VEXCOM

XCOM-like PHOENIX POINT brings great ideas to the formula, but tries for too much.

- Jonathan Bolding

A terrible disease has overtaken mankind. The Pandoravirus, an alien threat that’s mutating and twisting our world into one controlled by swarms of hybrid creatures emerging from the seas. Society has collapsed and new social movements have risen. A few rogue military operatives seek to revive an old initiative dedicated to securing the future. It will not be easy, as Phoenix Point chooses strategic complexity over tactical simplicity.

In this Phoenix Point is very much a successor to the original X-COM – unsurprisingly, as it’s designed by series creator Julian Gollop. In terms of core design, turn-based tactics games don’t get much better than Phoenix Point. To my chagrin, they also don’t get much better than in terms of copious bugs and poor AI.

It’s still heavily influenced by recent turn-based games. The design language of the interface will be very familiar to anyone who played a game released since Firaxis’ XCOM or XCOM 2. Otherwise, Phoenix Point strikes off on its own path. It’s a world of weird fiction monsters, heroic sci-fi soldiers, and the body horror they share. It has some wonderful visual design and well-established, consistent aesthetics throughout for a creepy and atmospheric ride. It’s never quite clear where the worldbuilding is taking you next – and it goes to some wonderfully weird places.

The sound design and music, on the other hand, are bad. They actively undercut everything the graphics accomplish. Some of the voice lines sound like they were recorded inside a tin can. The biggest, meanest alien beastie sounds like a 12-year-old imitating a tyrannosaurus rex. The music behind it all alternates between annoyingly shrill and simply forgettable.