Phoenix Point - the "new" X-COM Terror From the Deep

I'm actually kind of worried about the opposite—that the mutation thing is too limited and the enemies just feature what's basically normal progression and variety. Like the crab men ultimately just being "muton", "muton elite", and "muton berserker" with nothing really that new or interesting.

I'm just glad enemies can fucking SHOOT properly in this game. I gave up on Enemy Unknown because no one knew how to shoot and I was sick of restarting the game every time someone died.

Enemies are supposed to mutate in ways that counter your own tactics and equipment. Kinda like Infested Planet, if you're familiar with that game.

Yeah, I bet those crab guys didn't originally start out with guns and grenade launchers.

There's a reason you have an unlimited supply of frag grenades.

Just for the record; in this prototype both shot trajectory and damage are still predetermined. In other words, all shots hit, and all hit for a set amount of damage.

In the final version attacks will be procedural, with missing shots potentially travelling elsewhere and hitting the environment, a different target or, worst case, an allied unit.

I hope their stuff isn't going to be like Enemy Unknown. "I'm pointing directly at you, but my shot goes off AT A 45 DEGREE ANGLE TO MY GUN"

You mean this? I hope this remains a thing

Nah, the system will be based on the original X-COM, not the Firaxis game.

I am so fucking psyched for this! Gonna be following Phoenix Point very closely. I don't believe Julian has said anything about being at E3, has he?

I hope there's less delay between animations in the final game. That really slowed down XCOM 2 and made the game more frustrating than it needed to be.

edited 7th Jun '17 2:21:55 AM by Gault

New gameplay footage from PC Gamer. Julian is far from the best presenter but it gives a good idea of what to expect, though its only the tactical layer. Still a work in progress, of course.

Very solid first impressions. Visually it now looks even more like Resident Evil Tactics, but that's not a bad thing in my opinion.

So curious whether anybody else had chance to try out the pre alpha demo thingie?

edited 3rd May '18 7:13:30 PM by SpookyMask

No, didn't get the backer build. But I may go for a pre-order to take advantage. Missed out on the discount.

It's a single level, the one they showed off at GDC. I'm looking forward to seeing the more strategic elements.

I do have to say I'm surprised that I found the single level demo fun enough to play it at least once every day so far <_< This is most I've played same thing over and over just for kicks

Great stuff indeed. I love the targetting system.

I'm digging it so far myself. Especially having fire fights at longer range than XCOM.

Biggest differences I've noticed compared to my experience with the newer XCOM games:

• Inventory system, complete with looting stuff on the battlefield (including weapons! That you can use!) and being able to drop it elsewhere
• Tied into that, no more infinite reloading. Soldiers run out of ammo, which I discovered to my detriment in my first run when the boss popped out and I had no bullets left.
• Manual targeting and location-based damage. This was probably the coolest new feature. I really liked the strategic element of choosing which parts to aim for on a baddie, deciding between hobbling them with disabled limbs and associated stat debuffs, or shredding their armor and HP with heavy weapons fire.

Minor changes I also noted. The standard assault rifle is actually quite nice. Burst fire is actually burst fire, with each bullet calculating its own hit chance, armor penetration, and damage. Also, no more warping space into non-Euclidean geometries in order to miss a shot. Missed shots still go generally in the direction you were aiming at.

edited 14th May '18 11:24:50 AM by danime91

TBH, all three of those features you listed were in the original X-Com games. So it's not surprising that a game from one of the Gollop Brothers would have it.

If they bring back ammo, I hope they bring back a way to conveniently reload between missions. Dragging ammo clips and grenades one by one after each mission for each soldier was a REAL drag.

I never played the old ones, only the two recent ones. But I'd say that overall these mechanics are a net improvement.

Except maybe the ammo thing. I get that the demo mission is supposed to be something of a suicide mission, but if there are gonna be more giant bullet-sponge bosses, I'm hoping there'll be more supply boxes, or you can go into a mission with more ammo than a single reload.

The OG xcom used an equipment weight system. the more you carried, the less AP you had for moving and shooting. I'd not be surprised to see something similar.

I don't mind those system, so long as measures are put into place to avoid the tedium. Like I said, having the game "remember" each soldier's loadout, and doing the reloading automatically rather than manually.

The original game didn't have the aiming part though For obvious reasons

Oh yeah, the AP system. Vast improvement over XCOM's "two actions, use them or lose them" system.

No, because original game was sprite based game, you you literally can't aim aiming circle at enemies (note: original game had TU instead of action points. Difference? There are a lot more TU than AP and TU involve tuff like turning around and which direction your unit was facing)

YMMV on that. I actually like XCOM's system for the most part due to being smoother than the TU/AP system. (TU was just a different term. Same thing as AP in general)

And yeah, they didn't specifically had called shots, but they had bodypart damage for the soldiers. So that's a logical outgrowth.

edited 14th May '18 11:57:37 AM by Ghilz