind.

Positioning your units effectively for sight lines and cover is crucial to success in Phoenix Point. When the game tell you moving a unit to a position will give you line of sight on an enemy, you need to be able to trust that that is the case when you commit to moving them. So often though, that simply isn't the case and you'll end up wasting precious Action Points moving units into a position where they can't be effective. Death is permanent in Phoenix Point, and feeling cheated by incorrect information is so infuriating. This barely scratches the surface of bugs I encountered, which includes spotty gamepad functionality, disappearing enemies, and lots of typos. I get the sense the game could have used a few more months in development.

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My other grievance is how similar fights become in the mid-game. There are some really incredible urban battlefields and lots of enemy types, but as you grind for resources and defend allied havens, you'll inevitably be repeating very similar battles in identical maps for hours and hours. With the length of battles and how complex combat is, the grind really started to take a toll on the fun factor.

A Wholly Different Kind Of Tactics Game

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. Unfortunately, it seems like it still needs time to smooth out the rough edges. Three upcoming DLC packs are advertised when you launch the game, so it's clear the developers intend to support Phoenix Point for the foreseeable future. I'll definitely be keeping an eye on this one as a tactics player, but for anyone interested in getting in now, I caution you to save often and take your time. It can be a joy to play at times, but it can also quickly become a real slog.

A PC review copy of Phoenix Point was provided to TheGamer for this review. Phoenix Point is available now on the Epic game store.

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