KickStarter Phoenix Point - the new game from X-COM creator Julian Gollop

[Puteo]

The earlygame 'shred armour' ability on the berserker class is OP. It can let you take out most enemies in a single burst from the standard PP rifle.

Highly recommend recruiting from Anu early just for that.

 

[Grampy_Bone]

Well since this game allows multiple teams and bases it's already a zillion times superior to nuXCOM "lol u can only have 1 base lololol" faggotry.

 

[Raghar]

It could be worse, in UFO alien grenades one shot whole groups of your guys.

But in original you can land with 12 soldiers right? (Being forced into 8 soldiers and one special slot ONLY for vehicle would be better.)

 

[Jasede]

You could land with like 24 soldiers later on.
Maybe more, it's been forever.

It doesn't matter; they are vastly different games.

 

[prengle]

wow i looked at five seconds of footage and it looks like a firaxis xcom clone gee wow who couldve guessed

at the very least, nuxcom actually tries to be its own thing, phoenix point (pp?!?) seems like some weird ass unholy frankenstein mishmash of old school x-com + firaxis xcom and i dont really know what to make of it

But in original you can land with 12 soldiers right?

You could land with like 24 soldiers later on.

once you research + build an avenger in ufo defense you can use it to drop in with 26 soldiers/22 + 1 hwp/etc. ive also played quite a bit of openxcom and i dont think ive ever had an alien use a nade on any of my soldiers before, the ai isnt exactly the same as the original dos version tho

 

[ArchAngel]

wow i looked at five seconds of footage and it looks like a firaxis xcom clone gee wow who couldve guessed

at the very least, nuxcom actually tries to be its own thing, phoenix point (pp?!?) seems like some weird ass unholy frankenstein mishmash of old school x-com + firaxis xcom and i dont really know what to make of it

That is the key word. It plays differently. More like old UFO. Enemies are all active from turn 1, they will show up behind corners and mess you up just like in UFO. And many other ways it plays differently from firaxis Xcom

 

[ArchAngel]

Now that I have spent 5 hours playing this on Friday I am enjoying it a lot. I ran into one nasty bug when after I hired a new Assault my existing Sniper got all his gear replaced with Assault class gear lol. I had to build the whole set of sniper gear again.
I lost one soldier on Legendary difficulty when Synderion Assassin killed him in one round and I already had to restart once when I lost one soldier in first mission with exploding bugs :D

Overall it is a fun game so far and it can only get better with patches and DLCs.

 

[Xeon]

How is legend difficulty? I am playing on Hero and I am not 100% sure but from watching Tornis's stream, it feels like you get stronger monsters on some missions on Legend compared to easier difficulties I think. For example the first Anu encounter mission, you kill some worms, each time he restarted because he is playing ironman, he got a Churn enemy or something along with the worms, I didn't have that even when I restarted.

 

[ArchAngel]

How is legend difficulty? I am playing on Hero and I am not 100% sure but from watching Tornis's stream, it feels like you get stronger monsters on some missions on Legend compared to easier difficulties I think. For example the first Anu encounter mission, you kill some worms, each time he restarted because he is playing ironman, he got a Churn enemy or something along with the worms, I didn't have that even when I restarted.

I cannot compare it with other difficulties because this is only one I tried :D
First mission with exploding worms and that alien that shoots them was both times same with just them. The military faction first mission had a Priest in it to kill. First Syndierion mission had that Infiltrator.

As for general feel, missions are hard if you don't take them seriously. I got lucky recently as I got a Technician in an event.

 

[Child of Malkav]

The technician's turrets are great. Give him a proficiency with sniper rifles for long range engagement, put down 2 turrets to defend him and yeah, GG. Hm, now I wonder about a team of 8 techinicians.

 

[Mazisky]

ArchAngel can you make a pro\cons comparison with Nuxcoms?

 

[ArchAngel]

ArchAngel can you make a pro\cons comparison with Nuxcoms?

I will once I put more hours into it. All I can say at the moment is that it feels different playing this from nuXcoms. It also got me to stay awake until 3 AM and I would have stayed up longer if I didn't need to get up early next day.

 

[Xeon]

I think for classes I kinda like XCOM's, where you have IIRC 4 starting classes and then 8 classes to level up to, then you have the psy and robot classes.

In here I kind of like how you can pick or improve skills and stats using your points after you level up. From what I have seen I think all soldiers start with the same stats, tho they get 3 random skills you can invest in if you like. Oh also you can dual class to another class at level 4 iirc.

Also I am kinda glad they didn't try and do similar to XCOM2's stealth gameplay and just stuck to combat like in XCOM1.

