Phoenix Point – Review

The first thing that sticks out about Phoenix point is its turned-based tactics system. This is not your usual first-person shooter, where you simply pick up a gun and press a button. It’s very much the successor to the X-COM series created by Julian Gollop, which was known for helping to pioneer the turn-based strategy genre. 

The plot revolves around Humanity’s last stand against dangerous enemies. An alien threat known as the pandora-virus has swept across the planet, causing grotesque mutations and widespread slaughter. What is left of the Earth’s population has divided themselves into warring factions and absurd social movements, living out their last days in a demented frenzy. Their great hope is a defunct military contingency plan that will require long hours of gameplay, plenty of frustrating moments, and a constant search for more ammo. 

As far as visuals, the game is stellar. The monsters have wicked, surrealist animations; the environments are both stunning and terrifying, and there’s plenty of room for exploration—a plus for anyone who’s looking to do more than just shoot something. The sound is deplorable. The music is terrible—cheap, to be sure—and the main bosses sound like children imitating dinosaurs. 

At the same time, nobody cares. There’s a constant level of suspense and urgency. Resources are always depleted—and never around when you need them. The gameplay keeps players wanting to strategic, do better, and finally kill that just will not go away. It doesn’t require a learning curve, either. Phoenix Point is heavily dependent on recent releases, so anyone familiar with turn-based strategy games released after X-COM 2 will be familiar with the controls. 

The major criticism against Phoenix Point is its battle AI. Lagging is common, and players often report having to restart the game—losing their precious save—before they can finish a battle. This occurs on both ends, with the PCs and the monsters, so there are points where players will have to sit and wait to see if they’re going to get attacked. The monster’s behavior can hardly be called AI based unless that AI was developed in the 90s. They’ll commit suicide, run around in loops and make ridiculous decisions. These are the obvious results of sloppy code, and it reflects poorly on the creators. But that’s never stopped anyone from enjoying a game. 

While Phoenix Point is buggy, it’s not broken. As was pointed out in a PC Gamer Review, the game loads quickly for most users. When it crashes, it doesn’t usually exit to Windows, and there are very few reports of anything that cannot be solved with a quick reload. The system requirements are lower than many other games released in 2019. It doesn’t require a PC that costs as much as a car therefore it should work on most modern systems. That doesn’t mean the game lacks gusto; it’s just designed for a wider audience, which means that more people get to enjoy the desolate landscape.