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

spectre

Arcane
Joined
Oct 26, 2008
Messages
5,603
Chink botnet is a non-factor as long as the game itself is cracked and torrentable.

There was some typical kikestarter drama going on, but I think it just boils down to this: people waited for the second coming of Julian Gollop to deliver us with the next best thing in turn based tactics,
yet what we got was a half-baked shart resting somewhere between nuexcum and ufo:aftermath (at least that's how it feels for me).
If only someone saw the initial lovecraftian vision all the way through... who knows what might have happened. Perhaps that's where all the "hate" comes from. Me?
I'm not mad, just disappointed, and I largely ignored the KS and only tried it when it felt like it might have been fully baked (but wasn't).
 
Joined
Jan 14, 2018
Messages
50,754
Codex Year of the Donut
Is this game being hated mostly because of Epic affair?
I played it a few times, felt like an all-around better nu-XCOM to me.
Couple issues I had the last time I played was that it felt like there was way too much going on due to all the DLC and the DLC that added flying combat was ass(disable it, festering skies or w/e, when making a new game)

[edit]
now that I think about it, one area it did worse in is characters. I don't really remember there being any memorable (non-faction) characters like nu-XCOM had. Minor thing in this type of game. But it makes the game feel very ...directionless? How come I don't have a council or something?
 
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gurugeorge

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Strap Yourselves In
Chink botnet is a non-factor as long as the game itself is cracked and torrentable.

There was some typical kikestarter drama going on, but I think it just boils down to this: people waited for the second coming of Julian Gollop to deliver us with the next best thing in turn based tactics,
yet what we got was a half-baked shart resting somewhere between nuexcum and ufo:aftermath (at least that's how it feels for me).
If only someone saw the initial lovecraftian vision all the way through... who knows what might have happened. Perhaps that's where all the "hate" comes from. Me?
I'm not mad, just disappointed, and I largely ignored the KS and only tried it when it felt like it might have been fully baked (but wasn't).

As someone who never followed its origins, I had nothing to be disappointed about and nothing to compare it to (other than XCOM ofc) when I started playing it (a little bit last year and quite a bit this year), so I've enjoyed it. It's certainly not what you'd call highly polished, but it's got good gameplay for the most part.

I think the art design is a bit generic, and ofc lots of things could do with a bit of tuning, but it's not a shit game by any means, it's worth one's time to play.

But I really don't think it's much like XCOM. The ballistic modelling makes it a completely different type of game, it leans more towards simulator than board game, so the XCOM analogy is a bit misleading.
 

spectre

Arcane
Joined
Oct 26, 2008
Messages
5,603
But I really don't think it's much like XCOM. The ballistic modelling makes it a completely different type of game, it leans more towards simulator than board game, so the XCOM analogy is a bit misleading.
While the nuexcom trappings still shine from underneath every now and then, I'd agree that the ballistics is a real game changer that sets it apart. That coupled with proper equipment system and a more granular, 4 action point turn
makes it immediately a better system than excoms. But I think I already said my peace about it on the previous page.

Point is, saying it's better than excum sounds a bit like when we're discussing 4x and someone inevitably quips - yeah, but it's better than Civ6. Not a terribly high bar to pass.

As to whether it's shit, used to be so that fans of tactical-turn-based weren't exactly spoiled for choice. It's gotten better, but almost everything is a nuexcum clone these days.
The so called Jagged Alliance 3, Chaos Gate, among other things. Makes me feel a bit jaded about the whole genre.

Edit: unfucked the quote.
 
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ArchAngel

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Mar 16, 2015
Messages
21,299
Today we've started our free Steam weekend for Phoenix Point: Year One Edition. Play for free all weekend long with no restrictions, and all of your progress during the free weekend will be saved and carried over to the full game if you purchase it. And best of all, for a limited time, Phoenix Point: Year One Edition is 50% off on Steam at our lowest sale price to date. https://store.steampowered.com/app/839770/Phoenix_Point_Year_One_Edition/ Jump in now from Thursday, October 7th 10AM PDT until Sunday, October 10th at 1 PM PDT! We've also rolled out our Unity hotfix to consoles and PC, so players there should see improved performance and less UI lag or other slowdown-related problems. There are still some outstanding issues being investigated, and will update with timeline when we know more. For more, visit our bug_discussion channel. Thank you all for your patience, and for playing the game!
Steam
Phoenix Point: Year One Edition
Phoenix Point: Year One Edition is the definitive version of the acclaimed strategy game from the creator of X-COM, collecting all previously released DLC, updates, and additional content. The Earth has been overrun. A mutating, alien menace threatens the last remnants of mankind. Only the Phoenix Project, a secret organization of the best minds...
Price
$29.99
Recommendations
2123
Metacritic
74
 

PanteraNera

Arcane
Joined
Nov 7, 2014
Messages
1,056
So there was this video on youtube that was recommended to me by the mighty algorithmen, boy did they improve the AI, it is so much better than what we had a launch, look for yourself (with timestamp).
 

Shog-goth

Elder Thing
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Joined
Feb 23, 2018
Messages
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R'lyeh
Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
God, how much I hate this crap. I'm just waiting for the latest dlc to come out, so it'll disappear into oblivion and, with a bit of luck, I'll never hear about it again.
 

Iluvcheezcake

Prophet
Joined
Aug 27, 2014
Messages
1,835
Location
Le Balkans
God, how much I hate this crap. I'm just waiting for the latest dlc to come out, so it'll disappear into oblivion and, with a bit of luck, I'll never hear about it again.
Maybe there will be a sequel.