 

[ArchAngel]

I think for classes I kinda like XCOM's, where you have IIRC 4 starting classes and then 8 classes to level up to, then you have the psy and robot classes.

In here I kind of like how you can pick or improve skills and stats using your points after you level up. From what I have seen I think all soldiers start with the same stats, tho they get 3 random skills you can invest in if you like. Oh also you can dual class to another class at level 4 iirc.

Also I am kinda glad they didn't try and do similar to XCOM2's stealth gameplay and just stuck to combat like in XCOM1.

Once you unlock faction classes you get a lot of choices when dual classing.

 

[Spockrock]

I'm inclined to agree, it does play like UFO a lot, with some Apocalypse sprinkled on top. but the new graphics... the visual style is absolutely terrible. human factions have such a bland design, I can't get over it. the aliens are pretty cool, though, I'm glad it's not the Roswell owl-babies again.

 

[Trash Player]

I think for classes I kinda like XCOM's, where you have IIRC 4 starting classes and then 8 classes to level up to, then you have the psy and robot classes.

In here I kind of like how you can pick or improve skills and stats using your points after you level up. From what I have seen I think all soldiers start with the same stats, tho they get 3 random skills you can invest in if you like. Oh also you can dual class to another class at level 4 iirc.

Also I am kinda glad they didn't try and do similar to XCOM2's stealth gameplay and just stuck to combat like in XCOM1.

Stealth is here. It is even more obtuse and abusable. Instead of a special ability tree on a basic class, it is gated by equipment and class unlock instead. Enemies also take advantage of it, just mitigated by UI spoiler to the player's advantage.

 

[Xeon]

Do you slow down spread of mist if you take care of nests quickly? or is that only tech related later.

Edit:
Sorry, is there a place to see what factions unlock? Watching Cohh, he said he restarted because he wants Mecks from Jericho, I tried searching but I only saw Technician and research sharing as benefits.

I also thought Mechs are in the DLC and not in yet.

 

[orcinator]

Played it a bit more,really does feel half-baked. The whole faction mechanic is based less on choices and more on who spawns closest to the mist and gives you free points from terror missions.
Update: Oh yeah, and if it turns out the faction progress missions spawns on the other side of the planet? gg fgt.

Also the out of battle UI is pretty shit;
There's now move up or move down button in the manufacturing and research, just a "move to top" button. Also filtering stuff you want to manufacture by class requres you to click on every class you don't want.
Alien Containment is hidden in the personnel tab.
There doesn't seem to be a "list of havens" button so if you want a new recruit you have to search the globe manually to find the class you want.
Have to manually strip each soldier in reserve if you don't want to (or can't because you're using gear you don't have the tech for or simply want to spare resources) manufacture extra sets of gear.
Once you have multiple ships you have to mash the pause button so you can have both doing something at the same time.
Can't trade in bulk, have to click each time you want to trade 12 foor for 2 techs. Oh wait that other haven was selling it for 10 food, if only you had a fucking haven list.

I ran into one nasty bug when after I hired a new Assault my existing Sniper got all his gear replaced with Assault class gear lol. I had to build the whole set of sniper gear again.

Had the same bug but the gear that got replaced was the something I was unable to replace so I had to save scum until the glitch didn't happen anymore.

 

[Raghar]

Found 8+ phoenix bases.

 

[Zombra]

Does anyone else find the UI kind of ... "phonelike"? I got annoyed just playing the tutorial. Huge windows, huge text, most of the interface is mouse only, and can't remap the keyboard? I have no idea if the game itself is even fun yet as the UI is pushing me away.

 

[Mazisky]

Does anyone else find the UI kind of ... "phonelike"? I got annoyed just playing the tutorial. Huge windows, huge text, most of the interface is mouse only, and can't remap the keyboard? I have no idea if the game itself is even fun yet as the UI is pushing me away.

It's the ugliest UI i've seen since Cities Skylines. It feels very cheap

 

[Raghar]

Does anyone else find the UI kind of ... "phonelike"? I got annoyed just playing the tutorial. Huge windows, huge text, most of the interface is mouse only, and can't remap the keyboard? I have no idea if the game itself is even fun yet as the UI is pushing me away.

I talked about game made for tablets/phones. Basically what I said about new developers who grew up with cell phones and can't imagine proper interface, that applies to Phoenix Point as well.

 

[Xeon]

Some of the buttons say place holder for the tooltips so its probably still unfinished.

 

[Grampy_Bone]

Ha, this is basically Terror from the Deep, plus headcrabs from Apocalypse.

I also like how it has per-bullet damage and the ability to free-aim and shoot through walls.

 

[Jasede]

Those are great things but they come in one ugly package.