Phoenix Point

It's not so bad I guess...

画风太暗，太差了

Nette Variante von X-Com.

I enjoyed xcom so I played this but after a bit didn't think I was going to enjoy it, but as I continued to play it I've enjoyed my time with it. Would recommend especially with TFTV mod and it costing 25$.

Good game, similar to xcom and the like obviously. But the reason why this game wasn't huge is pretty simple, it's just not good enough. Now I nerd out on these types of game so I am an easy win but let me show you quite simply. The animations and models are mid. What do you mean, ok well have a look at one of your heavy soldiers, whats up with that idle animation, it seems really unnatural. Imagine I had a big ass weapon, I'd be maybe trying to adjust me grip every now and then, but I wouldn't be pointing it up every 5 seconds like a pseduo well ya know. What about berserkers? Melee weapons are cool, ok then why do the ones in this game seem so lame? They are basically 1 handed, but look like 2 h weapons. Would I hold a warhammer at the bottom of the handle and wave around weirldy. No I'd probably use it 2h which means holding it higher up on the handle with the dominant hand, maybe resting it on my shoulder or something. And the way you swing them in combat, comeon. I could go into detail with the armors, etc. But basically they seem so bland. Body types are similar between male female. Etc, etc. Viewing your soldiers kinda sucks tbh. Very obviously when I look at the game now and it's not restricted to these classes, all of them are eh. Ok soldiers aside the vehicles, they don't feel like vehicles, small arms fire is a legit threat to them, they use too many slots. The movement is jumpy, like I know if you move tile by tile it will be jumpy with a vehicle, but comeon the sounds, etc. Look at xenonauts for inspiration and how you move vehicles, it's smooth. The vehicle weapons are kinda lame. I mean they are cool but they 'feel' lame, the rocket sound is pathetic, hell the damage is kinda laughable for vehicle fired rockets. The MG has the same issue. So aesthetically there is a BIG amount of room for improvement, I haven't even really want into big detail on armor, air vehicles, even the enemies, etc but I feel the creative direction was not good in this game. The combat how does that play. Well it's fine, serviceable. The new mechanics with aiming is kind of neat and body parts. But it also introduces whole caveats of problems that narrative and logically don't make sense. Fighting the pandorans, against pincers? Shoot pincer, save your ammo, don't even bother wasting ammo, no reward for killing enemies after all but ammo costs. Let them retreat, ok so basically in every engagement the enemy doesn't really suffer casualties really, kinda strange no. Unrewarding really. Throwing grenades is accurate, ok. Well shooting them from a launcher oh no that has accuracy, it could go off target, we won't explain that to you, doesn't make sense either. What I found kinda neat compared to similar games is the map game or the geoscape. I enjoy being able to deploy stuff like mist repellers, pleasing to see on the map. Or scanning for sites. But it is hard to interact with this map in a conventional way, it can feel clunky and it eventually 'runs dry' There is a lot of different base locations, but not really a need to use so much facility capacity. The story and its ending is kinda ok but nothing amazing, having different endings is cool but it doesn't change the final mission at all so you could bundle them up as different flavors really. The pacing of these missions and in general what does what and the consequences aren't really clear or well done though. As for the missions themselves and their objectives, well the phoenix ones are cool, it gives the vibe of delving into your past and looking for clues. There's a lot more I could say, but ultimately I would say its a mid game overall with some good mechanics in there, but if you wanted to appeal to more people you have work to do. I also have this feeling while playing or watching that it's just 'trying', the games I like effortlessly grab my attention but this one really tries (and fails), the way music pops on during festering skies, hell the trailer makes me cringe, sound effects when a character dies (ok that one is not bad tbh). But I think this is just more creative direction stuff. But it is an xcom like game so I have to say good :P 6/10, maybe 6.5

I got the complete edition on sale. I have to admit I was woefuily unaware of how good this game was. If you're a fan of X-Com or Chaos Gate, it's a must-buy. If you enjoy the turn based combat in games such as Baldur's Gate 3, I'd also recommend it. See if you can find it on a sale so you can get all the DLC.