Kinda doubt it. Think they burned a lot of bridges with the original fans, and the mainstream wasnt overly impressed (suprise, suprise)
 

ArchAngel

Arcane
Joined
Mar 16, 2015
Messages
21,299
So there was this video on youtube that was recommended to me by the mighty algorithmen, boy did they improve the AI, it is so much better than what we had a launch, look for yourself (with timestamp).

That is one of the council members, and he suggested they remove Jump from them before release but they claimed they fixed this behaviour :D
 

PanteraNera

Arcane
Joined
Nov 7, 2014
Messages
1,056
So there was this video on youtube that was recommended to me by the mighty algorithmen, boy did they improve the AI, it is so much better than what we had a launch, look for yourself (with timestamp).

That is one of the council members, and he suggested they remove Jump from them before release but they claimed they fixed this behaviour :D

If there is one thing that Snapshot Games is really consistent in, than it is breaking promises.
 

Shog-goth

Elder Thing
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Messages
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R'lyeh
Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
If there is one thing that Snapshot Games is really consistent in, than it is breaking promises.
This mess is such an overlap of different incompatible levels, concepts and ideas, that I don't even think they know anymore what they promised or should have created to keep them. With DLCs they just added more shit to the pile, that's all.
 

Mazisky

Magister
Joined
Mar 8, 2015
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Rome, IT
The game is free on steam for the weekend if anyone want to try it, complete of the first 2 DLCs.

Personally I don't think it is all doom and gloom but it has that low budget "cheap" feel that it is difficult to describe.
 

ArchAngel

Arcane
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Mar 16, 2015
Messages
21,299
The game is free on steam for the weekend if anyone want to try it, complete of the first 2 DLCs.

Personally I don't think it is all doom and gloom but it has that low budget "cheap" feel that it is difficult to describe.
Because it is low budget lol. Anyone expecting them to be able put as much money into it as Firaxis did is deluding themselves. And still gameplay is 2x better than Firaxis shit.
 

Mazisky

Magister
Joined
Mar 8, 2015
Messages
2,082
Location
Rome, IT
The game is free on steam for the weekend if anyone want to try it, complete of the first 2 DLCs.

Personally I don't think it is all doom and gloom but it has that low budget "cheap" feel that it is difficult to describe.
Because it is low budget lol. Anyone expecting them to be able put as much money into it as Firaxis did is deluding themselves. And still gameplay is 2x better than Firaxis shit.

I know it is low budget, but I meant something different for feel.

Games like Darkest Dungeon or Battle Brothers are extremely low budget (even lower than PP) but they do not feel cheap at all, they feel extremely polished. Which is not the case with Phoenix Point.
 

udm

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Aug 14, 2008
Messages
2,901
Make the Codex Great Again!
The game is free on steam for the weekend if anyone want to try it, complete of the first 2 DLCs.

Personally I don't think it is all doom and gloom but it has that low budget "cheap" feel that it is difficult to describe.
Because it is low budget lol. Anyone expecting them to be able put as much money into it as Firaxis did is deluding themselves. And still gameplay is 2x better than Firaxis shit.

I know it is low budget, but I meant something different for feel.

Games like Darkest Dungeon or Battle Brothers are extremely low budget (even lower than PP) but they do not feel cheap at all, they feel extremely polished. Which is not the case with Phoenix Point.

Not to mention they got that sweet paycheck from Epic, so they had no excuse not to polish up the game even more.

At the end of the day, I think Gollop just got lazy/greedy and that over the years, the influence of cinematic "modern gayme design" slowly got to him.
 

ArchAngel

Arcane
Joined
Mar 16, 2015
Messages
21,299
The game is free on steam for the weekend if anyone want to try it, complete of the first 2 DLCs.

Personally I don't think it is all doom and gloom but it has that low budget "cheap" feel that it is difficult to describe.
Because it is low budget lol. Anyone expecting them to be able put as much money into it as Firaxis did is deluding themselves. And still gameplay is 2x better than Firaxis shit.

I know it is low budget, but I meant something different for feel.

Games like Darkest Dungeon or Battle Brothers are extremely low budget (even lower than PP) but they do not feel cheap at all, they feel extremely polished. Which is not the case with Phoenix Point.
Well those games are even more low budged. PP unfortunately went into group where it almost looks like Firaxis Xcom level but they don't have enough resources to polish it like Firaxis did.
 

baud

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Dec 11, 2016
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Septentrion
RPG Wokedex Strap Yourselves In Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath I helped put crap in Monomyth
Not to mention they got that sweet paycheck from Epic,
didn''t they got some money from Microsoft too?
Also maybe from Google for the Stadia version

Though in both cases, maybe the money went towards the ports on xbox and stadia
 
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Iluvcheezcake

Prophet
Joined
Aug 27, 2014
Messages
1,835
Location
Le Balkans
The game is free on steam for the weekend if anyone want to try it, complete of the first 2 DLCs.

Personally I don't think it is all doom and gloom but it has that low budget "cheap" feel that it is difficult to describe.
Because it is low budget lol. Anyone expecting them to be able put as much money into it as Firaxis did is deluding themselves. And still gameplay is 2x better than Firaxis shit.

I know it is low budget, but I meant something different for feel.

Games like Darkest Dungeon or Battle Brothers are extremely low budget (even lower than PP) but they do not feel cheap at all, they feel extremely polished. Which is not the case with Phoenix Point.
Well those games are even more low budged. PP unfortunately went into group where it almost looks like Firaxis Xcom level but they don't have enough resources to polish it like Firaxis did.

Out of curiosity,
has anyone on the council ever raised the question of going back to the original rag tag lovecraftian body horror game vision, from ye olde days of figstarter?
And if yes, what was the answer?

Serious question, not trolling or whatnot.
 

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